"Everyone come to hear the true story of the 100 years war, everyone is welcome here..."
(English is not my first language, sorry if there's any mistake)
“When the world is in despair thanks to fear and uncertainty covering our eyes, we have to help each other in everything that is in our hands, now it is in mine to be able to help our people, my son…”
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That was my father's response when I asked him why he should leave, I was about 5 years old when that happened, it was the last time I saw him; We used to live in a small town near the coast of France, it wasn't the wealthiest or best known, but i had a roof, streets where I could run and play, studies, a family and three meals on the table, it was all I wanted…
Until everything went to shit in the blink of an eye, thanks to all of this propaganda from the war against Englands, the search for volunteers to fight France reached our town, I was a kid and couldn't give a shit at all, but my mother seemed (for the first time in a loong time) worried about my integrity, while my father, worried more about his country and my future, decided to be a good patriot so he enlisted in the army, hoping to be one of the heroes from his beloved country...
His worst fucking mistake, it was the same as if he killed himself, a few days before my sixth birthday, a letter arrived to my mother announcing that the camp of the platoon he was with was bombed. Were there any survivors? Yes, My father was among them?, No and that only made me listen to my mother cry bitterly for a whole week day and night, I almost felt sorry for her, maybe and that's the only thing I hate about him, he left.
Now, what happened to poor, naive 6-year-old Cristophe? Well, after all the drama and mourning for my father's dead, she decided to take drastic measures, she took me out of the school that my father tried to got me in with so much work and got me a job in some nearby mines and now it was my responsibility to keep my mother -“If you do not behave like the man in this house and take the responsibility of being one, I'LL MAKE THE SISTERS TO TURN YOU INTO A MONK!”- Those beautiful and motivating words from my dear mother were what made me endure a working days of 12 hours a day for 5 years, all to buy a miserable crust of bread, a handful of beans and a quarter of cheese.
Let's say that my situation was not the best and I began to resort to running away from home or not returning after work, this led to me making friends with some children older than me, who only brought me problems. Almost every day my mother was surprised with one police officer dragging me into the house and telling her that I stole, caused a disturbance / was an accomplice to or attacked someone.
My mother convinced them that I was just a child and that I could still go the way of the Lord, (I'm completely sure that she didn't get rid of me because who the fuck would offer to keep her?!), I only managed to get grounded for weeks or months plus being forced to go to churches to help and pray for my poor little soul, a personal hell but it was my vicious circle after all…
A couple of years later I was still doing the same thing, only that I had to be more careful, I aged up and I could end in prison; I was part of a group of idiots who called themselves “first class thieves”, every day we robbed small, remote stores far away from our homes, everyone had a role to play, so what was I?
