Prisoner of War

By Corrine Hofmann

Jonathan was up, nightmare after nightmare. He had barely enough energy to pick himself out

of bed till he heard screaming. Jonathan thought it was another nightmare, but when he heard

his mother screaming he knew it wasn’t a dream. He saw them before he heard them. The blue

coats and Prussian style front plate stood out among the tattered rags the town’s people had

been wearing since 1779. Hessians. The word filled the space with dread. The screaming had

not stopped all day long, so when he heard his family scream he was surprised because his

family was tough. When he heard a deep, tough voice he know they we’re not alone. The deep,

thick German accent filled the air. “Halt ihn fest”. Jonathan heard all this while he was in the

stables and was feeding the pigs. When he heard a shout of pain, Jonathan ran out to see who

was hurting his family. Jonathan turned and saw Hessians bounding rope around their wrists

and feet. Jonathan’s mother saw this and shooed him away. When the Hessians saw this they

said, “Was”, but Jonathan mother did not speak German, so she did not know what they were

saying. The elder Hessian slapped Jonathan’s mother, because the Hessians thought she could

speak German and she was not telling them something. Just then, Jonathan saw his father look

at him with sorrow, as if he was saying run, leave us behind. Then the Hessians saw Jonathan’s

father’s gaze and followed it. The Hessians had found Jonathan once again.

Jonathan took off running into the forest where the Hessians would never find him. Jonathan

passed his dead friend’s house that was in ruins. In the forest, Jonathan heard voices that said

there was a recruiter at the well taking anybody he could, to fight the British. That meant

Jonathan could fight too, even though he was fourteen. When Jonathan heard this, he wanted

to shout for joy. He could fight for his family instead of feeling guilty about what happened.

When Jonathan got there, there was a short, stout, bald man standing there looking bored, as if

any job would be better. Jonathan approached the man. “Greetings, are you the recruiter?” The

short man said, “Sadly yes, would you like to fight?” With a look of determination on his face

Jonathan said, “Yes.” While walking back he saw a slave coming at him. Jonathan was friendly,

because he thought it was wrong when people bought and sold slaves like they were nothing

more than a piece of furniture. As the slave bumped into Jonathan, he bowed his head and said

“I am so sorry.” Jonathan responded, “No, it was my fault, may I help you up.” The slave said

“why thank you, but I can get up.” The slave said his name was Samuel and his master forced

him to go and fight for him in the war. Jonathan said “well that’s quite wrong; he should not tell

you what to do like you are not human”. Samuel looked quite nervous at what Jonathan was

saying, like a goldfish out of water. “Well if I do disobey my master than he lashes me with his

whip” Samuel said as he looked to the ground out of self-pity. Jonathan was horrified he had

never heard of such thing. His parents always protected him from these things. Jonathan said

“would you like to be friends. “Samuel looked away with sorrow. “I am very sorry, I am very

sure I would enjoy your friendship but my master would never want me to be friends with a

white person, let alone a friend” as he said this with sadness in his voice. Jonathan saw this and

probably should have stop trying, but instead said “we would be friends secretly.” Samuel

accepted.

Two months later..

While Jonathan and Samuel were in war a bullet rushed through the air and was going right

at Samuel till Jonathan blocked Samuel and tore right through Jonathan’s leg. Jonathan let out a

shriek of pain but was still shooting. When he ran out of bullets he was captured by the British.

As Jonathan lay on the ground of the ship he was brought, he had little hope. His family was on

another ship and died from lack of food, medical supplies and poor treatment. Jonathan was

devastated. That was the only family he had. He did not have any relativities. As Jonathan lay

on the floor of the ship he waited for food and proper medical care. It never came. Everyday

someone would come in and checked to make sure he was still there. Everyday Jonathan

pleaded to the capturers. They would not listen. One day, one of the capturers had enough of

Jonathan pleadings, so the capturer beat Jonathan and Jonathan cried while he was doing this.

He finally spoke “why are you doing this to me” Jonathan said. The capturer said “because you

sided with the patriots.” Jonathan said “I wouldn’t have sided with the British if someone was

holding me at gunpoint.” The capturer told the general this. They were going to kill Jonathan.

Everyday Jonathan’s leg was turning a different shade of green. Without proper cleaning

Jonathan’s leg had attracted maggots. One day there was screaming. Jonathan was used to this

by now, but it sounded different. It was an old man screaming. It was the main capturer. The

crew had learned there was a spy in mist and had learned everything and was going to save

Jonathan. The spy was familiar person. It was Samuel coming back for Jonathan. Jonathan was

shocked. Yes they were friends, but this was extreme. Jonathan ran to Samuel as much as he

could. Samuel picked Jonathan up over his shoulder like he weighed nothing more than a bag of

flour and ran. Samuel took Jonathan to all the doctors he knew, but not one could do a simple

thing. So Jonathan and Samuel went back to Jonathan’s abandoned home. Jonathan crawled

under his covers and died, as Samuel watched through tears. Samuel had heard a creak that

sounded like a door being opened. Before he could hide the door the opened. They had found

him. And everything went black.

Glossary

Halt ihn fest is German for hold him tight

Was is German for what