TW: use of the N-word.
CHAPTER THREE
PARANOID
In the year: 1841
BOTH JALAN and Celia hurried back to their specific sleeping area once they saw the lady in the hood. It shook them both to their core at the sight of the mystery lady.
Jalan and Celia kept their mouth closed for two weeks straight.
Truly, it had Jalan on edge. What if it was someone who worked at the plantation, someone who could reveal the truth of what they saw her and Celia doing under the moonlight.
Jalan was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even realize she'd overflowed the coffee she was serving to Mr. Lee.
She hisses at the sight, quick to retract the hot coffee water.
"What's wrong with you, Girl?" Mr. Lee squints, "Grab me a new glass."
Jalan made her way to the kitchen, quick to get the cup and redo the forty-five-year-old coffee.
Adam scoffs at the sight. The young man always hated having Jalan around, he saw the special treatment his father gave her and he hated it.
She was just a slave, the same as everyone else.
"Dad." Adam takes a bite of his food.
"Can I speak to you for a moment," his eyes dart to Jalan, "alone?"
Mr. Lee catches this and nods, "Jalan, go join the others on the field, I'll call you back if you're needed."
Jalan crosses her arms behind her back and nods, leaving the father and son at the table.
Mr. Lee looks at his son. "Speak."
Adam felt his lips press together, "are you sleeping with that—that—nigger?"
Mr. Lee slowly lowers his cup, "boy," he hisses, "you betta watch yo mouth."
This causes the twenty-one-year-old to grin, "You let me call all the other slaves niggers? Why can't I call Jalan one as well? That's what she is, isn't she?"
He huffs, eyes hardening on his son.
"You sleep with that? She's using you," Adam grumbles.
"What would you know?" Mr. Lee glares.
"I know what love is—I have seen it. With mom...what happened to you?" Adam's eyes soften, "she would be disgusted if she saw this...you let that girl come around my sisters, tuck them in at night." His southern accent was deep and sharp.
A rough hand was sent across Adam's face. He stares up at his father in utter shock, "You don't talk about your mother and what she thinks. Dead people don't think, only rot."
It was at this moment, Adam Lee was determined to prove to his father that Jalan Madden was bad news.
✷
CELIA COULDN'T help but search her surrounding, hoping to recognize the person from the woods, if they were even on the land. She slowly makes her way beside, Jalan, who's been keeping her head down while picking away at the cotton.
"Do you recognize anyone?" Celia mumbles, keeping her head down as well as she stuffs the white material into her bag.
Jalan sighs, "No. It was probably no one."
"Someone was there, Jalan. I know it...you know it." Celia takes the risk to look around once more, "it's only a matter of time before—"
"Would you stop that," Jalan cuts her off, voice strained, "nobody has said anything—so please, just keep quiet about this."
"And just wait for someone to chop our heads off?" Celia hisses, "No way in hell. We can't be here."
"Celia." Jalan stops what she's doing and turns to her.
Celia moves closer to her ear, "We can leave this place."
Jalan frowns, "what?" She whispers.
"Around nighttime, Mr. Hutton is supposed to guard the back lands, instead he runs off and smokes on his pipe...that's our way out."
"I hope you're not saying what I think you are." Jalan felt her eyes widen.
"We can be free...you and me." Celia's eyes filled with hope.
"You have bound to wake the snakes with this foolish idea of yours." Jalan shakes her head, baffled that Celia would even think of it.
"You claim there are no people you want to see again?" Celia raised her brows, "family—friends. There is no life here."
Jalan was hesitant to respond. She desperately wanted to reunite with her family, to be away from this plantation.
"...what if we get caught?"
"We won't," Celia counters, "the other workers will be in their cabins and the rest will be long gone by then. Nobody is watching us that closely."
And for that next month, they planned their escape.
sirednotes, I hope y'all aren't bored by this storyline, I truly am trying my hardest. 😂
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