The Picture thing wouldn't work for me, but if you search "Bill Sullivan's Photography Project" on Google or whatever, click on the first website that comes up on Google, scroll down until you see a big square full of pictures that says "NYC Metro" at the top, and go to the 3rd row(25-36) and the girl I wrote this story on is the 1st one. Alexandra was a slave. She was born in Swaziland, Africa. Her father died of HIV/AIDS and her mother had Malaria, so was unable to see in her left eye. Alexandra was the oldest of five children. Life in Swaziland was difficult. Food was hard to come by and the Lord's Resistance Army were in recruiting mode. They'd been kidnapping and killing more than ever. When her mother died a few months after her fifth child was born, Alexandra was left to care for her four younger and newest little sister. It was a common thing, for parents to die ten years or less after their first child. HIV/AIDS was getting worse and for a young girl to get food, they had to sell their bodies and virginity. They didn't do it for them though, they sacrificed themselves for their family to eat and survive. Life there was an extreme bummer. A few years after Alexandra was in their mud hut putting uncooked rice into a coconut shell for her young siblings. They were at the neighbor's house playing until it got dark. The next door neighbors were an extremely auspicious family. They had two toys and both parents were alive and had seven children, the oldest of them a college student. Anyway, since Alexandra had no money, and there was no electricity in the hut, she thought she'd let her only family left have a little fun. "Alexandra? Can you come out here please?" Alexandra thought it was a little early for the neighbors to be annoyed enough with her siblings to want them home already, but she obeyed and responded to the call. She put the dry rice on the spot on the floor where the "family" ate and went outside. She saw no one outside her hut, or the neighbor's, or anyone's. "Hello? Where is everybody?" Alexandra looked around, but the land around her was deserted. "Mrs. Ortega-" Alexandra saw stars and everything was black.
Alexandra woke up in a dark, cold, wet room. She was should to shoulder against another girl. The small building was jam-packed with people. There was a group of men at the from of the building, all tall, strong, scary looking men. They were branding numbers onto each person. 'That's what this is,' Alexandra thought. What she thought was just a group of people turned out to be a line. There was a truck outside, and another, and another. They were being filled with people and then drove off, vanishing into the darkness. Alexandra looke around, looking for anyway to escape this horror. All the doors were gaurded; she saw no way out. Alexandra knew where she was, and started to cry. She would never see her little brothers or sisters every again. She would be forced to work for nothing and treated like trash, like somebody'd property. She had been kidnapped into the Slave Trade.
"Next," the leader called in his gruff voice that made Alexandra want to cover her ears. She was rooted to the spot. unable to move. She knew there would be a punishment, there always was one, but she couldn't will herself to move. "Next!" the man yelled this time. The whole place got silent. I still couldn't move; she was frozen wth fear. "What do we have here?" the man asked no one in particular. "I suggest you move forward little lady, unless, you' rather end up like them." He pointed to a dusty corner, barely light enough to see the pile of people who refused to listen. Alexandra screamed with rage and fear for herself and her people. She couldn't stand they were being treated this way. The men attacked her before she knew what was happening. They grabbed her, hit her, pushed her down, scratched her. Anything they could've possibly done they did. They didn't kill her though. "Get her out of here! Have fun, little lady." He smirked and watched her with eveil eyes as she was "escorted" out of the eerie building. She was thrown in a truck, landing upon her head. She looked up to see curious little eyes watching her. They were kids of four and five, afraid to speak for fear they might say the wrong thing and be hit. She was seventeen, and to see they were selling four and five year olds as property, any age for that matter, were being sold as land, as property. Humans of any race weren't meant to be owned. That's not how God made humans to be. The truck started to bump as they started their long journey to Cape Cod, to take a ship to the United States, if they could survive that. Alexandra put her head down, too sad, and tired, and hurt to move. She didn't awake until they arrived on the shore of New York.
"We didn't think you'd made it," a man she didn't recognize said as he lifted her up(not gently) and pushed her forward. She was thrust into the light and to the stares of many. "Here we have a seventeen year old Swazy girl. She can cook, mop floors, take care of children, and do anything you want her to do. She's a little bit fiesty though, so be careful! Bidding starts at $5,ooo." The announcer looked at the crowd. "$5,000!" A young woman yelled. "$7,500!" A man called. the crowd was silent. "$7,500 going once... going twice..." "$10,000!" A man in a yellow suit called from the front row. "Congratulations, sir! you've just got yourself a slave!" The announcer practiaclly threw her off the stage, and she was immediatley backhanded at being "so rude". "Let's go," her owner said, shoving her through the sea of people. She was pushed so forcefully she had to run to keep her balance. Her owner took her to his car, hit her for no reason, and threw her into the back seat. The car rumbled to a start, and she off to her new home.
When the car finally stopped, she was at a huge white mansion. She could hardly get up, her head was buzzing and heavy and her muscles ached. "Get up you good-for-nothing negro!" Alexandra heard her master cry. She was pulled of the seat and the punched in the gut, knocking her down to her knees, for getting blood on the nice leather seats. She was lead to her room which was a tiny closet at the bottom of the stairs. She couldn't even lie down becaue there wasn't enough room. "You'll start in the morning," the man said, tripping her into the closet and locking the door. Alexandra was scared, and helpess, and hopeless. She cried herself to sleep in her new home.
The next morning she was awakened to freezing water being poured on the only clothes she had, which were dirty and full of holes by now. "Get up scum!" a new voice called; a female. Bright light suddenly filled the room. She was thrust to her feet and forced to move and open her eyes. She opened her eyes just in time to see a hand flying at her face. She closed them again, and put up a hand to block the impact. Just in time. "How dare you! How dare you treat me with such an attitude!" The man's wife screamed. "You'll be punished for that!" Alexandra was lead out to the garden where five more slaves, aging fromfive- sixty were working. The woman left her by the gate to the garden and stomped in, whispering to the oldest man there. His eyes went wide, then he moved and picked two peppers. The woman took them, walked toward Alexandra and stopped with the two tiny peppers in her hand. She plugged Alexandra's nose until she had to open her mouth to breathe, and the peppers were stuffed into her mouth. She was forced to chew and swallow. The peppers burned her tongue and throat and made tears come to her eyes. This was not the worst of her punishments.
The time passed by. Alexandra lost track of it and couldn't remember if she's been there a day, a month, a year? All she knew was she had to get out of there, see her family again. She did get paid, though very little, and she saved up what she had, not spending any of it. Her stomach ached with the pain of hunger, but not even that could break her determination. She was very sneaky, but she finally did it. One night, she was out working late and the gaurds were switching posts. She took the chance she was given, and ran. She ran ask fast, but as quietly as she possibly could. No one seemed to be chasing her, no one seemed to care. She was free! She had passed the gate and refused to look back. no one could catch her now anyway. She had done it! Escaped imprisonment. She turned in her masters and was given money and clothing. She was going to get another chance at life.
She got her ticket to the Subway to the airport, and was the happiest person on Earth when she went through that turnstyle. It was the end, and the beginning. Her life had really only just begun.
