I watched the lightning bugs dance in the Georgia night to the singing of the cicadas. Little Esther was running around with a mason jar trying to collect the insects. Her burlap dress was drenched with sweat.

"Come on in, child," I said to her. "Mama's got supper ready."

Esther's dark kinky hair bobbed as she galloped up to the porch. She waved the jar in front of my face. The glowing orbs inside bounced against the glass as she shook them. "Look how many I got, papa!"

I reached for the jar and held it in my large calloused hand. "They're real purty, child, real purty. Now go wash up fore your mama catch you with them dirty paws."

Glancing out toward the cotton fields, I could see a pair of lights gliding down the sandy road.

"Wagon's comin'," I said to myself as I stretched out my sore arms and grabbed the lantern hanging on the porch. Mosquitos swarmed around the glow of the flame as I walked to greet the visitors. Shadows flickered across the ground and looked like demons tugging at my feet.

"Isaiah, master wants you up at the big house," said Joseph, the house servant, as he looked down at me and tightened his grip on the reigns. He didn't look me in the eyes, but just stared at my feet.

"What about, Jospeh? We was just about to have supper," I said trying to lock the man's eyes. Only the singing of the cicadas and the panting of horses was audible for what seemed like an enternity.

"You's getting sold, Isaiah," said Joseph turning his eyes to the back of the wagon. "Now get in. Don't make a fuss."

I felt the handle of the lantern cut into my fingers as my hands turned white. I briefly considered smashing the glass against Joseph's head and fleeing with my family in the wagon, but quickly banished the thought when I remembered what would happen if we were caught. "How could he do it?"

"Master owed the man a debt. He needed the money."

"How much did he need?" I asked as thought of the coins I had hid under the pine floorboards.

"About tree fiddy," Joseph said. It was around this time where I realized that Joseph was around 7 stories tall and a crustacean from the Paleozoic era. Damn it, Nessie! That God Damn Loch Ness Monster had tricked me again.

I stood there screaming at him as he swam off into the distance.

I ended up getting sold anyway a week later to a man in Mississippi, but nothing ever compared to the pain of that first betrayal.