you?”
“Farrell, Missouri.” As she spoke, she continued ripping rocks from the soil. “Heard of it?”
Ariane shook her head. There was no sense speaking when a gesture would do. “How old are you?”
Now it was Kelly’s turn to be cautious. Like a student trying to cheat on a test, she made sure the coast was clear. “Seventeen.” She carefully checked a second time, then continued. “Are you new? I don’t remember seeing you in the field before.”
“I think I got here yesterday. I’m not sure, though. Everything’s kind of foggy.”
Kelly nodded in understanding. “The drugs’ll wear off, you know. Don’t worry. Just hang in there. You’ll get through this.”
Ariane smiled at the optimism. She found it amazing that a girl Kelly’s age was holding up so well in such adverse conditions. “You here alone?”
Kelly searched for the guards. They were busy hassling one of the male slaves. “Me and my family are a part of Group One. Ten of us in all.”
Ariane thought back to earlier in the day, back when it was still dark. If she remembered correctly, Kelly was in Master Holmes’s group. “Are you the one with the cute little brother?”
For the first time in a long time, Kelly wanted to laugh. “I’ve heard my brother called a lot of things, but certainly never cute.” She looked over her shoulder, paranoid. “The cute one is Scooter. He’s my cousin.”
“But you have a brother, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “His name’s Donny.”
Something about Kelly’s voice worried Ariane. She wasn’t sure why, but she could tell something was wrong. She quickly looked for the nearest guard, who was still occupied with the men. “What’s going on, Kelly? Is something wrong with your brother?”
She brushed the hair from her face one more time. “He’s not what you would call tough. I get the feeling that he isn’t holding up too well.”
Ariane found that hard to believe. If Donny was anything like his sister, he was probably cutting down trees with his bare hands. “Are you sure? ’Cause you seem to be doing great.”
“I play sports year-round, so physical stuff doesn’t bother me. Donny, on the other hand, is in the band. The most exertion he gets is playing his trumpet.”
“So, he’s breaking down physically?”
“And mentally. My dad was tortured the first night we were here. I think that got to him.”
Ariane tried to picture the members of Group One. She distinctly remembered a middle-aged man with a bandaged hand. “What did they do to him?”
Kelly took a deep breath. “They cut off his finger. He didn’t even do anything wrong, but they still chopped it off. Probably to prove that they were in charge.”
Ariane was surprised that Kelly was handling it so well. Ariane knew there was no way she could have witnessed a loved one tortured and remained so calm-especially back when she was a teenager.
“How about your cousins? Have you talked to them?”
“Not really, but I can tell Susan’s on the edge. She’s real close to losing it.”
“Which one is Susan?”
“She’s a year younger than me. She’s petite, blond hair. Very pretty.”
Ariane tried to place the girl in her mind but couldn’t. Too many faces, too little time.
“She was abused on the same night as my dad. Master Jackson cut off all of her clothes in front of everybody. I think that rattled her something good.”
“He cut off her clothes? What did he do that for?”
Kelly shrugged. “She was wearing a bikini, so she kind of stood out.”
“And you think she’s in bad shape?”
She nodded. “I don’t think she’s gonna make it.”
DESPITE
her best effort, it took Ariane over an hour to cross the field-her basket of weeds and the guards’ careful scrutiny made her movement difficult-but in time she eventually made her way to Susan Ross.
As she approached the teen, the first thing she noticed were her eyes. They were striking, the color of the perfect summertime sky. But it was more than their light blue hue that made them stand out. It was also the tears.
Apparently, Kelly Metz was right. Her cousin was close to losing it.
Ariane inched closer, hoping to comfort the girl with a word or two, but the move backfired. Susan sensed Ariane’s approach and tensed with fear.
“Get away from me!” she shrieked. “Just leave me alone!”
The outburst stopped Ariane in her tracks. She assumed the plea was loud enough to be heard by the guards, and the last thing in the world she wanted to do was attract their attention. She had seen how rough they were with the other slaves and desperately wanted to avoid that.
“Calm down,” Ariane whispered. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m fine!” she screeched, not giving a damn if the guards heard her or not. “Are you happy? Now get away from me!”
Ariane was flabbergasted by Susan’s behavior, but under the circumstances she was willing to cut the kid some slack. “You’ve got to be quiet.”
She glanced over her shoulder, half expecting a stampede of guards to be headed her way, and felt a great sense of relief when she realized their attention was still focused on the men.
“I realize you don’t know me and probably don’t trust me, but your cousin Kelly sent me over here to check on you.”
The frightened girl stared at Ariane coldly. Her body language and icy glare suggested that trust was no longer in her vocabulary.
“You know, I saw you and Scooter at the ceremony this morning. He sure is a cutie.”
Susan blinked a few times but didn’t respond.
“How old is he?”
She licked her parched lips, giving the question some thought. “Eight.”
Ariane grinned, relieved that the girl was willing to talk. “Well, he’s just about the cutest eight-year-old I’ve ever seen. He looks like a little athlete.”
Susan nodded, but refused to comment.
“How’s he holding up? He seems like he’s doing pretty well considering the circumstances.”
She shrugged, never shifting her eyes from Ariane’s face.
“And you? What about you? How are you doing?”
Susan breathed deeply, sucking in the air through her dry mouth. “What do you want? There has to be some reason you’re talking to me. You don’t even know me.”
Ariane smiled warmly. “Like I said, your cousin wanted me to check on you.”
The answer didn’t sit well with Susan. “Then why didn’t Kelly come over here herself? Why’d she send you?”
Ariane moved closer, hoping her proximity would lower the volume of Susan’s voice. “No reason. I’m trying to talk to as many people as possible, and when I talked to your cousin, she mentioned that she was worried about you.”
“She’s worried about
? That would be a first from my family.”
“Come on! Don’t be silly. Your family’s worried about you. They’ve got to be.”
The statement brought a new batch of tears to the teen’s eyes. “You don’t know my family very well, do you? None of them have even asked how I’m doing. Not one of them.”
“Well, I’m asking you. How are you doing, Susan?”
“How the hell do you think I’m doing? Every time I turn around one of the guards is touching me. Last night I saw my dad’s ear get cut off. And when I do get to see my family, all my parents care about are my younger
