

The City of Frihet
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The City of Frihet
I wake up with a spider on my pillow. I get up as fast as I can. I shake my big brother awake, carefully not to wake up my parents and the other siblings. In our shack, a needle falling on the floor wakes the entire house, and once everyone is up, the beatings start…
My brother wakes up and looks at me with his sympathetic, calm blue eyes that soothe me. I gesture about the spider, and he immediately looks at it. He squishes it with his hand, lifting a pile of dust out of the burlap pillows made of grain bags.
My eldest sister and my father awake to the almost inaudible noise. My father looks at me, and I can’t go back down to pretend to sleep in time. I feel his rough hand holding mine, and a belt aches on my back.
I’m mute. I can’t speak, scream, talk or make any noise. So I can’t


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