The dawn of a new day
…..
Chapter VIII: When the older brothers marry
San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
As he smiled, Grandfather hugged me close to him and then he asked:
“So Francisca, my dear, would you like to hear a story, from my childhood days?” I knew for sure, it would be one of those yarns, he would make up as he went along.
With his soft and melodious voice he began to tell his tale.
“When I was young, we were so poor, but so poor that I used to sleep on this huge mattress on the floor, along with my twenty brothers and sisters. One day my oldest brother got married, so after the wedding that huge mattress would sleep twenty-two.”
My grandmother stared at him, regarding him very seriously, for a very long moment, and finally exploding into a long laughter. Our soft laughter in the utter darkness of that night was enough to mitigate the brutality and the turmoil, easing the despair that had grabbed hold of my soul. Without even noticing when or how, I fell placidly asleep in his arms, not to wake, until the dawning of a bright new day.
In the land of volcanoes’ Chapters Purchase the book