FreeRead - That Ol Place

kaerpediem (70)in #dtube • 5 years ago (edited)

Heya SteemVerse

This is an Author Reading for a @FreeWriteHouse and @OneLoveDTube collaboration. Giving voice to the FreeReads. I used this Weekend's Prompts this time around.

If you would like to try it please don't watch this yet and go over to the first prompt and have a go at it.
And this one is about how to get your Author Reading/FreeReads done.

And if you would rather read it, then here it is. The prompts are in Italics.

There were snakes in the old stone place, but the grass grew so green…
It was the perfect place for them. The snakes never really came out prefering to slither in the nooks and crannies. Watching them from a distance, almost like guardians of their love. Keeping everyone else out.

It was perhaps a tale that had been told many a time. Love of two souls destined to be one and yet their worldly standings keeping them apart. She from the world of old money, and he a peasant’s unruly son.

They had met in the church, and through a glance here, a smile there, their love blossomed leading them to dare. Come hell waters high, snakes or men would not keep them apart.

They had spent many days, holding hands, whispering sweet nothings. Promises that led to more, the hopes and dreams of young love making them invincible. Taking away fear of religion, of parents, of knowing the consequences.

When they were together, time stood still until the sun set, the fabrication of where they had been to the concerned elders made their forbidden love even sweeter. Her father chastised her, his mother pleaded with him and yet what everyone had feared happened.

She was with child, bringing embarrassment to the family. Time to send her away for 6 months to then return brand new. Time to send him to his Uncle’s in the next village, to work him hard so he would forget her. Time for them to run away.

That’s the thing with romance. As long as it’s cushioned with possibilities, reality takes a sidestep. True love will stand the test of time, hardships, expectations. Did they ever have true love was something she asked herself now. How she missed Nana’s Chicken Soup when she was not well, the pretty little dresses that Mother used to get for her which she could never fit in now. But most of all, she missed Father’s long chats of places and people he had discovered on his travels.

He had spoken of places in such poor state that it would make her cry. She had asked Father to take her with him so she too could experience the world but now, to be in this worn out room, renting it from the old lady who first thing Monday morning would knock on their door asking for rent, took all the romantic notion of poverty away.

He had become a nightmare. Working all day at two jobs, earning just enough for the absolute necessities and cheap alcohol. Her existence had become unbearable, his presence trapped her, the baby’s crippled her. She felt like a rat in a cage, nibbling to survive knowing that she was dying.

That day, when she managed to get to a phone while he was at work, she called her home. When she heard her mother, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Not a word. Her tears ran rivers down her cheeks.

“Hello, Hello. Is anyone there?”

"Caller, are you there?" Suddenly, another voice came on the line.

It was Father, and she knew she had to hang up but couldn’t bring herself to.

“Caller? Caller! Speak up!”. For just a moment the good times flashed before her eyes. The long talks, the walks in the garden, then the sound words of where she was spending her evenings. Somewhere deep inside, she knew he knew.

The baby stirred in her arms as her tears fell on him. That brought her back to reality and she knew she couldn’t break their hearts anymore than she had already. She hung up.

As she sprinted back, head bent over as tears poured down, the baby started crying. As if he knew his Mother’s heart was breaking. As she ran into the walk-up, a rat crossed her path. Ironic, these were things she had only heard of first from fairy tales, then from the kitchen help and then from him. He had told her, there were no rats in that old stone place because of the snakes.

Now they were everywhere, nibbling at everything. Anger took over heartbreak even as she heard the landlady shuffling towards her.

“I need the rent today! You are a day late. And you need to move out. The baby’s crying is not letting me sleep any’” she said matter of factly as she cleared her throat. “Girl, are you crying?”

She shook her head and mumbled something about how she had a cold that was making her sneeze and cry, and how he would have to come home first. She then ran around to her door, unlocked it, shut it behind her and sat in her corner, in the space under the stairs, that they now called home, waiting, thinking, crying.