Keigh.

BEWARE OF TYPOS AND ERROS😞

PART ONE

1938: Seven years old.

Chapter One.

Kaiti and I grew up in a small town in Alabama called Meradin. If you wanted to describe Meradin in better words, you could say it was a waste land in the middle of nowhere. There were few days when the sun didn't shine in Meradin. It dried up the town and crippled the people so that they were lifeless and dull. Time stood still in Meradin, while the people moved around it. A bomb could explode half the world and the people of Meradin would carry on as usual. Not a lot happened there, but when something did, everyone knew about it.

Everyone knew everyone, there was nobody that weren't recognised. There is two sorts of people in Meradin. First kind is the ones. Ones are usually white folk with less money or 'odd' people. Second kind is the 'Better Ones,' these is the white rich or educated folk. Then, there's the seconds. These is the blacks. Coloured people were always seconds, educated or not. It's just the way things were. I was a third, 'cause never once in my life have, I ever known what the fuck I was.

I first learnt these terms from a friend of mine, Dee. She was a year younger than me, but she seemed to know a lot more about the people around I her than I did. I think it might be 'cause my mother sent me to school a year late. She'd always say: "I can't bear to let her go!" anytime anyone asked about it. Not letting me go to school made me behind on everything social wise, but academically, I was extremely intelligent for a girl of seven.

Ellie had thought the terms were stupid when she'd first heard them. "There ain't no need to put everyone into categories, we're all human, ain't we?" She had said. I'd thought so too, but I didn't completely agree. There were some very bizarre people in Meradin that I thought didn't deserve the right to be called human. To others, Ellie was one of these people. Ellie is my Momma. She made me and my brother James call her Ellie because she said she didn't wanna sound old. Calling Ellie mother or anything even close to that word was forbidden in our home. Even Betty, our house help, weren't even allowed to call her ma'am, but she had been for too long, so it was hard to stop. Ellie's actual name weren't even Ellie, it was Esther! (though none of us dared call her that). My mother was the village's crazy lady, 'cause law, she was a very crazy lady!

With adults, I was treated like a 'better one' because we had once owned a big plantation house, and we still owned generous amount of money. We only had all this because Ellie inherited it from my pops, or, as Ellie likes to call him 'Grandaddy Cash', a few years 'fore I was born. Fortunately, our family wasn't affected by the great crash 'cause my grandaddy kept all his money in a safe. He said he ain't trust other people to keep his money. I suppose it was just as well, 'cause without all his money we would have been broke as ass. Ellie did some paintings for some of the wealthier people living in Meradin, but even they ain't have enough money to pay her well nowadays. So, for extra money, twice a year Ellie would travel to the city to sell her to her three wealthiest costumers. She'd always return from her excursions with a check load of money. Ellie sold the plantation house when she found out my daddy was 'walking round with other girls.' We now lived in a more 'comfortable home' as Ellie puts it. Ellie hates my Daddy. She says he's a: "Cheating Jackass that does nobody any good!" Me and James was never allowed to talk about our daddy. I didn't understand why he was such a forbidden subject. Couldn't Ellie ever forgive and forget, for my sake at least! My father was the only subject I ever wanted to hear about. I always heard Ellie and Betty having whispery conversations about him when they thought I weren't listening. I never heard much of these conversations, but from the tones of voice, they didn't sound very pleasant.

Me, Ellie, James our house help Betty and I remained in our 'comfortable home' for a long, long time. I got along with everyone in the house apart from James. I never really talked to my brother; he always seemed to be in his own world. Betty told me: "That's just how boys is, they prefer they own company!" I didn't get why boys had to be like that! I just told myself that there were some things that I'd never get. Even though I wasn't quiet like my brother, I was often told I acted like a little boy. When me and Ellie would go into town people would say, "Don't you think it's time for Sammy to wear proper girl clothes?" Or "Sammy don't you wanna start acting like a lady?"