Based on a true story my mother told me.
Premature Burial
Have I seen her? You ask. Of course, I have. Who hasn’t?
For years she has been haunting this otherwise peaceful streets. She is more terrifying than La Llorona. Her cry is more mournful, more shocking, considering that she is alive.
“I’m alive! I am alive!” she screams. “Where are my friends? See me; see me! Don’t believe him!” she cries.
I think her name is Carmen, or was. She is legally dead, they say. Her husband fell in love with a younger, prettier woman. He wanted a divorce, but you know what the Catholic Church thinks of that. He did not have the power of Henry VIII, so he did something even craftier. He left her living alone in the big old casona, announce her death, and organized her burial.
That afternoon, when she heard the procession, she stood by the window and asked a passerby, “Who are they carrying there?” They say that as soon as she heard her name, she went crazy.
It was her word against her husband's and that of all the people he bribed to attest to her death, including the priest, the doctor, and the police chief.
It did not help that for years no one saw her. When she finally started wandering the streets at night, she looked more like a specter, an apparition. Her features were far from those of a woman, let alone that shy quiet woman that was buried alive.
Thanks for your reading
This was my entry to @mariannewest and @latino.romano’s 5-Minute Daily Freewrite: Monday Prompt: HAVE I SEEN HER. You can see the details here.
Make sure you visit the Freewrite House!!!
