Stunned, Antonia walked slowly back to her house. Her life had not been easy, but this, leukemia at only 36 years old. She had so much more living to do, and her three children were still young, Pepe at 15 perhaps didn't need her as much, but he would miss her, Paco two years younger, 13 was such a difficult age and poor Carmen at only 11 years old would miss her terribly.
Oh Carmen, her little special girl. Antonia's thoughts went back to the Spanish civil war, now in 1949 the civil war had been over for many years, but the hatred and fear still was very much around. She remembered as if it were yesterday when her husband went off to fight for General Franco and she had stayed back with her family in Malaga. She and her family had tried to support the front against Franco's men, and that is when she had met Pablo.
Pablo was so strong and powerful, in mind and body, and he had swept her off her feet. They had had a short but passionate affair, at the time with death all around them, fear a daily occurrence, and for the last three years Antonia had not heard a word from her husband, they had clung to each other.
The day he had been taken prisoner she had wept for him, for herself and for the baby she was carrying.
A couple of months later her husband had returned, the war was over, Europe was entering a second world war, everything was a mess, there was little food, no jobs, Malaga was in ruins.
Her husband agreed if she would stay with him, he would accept the baby as his.
Now, eleven years later, she was dying and leaving her little Carmen on her own.
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Right Choice?
Short StoryHer life had not been easy, at six she found out her brother's were only half brothers, at 11 her mother died of leukemia, at 15 her grandmother died, then her brothers left. Marriage, children and divorce followed, then when everything seemed final...
