Promise: The Scarred Girl by Maya Shepherd Page A

surprised because he reminds her of Zippi. She watches him for a bit. Perspiration stands on his forehead and his arms are covered with mud up to his elbows. This child looks like he would rather have fun than work with his dirty hands, he looks very unhappy. Stealthily he looks around and then stuffs one of the strawberries in his mouth. Nea smiles and thinks that the boy could actually eat the whole bucket. But the others do not seem to see it that way, because at that moment, one of the overseers comes running toward him screaming.
    “You dare to steal from Ereb?” the overseer thunders with his powerful voice. The boy quickly shakes his head, whereupon the overseer swings back with his big hand and smacks the boy in the side of his head. The little boy flies to the side. The sight of this tears Nea’s heart and before she can think, she’s already screaming. “Leave him alone!” The overseer turns around to her. The eyes of everyone are on her.
    “He’s just a child!” She now defends herself, somewhat sheepishly.
    “But he must not steal from Ereb. This is something children must learn early on, otherwise they will never learn it.”
    “If you hurt him, he can no longer work for Ereb,” she replies rebelliously. The overseer gives her one last dirty look before he turns back to the boy. “Do not do that again!” He hisses before he goes back to his post.
    Slowly everything resumes its usual course. Nea looks at Hope and Faith and they give her a timid smile. Although Nea is not a member of Carris, they seem to be good people and are happy she stood up for the little one. Nea remembers that they said that the slaves would not be beaten. Maybe they are shocked by the brutality of the overseer. Although the two have been members of Carris for so long, there is probably a lot of which they know nothing and might not even want to know. A tiny spark of hope germinates in Nea that maybe she could persuade these two to leave Carris behind, because they are neither mad or bad people, nor are they stupid.
    When she set off on her journey, she wanted to have no one around her, to handle everything alone. And now less than a week after the first betrayal, she already craves to be part of a permanent society. Whether Nea likes it or not, she must understand that she is not as strong as she thought. Miro always said she was a contradiction in terms. Of course she has loudly denied this every time, but still his words echo through her head over and over again. She would give anything to hear him say it again, and this time she would even agree with him, which he would probably find disappointing.

Seven
    T he strawberries are sweet as sugar.  The twins begged a half bucket of them from the guards. Thus, the three girls now sit under a tree in a meadow with fragrant white flowers, eating their strawberries.
    Actually, they should be upset now that they know the strawberries were sown and harvested by slave labor. They were even using children as slave labor. While they have not talked about it, they have also hardly spoken. Even so, it would not be a lie to say the strawberries were delicious.
    Nea knows that is one of the many topics she should discuss with Faith and Hope, make them rethink their lives with Carris. She wants them to decide whether or not they should remain in Carris.
    “Did you know that they punish offenses with blows?” Nea asks Hope as she puts the last blood red strawberry in her mouth.
    “Well, if one does not adhere to the rules, there must be punishment...” she replies while chewing.
    “But he was just a child!”
    “Certainly that type of punishment is not used everywhere. That overseer was just very brutal, that was certainly an exception,” Faith comes to her aid.
    Again, the two talk about how that was an exception and Nea is powerless to change their opinion. But Nea also knows these two have seen too little of real life, and so they react naively.
    They rest during their short break