Untouchable Passion

chapter 1

    I felt the summer wind dancing threw my scalp, hoisting my copper curls up as if the wind and my hair were dancing with one another. The sweet smell of windflowers caught in the breeze, and the slow squeak of the swaying tree branches above me. Summers in Mississippi were just brutal,  but this year was calmer than the others. It felt nice. Well, until I heard my father yell from the window above the pergola.

    "Lucia! Your mother is calling you, from the kitchen." He hollered to me, as he was putting on a top hat. Once again, going somewhere. He was always going somewhere, so I didn't question it.

"Yes, father!" I called back to him, waving goodbye. I was sad I had to get out of my comfy spot on my tree. I jumped down from it with an unpleased grunt. "my tree" as I call it, even though it is my neighbors apparently, but I know at heart its mine, was across from the gravel road from our house. perfect. As I walked, I looked at the wildflowers that were squeezing threw the cracks of the white fence separating us from the field of crops my family bought last spring. After my grandpa died, we had struck gold, as my father called it, even though mother got very angry when he spoke of the money we inherited in such a way, and he says new arrivals, slaves, will be working in those fields soon. He says I cannot speak to them with bark in his tone. He says that they aren't people. it was wrong to ask, so I didn't.

    I stepped in threw the doorway, 1 out of 2 doors, slightly taller than my 5'11 father.

"Hello, mother. What is it?" I asked, lifting my long flower-patterned Sunday dress that I don't honestly never wanted dress out of, it makes me feel pretty. She glanced at me, with her enchanting green eyes, that I'm envious I didn't get from her, stuck with father's painfully ordinary brown eyes. Yet my mother says they look like pools of honey in the sunlight. I think it looks like the swamp down at the bayou. 

  "come sit with me Lucy dear." she motioned to me, patting the seat next to her.

"because you just turned 15 a month ago, I believe its appropriate for you to come to the slave trade, down at main coin trading corp. Many are expected to be there." She explained, with a wide smile, standing up to redo my messy winded hair.

"slave auction?" I said, looking up smiling. I've always wanted to know what a slave auction looked like, and what happens. My family never told me anything about slaves, so I do not know what to expect.

"really? Thank you, mother! Are you sure I can go?" I questioned, because whenever I asked before, I was looked at as if I just praised satan.

"oh come on pumpkin. One day, you will be a slave owner, with the help of your future husband. Isn't that exciting?" She beamed, turning herself so she could see my reaction. 

I smiled, to let her know I was as excited as her.  "will I be able to talk to them?" I asked, wincing as she accidentally poked my scalp, pinning my hat onto my head.

"partly. you cannot speak to them only if you need something done for you in the house." She patted my newly do'd hair and walked to the carriage already waiting outside. I smoothed out my dress, ready for anything.