My Lover, My Slave

Chapter 1

Henry Sawyer

The story starts the day I met Rosa. I was 16 years old and was feeling sick. I supposed to go with my mama to Julia Smith’s house to talk with her and her mother about our future. I really didn’t want to go. I didn’t like Julia, but my father and mama said that I had to marry her her because together we’d be the wealthiest family in Alabama. The idea made me nauseous. Being wealthy, meant having slaves, lots of slaves. You could see why it would make me nauseous.

That morning, I woke up, realized what day it was and skedaddled to the bathroom. I threw up some in the toilet and went back to bed. My mama came in, a few minutes later, and told me to get ready for the Smiths. That’s when the inexcusable happened. I threw up all over my mama’s dress. She screamed. I laughed.

“Henry Lloyd Sawyer! How dare you laugh!” my mama scolded, “If you were sick, you could’ve just told me instead of up chucking all over my dress!”

“I’m sorry mama, I couldn’t help it.” I apologized.

“It’s okay sweetie pie, you’ll just have to stay home instead of going to the Smiths.” she said and kissed my forehead, then left.

As soon as she was gone, I layed back and smiled. I didn’t have to see Julia Smith.

Rosa Jackson

I was sweeping the floor in Miss Amelia’s room, when the Missus came in.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Sweepin' the floor, ma’am.” I answered.

“Nothing important.” she mumbled, “Go fix my son. He’s sick.”

“Yes ma’am.” I said.

She turned away and left, leaving me with a half swept floor.

Since I came to the plantation, I was staying in the same cabin as Mary and her family. They were real nice and treated me like family. Mary’s mama told me all I needed to know about the Sawyers. One thing was that the Missus didn’t know anything. So if she asked you to do something absurd, don’t talk back and just do it.

What I saw when I went to the Young Master’s room was not what I was expecting at all. I had never seen the Young Master before and what I was expecting was the worse. When I walked in, I saw a handsome young man with golden hair like the sun and eyes so bright they could blind you. He was muscular, but you could tell he was soft on the inside (Or at least, to me at the time, it seemed as if he was soft on the inside, but because he was a white man he didn’t have a heart). I thought he was beautiful, even though he had vomit on himself. He gave me a sheepish grin and said, “I’m sorry you have to clean this.”

***

Once I was done cleaning the Young Master, I was going to leave when he said, “Wait! Don’t go!”

I turned back doing what he told me to do.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Rosa Jackson, sir.” I replied.

“That’s a beautiful name. I’m Henry, it's nice to meet you, Rosa.” he said, “How old are you?”

“15 years old, sir.”

“I’m 16…” he paused and looked at me, then finally said, “You should probably go, you don’t want to get whipped.”

“Yes, sir.” I said and turned to leave.

“Bye, Rosa.” he called.

I looked back and said, “Goodbye, Master Henry.”

Henry Sawyer