Short Story #1

I scream and lash out at the man that has hold of my arm. I try to find his face so I can give him an awful bloody nose. That'll teach him to mess with me! I cry out as he wrenches my other arm up behind my back. He roughly clamps his hand over my mouth and crushes me in his vice like grip. He squeezes me and I fight to breathe. He pushes the air right out of me and I can't seem to get anymore in. Spots dance in front of my eyes as i try to gasp for air. My vision gets blurry then suddenly, everything goes black.

I wake up lying on some sort of wooden floor with my head smarting really bad. Little half clad feet stand in a semi circle around me. I tilt my head up and stare at their dirty, tear stained faces. Their wide eyes blink at me curiously. I try to stand up but the floor is slick... and it's not water. The stench is unbearable. Nausea over comes me and I crawl over to a corner and empty my stomach. The rocking motion tells me I'm on a boat. 

Feebly I turn to one of the dirty little children standing huddled in the corner and ask," Where are we going?"

He boldly stepped forward and answered,"Why they'd be taking us to the New World miss. I hear we be planting rice and such but you're awful pretty so I reckon they'll sell you off to be a tobacco bride."

"Were you taken too?" I questioned.

"The rest of them were but I've been chosen to go by my family. See my family needed the money and I offered to go seeing as I was the oldest. I'll work hard out in the fields and send the money back to them."

We held eye contact both understanding that we were in the same boat. Literally and theoretically. I laid down and closed my eyes, wishing this was all just a bad dream.