She chose me.
I was working in the plantation. Swinging my hoe time and time again to the tuneless song being whistled by the older men. It's something we do to make the job less tedious. It's all routine. Wake up, work on the huge plantation, eat, sleep, doing the same thing often time and time again, sometimes I think the songs are the only thing helping us hold on to our sanity.

That day was a day like any other, sunbeams mercilessly piercing the flimsy sheets that passed for curtains in the worker's hovel. Someone nudged me awake. That push meant sleep time was over. Get up, it said. You want to sleep the whole day long, then be ready to sleep on an empty stomach. No meals till the afternoon, and then the slop shovelled into our bowls was barely enough, and could only be gotten with a worker's token, and worker's tokens were shared only to workers found working and active on the plantation.

The only reason most of us worked with Master was because he was fair with us. He may not have cared much for our feeding, but he paid well and on time. Work in the plantation would give you enough to buy a house and farm of your own in six years if you worked hard and steady, saved well and kept your head down.

This is more, much more than other masters were willing to offer, so we flocked to him and ignored the terrible food. Once every week, he transferred the most hardworking workers to the orchard on the other side of the vast compound. fruits grew in abundance there and master had a spoken rule. whichever fruit fell to the ground, which ever fruit didn't make the perfect cut, belonged to the workers who worked that day in the orchard. Master only sold the best and for this his fruits were of great value in the market. Sometimes workers had entire baskets to themselves. can you believe that? Entire baskets! All yours to share with your brothers and sisters who worked with you that day. Fruits were also given out to friends and family. With the slop, it wasn't a feast, but it was adequate.
It was the dream of every worker to have a day in the orchard.
And that was where I met her...

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