Marbles

Shyima Hall was an eight year old girl who was later sold into slavery. She was mistreated, abused, and her justice was not given till she later grew. Shyima had been staying with her captors "The Mom" and "The Dad". She wasn't able to play while she stayed with them, but she remembered one game she considered herself good at, was "Marbles". "To play we drew a circle in the dirt or outlined a circle on the street with chalk. Then each of the players put some marbels inside the circle. When it was my turn, I'd take a slightly larger marble and try to knock some of the others out of the circle. Any marbles that I knocked out, I got to keep. I had a lot of marbles!" said Shyima. So even when Shyima was suffering through the thoughts she was, this memory meant so much to her because she remembers that being one good part of what she was able to live. That "memory moment" was something she came to remember while seeing the kids that she took care of play, also proved how different they were.

" Why, why, why"

                                       

Shyima Hall, also known as Shyima El-Sayed Hassan from the book "Hidden Girl" by herself with Lisa Wysocky,  was an eight year old girl from Alexandria, Egypt. Shyima was given into slavery for a debt her sister Zahra had caused, but although Zahra caused it, Shyima was the one to pay. A day came around where Zahra had caused far too much trouble for " The Mom & The Dad ", the owners of the household. Shyima & her mother had made the decision to swing by, around the wrong time. " The Mom " & Shyima's mom had come to an agreement " that the fair thing for everyone was for another girl to work in Zahra's place." , " the pit of my stomach lurched when I realized the girl they were talking about was me", Shyima said to herself. " Why did my mother not say no?" " why did she not fight for me?" , Shyima told herself over, and over again. Later on as she began working in the house hold day & night she'd continue asking herself, "why me". She was only eight years old and she had been given to pay off a family grief her sister had caused, " I was expected to become their domestic slave". Shyima just wasn't able to find the answer, at least for now. It was a hard question, with even an harder answer.