The Crown

Prologue

Prologue

Grenada, Spain 1893

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not become angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it. Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always continues strong. Love... never.... fails."
‭
"This is is what my mother taught me and now me to you." Alba kissed her daughter on the forehead. She repeated these words every day to her and she grew up with it.

Alba Williamson and her daughter Gabriella Lily Roźa Williamson lived in a cottage near the streets of Grenada. A simple life was not all they had ever known. Gabriella's father was a cruel man and left them by the time Gabriella was six years of age. Alba cried for several years but realized that she had to build up the courage and strength to take care of her and her daughter.

Alba would get up at six in the morning and go to the river to catch fish. She would visit the farm and market two times a week to gather food for the rest of the five days.

At eleven years of age, Gabriella was already maintaining the little garden that they had planted in the back of their cottage. And she would go down to the stream every day to wash dresses.

Things went on like this for five years.

"Mama, I am going down to the stream!" Gabriella yelled, stepping out of the cottage with a basket and down to the stream she went. But because Gabriella delayed going down to the stream earlier, she was met by the other rude children from the compound nearby.

"Good afternoon." Gabriella greeted the children with a smile. But she did not hear one word back, except the rude whispers and strange glares they were giving her. Were they gossiping about her? Perhaps they were, Gabriella thought, so she began washing the dresses quickly before she found trouble with any of them.

"How can you see with that massive mold next to your eye?" One of the older girls asked her.

"My mother tells me it's a beauty mark," Gabriella answered her.

"Beauty mark? Ha! The fool says that it is a beauty mark. Tell me, is your short, dirty hair a symbol of beauty too?" She mocked her as the rest of the children laughed behind her.

"You should not believe everything your whore of a mother tells you."

Gabriella held down her aggression and continued to wash her dresses when the girls threw dirt inside her basket of clean washed whites. She looked up at them with a disappointed and confused facial expression. What did she do to them?

"There, we did you favor. Now your dresses look like your skin color; dirty and polluted. Black slave girls like you do not belong in beautiful countries like Spain, you will pollute it. Go back to your poor black man country with your whore mother!"

And so Gabriella ran back, not to her country for she was born in Spain but back to her mother who was surprised to see her back so early.

"They called me cruel names. They said I'm polluted and too dark to be seen at night. They threw dirt on my clothes and laughed at my hair and mold. They said I should go back to my poor black man country." Gabriella complained, sounding hopeless as she explained everything that had happened to her mother.

"Your mold is a beauty mark, Gabriella. Never let them tell you the less."

"Sometimes I wish that I was beautiful like the girls I see passing on the streets. They are fair and have the softest, longest hairs I have ever seen." Gabriella complained.

"They do not know the things about which they say, my dear. They do not know the real place you will go to. Your heavenly father's arms in His Heavenly Kingdom. His city of Love and Peace is all that matters" Alba stood up laughing joyfully.

"Gabriella. Are you defying the righteous King's creativity? He made you in his image, and He loves you just the way you are. Your hair is virgin and has the best natural curls from its roots, your beauty mark was placed in the perfect spot and has the best shape for you. And your beautiful skin color is the perfect shade of chocolate brown." Alba, her mother said to her, giving you the encouragement and confidence that she lacked.

Although none of this was quite true, Alba believed with all the faith she had that her daughter could look this way, it was not impossible. Words are powerful, the more you speak and declare the more it comes to life.

One day Alba woke up early at six and went to the market. She returned hours later to see that her home was broken into. The windows were shattered, and the door was broken down.

"Gabriella? Gabriella dear?!" She yelled, searching everywhere for her daughter in their small cottage but Gabriella was nowhere to be seen.

Alba ran down to the stream where Gabriella washed dresses but did not see her there. She was losing hope and gaining fear, but she refused to believe that her daughter was taken.

"Excuse me, children. Have you seen my daughter? She is about five feet six inches and dark-skinned?" Alba stood near the stream, panting out of breath.

"We saw her in a wagon with the city guards, hopefully, she was not entering a trade or joining a whore business."  One of the children answered proudly as the rest giggled behind.

"Thank you, Jesus loves you, and may he bless you," Alba said before running down the streets to find her missing daughter.

'Thank you' and 'Jesus loves you' were words the children never thought they would hear. And they seemed to be touched by it.

Why did Alba tell them so?

She was taught to do unto others as she would have them do unto her. Treat someone the way you want to be treated, you will see a big difference in your life.

Prologue