"I was scared out of my mind and I didn't know why, didn't know what was after me, just knew I'd been told to run 'n' run 'til I couldn't run no more 'n his voice, the Frenchman's voice, was echoin' in my head tellin' me to run 'n not stop but I had to stop 'cuz my breath was harsh in my chest 'til I was breathin' razorblades 'n tastin' their metal in the back of my throat'n then I run to the cabin out in the woods and curl up 'gainst the wall, and let my breathin' tear my chest apart with big, gaspin' breaths and then a dark face appears over me, lookin' real concerned and I start to cry 'cuz I'm caught fer sure now and the dark-skinned woman picks me up and she's rockin' me and sayin, 'there there lil' one, you don't gotta cry, I ain't gon' hurt you...' and carryin' me into the cabin and then my cryin' stops with the rockin' and I fall to sleep..."
It's been three years since I was found by Sarah behind her and the other girls' cabin, and it's the hottest, driest summer of my whole life. I figure I was about five when I got found, and that would make me almost eight now. I wasn't made to work like the other boys as soon as I got big enough to be useful. Well, I was, but not as hard, 'cuz I may be tanned browner than an Indian, but I'm definitely a whiteboy. That's 'cuz I got straight blondish hair and real pale blue eyes compared with the other boys and their dark colors.
I was always told to stay outta sight of the overseers 'cuz Sarah says it ain't done, slave girls takin' in whiteboys, so I'd be takin' away and sent to the town orphanage far away. She snuck some straw from the big barn and made me a big hat with a wide brim to pull down over my blond hair to hide it, 'cuz not even a mulatto boy'd have blond hair and blue eyes ever.
It all went well 'til one day my hat fell off in front of Judd, one of the meanest overseers on the whole farm, and he took me to Mister and threw me down, sayin, "Looky what I found slinkin' about in the orchird, sir!" And I started cryin' and beggin' to not be send away, since this home's the only one I got
"-and please don't have Sarah beat neither 'cuz she didn't mean nothin' by it and only wanted t' make sure I was safe by takin' me in 'cuz I was just little and all alone and I didn't even know my own name or who my ma and daddy is or where I come from so please, please sir let me staaaaayyy!"
Mister glares down at me until I stop carryin' on and then his look sorta softens and he says "How old are you?"
"I-I think almost eight. I come here when I was four or five, Sarah decided, sir, and I been here for three summers."
"Alright. Until I figure out what to do with you, you may stay, and carry on sleeping outside in the slave quarters. And at least try and make yourself of some use."
"Yessir, Mister." I say, and run outta there.
That was the scariest day on Big Farm, I think, by a long shot.