Without A Man You're Nobody

I sat and listened to my aunt's lecture. Again. If you don't get used to a man, you will never be anyone. I was fourteen, and she lectured me daily. My mother, her younger sister, ended the lecture with "listen to your aunt, without a man you're nobody".

Once I was sixteen I was old enough to be married, and my aunt looked for a husband. One day when I came home from school a man was there. My aunt told me to change into a nice dress and comb my hair. She talked to him "look at her, she's young, very delicious". I never found out how much he paid for me. All I know is that a bag was packed by mother, she gave me a bottle with some p!lls, "don't get pregnant".

I went to work in a bordello. Dancing, and being nice to the customers. I wasn't told how much the customers paid for me. I became pregnant, the p!ills didn't work. I had a son. Some men liked and paid extra for a pregnant girl. I had to stop working for sixty days, the health authorities could close the bordello.

During those sixty days I met an expat who worked for an oil company, he liked me and took me with him and married me, and adopted my son. Three months later I had to learn English.

I got used to that man, and he took me with him. I have two children by him, we live in California, in the mountains like Colombia. He is older now, he has a pension.