Mistletoe Manor

It was dark and cold that night on the Mistletoe Plantation, but it wasn’t just any cold, it was the sopping wet cold like it usually is after a hard rain. Sybil Haven was the only person awake to feel the dreadful cold. All of the rest of the slaves in the small log cabin were sound asleep. Even her dog Roach wasn’t awake to keep her company. She had found the German Shephard in the woods tired and starving, so starving that she could count his ribs. She felt bad for the dog. He was certainly more starving than she was, so she gave him her small dinner of bread and butter. He seemed to be very thankful, and ever since then, they shared meals and Roach helped her with her back-breaking farm work.

Now Sybil knew that somewhere up north there was a place where every black skinned person was free. She was determined to find it. However, the mean folks living in the house next to the plantation would never let her leave their sight. She decided long ago that she would have to escape.

She was so into these thoughts that she didn’t notice someone standing outside her cabin window. By the time she looked up, the man was already inside the house! All she could think was Hide Sybil! Hide! Sybil slowly creeped into a small nitch behind the blazing fireplace. She squinted really hard, trying to decide if he was white or black. Out of no where, the man reached into a large backpack and pulled out a shiny gold horn. Once Sybil caught sight of this shiny horn she let out a huge sigh of relief. The man she thought was there to hurt her turned out to be Oscar, the person who wakes everybody up. She had never been awake to see him come in before. His sweaty face then took a huge breath and blew into the horn, making a loud, terrible blast of sound. Oscar was never able to play the horn right, but hearing the horn in the slight morning light was unusually comforting.

Everybody left the cabin and headed off to work on the plantation. Right before he left, Sybil grabbed Oscar’s shirt and told him to stay and listen to her.

“Oscar, I have a plan and I need your help.”

“A plan for what?” Oscar said with the same puzzled look.

“I’m going to escape this place, now here’s my plan.” As soon as Oscar heard this, he was determined to help. “First, tonight you wait by the gate to the plantation. Then when you give me the o.k. I will get out of bed and you will help me get over the fence. It’s simple but I think it will work.”

“What will you do after you get over the fence?” Oscar asked eagerly.

“I will run like the wind.”

“Alright, I will help on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“Come back for us Sybil, promise you’ll come back for us.”

“I will, I promise.”

That night, her plan was put into action. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, but Sybil couldn’t help having this feeling that something would go wrong. However, her heart, mind, and body felt like they couldn’t wait for the excitement to begin. Soon after she and Roach were heaved over the fence, she heard it. The fierce sound of a shot hurling through the air. She knew it was meant for her. After she realized this, she turned around and sprinted with Roach at her side, into the dark forest behind the plantation.

Sybil ran for hours, using only the sliver of light from the moon to guide her. She couldn’t think about being tired, there wasn’t time. She could hear the guard’s horses coming after her. Soon she realized that it was only her mind playing tricks on her. The men weren’t following her, they probably never were at all. Sybil slowed down and sat under a tree with Roach resting his head in her lap. She kept thinking I have to stay awake. I have to stay awake...but she slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

When she awoke, the sun’s bright rays stretched along the clear blue sky. It was morning. Sybil slowly got to her feet. She looked around for something that could tell her which way was north. She saw nothing but trees and moss. Moss of course! She thought. She knew that where ever moss grows, it points North. Roach followed her as she started walking the direction of which the moss pointed, and hoped that she was heading the right way.

The sky was getting a lot brighter. Sybil knew that it was about noon. She also knew that noon was usually when the slaves got to eat lunch. Her stomach started to growl at her. She tried to ignore it, but it kept nagging her with long uncomfortable bles. Sybil kept suffering like this for sometime. That’s when she heard the sound of water. Actually, it sounded more like: Squeak! Drip, drip, drip. Squeak! Drip, drip, drip. Sybil still thought it sounded good though, her throat was drier than the driest desert. She followed the sound until it got so loud that she could almost taste it. She followed it into a bright area with no trees. In the small area, there was a small log cabin and a pump filled with water. To her surprise, there was a young slave about her age pumping the water.

Sybil was very shocked. She thought that she should back away into the forest, but he had spotted her. He stared at her in the same shocked way. A small smile formed on the young man’s face. He motioned for her to come to him.

“Who are you?” he said kindly.

“My name is Sybil Haven, and I just escaped the plantation where I worked.”

“I’m Justin. I also escaped my plantation. I want to tell you that you don’t have to be afraid.” he said knowingly. “This cabin is a house on the Underground Railroad.” Sybil gave Justin the most puzzled face that he had ever seen. “The Underground Railroad is a chain of houses that take care of slaves on their journey to freedom.” Sybil felt the biggest sigh of relief that she had ever had. She was finally safe.

Sybil and Roach spent the night at the small log cabin and left early in the morning to continue their journey. After only 5 minutes of walking she heard someone running behind her. She quickly turned around, and there was Justin running after her.

“Can I have the pleasure of joining you on your journey?” Justin asked.

Sybil smiled. “Absolutely.” It felt good to not be alone any more.

Sybil, Justin, and Roach continued to travel north, stopping at many Underground Railroad houses. Finally, one house said that freedom was only a few more miles through the forest. Justin and Sybil were so excited. They were almost there! They were almost to the place that they had dreamed of! The next day, they caught sight of the first North town. They were free!

Quite a few years had past, Sybil was now 22 years old. Over this time, she hadn’t given the slaves at Mistletoe plantation a second thought. One day, her fiancé, Justin, talked about his old plantation which reminded her about her own. She had completely forgot her promise to return for her people. As soon as she thought about this, she got on her new horse and rode as fast as she could South until she reached the familiar Underground Railroad house where she and Justin had met. She knew she was close to the plantation.

When she finally arrived at the fence that surrounded the plantation, she saw that the entire place was burned to the ground. The slaves’ cabin, the fields, the grand house, were all gone. Ashes were all that were left. She began to cry. If she hadn’t waited so long, she probably could have saved her fellow slaves.

When she arrived back at the town, she decided that she would have to help the cause of the slaves heading North. She and Justin agreed that they would build a house in an area that could help slaves. A year later, Sybil placed a sign in front of the house. It read: For all of the slaves at Mistletoe Manor that never saw the light of freedom.