Part 1 of a Short story published in Bubblews
Since my first Carly short story was a successful I have now written a second one for your enjoyment
Carly did not have any luck from the day she was born. Her mom and dad were not married and it was a sin and a disgrace for a young woman to have a child out of wedlock. Today it is common place in French Canada to have children out of wedlock but in 1955 when Carly was born the Roman Catholic Church would not have anything to do with a woman who had a baby and was not married.
Carly’s mother was a French Roman Catholic woman and although she had sinned in the eyes of the church she still did not want to be shunned by the church. Carly’s mother Annette grew up in a strict Roman Catholic Family in a fishing village called Shippegan in Northern New Brunswick.
Carly’s mother, Annette, moved to Montreal when she was only 17. She originally came to be a nurse to an aging relative. She was however pretty much on her own. She was as naïve. Afterall she was a farm girl. What did she really know about the big city and the games men play? Annette believed a young man when he said he loved her. She didn’t realize bedding down with him would stop her chances of getting married.
So when Carly was born she was a disgrace to her mother. Annette was not prepared to keep the child. She had decided to do one of two things. Either she would give her child to an Italian family who already had 12 children or she would give the child up for adoption. There was no question of abortion Annette could not murder her own child she just could not care for her.
The father of the Carly told his mother he had gotten a girl pregnant and now the couple didn’t know what to do. Kenny told his mother about the child being given up for adoption or given to the Italian family with 12 kids.He asked his mother if she would take Carly because he didn’t like the idea of the baby being put up for adoption or sent to live with another family.
Doris would not hear of it, to think her son’s child would be given up in either scenario was just not going to happen. She shuttered at the thought of Carly being brought up in a big family like that. However, Annette didn’t see it that way. She grew up in a family with 16 other siblings!
Kenny’s mother agreed to take the baby in and raise her. Carly went to live with her grandmother, Doris from the time she was six days old. Doris showered all the love and devotion she could on Carly but she never could get over how Annette could so easily abandon her child.
To make things worse Annette never called to ask about Carly and how she was doing until she was 6 months old; that made Doris dislike her even more. When Annette did call she asked
“How is the brat doing?”
That made Doris angrier still. Doris had been an unwanted child. She was left at one foster home after another. Nobody wanted her either. Doris felt a bond with this baby who came in the world unwanted. She would fight tooth and nail and make many sacrifices for Carly throughout her lifetime. She did not want Carly to have to go from one foster home to another and live the brutally hard life that she had.
Carly grew up with adults. During her pre-school years there really weren’t any children in the family. Carly lived her grandmother, her father until he left the house for good to marry a woman other than Carly’s mother. Carly’s uncle lived downstairs and her Aunt lived next door. Carly’s oldest cousin was three years younger than herself. So when she was five her cousin Shirley was only two years old.
This meant that Carly really didn’t have anyone to play with in the family who was her own age. Her grandmother was very protective and Carly was only allowed to play on the balcony of their second story flat. There were the twins who lived next door and since they shared the balcony Carly was allowed to play on the balcony with them and in time she was allowed to enter their house.
Carly did have a friend a few blocks away. Her friend Renate and her mother came to Carly home when they felt like a visit. Renate was the same age and Carly and Renate went to school for the first time together.
However, they were to be in separate classrooms so Carly felt alone and abandoned. She really wasn’t used to children and most of them scared her. In turn the kids didn’t really take to her either.
This was a ghetto school and many of the kids were problems so to speak. The kids liked to beat up on the weaker ones. Carly did not know how to defend herself. She tried to stay away from those particular kids as much as she could.
Carly did have a friend a few blocks away. Her friend Renate and her mother came to Carly home when they felt like a visit. Renate was the same age and Carly and Renate went to school for the first time together.
However, they were to be in separate classrooms so Carly felt alone and abandoned. She really wasn’t used to children and most of them scared her. In turn the kids didn’t really take to her either.
This was a ghetto school and many of the kids were problems so to speak. The kids liked to beat up on the weaker ones. Carly did not know how to defend herself. She tried to stay away from those particular kids as much as she could.
Though Carly tried to stay away from the mean kids she could never get away from Glen Potts. He was a little fat boy just like she was a little fat girl. However he chose to pick on Carly. He used to corner her every time he could and punch her in the stomach. He would say nasty things like:
“I gonna punch your stomach until it isn’t big anymore.”
Carly never told anyone but she was frightened by most of the children and she was even more frightened by Glen Potts. unfortunately the other kids good or bad didn’t want to play with her because she was fat. They used to call her names and make her cry.
Stay tuned for Part 2
Source: My own creation