Free The Ghost Apple by Aaron Thier

laborers who would be considered mercenaries in any Christian country, undertook the responsibility, and Platt was whipped from morning until noon, when the men charged with executing this punishment, taking it in turns so that two might rest while one plied the whip, were exhausted by the heat. They cut Platt down and left him to bleed in the dust, and I saw him there, as the blood, which was the same bright red as the blood of any white man, turned the dust of the barn to mud. His back was lacerated so deeply that the flesh could have been turned back to expose the living entrails beneath. Platt was washed in brine, which was thought to prevent the lacerations from festering, but he survived only until about three o’clock in the afternoon, when he died of his wounds. If there is any justice in this world, he waits in heaven for Milly and his son.
    All of this was common practice among the slaveholders in that part of the country. Platt was the only slave I ever saw challenge the Colonel’s right to commit outrages so vile that they offend against every sacred principle of Christian society, and he paid for it with his life.
    This, then, dear Reader, is the price of your cotton shirt, and of your wife’s Sunday dress.

Minutes / October 2009 Faculty Meeting
    The president called the meeting to order and wished everyone a happy Halloween. Before we got started, we should all help ourselves to a Big Anna® brand Banana Bran Muffin®. As we already knew, Tripoli had concluded its partnership agreement with Big Anna® Brands, a corporation that had been “revolutionizing food products and services” for over a hundred years, and together we hoped to do great things. The president wanted to thank William Beckford, professor and acting chancellor of the English Department, for his role in facilitating our discussions with Big Anna®.
    John Kabaka, visiting professor of history and self-styled “enemy of globalization,” looked as impassive as a chess piece, but the secretary had not forgotten his passionate rebuke at the first faculty meeting, and he was interested to see what fresh mischief the professor had up his sleeve.
    Most of the faculty, at least 80 percent, had retrieved a packaged muffin from the table by the door, and for a moment the crinkling and tearing of wrappers was the only sound. Then the president once again expressed her enthusiasm about this new partnership and observed, with the expressionless equanimity of one fulfilling a contractual obligation, that Big Anna® brand baked food products retained their glisten and freshness for months and months, even when they were removed from the package.
    It pains the secretary to admit that he failed to take any notes during the first part of the meeting. All that remains to him are impressionistic memories: a monstrous image of Professor Beckford, who seemed, like an iguana, to blink without closing his eyes; Malinka West in a low-cut green blouse; Dean Benmarcus congratulating Hugo Ortega, who had just been named the first Big Anna® brand Professor of Arts of Sciences™; Matilda Yu choking on her Banana Bran Muffin; Malinka West again; Malinka West with her bright white teeth.
    Indeed, the secretary had a dark moment as he sat gazing at Malinka West, unattainably beautiful as she was, and reflecting on the tawdry circumstances of his own life. For context, he had been fleeced by a car salesman just that morning.
    But there was no time to worry about this. It was time to discuss the Pinkman Scandal.
    Most of us were familiar with the details of the case, but the president gave a brief summary for anyone who hadn’t been paying attention. Following the death of Bish Pinkman Jr.—father of our own Bish Pinkman III and one of our most generous benefactors—Greeley Baker, professor of history, who did not seem to be present today, had written an article revealing not only that the Pinkman fortune derived from cotton plantations in Mississippi, but also that