The Scar

"The village where nobody lives anymore"

Seeing myself now, I never thought I would have made it this far. A proud grandmother of Lulu and Lenna Frank, age fourteen, identical twins and mother of a beautiful woman. I have no regrets, and neither am I upset about the reason why my family is well known. I sat in my old rocking chair and watched them fighting over whos turn it was to tell a story.

"Nana can you tell Lenna that it is my turn" lulu yelled stopping my train of thoughts.

"I'm not going to choose between you two, I will tell the story tonight" I responded as I gestured for them to come sit on the couch in front of me.

They sighed in defeat and dragged their feet across the cold concrete, plopping themselves down on the old couch in front of me.

"Lets make a deal, if your going to tell the story we will tell you what we want to hear" lulu said crossing her puny arms in front of her. Yep, you guessed it. She is the sassy one.

"Oh nana tell us the story about why you have that big scar across your face" Lenna added shortly after her sister.

Lenna's request sent chills down my spine. The memory was painful, and it was the worst day of my life. The day I lost what was most precious to me. Just thinking about it made me want to break down. I lived in a small village in Spain with my daughter, Celine and my grandchildren who were only two at the time along with my older brother, Suárez, that was in the military. He was drafted for the military because they lost most of their soldiers in a war against China in 1965. The day they came for him was very emotional, not only because he was my brother but also because he was the only man in the house and also the breadwinner since dad died. He left a note which I still have up to this day. Two weeks after my brother left the little house we lived in was robbed. They took all our food and all my dads prized possessions.

"Open up!" the deep voiced boomed from the other side of the door.

"Uncle! You came back!" Celine shouted with joy as she ran to open the door.

"No! don't op.." I didn't get to finish the sentence when she opened the door

Three men about six foot tall stood there staring at us. Celine screamed and ran towards me. I grabbed her hand and tried to run to the kitchen for the machete that my brother left behind, but she stood frozen in place.

"Celine run!" I yelled, but she didnt move.

By the time I was about to grab the weapon a wave of pain ran through my body. One of the men shoved me into the wall and took up the machete.

"Was this what you were going for?" he asked with an evil smirk on his face.

I was silently praying that they wouldnt hurt us, but I spoke too soon. I could hear Celine screaming from the other room.

"Celine!" I yelled with tears running down my cheeks.

"Don't even think about going out there" the man that stood in front of me said while pointing the machete at me.

I ignored what he said and tried to push my way through. He didnt even budge. I bit into his arm and watched as he jerked away completely shocked by my actions. I took this chance to go save my daughter. I ran towards them when I saw what they were doing to my daughter, but I was too late. They stood up when they saw me and buckled their pants as she laid unconscious on the cold ground. With the tears burning my eyes I ran to them and started kicking and fighting. I grabbed the metal iron and threw it at them. It hit the tallest one on his forehead, and I watched as he staggered backwards and fell. The blood ran quickly down his face staining the concrete that he laid on. I went over to Celine to try and wake her, but she was out cold. While pulling her towards our bedroom the man with the machete stormed over dragged my hair and turned me to face him.

"You just hurt my brother!" he said in a stern voice laced with anger.

I spat in his face which made him shove me to the ground.

"You little tramp!" his voice blared as he slapped me across my face with the machete.

I cried out in pain as warm blood ran down my cheek. He then kicked me and left with the other two guys. I tore my dress and placed the cloth over my face to lessen the amount of blood loss. When Celine started moving I crawled over to her while calling her name.

"Where are my babies?!" she asked as tears ran down her face.

"Bedroom" I answered but it came out as a whisper.

She then stood up and limped towards the bedroom as I followed shortly after. I could not believe what I was seeing, the kids were sleeping soundly in the bed. After everything that just happened they were still asleep. Celine sat on the bed and cried and all I could do was hug her and tell her everything will be okay even though I knew it wouldnt be. I wish that I had listened to her and moved from that house. But if we were to move where would we go? We had no money and no food.

Three months passed since that traumatic event. Suárez found out about what happened when he came to visit us two weeks ago and he said he would take care of it We didnt believe that it could get any worse, but it did. It was like any other day; I was sitting with the kids while Celine went to go get bread from the market. That was when I heard the rifle shots being fired and screaming from outside. The children started crying and I grabbed them and ran under the bed. I wanted to leave and go find my daughter, but I couldnt leave the children. After twenty minutes of complete silence I heard Celine calling me. I hurried from under the bed with Lenna and Lulu and went to Celine.

"Mom we have to leave, there will be a war, we need to leave now!" she shouted

"Again!' I cried

She took her babies and began packing up some of her belongings in an old cloth sac and I did the same. When we went outside people were pushing around with their families to leave the village before the war. We all headed for the mountains. We later found out that my brother, Suárez was the cause of the war because the three men that abused my daughter and I were from another troop and they threatened him that they would kill his family. Suárezs intention was never to start a war, but the men told their captain that Suarez's troop was going to start a war and they didnt take it slightly. Ever since then no one moved back to the village because they feared the outbreak of another war. Instead we built a village here in the mountains.

"Nana are you not going to tell us the story?" Lulu said shaking me

"Oh yes dear" I responded coming back to reality

"Once there was a princess..." I added shortly after

I continued telling the fairytale as they fell asleep. When I finished the story I began covering them with a blanket.

"Nana," Lenna whispered

"Yes dear"

"Next time I want to hear the story about your scar." She said then closed her eyes.

I kissed her on her forehead and sat back in my chair falling asleep shortly after.