After the maid collected her dirty clothes from her Ellie had been alone for the rest of the night. Her sleep had been strangely peaceful, even if she was caught in a mansion so large that it threatened to swallow her whole.
Now she sat with these two perfect strangers at a kitchen table in a world that was foreign to her. Ellie had known luxury from time to time, but nothing quite like this. She wondered what the price for it all would be.
Mary said, “Your clothes will be clean in a couple of hours. You will stay for lunch, won’t you?”
Ellie hesitated. Her instinct told her that she had to keep moving. Be on her way. But where was she going next?
Arthur spoke up. “Ellie. You look very tense. Are you afraid of us?”
Ellie shook her head and said no. But as she said it, the girl knew her eyes betrayed her.
Arthur said, “You don’t need to be afraid. You are safe here.”
Safe. Ellie knew the theoretical meaning of the word. She had felt its deeper meaning on occasion, but that was a long time ago.
Mary asked, “How long have you been hitchhiking?”
“Couple of months,” Ellie replied.
The strong woman’s strict eyes went softer as she said, “Must have been very cold.”
Ellie nodded as she thought back to the winter nights when she had failed to procure the warmth of a car or a motel room. Christmas had been particularly rough because not too many people were out and about during the holidays.
Arthur asked, “Ellie, aren’t you tired of hitchhiking?”
The girl looked at the old man and saw none of the prejudice that sometimes came with privilege. He hadn’t asked his question to mock her, nor without understanding the reality of her impossible situation.
Without waiting for her answer Arthur said, “You must have come a long way. It must have been very difficult. But I will be honest with you, Ellie. Hitchhiking will kill you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But there will come a day when you meet the wrong man and your life will end. I do not want your life to end. Do you?”
Of course she didn’t. Everything she had done up to this point was driven by a survival instinct so powerful that it had been impossible to ignore. Death would have been easier on some occasions, but somehow she had fought through those moments all the same.
Arthur said, “I want to make a deal with you. Are you interested?”
“What deal?”
Arthur smiled. “You will stay here, with us, in the mansion. We will provide you with clothes, food, and shelter.”
This sounded too good to be true. If Ellie had learned one thing about life, it was that good things came at costs she was never able to afford.
She asked, “And in return?”
“In return… you will go to school here in Brettville. You will commit to building a life for yourself.”
Mary spoke up. “Now, listen here. Building a life for yourself isn’t an easy thing, and it gets much harder the longer you wait to do it. This isn’t a free ride. It will take effort on your part.”
Ellie didn’t know what to do, or even to say. Last night she had expected to have sex with the old man only to be discarded the next morning. She had grown accustomed to being a tool, an instrument of solace for lonely or frustrated men.
Now something was being offered to her from a place of kindness. Warmth. Ellie hated the fact that she couldn’t bring herself to trust any of it. Life had made her cynical at far too early an age.
If she wanted to run later, she always could, right? It wasn’t like she would be stuck here forever. If she didn’t like what was happening, she just had to wait until nobody was looking and be on her way.
So what did she have to lose?
(April 12, 2019)
Ellie came home from school only to find a bunch of expensive-looking cars parked in front of the mansion. None of the cars belonged to Arthur, so she knew there were visitors.
Before walking up the stone stairs leading to the front door Ellie turned to her left. Edging the mansion lay a large, fenced field where the horses roamed freely.
Ellie stopped at the fence and called out to the horses. The two animals looked up at her and quickly made their way over to the girl. They knew there was a good chance of treats in the shape of carrots or sugar cubes in their near future.
Soon two beautiful snouts competed with each other for the girl’s attention as she petted them.
Standing like this, connecting with the horses, made Ellie feel peaceful. It was a relationship that was free from judgment. The affection of these horses felt unconditional to her and in these precious moments Ellie could escape the judgment that was part of her daily life. Judgment that not only came from others but, most destructively, that which she passed on herself.
“I’m sorry, guys,” she whispered to the horses. “I’m all out of treats today.”
Ellie knelt and pulled some grass from the field. When she rose she held her hands up for the horses to see.
“Will some grass do, just for today?”
The horses chewed away at grass all day. They were very familiar with its bland flavor and certainly did not need the girl to feed it to them. But they took it from her anyway and, just because it came from her hands, it tasted much better than usual. Such was the relationship between human and horse, when handled respectfully.
Ellie stayed in the shared solitude with the horses until Mary’s voice called out from behind her.
“Ellie! We didn’t know you were back!”
Ellie turned around and watched as the middle-aged woman approached her. She wore her business clothes today, which told Ellie that the visitors to the mansion had to be important.
Mary reached the fence and together they petted the horses.
“Why didn’t you come inside?” the woman asked.
“Just chilling with the horses a little. Who are the people visiting today?”
Mary looked over to the cars as she said, “Big people today. Very powerful, most of them.”
“Why are they here? Is it business?” Ellie asked.
“It’s about the Southeastern Reintegration Project.”
Ellie had heard the term many times throughout her short stay at the mansion. It was as if Arthur and Mary’s entire existence revolved around it.
“That’s the job thing, right?” Ellie asked.
“It’s a little more than that,” Mary answered. “The Black Belt region is very vulnerable, economically speaking. Crime is a likely alternative for many people. The project creates jobs and housing for youths at risk, and even ex-cons.”
Ellie didn’t know what the Black Belt region was. She vowed to Google it the first chance she got.
The girl asked, “Youths at risk…. Kind of like me, huh?”
Mary nodded. “You’re not the first person Arthur has tried to help. You won’t be the last, either.”
Ellie had known Arthur for almost two months now and in that time she had come to see him as a warm and generous man. His words were always calm and collected, and never hostile.
“Why does he do it, Mary? Why does he spend so much money on that project?” she asked.
Ellie watched as the middle-aged woman hesitated. It wasn’t doubt born from weakness; Mary Holsworth didn’t know the meaning of that word. The doubt came from loyalty—the respect she had for her employer and his privacy.
Eventually Mary said, “Arthur’s family got rich from the slave trade. Slavery…. Ellie, it is a vile and bloody aspect of America’s short history. Arthur is just trying to do some good with the money he has inherited.”
Ellie said nothing. Her love for the old man that had picked her up from the highway that cold February evening grew larger each day. It grew from the kind words he always reserved especially for her and it grew now, in the company of Mary Holsworth.