He held out the bread for her, but she didn’t take it. She wouldn’t even look at him. She kept her eyes on the floor. A’shai placed his hand on her arm causing her to tense up.

“I’m not going to do anything bad to you,” he said. “I’m Shai. What’s your name?”

Again she was unresponsive.

“Okay. Well I’ll leave this food for you just in case you get hungry,” he said. He stood and left her alone, hoping that she would eventually warm up to him.

Ezekiel made it clear that she was to tend to the duties of his house and to avoid the brutal punishments she saw other women and kids endure, she obliged. A week had passed, and Liberty still had not spoken a word. Untrusting of everyone and too afraid to open up, she did what was expected and nothing more.

A’shai watched her from the side of the house as she washed clothes in the wooden basin out back. He couldn’t figure her out and the more he tried to get her to interact, the more she withdrew. He felt badly about her family and knew that she was hurting, but his youthful ego took a blow each time that she snubbed him. A youngin’ with a schoolboy crush, he was determined to make her pay attention to him. As she washed diligently under the blazing sun, A’shai snuck up behind her. The clothes that hung on the makeshift clothesline hid his approach.

“Arghhhh!” he screamed obnoxiously, startling Liberty. Her first reaction was to flee but as she stepped backwards she tripped over a metal bucket, causing her to fall into the large washing basin and soaking her to the bone.

Enraged she screamed at the top of her lungs as she lunged for A’shai and pulled him into the water.

He fell face first into the basin and came up spitting out sudsy water. The two wrestled and grunted as they fought one another, pushing and shoving and cursing. They tipped over the basin causing clean clothes along with themselves to spill out into the dirt.