The Awakening of Aldwich (Fiction)

The Awakening of Aldwich  by Lara Mia Veronica

        Let me take you to a town called Aldwich sometime in the not so distant past.  The people there were simple folk who dressed with modernity, but were dated when it came to current events and other stuff.  Women didn't go to work and girls didn't go to school.  They stayed at home either to do chores or share idle chatter.  Oh yes, there were no televisions, radios, and computers in this  out - of- this- galaxy place.  If you wanted to research about something, you had to go to the Public Library.

  

     The older men? Oh, they loved to gamble or do some silly stuff.   I'd rather not  describe them.  So if you are still interested, let me bring you to this lovely, but boring town. 

     Let me start by taking you to the meadow.  It's somewhere in the middle of Aldwich.  The grass is very green and wild flowers add glory to an ever beautiful picture.  Any artist would love to go here, if they knew it existed.   There in that scenic place, my brother Anthony and I were tending sheep. 

     "Lena this, Lena that.  All I ever hear is how great she is!" I muttered. 

     My brother smiled at me and said, "Don't mind mother.  She treats us equally."  I looked at him as if he were from Mars. 

     My brother was kind of handsome for sixteen and he was one of the brightest boys in Aldwich.  I loved him more than his twin, Lena.  She was a beauty, but she was so dumb.  I wondered what mother saw in her. 

     "Earth to Adrielle," my brother was nudging me. 

     "You call this geeky town Earth? You've gotta be kidding!"  I stood up then stomped my feet.  "This is such a silly town.  Why is it that only you boys go to school while you are allowed to teach us to be literate?" 

     "Don't ask me," he said, chuckling.  I didn't know what he thought was funny, but I chuckled along with him.  Anyway, Anthony was kind enough to teach me how to read.  He gave me comprehension lessons now and then.  He even taught me how to play the piano.  Believe you me, I'm the only female musician in this drat of a town. 

     Where was Lena when we were tending sheep?  You know, she was supposed to help us.  Where the hell was she? 

     Later, I found out she was in the barn kissing a thirty year old bearded man.  They shared a steamy osculation....whoops, I already said that, but boy they were so hot that Bernard, the bearded man, was beginning to unbutton her blouse. 

     "What are you doing?" Lena was appalled. 

     "I'm going to make love to you...you agreed, remember?" 

     Lena was quite embarrassed.  You see, she lied to this man.  When he asked her if she knew about making love, she said she was an expert.  She didn't know what to say but, "Aren't we making love now?" 

     Bernard started to laugh. He suddenly realized that she was innocent as innocent could be.  This made Lena blush all the more.  "What's so funny?" 

     

     "You mean to say you agreed to do something that you do not know how to do?" 

     

     Lena was flushed.  She felt all the walls were moving, ready to crush her. She apprehensively nodded.

     "Well...well, couldn't we do it without undressing? I'm quite shy." 

     Bernard thought for a moment then agreed.  He let her come to him.  They slowly kissed then he raised her arms then held them with one hand.  You can guess what he did with his free hand.  Moments later, Bernard experienced ecstasy, while Lena shouted pain.  I don't need to go on, right?  

     A month later when Lena and I were alone in our house and I was playing Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique, Lena started to feel queasy.  She ran to the kitchen sink and you guessed it right.  She was pregnant. 

     I abruptly stopped playing my piece and ran to her.  "Lena, have you made love to someone?" She was pale. 

     "How did you know?" she asked. 

     "I didn't, but when I saw you vomiting that way...well, I read in a book that most of the time when a woman vomits that way, she's pregnant and you cannot be pregnant without making..." 

     "I'm pregnant? Gosh, is that how you make babies? 

     I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  For crying out loud, my elder sister was an imbecile. 

     "You mean to say you didn't know? I'm only eleven, but I know." 

     She was not listening to my dreadful reaction.  Instead she muttered, "Adrielle, what am I to do?  The man I make love with is married and has kids too." 

     I looked at her as if she just told me I looked like an alien from Saturn.  She probably didn't know where Saturn was either. 

     Finally, she noticed my expression.  "Adrielle, don't look at me that way.  I need your help." 

     "Lena, I don't know if you're really dumb or just playing stupid(No, I was not going for plain).  If you knew making love with a married man was wrong, then why the heck did you do it?" 

     She looked down at her feet then started to cry.  I had to go to our refrigerator, yes we did have one, to get a glass of cold water.  She drank a little then said, "You know, he's so handsome...Men like that don't grow on trees in Aldwich," she sighed then went on.  "One day, he noticed me and told me that if I weren't too young, he would make love with me..." she went on telling me every sordid detail.  I knew making love produced babies, but I didn't know that it was that way. Gosh, I was only eleven for Pete's sake, but I didn't tell her that.  I let her go on and on. I wonder where she got Men don't grow on trees in Aldwich. Wait! I don't want to know. 

     Finally, she finished blabbering.  "Oh you moron!  If I didn't love you....argh!!!!"  I paced for a while then had a brilliant idea.  "I know...let's run away from here.  This is the best time for they are not coming back 'til late.  Come, let's pack our things!" 

     She gave me a questioning look.  "What do you mean that 'we' should run away?  I'm the only one who has a problem." 

     "Oh Lena, I'm sick and tired of Aldwich.  Girls here are so dumb.  I'm eleven, I'm supposed to be in the sixth grade...You're supposed to be a junior in high school or something.  Look what happened to you.  You did something that you didn't understand.  All you knew was that you enjoyed it. If this were another place he could've been sued for statutory rape!" Lena was in a trance. I think she lost it when I said she enjoyed it. "Hey, snap out of it! We're running out of time." 

     To cut the long story short, we wrote our folks and Anthony a letter, got the petty cash on top of the fridge, packed our things then left in a jiffy.  We didn't bring much because the only terminal in Aldwich was so far away from our house and fortunately our family was in the opposite direction. 

     You wouldn't believe where we reached.  We reached Elsinore somewhere in Kentucky and you wouldn't believe how we pulled through. 

     God blessed my brains.  I went to Frankfort wearing my Sunday's best.  I even brought along my piano pieces, I wondered why.  Lena was so fond of wearing paint on her face that I experimented with it.  I must say I looked like someone out of a fashion magazine, modesty aside.

     When my feet were starting to hurt, I rested in front of THE BLUE GRASS PUB.  Then like magic, I saw the sign that said, WANTED: LOUNGE PIANIST. 

     Inside the lounge, the owner was impressed with me, but was shocked when I honestly told him my age.  I reasoned that I fooled him and if I could fool a very wise man, I can fool the welfare.  I told him our terrible plight and exaggerated a little. 

     He thought for a while then accepted me in one condition.  That I'd study during the day, and of course I agreed.  I passed the grade school equivalency test with flying colors and that meant I went straight to junior high.  Boy, Anthony was really dedicated in teaching, and it paid off. 

     Gosh, I must be boring you, so let's move forward to when I was eighteen years old and my sister twenty-three.  We were now living in Greenwich Village in New York.  I was accepted for a lead role in Broadway, but I thought Greenwich Village was perfect because it was near, but not too near. I heard people saying they hate the Subway, but I love it. It got me to the rehearsals on time, and got me home in a jiffy too.  

     Lena loved New York.  She met all sorts of men who gave her things.  Sugar, her child due to her stupidity, was growing up and she was asking questions already. Lena did not have time to answer them. Instead, she let Auntie Addie answer whatever Sugar asked. 

     One dreadful day when I kept forgetting my steps and tripped quite often, Joseph, my boyfriend ran to me.  The director was angry, but Joseph said it was quite urgent. 

     We went backstage.  He was really worried that I began quivering too.  "What's the matter?" He told me that Lena had AIDS.  His brother was a doctor and since Lena considered Joseph family, she went to him.  He also told me that his brother requested Lena to have a second opinion, because he didn't want to believe it himself. 

     I wasn't really close to Lena, but I loved her with all my heart.  The earth was moving in a very negative way under my feet.  What was I going to tell my family?  They were always updated with whatever we were doing, but how could I tell them this? 

     We brought Lena to three other doctors and they all said the same thing.  I thought Lena was going to be crushed, but instead she started straightening her life.  She visited hospitals, had more time for Sugar and gave speeches during banquets. 

     When she became weaker and weaker, she reminded all of us to pray.  Sugar was eight years old during that time and she gave her a long talk.  She didn't want to mar Sugar's innocence, but she told her some facts about her disease and that she could get it through blood transfusion, at birth, and of course, by being promiscuous like her, not even being careful or what.  She also told Sugar not to forget to pray. Believe it or not, she died smiling. 

     We brought her ashes back to Aldwich, for that was her final request.  The people there were shocked, but at least it opened doors to education for women.  Now, Aldwich is well aware of the facts of life, thanks to the sacrificial lamb called Lena. 

© Lara Mia Veronica M. Garcia  1994

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.