Auction

Entry #2

First year ~ The split

Arriving at the Auction houses made me nervous, would I be able to make it through, would I be a good wife at the end? I know my mother and sisters before me taught me many things. They spoke of how to clean, to tend to the children and other house duties I would be expected to accomplish. Though it made me blush profusely Mother also told me how I would be expected to also know how to satisfy my future husband, and how always submit to him or it would likely mean my death. Even a caring man such as my father would likely not put up with such foolishness.

The 'First Years,' that is what us ten-year old's that arrived at the auction house today were called. We were all lead into what looked like the main Auction house. The intake building is what we later called it; it was where all of us 'First Years' would be divided up into categories.

First it would be by skin color this would determine what floor we would be on in the bunk houses. The paper bag test was used, I heard one of the older women telling one of the others that were also doing the intake assessments, that it was a similar method that was often used to properly separate people in ancient times. They use a few items in a similar fashion today. There were six skin categories, pale, tanned, light olive, dark olive, light brown, deep brown and black.

I remember as I waited my turn to find out what floor I would be on, I looked around. There was these amazing, faded images to the ceiling, they must have been full of color and life at one time. My distraction though almost cost me. Almost not hearing my being told I was next; she was rude and quick with her instruction, I not being able to say anything just quickly went up to her. Grabbing my arm with such force and putting it across a table that had six color swatches on it. She then took a marking tool and wrote a number on a paper. Shoving my arm away and towards the line to go to the next assessment she shouted at me saying how I was on floor two.

As I walked to the next assessment station, some girls I could see were crying. Looking closer, you could see that their hair was being pulled on with a small section being cut off. This section was then taken and placed along another array of colors much like the skin check. Only this time there were four assorted colors: blonde, light brown, deep brown, and black. I had once heard of red hair, but it had been over 50 years since someone of that hair color had been through the assessments. The line moved along, soon my turn, leaning over so she hopefully would not pull my hair harshly, she cut the piece of hair. Placing it along the colors, telling me "Dark Brown, you will go to block C of your floor." She always seemed nice to me when speaking to me as I went through the auction houses.

Keeping my focus on the line in front of me I continued to the last step in our sorting before we go to our rooms. Glancing up ahead, I would see that there were a couple of women at the station, each holding up two different cards next to the girl's head, they were checking the eyes, occasionally they did not hold up the cards, I had guessed that they were easily placed so did not need to confirm with the cards. There were four separate categories for each of the eye colors; blue, green, hazel, and brown. My turn came quickly, it felt quickly at least. Blue eyes, when one of the women stated that as the other wrote it down, the one writing stood up and looked at me muttering to the first woman "Another lucky one." I was placed in room number one in my block. Two C One would be my room. I have a room!

There were about one hundred and fifty of us assessed that day, and believe me it took all day, thankfully they fed us supper that evening after everything was done. There were ninety-six rooms, only about fifty of those had girls placed into it. This dividing us made it easier for the men that would later come to choose their wife or wives. Men all have different wants for appearance in their wives, and we do best if we facilitate the wants of the men and help make their challenging work easier.

When I had arrived at my room after the meal, I came to learn that there were three other girls in my room, we looked more like sisters than my birth year sisters did. In the room there were five beds, four of which were bunk beds. We each could have our own bed; I have never had that. In the later days we would learn that some of the bigger groups had way more than us, though most were only by a couple. All the rooms had six or less girls in each, though there was one room which was the biggest for our intake had twenty girls, all the rooms only held five beds. I felt sorry for those in the crowded rooms.

After the first day there was a sign at the bottom of the stairs, it said the floor numbers and the number of girls on each floor, and in each room. So many empty rooms.

I am in Two C One, my new home.

~Till our next meeting.

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