The Block

(Sefa)

I watched the auction and the memories came tumbling back, landing hard in my soul. I remembered all too well what it was to stand on that block and be stripped naked, and have the used-body traders judge you, assess you — your size and your bounce, the fitness of the curve, the health of your teeth. And how willingly you let their fingers into your mouth.

Those poor girls, waiting their turn. I looked at them, shivering and miserable, as I was that first time, before I built the life that I had. A life I was now very happy to have left behind. And now I could do something good. Something that made me feel very good about myself. I’d checked with Tum, and he’d said it was fine, and laughed because he knew I’d make it clear how I felt once we retired to bed.

While he held me down and made me feel better than anyone else ever had.

I knew which girl I was buying — the one from the Henderson house. That was what the message from Kara had said. Her niece. I had not known she’d had a sister, but I supposed it made sense. I’d had a brother and a sister once, but I never knew what happened to them. My mother had been sold onto a river boat, and I never heard from her again.

And now I got to be the one buying Kara’s niece her freedom. Well — not exactly her freedom. There was a fee for that, but a small one, and Kara had chosen for me not to pay it. Yet. And I understood the logic: there was a safety in being a slave that a free woman didn’t have, and it’s no mercy to free a girl and dump her on the street.

The first slave went up on the block and lost her clothes. A pretty little thing, and I knew where she would end up — under a master somewhere. Poor little girl. I had hoped that Alder would stop this. Did he not know that this auction was Smith’s? Though someone would sell the girls; their house needed the money, and other houses needed the bodies.

The bidding was brisk, and I worried about my coin — Kara had sent it to me, and I wasn’t sure it was enough. The girls were stripped, displayed, auctioned, sold, and marked with the buyer’s number, all with a cold efficiency. Though this auction house let them dress again after being sold, at least. A couple of strong-looking boys were up for sale as well, and the bidding on them was even stronger, which surprised me — Alder had shown that slave labour was a bad investment.

Yes. He’d freed the men. The men, of course.

She was the tenth up. A slight girl, dark hair, pretty enough. Pretty enough that her use was clear, and she knew it; her miserable tears showed it. My heart went out to her — but fifteen, and this?

Well. For once, I could do something about it. I wasn’t sure about my strategy. I was no skilled auction buyer, and I had seen that the others kept a careful eye on one another as they bid, looks passing between them, almost as if it were a game.

A game I didn’t know the rules of. But I thought I’d at least wait to see how the bidding went before tipping my hand — and hope I delivered for the Lady Kara. Especially given how much I owed her.