a cottage secret

barbara's love

Those weeks passed by so quickly. Each day, the girls would meet each other at the front porch of the big white farm house. Barbara, Florence's grandma, watched them from her bedroom's window. She was happy her granddaughter had found a friend.

In the loneliness of her big room, the old woman would remember her days as a young girl struggling to find her way in the world. She looked just like her granddaughter, with the long black hair and enchanting smile. Everyone looked at her when she walked by in her young age and she could have chosen anyone to be her partner.

But she knew she had a bigger destiny than to stay at that same place she grew up in and she said goodbye to everyone without a single tear falling from her eyes. Except when she went over her best friend's house. The girl was very pretty in her eyes, with dark skin and soft lips. She loved her, more than she could understand back then.

Back then, it was forbidden.

All she wanted to do, before leaving town for good, was to take her by her waist and kiss her entire face. Tell her she loved her so she wouldn't regret it in the future. But she couldn't say it. The girl's parents were there, watching her every move. They thought their relationship was strange and did not trust their own kid with her.

If she could turn back time, she would've come back to that town earlier than she did to take that girl away from all the pain she felt and she would've loved her as she deserved.

However, Barbara left and only came back by the time all her siblings died to take care of the farm. She found out, by the farmworkers, that that girl she loved had moved right after she did and married a bad man. She died not long after.

Even if many years had passed, Barbara could still feel the smell of that girl in the flowers she grew in her yard. She could hear her voice whenever she went into the woods and the wind would harmonize with the leaves.

Watching Florence love Betty so intensely also reminded her of that girl she loved. But she wanted to warn her granddaughter about what destiny could bring. Some loves are not meant to last.

But there are other loves that grow inside of our bodies. They leave their traces in every aspect of our lives. And those loves are always worth the choosing.