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Berry Picking

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Denise at GirlieOnTheEdge has once again
challenged us to write a Six Sentence Story
using the prompt word “nail”. This is my story.

When I first saw him I thought I was hallucinating (was this a real person or a fear-induced illusion?) and I knew I had to remain perfectly still and quiet – my very life depended on it.

I had no idea how long I’d been there – certainly long enough for my skin to have turned red, my mouth parched, my lips cracked and I remember being stung and bitten by insects and digging my nails into the palms of my hands to keep from crying out, but I recall now … we were picking flowers and berries in a sun-filled field … we had been following a stream and unknowingly wandered far from home when I caught sight of a bush hidden deep in a shady area; the plant was heavy with ripe blackberries and I couldn’t resist running to the bush, happily filling my bucket with the deep purple fruit.

I was busy plucking berries when I heard screams – not the usual giddy, playful squeals of young girls but awful shrieks of terror and I started to run back only to see my three sisters encircled by a group of Indians, hulking and menacing men, blocking the girl’s attempts to flee; they wore breechcloths across their midsection, moccasins and no shirts, their faces painted and their heads shaved except for a center strip of upright long hair and I knew immediately they were the dreaded Mohawk.

They tugged the girl’s long blonde hair, poked them with sticks and tore at their starched white dresses.

I wanted to shout out but was too afraid and I hid while my sweet little sisters were raped and raped and raped.

At 15, I was the eldest and I was supposed to protect them; how could I be such a coward?

NAR©2024

Sunday’s Six Sentence Story Word Prompt!

This is Albinoni’s ‘Adagio In G Minor”

34 thoughts on “Berry Picking”

  8. Rape is a horrible thing and would be a terrible thing for this girl to witness and for all of them to live with. It is indeed awful how people treat one another.

    My reading on Indigenous people of the northeast, Mohawks included, has shown that rape was rare and that taking captives then adopting them was common. The captives might be redeemed or exchanged, though sometimes captives preferred to stay among their captors. Experiences varied of course and there were atrocities on both sides as the settlers encroached further and further, exploiting Native resources and alliances. While the Mohawk sided with the British during the Revolution, it is interesting to note that the framers of the constitution borrowed concepts and symbols from the Iroquois Confederacy.

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  15. A horrible thing to witness, for sure.

    This is one of my favourite adagios! (I’m actually waiting for it to finish before I click on “comment”!) I had this on a vinyl record that I bought at Phantasmagoria, in Montreal, for a whole $2.99 😉 )

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