This was a historical serial that caught everyone's imagination, including Suraya's. At the time of writing, Mrellan Harahan who wrote the preface, is turning this into a short story. Suraya submits regularly to the serials, finding time from her busy schedule as CEQ of The Story Mint.
Liam became the assistant to Tom Brookes, a gruff New Yorker.
Liam became the assistant to Tom Brookes, a gruff New Yorker.
One day Liam was inspecting tracks when he
came upon a group of black men grading them. Several children wheeled barrow
loads of dirt from the tracks to a nearby pile. Newly freed slaves.
A whip cracked and one of the boys cried
out, then stumbled and sprawled in the mud. The barrow fell over spilling its
contents onto the ground. The child tried to pull himself back up but the
supervisor whipped the boy across the back again.
“Get up you lazy good for nothing,” he
screamed.
Leaping sleepers two at a time Liam ran to
the boy’s aid. Just as the supervisor had pulled back the whip to beat the
child again, Liam pulled the boy out of reach. “Leave him!” He shouted.
Ugly red welts seeped blood through the
boy’s ragged shirt.
The supervisor’s face turned red with fury.
“Them nigger kids are lazy,” he shouted. Everyone stopped what they were doing
to look on.
Liam ordered them back to work and with an
arm around the boy’s shoulder asked him what his name was.
“Earl, sir,” he said, his big black eyes
wide with pain.
Liam glanced down. The mud oozed over the
child’s bare feet and the wind whipped his tattered trousers. A violent shiver
shook him.
In
the tiny space that sits between two breaths Liam became conscious of the
contrast between his and the boy’s clothes. His fine cotton shirt and the boy’s
tattered rags. His mind flicked back to a memory of himself in Ireland; hungry,
bereft.
As Liam led him towards the carriage where
he and Tom worked, the supervisor yelled after him. “You’ll give them ideas!”
At the sound of the voice, Earl stumbled.
The life seemed to leave him as he sank down into the mud. Liam lifted him up
and as he held him against his chest, Earl’s eyes rolled to the back of his
head.
Liam ran to the carriage and burst in on
Tom who was studying a map.
“This boy needs help.”
Tom leapt to his feet and ran over to the
couch, throwing the books that lay strewn over it on to the floor. Liam gently
lay Earl down. Lucy, who had seen the incident, bustled in filling the coach
with Lavender perfume.
She helped Tom ease Earl’s torn shirt off
his body while Liam filled a basin with hot water. Liam’s heart leapt when he saw the vicious
bleeding welts crisscrossing old scars. Tom seemed unmoved.
Later, when Liam walked beside the river,
trying to put the memory of Earl out of his mind, Lucy joined him. The water’s
movement frayed the edges of the moon.
“What happened today made me very angry.” She
flounced her skirts and strode ahead of him then stopped.
Her eyes were dark and serious as she
turned to him, body taut and determined.
“He must be stopped.”
Her chin jutted out stubbornly.
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