Letters from Captivity (1)

The Diary of Ginny Blackwell

The story I’m sharing is a transition story written in the form of diary entries penned late at night, after everyone’s gone to bed by the light of a small table lamp because the writer doesn’t want anyone to see she’s still awake. After she finishes these pages, she burns them so no one ever knows what’s in her heart. I’ll release these one at a time. This is the first:

Day 1 of Captivity

I write to purge the darkness, the questions that plague my life. I burn my writing so that there is no record that can be held against me. This is the first day of however many. I would count it as a good day, although not perfect. I keep reminding myself I chose this. The pay-off will be worth it.

Jerry thinks he has the upper hand, and I let him. This morning, he asked me to make him breakfast. I tried, but the eggs had crispy brown edges, and the toast was burnt. When I served him food, I looked up at him, hopeful. He raised his voice, his face flushed. He told me how lucky I was to stay here and how ungrateful.

I bit my tongue and bowed my head. I waited for his tirade to finish, then cleaned up and asked Mr. Bartholomew for help. The old man promised he’d help me learn, which pleased Jerry.

The rest of my day was pretty normal, a gift, really. Henry and I camped out in his room, playing Fortnite. We didn’t even come out for lunch. Mr. Bartholomew made us sandwiches and let us eat them in Henry’s room. The rest of the day, we took savage joy in shooting our enemies on TV. Henry is much better than me at the game. I wait too long to shoot, scared to shoot one of my allies. He has no such compunction. He even shot me a few times.

After games, we had dinner. Mr. Bartholomew made us steak and mashed potatoes. I never had steak before. I only ate a little bit, not used to so much food. I enjoyed the full feeling I got when I ate the food, the saltiness of the steak and the way the potatoes melted in my mouth. My favorite part was dessert – chocolate cake. If I could laugh with Henry and eat chocolate cake every day I could survive anything.

I am lucky. Life is not so bad. Despite the darkness, there is laughter and joy to carry me through.