A girl’s voice protested. A cackle followed.
Leah kept her head down and her eyes on the task before her. There was a quota to complete if she wanted anything in her stomach, and she could make her body dead to wandering fingers. She’d learned how. The hard way. The only way.
When the foreman finally moved on, she gritted her teeth and tried to not compare slime to slime.
Not that she would ever touch the stuff. And not only because it was forbidden.
Beside her, Mandy sniffled. “How can you stand it?”
“Perhaps she doesn’t mind him,” Becca hissed. “Seeing how she never cries.”
Leah clenched her teeth, locked her knees, and steadied her breath. She focused on the fading light glinting on the blade. “No, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
For the dVerse Prosery writing prompt
Prosery prompt quote: “No, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” (Zora Neale Hurston, from “How Does it Feel to be Colored Me” in World Tomorrow, 1928)
Photo: Hine Lewis Wickes, The Library Of Congress https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/nclc.00919/
Na'ama Yehuda 
very powerful. still to many people who take things from others they have no right to, dignity, self esteem and even the chance of an unabused life.
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Thank you. Yes, too many people still are in situations where exploitation is matter-of-course and there is no recourse. We have a lot to do, as a species, to remedy that.
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To true as poets we can share their plight with the rest if the world.
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Yes, we can!
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Wow, Na’ama, I got the goosebumps reading your story. The worst parts beyond the obvious are the impossible situation and the viciousness and lack of support from her sisters in exploitation. My heart goes out to her and I hope she finds a way out of her situation. Wonderful image you found to go along with your prosery.
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Thank you, Lisa. As many of us know, this is not an unusual reality, where coping is not always supported, or one form of coping is seen as ‘morally superior’ to others, or just the misery infiltrating any compassion one may have left for the others-in-suffering. Thank you for putting this great quote, for the prompt it allowed.
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You are welcome ❤
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🙂
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This was so good, Na’ama! This could be any factory/sweatshop– this, “she gritted her teeth and tried to not compare slime to slime.” We’ve all known someone like him, haven’t we?
Perfect image, too. The places change, but people don’t. 😏
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Thank you, Merrill! Yes, exactly. To all of it. Including how times may change, but circumstances and helplessness may not change for too many. Till all are safe, we are all of us not many steps away from exploitation, degradation, and minimization of ugliness as something one must just put up with. I don’t believe we should. I don’t believe we can.
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You’re welcome, and you know I agree.
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Yep, I know that. I do.
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….and I hope she sneaks up on him some night and uses it on him!!!
A sad tale of exploitation…but a girl who I think has the grit to overcome this and get justice done.
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Ah, Lillian, I think the thought had crossed her mind. Though, perhaps she also knows that without food in her belly, there’d be little vindication, and perhaps all she can do is dream of better days. Though, yeah, the fantasy may give her strength to endure. And … who knows. …
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Extremely chilling and very well written!
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Thank you, Lucy.
And to imagine how it would have been to endure this, day in, day out, with little respite or hope for change, by so many, for so long. And some to this day. We can do better.
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An epic piece of prose that created many flooding emotions in me ……. well done!!!
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Thank you, Helen! I am so gratified that this resonated.
I often think of those who came before us, and of those who still toil in conditions that most of us will find hard to imagine, let alone survive. We have made progress. There is still so much more to do.
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Excellently, chillingly done. Such suffering and exploitation, presented in a sensitive way which highlights the strength of the exploited.
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Thank you, Ingrid! Surviving such wretched conditions is a strength already, whether one cries, hisses, or grits their teeth and bears it. In the end, they are all trying to survive, and the sadness of it is that it should not be this harsh, and yet it was … and yet in too many places it still is. I’m glad this resonated, even if I wish it was complete fiction, and not a mirror to the realities of too many.
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“she gritted her teeth and tried to not compare slime to slime.” The apathy of her colleagues towards her, while trapped in the same plight as she, sears. So much silent anger, heartache, resolution told in so few words!
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Thank you! Yes, I was hoping to be able to convey the combined suffering in that room – they are each coping they way they know how, but the result amplifies the misery all around, too. The wretched realities of too many, past and present. Thank you for reading and commenting! Great comment!
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In so few words, you exposed the harsh realities faced by so many in the past and today. Your photo choice gave us a stark and haunting image.
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Thank you, Kathryn! It was such a miserable time for so many, and it is STILL such a miserable time for so many in too many places … that I’m gratified that my words were congruent with this (historically amazing and captivating!) photo.
Here’s to doing better, as a humanity. And thank you again for reading and commenting!
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Brilliantly done, my friend. How catty women can be – even those who suffer the same fate. I have faith that this young lady will make her way out one day.
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Yes, I agree with you that she’ll be one of those who’d survive and find a way out one day, whether it will be to the approval of others, or not. And … yes, people manage misery in different ways, don’t they? Some help each other, some turn on each other. Oy. xxoo
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She will. And to hell with all the ones who try to trip her up.
Misery is dealt with in so many ways for sure.
xoxoxo
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Yep, me agree! 🙂
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🙂
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🙂
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I feel numb on thinking this kind of misery exists in the world.
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Ah, Reena, indeed this is numbing kind of misery, and it is appropriate to feel devastated by the knowledge it even exists. Let alone that it STILL exists after we all of us ought to know better by now …
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This one resonates so deeply! A most powerful piece of writing, Na’ama 💝💝
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Thank you Sanaa! I am so gratified that it did! 🙂
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