Chatterbox: Inkwell

This is my story so far, what do you guts think???

10/9/18

  I used to live
in a coastal village in Africa. Every day I went and played with my friends,
spent time with family, and life was bliss. But that all changed one day. I was
just outside my family’s mud and straw house, drawing in the dirt with a stick,
when I saw two white people. They sat down next to me, and smiled. But it was
not a nice smile. It was a devious, devilish smile. I will always remember that
smile. I started to pick myself up off of the ground, when more of them came.
They tightly gripped my arms, and bound my hands. Then I was shoved into a
dirt-covered, old sack. I was lifted up and jostled around. I was frightened,
as the sack twisted and turned. Then the sack dropped, and my stomach seemed to
drop with it. I landed sharply on rough ground, and tried to untie the sack,
but that was impossible from the inside. Then the sack was lifted again, and
suddenly flipped upside down. The sack opened, and I fell out, head first, on
to packed dirt and stone. A sharp rock cut my forehead, and as I stood up, I
felt blood trickling from the cut. Then, someone fiercely grabbed my neck in
both hands. I fell backwards, but did not land on the ground as more hands
gripped me tightly. A wooden yolk was put on my neck, and the rough, splinter
covered wood weighed down heavily in my shoulders. I tried to step away from
the rough relentless hands, and felt a weight tug at my move. As I turned, I
saw a boy from the village was also attached to the wooden yolk. Behind him
were about ten others. Then, I was roughly shoved forward by the butt of a gun,
and as I stumbled, the boy behind me also faltered.

  After many
bruised, hellish minutes, we reached a large sailing vessel. Much larger than
our canoes!  After being shoved up into
the ship, we were relived of the wooden yolks; only for them to be replaced
with rough cord! One by one we were shoved down a hatch, I was too slow for one
of the men to tolerate, so he gave me an additional push, and I fell two yards
down the rest of the way. Before I could move, the village boy, who had also
been pushed, landed on top of me. I was winded, my breath coming quickly, and
my stomach roaring with pain, my body bruised, and my head bleeding, stripped
from my family and all I knew, I cried in what was much more than despair! Only
to be bound and gagged, fastened to the floor of the ship, I was lying on top
of many splinters in the wood. Tears flowed from my eyes, and before he left,
the white man slapped my face so harshly! I cried until I could cry no more
tears!

  I did not
sleep that first night of the voyage. I lay there all night, in pitch darkness,
splinters piercing my skin, my body aching all over; hunger and thirst also
overwhelmed me!

10/10/18

Sometime, I suppose in the morning, but I cannot tell
because of the lack of light down in this wretched vessel, a white man came in,
and jerked me upwards. My muscles protested, and it seemed as though my whole
body screamed in pain and soreness! Even as I cried out, I was relentlessly shoved
to a line of other people from my home country. At yells and shoves, we were
each sent up the hatch. A cool ocean breeze floated past me, and the
beautifully fresh air greeted my lungs. The first moment of anything close to
happiness since I had begun this hellish journey. But it did not last long. I
was prodded in the back by a wooden pole, and pushed towards a group of people
from my tribe, and the nearby ones were doing a traditional dance, but instead
of gleeful smiles on their faces, there were miserable frowns, and tired eyes, bodies
deathly thin. Some must have started this journey earlier than I. Someone else,
pushed in like I, protested. Yelled, and slapped one of the men, many,
including me were supporting him in our thoughts, ready to take action. Then
five white men jumped on him, others appeared to handle us if needed. There was
a loud slapping noise, and blood welled from his cheek. Then he was tied in
bounds even tighter than my own, and they……they tossed him of the ship. I
watched his struggles, and felt pain in my heart, knowing that he was drowning.
An unnecessary death, probably only one of many. This frightened many of us,
and we danced obediently for the white men’s entertainment. Some even managed
fake smiles.

  On the way
back down into the cargo compartment, filled with the reek of sweat and blood,
the village boy crossed my path, “It is better to die with dignity, than to
salaam to those wretched demons.” And then he was whipped, and dragged away
from me. I saw no more of him.

10/11/18

  I woke up,
tired, after only an hour of sleep that whole devastating night. The reek of
sweat and throw up was almost too much to bear, along with the cramped spaces.
I am beginning to feel sick myself, and raging hunger pinched my stomach
nonstop.

10/29/18

  I woke up to
the sounds of shouting, and stomping. As the boat churns through the choppy
water, white men come down, great smiles on their sinister faces. Throwing us
around, and whipping us, they bound our hands. We were forced up the hatch, I
was halfway up when the ship stopped. Just stopped. I clambered up the hatch
even faster now. I wonder where we are! I burst above the hatch, and upon
seeing land, dash towards the exit! In mid stride, a man grabbed and yanked my
bounds, and I fell to the floor! On my face. Let me tell you, there are many
splinters on that floor.    

  Those darned
yolks! Once again we were, like oxen, yoked!

  We were in a
new land. I knew because I was so far from home. I knew because there was
nothing familiar. I knew because of the concrete jungle. I knew it in my bones.