Marie

Marie was born in 1921, not long after the first World War. Her parents were farmers from Larrau, a small village not far from the Spanish border. Her modest origins made for an uneventful childhood.

Marie spent most of her formative years doing repetitive chores and tending to small farm animals. Her parents never really provided her with a formal education. It’s not that she didn’t go to school at all, rather she only went when there was no work to be done on the farm. Despite this Marie had always been an outstanding student, showing a degree of comprehension far surpassing that of her peers. Her teacher, a rather reserved man who was not really inclined to stick his neck out for someone else, considered her a “gifted” child. The good man even went as far as to make some attempts to try to let her attend school on a more regular basis. Something that was totally outside his character. Unfortunately he failed at the final hurdle, changing the minds of his pupil's parents. Farm work was, in their eyes, a much more valuable occupation. Some could mistakenly think Marie’s parents didn’t really care about their daughter’s wellbeing, however that was far from the truth. Marie's parents truly loved her.

They were simple people. Social ascension was a foreign concept to them. They were more concerned with concrete issues than lofty aspirations, like arranging a solid future for their daughter. It’s only natural that they couldn’t tolerate letting her waste all her time and efforts in the pursuit of something they considered an unattainable goal.

It was much better, in their eyes, for her to have the same life as they always had known, true she would have to endure performing mind dumbing and back breaking work day in and day out. But they were utterly convinced she would ultimately settle and come to accept this way of life. Marie would meet a nice guy, fall in love, marry him and have his children. The family farm was large enough to accommodate a second family, extra working hands were always welcome. In time Marie and her husband would inherit the family farm. Everything had already been decided.

Marie had always been somewhat of a contrarian, arguing for the sake of arguing, she always enjoyed a healthy confrontation. She favored coarse language and received a lot of scolding’s from her parents in return. Not that she had a lot of occasions to indulge in her peculiar proclivities. Tedious work filling every day. Strangely Marie never really went against her parent’s wishes as some would have expected. She diligently shouldered the tasks entrusted to her and complied with her parent’s requests.

Once Marie got a bit older field work got added to her never ending list of daily tasks.

Those years spent toiling away in the dirt resulted in her having a rather unusual appearance. Marie developed a slender, muscular body, not the kind of physique you’d expect from a young girl. The long hours of exposure to the sun tanned her skin thoroughly, her skin being far from having the smooth and fair complexion that had always been so popular with men.

Truth be told Marie was quite masculine, her above average height and crude attitude only contributing to the impression.

Marie was fourteen when she fell in love with a girl from her village, it started out rather innocent but quickly escalated to a passionate relationship. The girls’ parents, unaware at first, were rather mild in their reaction when they finally figured things out. They saw it as a passing phase that would soon blow over and prove to be inconsequential. However they soon reconsidered and forcefully called off the relationship, it was around the time the relationship accidentally went public, the matter became too serious to ignore any further. That scandal proved to be a lasting topic of gossip within the village's community. Marie struggled with her feelings for a long time, she actually couldn’t care less about the gossip and other people’s opinions. What truly hurt her was that she considered the rejection of her relationship as a betrayal from her parents. Marie had always repressed her own desires and opinions to comply with her parents’ wishes, why couldn’t they do the same for her now, the one time she felt so strongly about something. Time passed and things went back to what is commonly considered normal. However the injury would prove to be a lasting scar on Marie’s heart. Marie withdrew from her family, her attitude deteriorating by the day.

Stolen novel; please report.

The situation got out of hand when she got caught fucking the miller's triplet boys. Her father had always been rather soft and meek but he beat her mercilessly for that. During those beatings she kept taunting him through her bloodied mouth.

'Marie has fucked every guy in this goddamn place and will continue to do so she threw at him" hate clearly visible in her eyes.

Marie’s parents started to fear she would never find a husband in her condition. It’s well know that boys would rather chose a well-endowed and modest girl, Marie was rather far from fitting the description, and not a harlot who had thrown away her good reputation.

In the end their fears would prove to have been for naught.

Marie was seventeen when she fell in love again, the object of her passion, a seasonal worker employed on her family's farm. Her parents were once again vehemently against her relationship, opposing their daughter for what would be the last time. How could she chose someone whose social status was even lower than theirs, they were utterly convinced she did so out of spite for her previous failed relationship. Marie really tried to win her parents over. Arguing and pleading without respite. All her well-reasoned attempts falling on deaf ears. Harsh words were uttered and both father and mother soon realized their daughter wouldn’t simply back down this time. They decided to take another more sneaky approach. They resorted to terminate the contract with the seasonal worker, going as far as to pay him a compensation fee, something that was almost unheard of. Their main priority was to get him out of the picture, after that everything would blow over and things would finally go back to normal again, or so they thought. The worker left that same night. And so did Marie...

She was gone before the next sunrise, without leaving as much as a farewell note. Her parents would never see Marie again.

Marie almost came to regret her decision. Her husband proved to be a hard worker willing to provide for his family. Sadly work was sparse and the couple had to survive on the occasional odd job. The financial insecurity weighed down on them, factoring in the fact that they had to move all over the country in search for work, it’s not hard to understand why tensions would soon arise.

Luckily her husband got an opportunity for long term work in Limoges, opening up the possibility for them to finally settle somewhere. Those few months in Limoges ended up being the happiest moments in Marie’s life.

The war started in 1940, two years after Marie left her parent’s farm. Marie would always remember her husband coming home on a cold evening of November ’42. He was positively beaming when he announced her that he had just joined a group from the Resistance. Marie got really angry that night, she couldn’t understand why her husband, the future father of her children would chose to place himself in harm’s way. She pleaded and begged him to reconsider, he would have none of it. A dangerous zeal kept appearing on his face every time he talked about how they would drive away the invaders and restore France to her former glory. This was a side of her husband she would never have expected to exist, a side she would rather never have known. She thought he was a naïve fool and clearly expressed her opinion on the matter, but in the end she had no other choice but to accept her husband’s will, he left shortly after that, leaving Marie furiously cursing him for his prolonged absence. She noticed the first changes in her body shortly after her husband’s departure.

Her husband didn’t last long and managed to get himself killed within three months. He would never live to see his daughter.

Marie didn’t really mourn him, her attention monopolized by the new life growing inside her.

Elise was born on May 9th, 1943, a beautiful girl, she was everything her mother could have ever hoped for.

Marie did her best to live as frugally as possible, delaying the inevitable, the day she would be running out of funds. She kept this up for a few months before informing the house owner of her financial struggles, the man seemed to be extremely understanding at first, being excessively friendly with her. Marie should have known something was not quite right, she soon came to realize his true intentions.

After his first wholehearted attempt to rape her, where she barely managed to get away, she understood it was time for her to leave once again. She briefly considered going back to the family farm but ended up deciding against it. A single thought burning in her mind. Marie was a proud woman, Marie was done with letting others make decisions for her.

She gathered her resolve and started to collect her meager belongings before walking out, her daughter strapped to her back, dead set on reaching England to escape the brunt of the war.

For her daughter’s sake.