"Carpe Diem"

Chapter 1 - In Loving Memory

1989 - Cape Verde, Africa

I was born and raised in this land, in the time when our countries were in war. They were fighting for freedom, but they didin´t realize they were taking it away instead of the opposite. No-one could dicide anything, no-one could talk, lives were taken by cruelty. Some of ours tried to stop them, but it was all in vein, there was nothing we could do.

We live by roules, beliefs of olden times, there are no such a thing as love, or power of choice, we can only obey.

I was forced to mary a men, that i didn´t love. That happened when I was 17 years old. I knew that men. We used to play together while we were childs. Sometimes,we went to the area where the army was set and hide between the woods, watching them. Once in a while we could hear shots, so we runned as fast as we could back to our families, back to were we thought we were save.

We never felt love for each other, only a great friendship, maybe because of the fact, we were raised together, raised in war. We couldn't disagree our parents, the decision was made, there was no way they would turn back on that.

Taking the best of our circumstances, the day of our marriage came. I was wearing my mother's dress. Indeed it was beautiful, taking in count we were from a poor family, that dress was something unique. 

"He would have loved to see you like this..." My mother said hiding the tears, trying to fix my wild hair.

I knew she was talking about my father, he was the one who made the decision about this engagement. He was one of the brave mens, who tried to protect his families from the enemy soldiers. He was killed 2 years ago.

I fell my self being huged by my two sisters. 

"it´s time young lady!" My mother brakes once again the silence that engulfed our house since the first sunbeam.

I knew nothing but war, I never knew how it was to be away from here. The only thing I could do was imagine. I imagined myself in the position of the princesses of fairy tales that my mother used to tell us, before we fell asleep.

Right now i´m walking trought the church,  in front of what will be my future husband. I look back and see my mum with a smile from ear to ear.

I stop. Even though I stopped I can still notice that the picture of my mom is increasingly distant, and suddenly everything becomes black, black as night.

....

"Mummy, Mummy..."  I ear a voice calling.