♥♥ my very first entry for this damn blog ♥♥

The crowd marched on in grim silence. The gigantic gate was newly installed just for us. At a glance, you would think that we were nothing. Small eyed people, smart, like math. You would have no idea that we were parading to our own graves. I gripped the cloth handle of my bag. We were told we were being brought to this camp on an extremely short notice, I brought a couple shoes, a book of blank paper, a compact of charcoal and pencils, and a small bag filled with money I earned over the summer. The summer seemed so free. Just melting ice cream and wind brushing through your hair. Now our summer was gone.

My mother was not the cookie cutter model that Hollywood had brought out for our race; the nerd, the store owner, the bullied. Our family told stories of her accomplishments like secrets rushing around a schoolyard. She looked straight on with tired eyes, wrinkles bloomed from her eyes like a bouquet of smiles and her hair fell down her shoulders like a waterfall. Her skin was a blanket of fresh snow. I didn't hear her laugh that much these days anymore, the sudden news of our imprisonment had turned all of us for the worse.

Following shortly behind me was my sister, Lelani. My mother thought that the name would be nice like a flower. Lelani's smooth hair was like my mother's and she had the eyes of an owl. I could tell she was tired of walking and just wanted to go home. That was one thing that I could not bring our family. For this was our new home, this dismal place made of fresh concrete and slanted walls built in a mere month. I wasn't a stranger to such racism.

They lined us up by age and gender, they measured our bodies and tested us for sickness of other imperfections. This woman shined a light into my eye and smiled, meet me in the infirmary for some fun later she said. I wasn't very interested, she was probably just bored and wanted to play with fresh blood, and I also didn't play that team. This whole process was torture. I kept trying to remind myself of the temporary nature of this situation, but in reality; we weren't going anywhere.

A few hours later, I finally met up with my sister and my mother. They assigned us a small cabin near the water supply in a nice patch of dying sunlight. Lelani sat quietly on the very uncomfortable bed with her package of candy that she had brought from home. It was to be expected though, children are so attached to their play things no matter how strange the object was.

My mother sat on the uneven counter and sighed, throwing her hair behind her shoulders and rubbing her eyes. I didn't know what would become of us, this new home of ours. This wasn't exactly the best home for any human being, I felt like this camp was a menagerie. I was the first to speak.

"This isn't so bad, is it?" I tried to lighten the mood. Lelani was about 5 and she could understand how to tell someone that she didn't want them talking. "This is horrible." My mother started. "Why are we being treated like this?" I put my hand on her shoulder and sighed. "I think it's just for a little while. They just kinda don't trust us because of our race." I didn't know what I was saying from that moment on.