“Why?”
“Stop, love. Listen to me.”
Lily had stopped fussing and looked at her grandmother.
“Because they know I’ll be back to see them. They smile at us. Look.” She pointed to a giant sunflower with its bright yellow petals radiating from its ebony center. “She’s watching over everyone, just like I do.”
Lily shook her head to release the memory. She didn’t want to think about that afternoon. College had taken her away. Her life had gone from hectic to out of control, and the summer visits had dwindled. Phone calls and letters had replaced the warm afternoons spent swinging on the porch and picking carrots from the garden. Life had happened, and at the same time, life had thrown her away.
She jumped to her feet and started looking around for a flashlight or lantern. Certainly Nicholas had kept some kind of light in here. If a mattress was here, he must have had a light somewhere. She stopped and looked over at the mattress. It was new. The white cotton sheet, it was new too. Nicholas hadn’t left these things in here. They looked fresh, newly placed. He’s planning this for me. He cares enough to keep me comfortable. Adam had planned to punish her all along, but had also tended to her needs. But how long was she to be kept in captivity? Surely he’d be back to get her by nightfall. He knew she was afraid of the dark, but mostly of being alone in it.
She leaned her forehead against the thin glass of the window. The meadow was stretched out before the line of slave quarters. The tall grass and wildflowers were scattered across the field. The beautiful rainbow of colors had obviously been neglected. Even if she could get out, she’d cut herself on the prickly vines of the wild roses.
The confined space started to grow smaller and smaller as the sun finally made its last descent. How quickly the darkness came down here, much faster than up at the house.
The last of the light left the meadow as Lily lingered on the mattress with the pillow buried against her chest. With knees drawn, she curled up. “Oh, Adam,” she whispered, “please come for me.”
She moved her leg and felt the point of something dull. Moving her hand down the mattress, she stopped when she felt the hard cover of the journal sitting on the bed. It was too dark to write in it. She rolled over and set it on the floor next to the mattress. She stilled. What was that?
There was a rustling outside, behind the back wall. Lily buried her face in the pillow. There it was again. What kind of animal would make a noise like that? Lily held on to the pillow so tight her body began to shake.
Lily startled when she heard the sound at the front of her solitary prison. “Is someone out there?” she yelled. She heard metal rub against metal before the door slowly swung open. Lily could see the shadow of an arm reach inside, down low, near the floor. “Adam?” She tried to reach the door before it closed.
The door banged shut before Lily reach it. She tried the handle. It was locked. She looked down at the container on the floor. She picked it up. The wonderful aroma of fresh bread and honeydew wafted over her nose. Frantically, she opened the lid to find the small loaf of bread laden with honey and butter along with a pile of honeydew and blueberries nestled inside the container. A plastic tumbler sat beside where the container had been. Lily opened the lid to find the plastic cup full of wine. Next to it was another tumbler filled with water. Even through the darkness, she found the joy to smile.
After arranging the containers on the floor, she sat her bare bottom on the hard, dirty floor and used her dust-covered fingers to fill her mouth with the sweet honeydew. The space didn’t seem so bad now.
Lily trembled. But maybe, just maybe, Nicholas had been right. It could be haunted. As Lily ate her supper, she sipped the wine and looked around the space, trying to push the disturbing thought from her mind. It looked so different in the darkness. Somehow quieter…safer. She savored the thickness of the honey as she devoured the warm bread. She hadn’t realized how famished she was until she smelled the food.
As she sat eating, she stilled and listened to the sounds coming from outside. The crickets were loud. The frogs chimed in with their deep bellows. Then the familiar hoot of an owl rose above the chorus. Lily smiled at the sound, realizing she was no different than the wild menagerie stuck out here in this overgrown meadow, only they were free to roam, to fly—and she wasn’t. A sense of comfort washed over her. She was fed, safe, and content. Drowsiness silently blanketed her as she crawled back to the mattress.
* * * *
The afternoon sun filtered through the room, revealing the clouds of dust sputtering up from the floor as she paced the small space. Where is he? Thirst coupled with the rising afternoon heat wasn’t making the situation any easier. Where is someone, anyone? Damn! She lay on her back, watching the rafters in the ceiling. Remembering the journal, she crawled back to the mattress and grabbed the leather-covered book from the spot where it had been left last night.