Nightmares, what are nightmares? In your dreams, there are a lot of demons chasing you, and they want to eat you! Or when a vicious and terrible enemy wants to kill you, and when they are about to catch up with you, when their spears and knives are about to pierce your body, you wake up and find that it is nothing but a nightmare. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info but this is not a nightmare, at most it can only mean that you slept badly.

What is Nightmare? Nightmares are when you are trapped in it and can't extricate yourself, no one helps you, you can't get rid of it, at first it will make you miserable and make you struggle, but after a while you will find that you are comfortable with it, and you will find that it has a very beautiful side, so beautiful that you like it, so that you can't tell whether it is a nightmare or a dream. But in the end, it will wake you up and let the greater pain and blows break you down.

The sun slowly revealed the earth, Kazamasa. Ika sat under an oak tree with his luggage, which he had owned for decades, a shabby brown suitcase with holes, some old clothes and shoes, and probably more than 10 dollars in his pocket. From his current body shape and height, it can be imagined that he was tall and strong when he was young, and no one knew that this old black slave who sat under a tree, with gray hair and vicissitudes on his face, was a member of the African Klataya, the fifth generation of the Kazamasa family, from a place on the African continent called "Filedi".

In this large manor called Liberty Village, people who knew him called him Boel. S&Nsen, one belongs to the southern state of Georgia, the United States, and the town of Tiffton is one called Victor. The old gardener of Lord Rogers.

Ika had spent the whole night sitting here last night, and the 63-year-old was going to go with some of the slaves to another estate, where he would start his new slave life, which Lord Victor had sold the day before yesterday to his new master, a gift to be precise. Because one of his friends had come to the United States to develop, and he was now in the entrepreneurial period, the lord and the other lords of the manor extended a warm hand peculiar to the southerners, and offered the help they could, just as his sister, who had never met, was given as a doll to a friend of the lord. Because his friend's daughter was 9 years old and wanted a playmate, the old man readily agreed to give her a cute little black girl. Then there was his son Steven, and finally his wife Jenny, who had been with him for decades, and they were sold in the form of goods, because the lord lacked cash to turn around, and after a few years, Ika did not know where they were now.

Master Rogers provided him with some of his own black slaves, including the coachman and the cook and his old gardener, but he was in the entrepreneurial period, and he was not in the mood to raise flowers and flirt, he needed black slaves who could work and obey.

When their son Stevens was leaving, the wife and wife had sewn and cooked for their son the day before, preparing for his imminent departure, a distinction that many blacks at that time might have been a farewell. This was a very common thing at the time.

Jenny silently did her own thing, and in the face of her son's departure, it was like tearing apart the old wounds in her heart again!

Steven stood in front of his father, his head bowed, sobbing with tears in his eyes.

Ika looked at his son, he was only 18 years old, but he was as tall and strong as when he was younger, his back was as thick and wide as a small bed, his arms were as thick as two small trees, his muscles were unusually developed and full from long hours of heavy work, and his brown and black skin was as lustrous as metal! Steven also has childish features, which reminds Ika of his younger brother Ida. In the eyes of Ika, Steven was a true man of Klataya, the offspring of a true warrior.

"Don't cry! Remember my son! Always remember what I say and pass it on to your descendants! You are the offspring of a true warrior! It is the one who has the blood of the warriors of the Ika family in his veins! Your ancestors are in Africa! Your ancestors were plundered! You weren't sold! It's going to fight! It's a march! Got it! You must always remember what I say! And the family on your chest! No matter how the heavens and the earth change! That's proof of our encounter with our ancestors!! ”

Ika's thick and powerful voice, every word spoken! Every word! The sound of war drums echoed in Steven's ears!

Steven couldn't help it, and threw himself into his father's arms and cried! In the face of the separation of flesh and blood, Ika's tears could not be stopped! In his hometown, the father shed tears in front of his son, especially the warriors who were about to go on the expedition were a sign of weakness, but Ika only learned today that he could not do it! On the one hand, his wife Jenny had already washed her face with tears, and the family hugged each other and cried!

For Ika, he and his wife have only given birth to one child for so many years, because they are afraid that they will suffer the pain of separation and the fate of being bought and sold into slavery! He couldn't imagine his children being taken away like commodities by those white people! And I can't protect them.

As her son was loaded into the carriage and left, Jenny hugged Ika tightly, not letting herself shed tears, which would have caused her son to die until the carriage disappeared into the distant horizon.

One day, many years later, Jenny was about to leave, not before his illness collapsed, but at the place where his son had left, and Jenny looked at Ika:

"Don't be sad, maybe I'll be able to see my son again? My true love will always belong to you Skensen, no!! Ekka, goodbye dear Ika! ”

She immediately turned around and walked quickly towards the carriage with tears in her eyes! She didn't want her lover to do something impulsive, and then Ika actually sang:

Don't cry,

My woman.

Don't cry,

My lover.

He sang the song of the place, and he had heard some of the black people who had grown up here sing it, and they sometimes sang it separately. Accompanied by the singing, Jenny sat in the carriage and slowly sang:

Today we don't cry,

Let's sing a song.

We are not in pain when we are separated,

We are for our lovers who miss their distant hometown.

Thinking of this, Ika was numb, he didn't understand, all this was destined to be lost, why let him have it, let them be his relatives and flesh and blood! In the end, they have to be separated from their own life! What made him even more heartbroken was that he watched them being loaded into the car and left, why didn't he pick up a spear and a machete to protect them!? Are you still a warrior yourself? Why didn't he kill himself! Do you want to live in such a shame? Why don't you kill that white man named Rogers?! Is he really a who can be a slave at ease? After all this, Ika calmed down, and he seemed to understand his father's mood at that time.

Everything loved is lost, and what is there to worry about. It was meant to be a dream, a nightmare of nothingness.

Ika's last wish was to die in this manor to guard his father's grave. At the end of the day's work, it became his greatest consolation to be able to confide in his father at his grave, and sometimes Ika would say a few words to the grave of Zat, the one who had caused his current bad luck, that they knew where they came from, and that when Ika died, he hoped to be buried next to his father, so that neither he nor his father would be alone.

For this reason, he even converted to the white gods, the God who was crucified and called God, just like his father. He still couldn't understand why these white people nailed their gods to the wood so cruelly, they were so disrespectful and blasphemous to the gods, but they still showed such humility when they entered the church. It seems that they have never done this, and if someone from their own family does such a thing, his descendants will be cursed! What a contradiction the white man is, will their god really bless them? Will you really bless yourself, this humble wish of this old black slave who thinks he is a candle in the wind? Perhaps, their God, who is called God, is also a God of contradictions.

Just yesterday, he was told to pack his bags and get ready to leave, which means that he may never come back to see his father. His head tilted slightly to the right, with a numb expression on his face, and his eyes glazed over his father's graveyard and the grave of the murderer who had kidnapped him to enslave him.

"I'm leaving, father. And you bastard Zat, you hurt me not only but yourself and your people, I forgive you! But even after death, your soul should not meet me. Father, I don't know how long it will take for this nightmare to end. You can't wait for it to end. Neither do I, nor does Jenny, and I wonder if Stevens will wait until the day it ends. I don't know if our descendants will remember us and when we will be able to go home! Ikata said in a slow, feeble tone.

Suddenly, someone is calling out their name! "Daddy Boel! Hurry up! It's time for us to go! Reminding him that it was time to hit the road, Ika slowly stood up and picked up his worn suitcase, and instead of dusting off the dirt from his trousers, he walked into the ranks of the black slaves with unhurried steps.

The soil was far cleaner and purer to Ikata than the hearts of the white-skinned and golden-haired white-haired people.

Ika, along with six or seven black men who were slave laborers like him, boarded a freight wagon with bales of cotton. Ika was the oldest of the young blacks, and I don't know if it was because there was enough space in the wagon, or because of his old age that made the young blacks respect or pity him, they gave him an open space to sit on, and when Ika sat down, the carriage started, and two deep wheel prints and a puff of smoke and dust were pressed on the red dirt road. Ika looked at the gorgeous white house of the white man, but Ika had no feelings and nostalgia for him, he felt that it should not exist in the first place! It was it that savagely invaded his sight, and he could focus his gaze on the hut where he had lived for more than 40 years, where he had a miraculous encounter with his father, who had been separated for more than 10 years, and where he met his wife Jenny on the land, and gave birth to his son Steven, and then he gazed at the grave where his father was buried on the high slope not far north of the manor. Gradually, the carriage drove him out of the "Liberty Village" manor where he had lived for 41 years, and everything began to fade away from his sight, blurred, and finally disappeared into the fields of Guangrou. As the carriage began to jolt as it accelerated, Ika began to recall his time on the land, perhaps his last complete memory.

Ever since Ika, who had been caught and knocked unconscious by Zat and the white men in the forest, he woke up to find himself lying in the dimly lit cabin, his hands and feet tightly chained with heavy iron chains! It's hard to move! He felt a fiery pain in one of his arms, and Ika saw that his right arm was red and swollen, as if it had been burned with a fiery iron! The cabin was so dark that it was impossible to know whether it was day or night.

Ika suddenly heard a painful ** sound! He turned his head to the right, and next to him was a black man tied to a large wooden plank like himself! Then he started to see more people! They were all chained, and their voices were full of pain and fear, and he felt his headache explode in such an environment! Then there was another whirlwind, and then he fainted.

I don't know how long it took, but the cabin was filled with the smell of disgusting filth! After a while, he was weakened! The back and lower body are festering due to the inability to turn over for a long time! Sometimes a few white people would throw a spoonful of rice or something in front of each of them, or drag someone out who was starving or tortured.

Ika swallowed it in pain, and vomited shortly after eating. Once, when he was about to eat, by the light of the hatch opening, Ika realized that his companion who had been killed had been dragged away from the opposite plank, and that he had died. Ika looked at his stiff corpse and expressed his pain! Now his situation may soon meet with that partner.

Sometimes these white men would also drive them onto the deck of the ship to let them breathe, and when the fresh and moist sea breeze blew in their faces, it was as if they had been reborn! Then he saw a boat not far away, and there were many black people on it who had suffered the same thing as himself, and he saw how the white men were dealing with the bodies of the dead black men and threw them all into the sea! Suddenly! Several monsters that he had never seen before rushed to the surface of the sea, and they leaped out of the water! Ika saw that their teeth and appearance were even bigger and terrifying than the lion's! They ate the corpse that was still floating on the surface of the water in almost one bite! He was terrified by the scene just now.

After some time, Ika felt as if the ship had stopped, and the door to the cabin was opened again, and this time they were taken out of the cabin, and they were chained together by rope locks and walked off the ship, and whoever slowed down would be whipped a leather whip! Ika saw that about half of the people did not make it out of the cabin alive.

When the weakened Ika set foot on this strange and surprising land, he understood one thing, this is the place of these white people! Or a big tribe of theirs! A lot of white men and women came and went in fancy dress, and they ignored Ben's existence, even if their black complexion was so striking among them.

To Ika's astonishment, there were still a number of black people like himself, who were dressed in white clothes and mixed in. Ika had tried to communicate with a black man not far away, but he ignored himself! Instead, he walked away in annoyance, speaking the language of the white man and obediently following behind the white man.

Soon after they disembarked, the whites drove them and locked them up in a very large building, surrounded by walls and guarded by soldiers, but they fed themselves a lot of food that they had never eaten before, but it was delicious?! In particular, there were their favorite chicken and beef, and it seemed that they had something in common with themselves, and the white man gave them white clothes, and Ika, who was in utter prostration from hunger and torture by that terrible voyage, and Ben did not have the time and energy to think about other things and thoughts, and like many others, grabbed the food and ate it in large gulps!

Their tormented bodies began to recover, and after more than a month, they were taken out of the building again, after which the whites had washed them up, and later Ika learned that it was called a castle, also known as a slave's fort. Those white people, after they fatten themselves and feed themselves, they can sell them for a good price! He was tied together to a large market-like place, where he and a few negroes were singled out and caught up on a relatively high wooden staircase, which reminded him of the place where the village elders spoke. There were a lot of white-skinned people in the audience, some men and women, some of them pointed at themselves, shouting and laughing, I don't know what they were doing, Ika couldn't understand what they were saying, he wanted to run away, but the current environment was impossible! He wanted to spit on them! But he knew it wasn't the work of a warrior from the Kazamasa family.

Then he saw several white guards holding an old black man, who was very strange, dressed in a shabby black robe, thin and old, with two small sticks on his chest and a wooden frame intertwined, and some thick paper in his hand, struggling and shouting in the white man's voice:

"Let go of me!! Let me go! You sinful fellows!! You were saved by God's mercy! God asked Moses to bring you here! But you kill and enslave your brothers and sisters like viruses and pestilences!! You are like robbers who have turned the homeland where the Indians have lived for generations into your private domain!! Loot Africans here and become your slaves!! You have turned this Garden of God into a hell for them!! You always pray to God every day! Confession!! But you want to take God's place yourself!! Do you think he's asleep? No! He is watching you all the time!! He's giving you a chance! You sinners!! But I didn't wake up!! Sinful!! Yes! O sin!! Look at it! God will abandon you one day!! I won't even give you a chance to punish you! Because you have given yourselves to the devil!! You are lost in your own greed and lust! That day! Judgment Day! It's coming!! Satan's gates of hell will be opened by your own hands like Pandora's box!! The hordes of monsters will eat your hopeless souls and bodies alive!! Thunderbolts and lightning destroy the homes you have been made of!! Hurry up and repent to God! Repent!! ”

Ika saw the two white men who had captured him coming up and talking to some of the other white men.

"Hey! Sbulun. Elrons! What did you and Wesker bring back from Africa this time!! These goods look really good!! As he spoke, the man patted the shoulder and thigh of a black man next to him.

"Alright! The ivory you want is in the east! This is a slave auction house. Over there, these black slaves are all first-class! Look how strong! That crazy old man isn't worth much, I can buy one get one free! ”

"You know that cotton prices have been bullish lately! We want a lot of black slaves! Priest come to one, anyway, it's for free, to relieve those black slaves! ”

"Don't worry! Although some died on the way, this is within the budget, and I will bring back a lot more this time! Moreover, they are all of the best quality! If you buy more, it will be cheaper for you!! ”

"Good! But why didn't women and children have it this time? ”

"Yes! The quality of the goods last time was really good! I haven't had enough of it! It's just wild! All of them are wild! No punishment is required! I used a whip to subdue them! ”

"That's it! The black slave girl I bought back last time finally made her pregnant! I didn't think that the child was thrown to death by her just after birth! She said don't think about her children being slaves! I shot her in one fit of rage! These African slaves are so barbaric! It's so uncivilized! ”

"Then your loss will be great!"

"Yes! More than 600 pieces! Not counting the food and clothing of this year! Originally, I could have made some money by giving birth to a little black slave. ”

"Alright! All right! Gentlemen! It's not easy! Does demand determine yield? Next time, I'll pick you a few of the best goods! Elons said with a smile like an expert.

"Wesker! This black slave here is very good! How much!? Say it! ”

"That's of course sir! This is what Elonster deliberately picked! From $900! Look how strong he is! Quasi-capable of doing the work of 20 people! Come and buy it! ”

Ika jerked his arm back!

"Look! He is very energetic!! It's not a fake or sick! ”

"I'm out of 920!"

“950！！”

“1000！”

“1100！！”

“1120！”

“1200！”

......

In the midst of the loud bidding one after another, behind the auction table, Sblem. Alrons was counting the cost and profits of this business, his greedy eyes looking at the gold bracers in his hands, and staring at the payment on the table, and that's not all! Especially this time, I got a gold bracer made of gold for nothing, and Duolai brought back more than 10 black slaves! Not to mention the goods and ivory! This time I can say that I have made a lot of money! Even if you throw away Wesker's share, you'll make enough money! Earn big! To commemorate your own successful voyage! Sbrunn decided to make this golden bracer a family heirloom! Passed on from generation to generation, let your descendants enjoy the sense of accomplishment in this life together!

"In August 1716, the year after his voyage to the sea, Sblon and his assistant Wesker were on their second trade voyage to Africa to transport goods, when the ship ran aground and sank, and the surviving sailors saw them both being bitten in two by a giant shark they had never seen before! In the years that followed, none of the descendants of the two men lived past the age of 50. Most of them died in accidents and wars, and their behavior and temper when they were alive were strange and violent. Both of their families are extinct in the eighth generation, and they are Albert. Twysk and Brian. More than 200 years later, in Oregon, USA, all of them were killed in the 1998 Raccoon Town incident. Others say that their family may have been cursed by something. 》

Ika later learned that he had finally sold it to a white manor for $1,700, and that he had given himself the white man's name "Boel. Sundson", but on the third day of arriving here, he escaped! He is a warrior of a warrior family, and he will never be a slave to them! But he was soon recovered, and the result was a whipping! In the days that followed, Ika ran away several more times, but all of them ended in failure, and after the fourth failed escape, Ika received the worst whipping, and he fainted! The white men scolded and locked him in a grass hut, where he caressed his whip wounds while calming himself down and thinking. It was only then that Ika felt that he was so uncool and stupid! Every time there is no purpose and preparation, every escape ends in failure! The darkness of the night could not keep me safe for too long, I was not familiar with the terrain and roads here, I had no weapons and dry food, and I didn't even know who I was running to find there. What made him even more whimsical was that he couldn't speak the white people yet, while the black people on the farm would!? Perhaps, when you learn this language, you can help yourself escape! Ika made up his mind that this would be his last escape! Either they find my body or I get free!!

For a long time afterward, Ika began to work in a proper manner, trying to make the whites feel that they were no different from other black slaves, except for the numerous whiplashes on his body. Ika even apologized for learning the language of the white men from other black slaves, and was familiar with the terrain of the surrounding roads. Among them, he also experienced one of the most peculiar things in this land! The temperature of the weather can get hot and cold depending on the time?!

That day Ika was about to start running away shortly after, but it suddenly became very cold, and the blacks said that it was called winter, and when it came what they called winter, sometimes it would fall in the sky something white called snow! The earth will be covered with this kind of thing, and people will leave footprints when they walk on it! It seems that winter is not suitable for escape. In this way, he prepared for three years! In the past three years, he has spent the days like years, and the daily desire for freedom has always hit his heart! Today, he's going to get moving!

That night, he jumped into a wagon carrying tobacco and cotton and fled! This saved a lot of his own effort and time, and he calculated that by the time those guys knew, he would have been safe or flee without a trace! At first he went well, the carriage took him from manor to manor, and when he saw an endless forest, he jumped out of the carriage and entered the forest, and he was free! Ika spent a few days in the forest, and these days became the best times of his life! He drank spring water and ate wild fruits and game he caught, and although this was not his hometown, it was a thousand times better than being a slave at the hands of others! But one morning he heard the sound of a trumpet, and he stood on the top of the hill and saw a great number of white men, who were coming from all directions, with hounds and shotguns, and they surrounded him! They also brought women and children to set up tables and tents in the open field, and some black slaves helped cook! It seems that they will not give up unless they catch themselves! At this time, a white man on a horse saw himself with a telescope! He shouted, "Hi!! I see him!! That is there! Then he waved his hand, and the hounds chased after him! The whites in the back also rushed up! Surrounded in their direction and shot indiscriminately!

Ika began to run like crazy! But for some reason, he couldn't get rid of the voice chasing after him behind him! Moreover, gradually, these voices came not only from behind, but also from front and back, left and right, in all directions! Damn it! I was surrounded!! The hounds began to run towards themselves! Those Great Danes are huge and fierce! Ika fights! He pulled out a short knife that he had in his possession! Killed one hound that pounced on him, then a second, but more hounds pounced! Biting your arms and body! The white man with the shotgun came over at this time, but they were not in a hurry to chase away the hounds, but put away their guns to watch this rare man-dog fight. Just as Ika was killing the sixth hound, he couldn't hold the knife in his hand, when a gunshot rang out! He felt like he had been hammered to the left shoulder! This powerful force knocked itself to the ground! Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was a large mouth of Great Dane spurting blood, and the huge teeth on it were the same as the sharks he had seen on the sea! It roars with a big mouth overflowing with sticky saliva!! Bite yourself!

"Wake up! Wake up, it's me. Your father! Son! Please don't die! Open your eyes and look at me! Ika! Ika. ”

Ika heard a voice full of love and sadness, and it grew more and more urgent! For the first time in years, he had heard such a voice. Is it the father? Impossible, no! I must have thought I was dead, or how would I have heard my father's voice? No, don't wake me up! It is a thousand times better to feel the call of death in the dark than to be in the dimly lit cabin of a white slave ship! I'm a warrior, I'd rather die like this than be a slave for them!!

I must have died with the scriptures, dead! Otherwise, how could he still hear his father's voice and the language of his own people? But why am I still in the dark? Then a bright light shone in, and Ika awoke.

"Thank God! O Lord! Thank you!! ”

"He's been in a coma for five days! If he does die, your $200 worth will be over! Old George. ”

"Look! See! He's looking at us. ”

"Old George, your heart is so good, just one side, you spent all your savings for decades! I don't think your freedom is a good thing, I think you still have to train him to work! This guy always wants to run! If he gets better and runs away, you're going to be sold. Hey~~~~~~"

"I know Overseer! Please let me be alone with him! All right! I'll advise him! ”

"Alright! You old slave, don't forget to thank you. Otherwise, he will die. Wasted so many of our medicines. ”

"Give! Daddy George, this is some sugar water made from the sugar left over from the old man's coffee, you soak the bread and feed him, otherwise I think he will choke to death. ”

"Thank you so much! Jenny! I'll cut some flowers for you next time!

Ika couldn't hear anything now, couldn't understand anything, his eyes could only open slightly, everything was a blur to him, he felt like a fish roasted on the fire, the pain of the fire from his feet to his head. He saw that his body limbs and forehead were wrapped in bandages, his mouth and stomach were desperately eager to drink and eat, and from time to time he made a sound similar to pleading, and soon spoonfuls of cool water and soft coarse bread blistered were sent into his mouth, and Ika chewed mechanically like a clock, and when he finished eating and drinking, sleep quickly rushed to the top of his head, and this time he slammed himself down, he slept very warm and sweet, and it felt like sleeping in his own bed.

I don't know how long it took for Ika to open his eyes, and this time everything came into his sight clearly, and he saw himself lying on a bed covered with a thick quilt, and a steady old black man with a kind face beside him, he looked at himself pitifully and excitedly and said, "Ika, you are here too." Do you remember me? I'm a father! "These are the words of the Klatayas! Ika couldn't believe his ears!!

"You, you're saying it again!!" Ika said and sat up sharply! But the physical pain soon pressed me down again!

The old man spoke again, and then took out the ornament of the animal's teeth around his neck, which was engraved with words and symbols, which was proof that his people had become warriors. The old man went on to tell the names and events of his mother and many people in the village. Ikain wept with joy! Crying in my father's arms! The father and son had been crying and saying that they could not express their current feelings, when the door opened, and the father suddenly hugged himself tightly and whispered, "Don't make a noise, child!" A black woman came in with two bowls of hot soup and a few pieces of bread, placed them on the table, and then went out and closed the door.

Ika pushed his father away and asked loudly, "Father!" Father, what's going on here!! How did you end up here!? How am I still alive!? Where is this? Answer me quickly!! ”

Ika's father was sad and could not reply, and it was a long time before he slowly explained the cause of the incident.

"That day, I went to find a pearl to make a necklace for your mother, and I thought I was looking for it. But suddenly I saw a lot of people from other tribes being tied up and taken away by the men of the Great Chief, along with the whites, and among them were a few of my good friends. I went up to them to ask them about the theory, but suddenly they tied me up as well, saying that it was an unexpected gain. So, I came here. ”

After hearing this, Ika was silent for a while, and then told his father about himself. The father looked at the injuries that were mixed in Ika, and said, "Don't run, you can't go home, and I can't go back." Stay. ”

"What!! Father! You're not a warrior!! Not a man!! You are a slave to them!! You are a shame on the family!! Ika said as he knocked over the hot soup that his father had handed him to the ground!!

Ika's father did not get angry and blame him, but just crouched down and picked up the bowl on the ground.

"Next time you're angry, don't be angry with the food, they're right. Child. Forget, Klataya,"

"You are not qualified to educate me!! You're not my father!! I don't have a father like you!! You know how much mom misses you!! Why are you saving me! Don't let me die!! You are a disgrace to your family! Why don't you die like a warrior!! Ika said excitedly! Beat yourself with a bandaged hand.

At this point, the father did not speak, but stood up and took a few steps back, he plugged the door and turned back, slowly unbuttoning his shirt and then his belt in front of Ika.

Ika was fluted at first, but immediately he was stunned by what he saw! The father had a lot of whiplash wounds on his body, and there were gunshot wounds on his chest and legs and marks of being asked by a wolf dog, which were worse than his own.

"If you die, you can go back to see your mother and you, you can go back to your hometown! I'd rather die right away. Father calmly finished and dressed again.

"I came like you, I escaped, I fought, and for this I was crippled in one leg, and I managed to escape for more than a month. But it all failed, and I found that everything was in vain. Because this is not our hometown, we escaped from here, only to enter a larger white manor. Unless those white people are willing to declare you a free man. ”

"I don't need their freedom! I was meant to be a free man! Born to be! ”

"Yes, but you've seen it and felt it, so I don't need to say more. Originally, they saw that you were dying and wanted to feed you to the dog, I said to the lord to buy you, I said that I was your good friend, and I took out all the money I had saved over the decades to supplement the money that the lord bought you, you won't know what price they bought you, 50 catties of beef, child. They think you're dead. But you killed the old man with a lot of good hounds, so you have to add some money. Then the two lords made a deal for you at a friendly price. Then the father paused and said, "I saw the words on your chest and your appearance, and I decided to save you." Even if it is your corpse that I buy, I will bury you with my own hands. At that time, let me watch the corpses of dead children being eaten by dogs, or let you survive first, but you may be reduced to the status of slaves, I would rather choose the latter, because I am your father! ”

"Then you are willing to live like this!! Be a slave! ”

"Nope! I want to be free, I want to go home, I miss your mom and Ida! Dream it! If it were me decades ago, I would have killed you, even if you were still a child, because then you would not be a slave of a white man, but would die with the body of a free man! But now it's impossible, it's impossible, but I won't stop believing in it for a day as long as I live. Even if it is impossible, this is all I can do now, I will not stop you from escaping, I will not persuade you to stay with me too much. I'm proud of you, kid, really! Even if you want to run, you have to take care of your body. Also, your left arm may not be as flexible as it used to be, and your right foot has been bitten off by a dog with two toes. ”

"Then I'm going to run too!! I'm not you! Ika was speechless, and he didn't know how to blame his father.

"Rest well, eat something to run next time, it works, I've tried it before, really." After saying that, my father walked out of the house, and the moment the door was closed, my father said, "Don't waste food and water, they are innocent, and neither they nor the land and forests are our enemies." Also, don't tell people that I'm your father, or the white people will sell or kill you and me, and call me Weber. Daddy Rogers will do the trick. Or, the old gardener. Tell them that I talked to you about it, so I saved you. After saying that, the father walked away with a gloomy face and lame steps.

Since the day he met and talked to his father, it was difficult for Ika to accept such a cruel reality, his father, who had been separated for decades, and he was here as a slave, but now his father has become difficult for him to accept, do he still want to flee? Or leave behind the scarred father? He pounded his head painfully every night for this, hoping for some relief. He now lived in his father's house, which was much better than the slave house he had been in, and in the dead of night he would talk to him quietly for a while, and then slowly fall asleep.

On this day, the father came in and said, "You have to make a choice, son, your injuries are almost healed, either run away in a few days, or stay as a slave, the master said that he would not keep a slave, I told him that your injuries are not suitable for heavy work, and he said that you can do some chores, or you can live with me and help me." ”

That night, Ika pondered for a long time alone in the starlight, leaving and staying alive and dying, he really didn't understand why he had to live so painfully, he wanted to die to relieve all this, but he thought about his scarred father who had just been reunited. He looked at the endless road outside the manor, full of hope and temptation, unknown and nothing, but his father's cabin behind him was so real. Not far away, the black slaves like themselves danced and sang to the accompaniment of the campfire and the violin and tambourine after dinner. Ika could feel that they were singing and dancing happily, as if they were not slaves in the first place, but in their own homeland. My father had said that some of them, or many of them, were born on this land, and they were black slaves in the eyes of white people like you and me, but they were not Africans, because many of them didn't know where they came from, where their ancestors were, and they didn't understand their homeland and their relatives the same way you and me, and I didn't know if it was a relief or a pity.

He sat alone on the ground that day, leaning against a tree, looking at the stars in the sky, and Ika would not sing and dance with them, nor would his father, but he admitted that the music was indeed very good, and the dance was no worse than that of his hometown, and after a while he slowly walked into his father's cabin.

The next day, Ika picked up two buckets of water to deliver water to the people working in the fields, and he helped carry things in the kitchen and tidy up the garden for his father.