I hear a piercing scream at the break of dawn, and pounding on the barn door. As I grab my jacket I run down the creaky stairs hearing only a squeak after each step. As I get to the barn, I open the door with great amounts of strength. Only then did I see a cart unloading many people into a little storage area, being whipped and beaten, a hand rested on my shoulder as I jumped back in fear I see it is only me father. “Son, I think you should go and get some sleep, you wont have chores for the rest of your life, and we will be living like kings! “ I see my dad look down and laugh at me, I then bent my head down to see why, and it turned out I was still in my diapers. Even at three I wear diapers asleep.



Nineteen years later
I stare at a piece of paper right over my head; it is a little blurry for I have just woken up. I decided to go wash my face and take a shower. I go back to my bed and receive the note left above my beds base. I read it out loud to my self “happy twenty-second birthday Seth! –Sarah.”
Sarah has been my best friend for almost all my life. Exactly one year after I saw the people being loaded into the shed.
To tell you the truth, I wasn’t thrilled about being twenty-two at all. All my life I have been told that on my eighteenth birthday my family was giving me all the slaves and that I have to treat them like slaves. I look at myself in a mirror and find my scar hanging over my shoulder; it was a grave memory of my tenth year.
Twelve Years Earlier
My parents started to take me out to watch them whip the slaves, so I could learn the correct way to discipline anyone who did even a simple crime or chore wrong. After looking at the people line up I noticed a ten -year-old girl crying next to her mom and dad. Then I heard my dad say “do you like her son? Well either way I am assigning her to you.” My heart was beating so hard as I watched the whips come onto a mans back, I screamed out “dad don’t! I think they deserve to be equals and we should all live in piece!” I then looked right into his face, he then said in a teeth clenching voice, “you are no son of mine you are a giant mistake of life! This is the way life is supposed to be! You are now going to be treated just like the slaves until your twelfth birthday!” The next thing I knew there was a loud crack and I could no longer breathe as easily.
As my dad stormed out of the room the man and the rest of the slaves came and helped me get up. One covered my mouth with a wet and smelly cloth, next I remember waking up in the barn with the ten -year-old girls. I asked her why she was here, she then said “I may be the color of white, but I was born by a slave women, for her owner took advantage of us.” I did not understand until her mom came in and explained that she had been assaulted, then I smiled and said “I have no doubt I feel your strength, to me we are all even we just are two different colors, we fit in just fine to each other.” She then looked at me with a smile on her face; I knew that I would be accepted here.
I was cared for and loved by these great people, who I now call family. I helped with the chores and tending, took my beatings from my father and brothers, and helped the women with the children.
Sarah and I went to the pond every early morn, when the fish were most active. She would only catch few and I about seven, most of the reason as she kept falling asleep, I couldn’t blame her, she helped me grow, so the least I can do is let her sleep.
At fourteen I went traveling to the north to meet a old friend of mine, he then came to me with a paper, I could not see that far, but I knew it was important, as he came I could now tell it was about the revolutionary war. All men ages ten to fifty are needed to help fight slavery and the right of America! I knew he wanted me to help the slaves be free, “but how am I supposed to help?” “ You are not alone thousands will be aside you.” I then knew I had to join.
“ I am now on the road to war, I hope your rights with slaves are crashed-your son” I left this note on my door, hoping it will be to late to stop me, I noticed as I sat down a another recruit boards with me. As we start a long, and bumpy road, hoping to arrive soon, I noticed the recruit as long eyelashes and two bumps under their collarbone. As soon as we arrive I stop him just to find it was Sarah. I then pull her into an alley “what are you doing here?” “ I wanted to make a different and, and your dad assigned to protect and serve you!” My heart then skipped a few beats and I realized being a slave here might kill her, or she would die in battle. She then apologizes to me and starts sobbing, “I ask what’s wrong,” “ she then said, I have been taught to not yell at others, and I do not want to be a slave anymore.” As her eyes start filling with tears, I hold her tight and say “do not worry I will protect you, just do as I say and we will make history.” As she nods a man says the horn for dinner has just rung.
A few hours later
I help her look more like a man, I tell her not to speak, and I will tell everyone that your voice is cut off from a previous war. The smell of turkey fills the room, as we enjoy our meal the martial tells as that after two weeks of training we are told we are to go to war.
Two weeks later
As we head to our new cabins I see a ray of fire pass through the sky, and to the grainy cabin we were to bunk in. Then I hear a screeching noise of a old horn, everyone starts grabbing and throwing rifles to one another, then the same man who warned us of the dinner bell led us through a little hallway, I look down to find them covered in blood, black as the night. I then hear a boom, and a scream the man has just been killed, I then noticed the boxes of ammo and empty backpacks. I yell for Sarah to help load the bags of ammo, I put two backpacks on a wheelbarrow, and run with Sarah into the forest.
Watching all of our friends get killed was a hard and unexpected view, blood coming from every body part possible, as one scraggly man jumps over our ditch, we hear a wisp of bullets. He fell on top of Sarah, she screamed like a hawk finds a meal. I pull him off of her with a great force, I then feel Sarah behind me with a gun pointed to her right, I grab mine, I then say, “if we die, I just want you to know that I love you” then our levers were pulled and bodies went flying.
Five days later
After many nights, the war was over, and we won!
Tired and scarred we got up and showered, as if we were never there, we returned home. Cheered on by all of America we then reveal that Sarah was a girl, and lasted through the pain and sorrow. All were shocked, but proud. All slaves were free, and we were apart of it. The pain and sorrow and losses of that war, have never left my mind, or Sarah’s.
15 years later
“Seth! Seth!” I am now starring at the mirror, an arm wrapped around my neck, and four pairs on my legs. “Seth, I think we should tell our kids our life story now, don’t you?” I turn and smile at Sarah and say, “we should write it down and tell all of our kids and grandkids,” she smiles, and then agrees with a big kiss.