The slaves of Freetown

CHAPTER FIVE

The sound of my phone vibrating in my bag pulls me out of my anxious thoughts as I mechanically make my way to our room. I assumed the battery would be dead by now, but my fingers, slightly touching the broken screen, inform me that Imane retweeted a picture of Beyoncé. Also, Karen posted new pictures on Instagram, and Ethan liked a cover of a passage from Le Juste Debout of Les Twins as well as several ones from the latest Monsta X, SuperM and GOT7 hit choreographies. Ethan loved to create memes from excerpts of their respective V LIVE. A fan of Vines from the beginning, he was not recovering from the closing of the application and could not connect with either Musically or Tik Tok. Moreover, the group "Orphanage/Family" on WhatsApp resumed its activity since the last heated exchange between Ho-Jin and my father. The slave-trade on Facebook is flourishing. Reddit should not be left out with its new interest in the work of a slave artist in Louisiana. Bao, a "gift" recently enslaved by the Chinese government for contributing to Hong Kong's protests, continues his fight with daily Facebook reposts about the situation. His comments under one of Greta Thunberg's posts, where he praises climate change for at least helping the enslaved world come to an end by simply causing the death of all of us, got quite a few likes.

I also finally received the answer from my friend's request to Achewen. Although the long black rebellious strands coming out of the elastic band he used to keep them in place were gone because of a recent hair cut, the childish expression on his face, with his round and red cheeks, is very well captured by his Facebook profile picture. Achewen is a slave of Native American ancestry, whose uncle Neolin, also coming from the Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey, helped my parents and Al-Quaïda organize the 9/11 attacks. Before meeting my new family, there was a moment when it was the two of us, surviving. Mohamed saved the only left place at the orphanage for me, and ultimately, Achewen was transferred to the Freetown of Los Angeles. I could not believe it when I came across his profile... on Wattpad. He is making it quite big on there. I mean, I am not familiar with the website. Still, the millions of reads on his crossover fanfiction, including a slave's point of view, Lee Kwang-Soo, Harry Potter, and T'Challa are following the pathway of the success story of Anna Todd's After. I could already predict that this situation of him would prevent me from getting any closer to him; his talent or luck, I cannot tell for sure, would eventually make me suffer as well.

I ignore the notifications to check my e-mails. There is still no confirmation of registration for Isaac's and Jax's new encrypted application, made only accessible by slaves as they wish.

Imane has again left the door open. I enter the bedroom, my eyes still glued to the screen of my phone, typing to answer Karim's, Humeki's, and Liang's messages. My ego and curiosity bring me for a moment on the #Crush_Freetown_and related page on Instagram, where people try to find the social media of the stranger that caught their attention. The last post, a screenshot framed to hide the desperate seeker's identity, once again is answered with the link to the account of Karen in the comment section. The excitement built up by browsing through the other posts — paradoxal because for obvious reasons, the famished mind behind the persona likes to feed on such poor egotist compliment —, slowly fades as I do not recognize my features through the very standardized beauty criteria described.

Finally, I call Ho-Jin again.

"Do we still have ration coupons in the cupboard? I took the last one from the table to get bread, but I was not sure? Oh, and you want some wings? We just discovered another McDonald's that offers food to slaves."

"No, there is no more," I say, glancing at the trash lying on the refrigerator's feet. I cannot tell if the dark puddle, which seems to come from under it, results from the leaking trash can or the dysfunctional refrigeration system.