Sarah's Roses, Book I: Roses of Blue

Chapter VI

Dedicating this chapter to Gisele Matheus Johnson for being so kind and helping me with the Italian that I didn't know, but needed for the story :) Thank you so much :)

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Chapter VI

“Oh but Sammy, it can’t, it can’t be true.”

“It is true Sarah, I’s leaving in an hour or so. Thought I’d come over and say goodbye.”

“This isn’t fair!”

“Course it ain’t, nothing in the life of a slave is fair. We are bought and sold like cattle, today we belong to one master, tomorrow to another.”

I couldn’t bear to hear Sammy speaking like that, but what could I do? I wrung his hand. “Goodbye Sammy, I’ll really miss you.” I felt the tears coming and on a sudden impulse I reached over and hugged him. He responded in a very awkward way, sort of hugged me back. I didn’t care; I clung to him with all my nine year old might. Sammy was my friend, and with a snap of the fingers, I had suddenly lost him. Lost him for no good reason. At last he told me I had to let him go. I obeyed and pressing his hand in my one last time, ran off before I  let my emotions get the better of me in front of him. I didn’t want him to think me a crybaby.

I was so miserable I didn’t come out of my room for the whole day. I watched from my window with tears in my eyes as a cart arrived and Sammy, climbed into it. All too soon he was out of sight. Poor Sam! He was going away from his mother and father and sisters, to live alone with people like the Thompsons. What would they do with him? How would they make him work? Would they send him to the cotton fields? Sammy was meant to be a gardener; he loved plants and things that grew, it would be terrible unfair is they sent him to toil in the cotton fields.  How lonely I would be with him gone! Who would I do my homework with? Who would help me solve the mathematics problems? Who would I read with? Who would I play with? Why was it that those who were most dear to me were the ones I would suddenly lose? Getting up, I opened my closet and ran my fingers over mother’s old dress. I always felt nearer to her when I touched the faded fabric. I gently traced the seams of the dress and presently my hand reached the pocket. I put my hand in it and suddenly felt something crinkly. I grasped the object and pulled it out. It was a slip of paper, folded into four. It was a yellow color, obviously quite old. It had managed to escape being noticed when I had packed it and when Elsie had hung it up. I walked back to my bed and sitting down, carefully unfolded the paper. Obviously the little scrap had been folded and unfolded many times, I could tell by the creases. There were words written on the inside, but they didn’t make any sense to me:

Per te,

Io vivo solo per te

hai conquistato il mio cuore

Il mio cuore

La mia mente

La mia anima

Io sono tuo per sempre

Ogni minuto

Ogni secondo

Ogni giorno

Il mio pensiero a te ricorre

Si tiene il mio

Ogni pensiero

Ogni battito del cuore

Ogni respiro

Mi perdo nel mio amore

Per te

I figured it must be in some different language, and from the way it was structured it seemed as though it were a poem. I sat holding the paper and wondering if it was a poem penned by mama or someone else.