About a week and a half have passed since Mama had that short trauma. Misty helped her as much as she could. The Master and Mistress were quite upset at what Mama did, but they showed some signs of mercy and gave her a little time off from the kitchens. Mama couldn't very well cook when her hands were bandaged up like they were. Misty was no doctor, but she tried to get them wrapped up as well as she could. That afternoon, Misty was busy harvesting the small squashes that were already planted when she arrived. She straightens up and tries to crack her back. She wipes her forehead with the back of her hand and sighs. It was a nice day to just sit outside and relax. That's what she would be doing if her house still stood out in the fields of western Ireland. Mama would be standing over by the clothes line with her bucket of soapy water, washing all of Papa's shirts. Papa would either be in the shack outback where he worked on his carpentry, or was working on the small vegetable garden they had. Misty smiles to herself, remembering the old life. She then bends back down to find the ripe vegetables from the vines entwined all over the field and picking them.
"God of tomorrow, Strong over-comer." Misty sings to herself to pass the time. "Princes of darkness own your command. What then can harm us? We are your people. Now and forever, kept by your hand."
"I don't understand." Misty looked up to see Master Ash beside her. "Why you keep on going on with that gibberish, knowing you could be punished for it."
"I don't care." Misty replied.
Ash took out his small whip and drove it across her back. Misty stopped picking and just stood there, hunched over. She could feel the hot strip of pain the leather brought and the tore it put in her dress. Misty swallows the phlegm that had rose in her throat.
"I dare you to try that again." Ash said and turned around to leave.
"Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Your sunrise turned that night to day; I woke—the dungeon flamed with light!" Misty sang louder, trying to remember every word of her favorite hymn. "My chains fell off, your voice I knew; I rose, went out, an followed you. Amazing Love! How can it be, that you, my Lord, should die for me?"
Another shot of white pain struck her back. Misty set the last squash she had in her hand in the basket beside her and straightened up. She stared into Ash's soft brown eyes and saw his face pulled stern. His pale knuckles clutched the handle of his whip tightly over his head.
"I warned you." Ash said, trying to sound fierce, but being far from. "If any more of that shit comes off your lips, I'll beat you to hell."
Misty smiles at the challenge. "And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on. I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on; and when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be, and through eternity, I'll sing on. I'll sing on. And through eternity I'll si-."
Ash whips her across the front three times. Once diagonally across the chest, and once on each arm, splitting her shoulders. Her dress was a simple rag now. Through the pain, Misty tried to keep a straight face. Ash roles up his whip and puts it back in between his belt loops and walks off. Misty finishes picking the last of the squash kneeling down in the dirt. She couldn't really bend over to well at the moment. She takes the basket and sets it outside the kitchen door and then heads back to her cabin. Mama rubbed some aloe into her cuts and then told Misty to lie down and rest. Misty only lied down for a few minutes, she couldn't sleep. So, she got up and went out, she still had some stuff to do. She had to get water from the well to go water the plants and then it was her job today to clean the front porch of the plantation house. On her third trip to the well, after filling her buckets, Ash came up to her once more. He just stood in front of her and stared. Misty shifted her weight from side to side, trying to balance the pole across her two sore shoulders.
"Yes, Master?" Misty asked.
"I just wanted to talk to you for a while." Ash replies.
"Yes, Master?" Misty said again.
"Just put down your buckets for now." Ash commands and Misty does. He continues to look her over for some reason.
"What is it, Master?" Misty questions.
"You are in fair shape." Ash comments.
"I suppose." Misty says. "Why do you need to know?"
"Before I continue, Misty. I'd like you ask you for something." Said Ash.
"Go ahead."
"Forgive me?"
Misty blinked. "Why? For whipping me? I don't have a problem with that. I wouldn't actually care if you whipped me right now, more then you did before." Misty picks her buckets up again and starts to walk off.
Ash follows. "You people are known for that stuff."
" 'You people'?" Misty stops and looks at him.
"Forgive me?" Ash repeats.
Misty puts down her buckets once more and puts her hands on her hips. "Forgive you for what? You've killed my Papa. You've mutilated my Mama. And YOUR people have some foolish initiative that MY people are only good enough for labor. Let me ask you one question. You say you don't believe in the stuff I practice, but then why do you believe in Hell? Hell has to do with the Christian religion."
"I'm sorry, okay? Forgive me?" Ash says again.
"Did you just her any of the word I said?" Misty asks and takes up her buckets, walking off at a faster pace.
"Misty!" Ash called.
Misty stops but doesn't turn around. "You are forgiven." She walks off and continues to water the plants.
After about five minutes, Ash is at her side once more. He grabs her arm, making her spill a whole bucket just on dirt and drags her off towards the woods. He gets a little ways so no one could see them. Misty turns to look at him but her face gets twisted as Ash slaps her across the face.
Misty takes a deep breath. "I mean this in the best respects, Master, but you have a very odd personality."
"So do you." Ash says austerely. "Please,.."
"I forgave you, did you not hear me?" Misty said, trying not to sound demanding.
"I wasn't going to ask for your forgiveness again. I was going to ask you to…to ask you if I could help."
"Help how?" Misty whispered.
"I want to get you out of here. I want to help you run away."
"What?!" Misty shouted.
"Shh, Shh." Ash puts a finger to his lips.
"Why do you want to help me run? If you want to help anybody, please take my Mama away from this place. She deserves freedom more then I." Misty tells.
"I know you want it." Ash says as he runs his finger across Misty's cross-shaped scar. "Please, just think about it, Misty."
Misty feels her eyes start to get watery. She wraps her arms around him in a hug. "Thank you, Master. It's very hard to believe you; to trust you. But somehow, I do."
The forest's shade gets wider night starts to blanket the plantation. Ash lifts Misty's chin up with one of his fingers. "In the moonlight I felt your heart, quiver like the bow-string's pulse. In the moon's pale light, you looked at me with those deep blue eyes. No body knows your heart."
Misty smiles. "When the sun has gone, I see you, beautiful and haunting, but cold. Like the blade of a knife, so sharp, so sweet. No body knows your heart."
"All of your sorrow, grief and pain…have it locked away in the mystery of the night." Ash whispers.
"Your secret heart belongs to the darkness of the world." Misty could hardly tell what she was saying.
"Yours is like the things that sigh in the dark." Ash says.
Misty shakes her head. "No, like the things that cry in the dark."
Misty could hardly see Ash's face anymore. Night had fallen very quickly with the trees in the way of the setting sun. The next thing she knew, Ash's lips were on her own. They just stood there, concealed in the darkness of their own two hearts.