A Scarlett Rose

Chapter 2

It is a life of luxury and peace that I now live but it wasn't always so. I was born in a small town named Cliffmeadow in a small house, which could have been easily mistaken for a shed. 

My father, Theodore Peravel, was a local vendor in town. We had a small farm in the backyard where we grew the produce. It was not much, sometimes we barely got by, but it was what we had. Sometimes when we din't have a good year, my father went to the city to work at different places, a daily wage worker for hire for making buildings, worker for bar owner, it kept changing.

My mother, Lilian rose Peravel, she was like every other woman in town, kept the house proper, looked after the children, cooked food, helped out father. 

And did I forget to mention about my younger brother, John. He was the most prized possession of my father. 

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"It is so fortunate of you mother to have a younger brother, you could always tell him him off, unlike us always being told what to do." I smiled as Aurora looked disapprovingly at Amara. 

"Do not talk in the middle again Mara, let mother continue." 

"Ah, the bigger sister has spoken again. I am at the absolute disadvantage here being the youngest." she saw how Aurora kept looking at her and said " Alright, I wont chime in again, I promise." 

"So where was I ......."

"You were telling us about your sweet little family." Aurora spoke.

"Oh yes, my family......" I sigh and continue.

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From the outside it did paint the perfect picture of a family, to anyone, just as you felt when I talked about them. 

But the closer you look, the more details you notice, the more flaws you find and the once perfectly painted picture becomes tainted in your memory. And it is the painter who used his artistry and beautiful colored paint to manipulate one to think differently of the wrong doing that lies within.

It did look like a sweet family, but was grim and hollow on the inside. But then again if someone noticed it they wouldn't think twice about it, because the horrific way was the only way they knew, they all lived it, believed in it.

The night my mother cried in pain, and my father nervously roamed about worried, was also the night when it snowed heavily, a snow storm had begun. 

My father waited anxiously outside, more desperate to know about the baby, than the wellness of his wife or even getting a frostbite himself.

It was with the first glimpse of sunlight that I was born and my father believed that it was the light of hope, that the dawn of this day had brought a new dawn in his life.

Until he held me, for the first and the last time he ever did. My birth was the very first disappointment that I had brought to him in an unending list of disappointments. 

He banged the already breaking walls and floor, screamed in anger, almost tearing the house down. Enraged he charged at his wife .....

"Woman you, you were to give me a boy, my blood, my son. The one that would change our fate. Instead you brought more of misfortune on my head. Is it not enough, our misfortunes of being colored, poor, having no status,living a life near to one in hell ,not enough for you that you had to bring her."

"Please , please do not say so. She too is your blood. Why do you look it as a hole in a sinking ship, look at it as an extra hand to help in this high tide."

"This, this hand, it is no good to me, it hasn't just made a hole in a sinking ship, it broke the sail of the sinking ship."

The arguments weren't enough to satisfy the anger, and releasing the angst on his wife, bashing her in a postpartum state also dint do much good.

It was my mother who cooed me in my cries, soothed me. "Do not cry my little one, it is but a brave life, a courageous path you have chosen, taking the form of a girl. Stay strong, be brave, it is what you must learn from this very day. For you see, it is the hard way of life you have received. The world would be hard on you, I expect it from them, but you, you mustn't waver, always stay strong, I believe in you."  

"Dear one, your father not sees it now, but one day he will, that you are the one that has brought a new dawn in our lives. My sweet little Aurora. Welcome to this world Aurora rose Peravel."

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Author's note :-

The narration of the story changes from third person to the main protagonist of the story, that is Scarlett.