MaryAn and Will

Chapter Two

Willam Pov

Dear diary,

To say I was in love with Mary An was surely an understatement. Of course, it didn't start off this way. For the longest, she was just my friend and nothing else. I learned to distinguish between the good people and the bad people by the quality of their clothing. You see at a young age I was taught that there were people like me and people like them. It wasn't difficult to tell, but for the life of me, my brain has never really wrapped its self around the difference between us. Sure Mary Ans's hair grows upwards and her skin is darker than mines but other than that there wasn't really a difference. 

This lead to me becoming friends with her. I wanted to know what was different about the darker colored people.  So I taught her to read, even though it could get her into trouble. I taught her to write, even though it could get her into trouble. I taught her everything I was taught. Still, for the life of me, I couldn't find the difference between us. There must have been something wrong with them if I was born into the superior people. But, I've been friends with Mary An for as long as I could remember and I still haven't found it. So I've deemed that she and her people are just like me. They just were never given a chance to live out their potential. My father was too busy forcing them to pick cotton and beating anyone who defied him to ever think that maybe they weren't so different after all. So I decided that I would free everyone on our plantation and teach them everything I know. Then we could all be the same. 

Oh, how naive I was. I was too busy running through the woods with Mary An and spending my days writing away in my journal to ever pay any real attention to what was happening around me. Ignorance is bliss after all. And for the seventeen long years that Mary An let me dream of my perfect would, I'll forever be thankful for. But even now, I'll try to give mary her perfect world...

I won't let anyone lay a hand on her. 

There's a knock on my door that rips me away from my thoughts. "Master, a mans here claiming to be your Uncle. He's downstairs waiting fa- for you " Lucy flopped over her words.

" Remember to take your time and articulate Lucy. I'll be right down." I looked over at Mary An sleeping soundly in my bed. I'd be tired if I were her too. Since my father was found dead stabbed to death in his bed I've been teaching the slaves to talk properly and read just as I had done for Mary An. I didn't know any better, I thought that there was no way that helping someone could ultimately end up hurting them more.

I didn't even investigate my father's death. Whoever had done it probably had every right too. When Robert suddenly disappeared I didn't chase him. If he was guilty of my father's murder then so be it. That man had taken more beatings than was humanely okay. So, if his anger had gotten the best of him,  then that was okay. I never liked the man anyway, not after what he did to my mother. 

As soon I stood up Mary Ann stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave me a  sad look.

" This won't be able to last much longer, I feel for you. " She sat up in my bed. I've never done anything romantic with Mary An, but I liked to keep her in my eyesight. After all, this was a cruel world for people that looked like her. She was with me though. If my skin color could protect her then so be it.  Id cut it off my body and wrap her in it if I could somehow manage that

" Shh," I cooed leaning down over the bed. " Everything will be just fine." I pressed a kiss to her forehead and left the room. 

My uncle was an old ugly white man. His eyes were cold and cruel. He bore a striking resemblance to my father in that manner.  The chill that went over my body when I made eye contact with him was enough to tell me that the world I'd been living in for the past two weeks after my father died, was going to shatter. I should have known I was living in a fairy tale, but I really had no idea. I learned to cover my eyes and ears, to turn my head the other way when there was something I didn't want to see. This man is the one who took my ignorance and killed it.