Post by Yesenia del Erbo on Jun 21, 2011 21:44:21 GMT -5
Standing in a trial was never something I had been taught to do, cook, sew, manage a household, yes. But that didn’t matter now. I was a “Perversion,” and “an abomination.” They would argue basically that I was a waste of good meat. As much as I wanted to spit on them members of my own family, my nature forbade me. So I sat there, looking at the floor as I stood before the head of our household, the trial being kept a family secret for honor’s sake. I brushed some hair out of my face, finally looking up through my eyelashes as the trial began. They called the first witness. It was Fernando, the beast that had tried to steal from me my maidenhead. I didn’t bother to listen to his, looking around me instead, trying to find my parents. They were nowhere to be found.
Afterwards “friend” after “friend” testified against me, speaking of all the times through my life when it seemed I preferred women to men. I felt my trust slipping away from me, my heart sinking. By the time they had finished I was well past the point of crying.
“The next witness is Belinda de la Rosa.” While I was practically guilty I knew that this was the last nail in my coffin. My only comfort was seeing the tears in her hazel eyes and she looked at me with a look that said “lo siento, mi amor.” She had been my closest companion for the last five years and she was the only one who knew, truly knew the secret that I would have done anything to keep, for this reason, not for myself, but all the relationships that were being torn apart.
The lawyer, a distant cousin, was smug, knowing full well that he was just piling it on now, walked to Belinda and questioned her. “How do you know Señorita del Erbo?”
“We were friends, señor.”
“Close?”
“Muy.”
“At any time did she confess to you that she had desires contrary to nature?”
There was a pause, but the suspense was unnecessary. It didn’t matter what she said now.
“Yes, si.” She struggled out.
“Is there more?” asked the lawyer. Of course not! I said to myself.
Then came the lie. “When she told me, she kissed me, as a lover would.”
The room was in uproar. The tears came in rivers now. They had made her lie. I had told her I had thought about it, and she laughed, but we never...
When Esteban, head of the family, finally managed to calm things down he looked sternly at me, though I knew his eyes were not on my face. “Yesenia del Erbo, you should know that many in this family have had a mind to kill you, rather than let you pollute this land and disgrace our family name. However since your sins have not spread we have decided to be lenient with you. You are to be exiled to the land of Terre D’Ange, free to keep your inheritiance so long as your swear on your life that you will never return to this land, under pain of death.”
There it was, emotional death or physical death. But I had made my choice well before he finished. “I swear.”
Afterwards “friend” after “friend” testified against me, speaking of all the times through my life when it seemed I preferred women to men. I felt my trust slipping away from me, my heart sinking. By the time they had finished I was well past the point of crying.
“The next witness is Belinda de la Rosa.” While I was practically guilty I knew that this was the last nail in my coffin. My only comfort was seeing the tears in her hazel eyes and she looked at me with a look that said “lo siento, mi amor.” She had been my closest companion for the last five years and she was the only one who knew, truly knew the secret that I would have done anything to keep, for this reason, not for myself, but all the relationships that were being torn apart.
The lawyer, a distant cousin, was smug, knowing full well that he was just piling it on now, walked to Belinda and questioned her. “How do you know Señorita del Erbo?”
“We were friends, señor.”
“Close?”
“Muy.”
“At any time did she confess to you that she had desires contrary to nature?”
There was a pause, but the suspense was unnecessary. It didn’t matter what she said now.
“Yes, si.” She struggled out.
“Is there more?” asked the lawyer. Of course not! I said to myself.
Then came the lie. “When she told me, she kissed me, as a lover would.”
The room was in uproar. The tears came in rivers now. They had made her lie. I had told her I had thought about it, and she laughed, but we never...
When Esteban, head of the family, finally managed to calm things down he looked sternly at me, though I knew his eyes were not on my face. “Yesenia del Erbo, you should know that many in this family have had a mind to kill you, rather than let you pollute this land and disgrace our family name. However since your sins have not spread we have decided to be lenient with you. You are to be exiled to the land of Terre D’Ange, free to keep your inheritiance so long as your swear on your life that you will never return to this land, under pain of death.”
There it was, emotional death or physical death. But I had made my choice well before he finished. “I swear.”