feet away from Ariane, busily plucking rocks from the dark brown dirt. She tried to signal the girl from a distance, hoping to catch her eye, but the teen remained focused on her task.
Undaunted by the threat of punishment, Ariane moved her wicker basket to the east, carefully approaching the teenager.
“Hello,” she mumbled under her breath. “My name’s Ariane.”
The athletic-looking girl was stunned at first, surprised that someone had the guts to speak under the close watch of the guards. After suppressing her shock, she whispered back.
“Kelly Metz.” She wiped the dirt from her hands on her orange work pants, then brushed the brown hair from her eyes. “Where you from?”
Ariane glanced around. The closest guard was over one hundred feet away. “Pittsburgh. What about 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