Confessions of a Bunny

ELIZABETH "BABYDOLL" ROSALINDA MORENO-GARCIA

"¡Nunca! ¡Nunca! solo tengo 15 años no me quiero casar!"

"¡Te casarás con quien yo elija! ¡Eres un niño! ¡Tú no tomas decisiones!"

"¡Te odio!"

I am not doing it mami I am not marrying that man he's almost 3 times my age. Your father has... I don't care what he's done, I am not doing it. He can kill me before I marry that man. Mija don't say that! I mean it mami I'll do it. I am not marrying that man. He doesn't even speak English or have all of his teeth. I am gonna end up pregnant with no hope of a future living in some ranchero in Mexico. I'd never yelled at my mother before, I couldn't even fathom yelling at her, but for her to even ask me to consider marrying this man was too much. It was all too much for me and nothing or no one was going to change my mind. Mija, sometimes you have to do things for the family. You're selling me to a man that's your same age Mami, I don't think the family needs it that much. She didn't say anything after that she just wiped her face and turned to my sister, Cecelia talk to her please she said before leaving the room. I am not doing it, and you can talk all you want. She looked at me and then locked the door before going over to the closet and grabbing a bag. She started stuffing my clothes in the bag. Ceci what are you doing. You aren't marrying that man if I have anything to do with it. Now grab some stuff I am taking you out of this house. What ab...don't stand there grab your stuff now. Ok I said grabbing my backpack and started stuffing my personal necessities into it.

I grabbed my Virgin Mary necklace that my grandma gave me. Once we had everything packed, she stopped for a minute and then looked around. She was just about to say something when the door knobbed started jingling as if someone was trying to come in. Put those in the closet she said motioning for me to move quickly once they were in the closet, I sat on the bed as if nothing was going on. She finally opened the door to expose my other sister Carolina. Papi gone! You know it he left after she slammed the door in his face. Good! Mami, she said shaking her head. We can't worry about Mami right now I am getting her out of this house right now. Where is Laura? With her in the room. Grab your stuff, Lizzy. I quickly grabbed the duffle bag and backpack and went to leave before stopping and going back to grab my picture of us off the nightstand. Where you taking her? The less you know the better she said as we walked out down the hallway with us following behind her. She grabbed the keys to the old truck off the key ring as we went out the door towards the truck. Ceci, where are we going? Get in! Ceci! Get in Lizzy, I am not talking until we are out of this driveway. I threw my stuff in the truck and hugged Carolina before we backed out of the driveway. Where we were going, she wouldn't tell me. It was a good 20 minutes before she actually spoke to me.

Lizzy! Yeah, Ceci I said sniffling as I looked at the scenery as we drove further out of town. Mami was right about some things. You think she was right. She was about certain things, but not about this, there is no way any mother can sit there and watch her baby be married off to a man that's older than she is. She's in a bad position with our father, she always has been ever since they got married. How did they even get together, I mean mami can do so much better than him. A similar situation, papi is way older than mami and when they met his first wife had died. He was married before mami! Yes he was we have older brothers. Brothers I said looking at her. Mhm Papi doesn't like to talk about them because it reminds him of his first wife. I remember before it was a little bit before mami found she was pregnant with you; we took a trip to Mexico for the summer, and they came to Tio Jose's house to see him. What were they like? Typical men, they both had young wives with a ton of kids. We have nieces and nephews! About 10 of them in Mexico. The crazy thing is, they were also upset with him because once they were of age and started to go out on their own, he left Mexico with mami and moved here to the US. Mami helped raise them? She nodded her head. That's what she meant by sacrificing for your family. Mami was 17 when she married him and 20 when she had me, so you tell me what time she had to really grow up.