“We do too,” the pretend boy said. “Especially Smarmy Kidd Black!”
Maren giggled. As she peered out of her cage at her new fictional pals, she noticed that her surroundings were much darker now. The barely visible sky was now pitch, and there were only two lanterns burning. She turned around and did her best to see the window to Kugun’s apartment, but it was dark now too. Realizing that the man had turned in for the night, she swallowed hard, curled up, and massaged her ear.
Moments later, the sound of the playing children went silent, the dog no longer barked, and the final two lanterns were snuffed out. The darkness seemed to transform the dingy ally into something altogether different. There was only blackness now, and within the blackness was another world that teemed with terrifying sounds.
Rats gnawed on decaying refuse, the wind blew over a rusted scrap, an unidentifiable sound that resembled a dead body being dragged through the alley, and all of it seemed to be heard at deafening volumes that made it hard to discern if it was happening across the opening or right in front of Maren’s cage.
Maren did her best to curl up even tighter. She kept her back against the side of the cage that faced the wall of Kugun’s apartment. Though the darkness prevented her from seeing anything at all, she kept her eyes open. She shook as her surroundings took on greater life—and greater terror. The darkness seemed to take on a life of its own. It was no longer the absence of light, but a creature with twisted tentacles and razor teeth that danced through the air, reaching for a savory child to devour.
The girl now gave up on keeping her eyes open and closed them tightly. Through whispered prayers, her fatigue slowly and hesitatingly became greater than her fears and she drifted into a restless sleep.
“Here’s some porridge,” Maren heard Kugun say as he unlocked her cage. “You sleep too late. Eat up while I unlock de store.”
The girl rubbed the sleep from her eyes and examined the bowl of porridge sitting in front of her. She was used to sleeping in her pen. However, the eerie sounds of Ahmcathare’s back alleys interrupted her rest several times through the night and she was exhausted. She sat up, massaged her ear, and blinked at the bowl a few times. There was no spoon, so she carefully lifted it to her lips and tilted it so the gray gruel could find its way into her mouth. As she swallowed, she noticed a chalky, bland aftertaste that wasn’t there when Son made her porridge. She didn’t like it, but her hunger kept her eating more.
“Move faster, girly!” her owner yelled from inside. He lived in a small, two-room apartment at the back of his store. The building’s rear entrance led to the dwelling, and there was a door to the shop from the room that served as a kitchen.
Maren almost choked when she heard the shout and coughed before taking the next sip. By the time she had finished all of it, Kugun was waiting in the rear doorway with nostrils flared and arms folded. “I’m done,” she said as she exited the cage and brought him the empty bowl.
The man stared down at her as she tried to hand him the bowl. “What er ya doin?” he asked.
“Um, bringing you my bowl,” she explained.
“Yer my slave!” he sneered. “I don’t wash yer dishes! You wash yer dishes, and you wash mine too!”
Maren’s knees shook and her head felt dizzy as Kugun barked at her. She froze as she searched her mind for words and phrases to respond, but came up with none. She just stood there massaging her ear, staring up at the man.
The man’s face turned red and his upper lip pulled back from his crooked teeth. “Stop starin’ at me and go wash the dishes!” he shouted as he moved back from the doorway and pointed toward the kitchen.
Maren leapt and dashed into the apartment. Having never been inside, she accidentally went into the wrong room.
“Da kitchen’s over dere, girly!” her owner hollered as he pointed to the other room.
She turned around quickly, nearly dropping the bowl, and found a small room with a table, two chairs, and a counter full of dishes so dirty it was difficult to tell how long they had been sitting there. “Sorry,” was all she said as she walked over to a sink filled with water and began washing her bowl.
“Now, you get dese dishes washed and den meet me in da shop. Do you understand?” the man said.
Without turning from the sink, Maren nodded her head. “Uh huh.”
After he had left the room, the girl began to talk to herself in a loud whisper. “How did all of these dishes get so dirty? Have they ever been washed? Perhaps he needs to be schooled in cleaning up after himself. If he did, then he wouldn’t need a…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it. She signed to become a crew member, a helper, a worker maybe, but not a slave. The word sank deep into her stomach. Perhaps deeper than any other word she’d ever heard.
“Girly!” Kugun yelled from the shop. “I hear ya whisperin’ somthin’ but not washin’. Just finish da bleedin’ dishes and get out here!”
Maren moved more quickly and spoke more quietly to herself. It wasn’t the cleanest the dishes had ever been, but she considered the job done when they were all sitting on the opposite counter after a quick scrub with a
