1 Carmen

The sunlight illuminated her face through the sheer blue curtain. She gently opened her eyes and turned to see what time it was. 9:30 am! How could she have slept so late? It was not like her to sleep past 7:30 am. She was a rise early and seize the day kind of person. She knew that hard work was the only way to achieve her goals. In modern times, women have to work 5x harder than men just to prove their worth. It seems that still, women belong in the kitchen and home, pregnant, hanging clothing on the line, baking and being satisfied with this life style. She wanted it all, career, love, family, children.

She was raised that her place in this life was to please everyone. Especially the men around her. She did not share this idea. She wanted her career, a life of her own. She never wanted to be controlled by any person, especially a man. Yes, she wants a family, some day, of her own, but not to be controlled. She wants a partnership, love, respect, everything to be as equal as possible.

Carmen's home life was never easy growing up. Her family was rich, but her father insisted that they live on the poor side of town. To teach his needy, money grabbing family a lesson. Jackson Stone Maxwell was a very haunted individual. He was a monster to be honest. He felt his family owed him and that he owned them. His wife was his personal punching bag. He was king of the castle. He despised his family for the exception of his daughter Jessie. Jessie was just like him. Conniving, narcissistic, manipulative, and easy to anger. He was especially proud of her. He knew Jessie would one day take over the house as head of house since he disowned his other two children. His only son Henry Thomas Maxwell, he was so disappointed in him. The bastard was just like his mother, soft spoken, a coward, a "hero", and soft. Jackson couldn't stand such weak men. He tried for years to break Henry but never succeeded. When Carmen was a young girl, her mother once bought her the most beautiful doll she had ever seen. It had red hair and green eyes, just like her and freckles too! When her father found out, he damn near beat his wife to death for this. Children do not need such things. Clothing, shelter, food, and that's it. To teach Carmen a lesson for accepting the doll and loving it so much, He grabbed her by her pony tail, dragged her downstairs to the basement, ripped her pretty pink dress on the stairs as he rushed her down there, Carmen screamed for him to stop. He was hurting her so much, she had never encountered so much pain. Her father threw her on the floor and undid his clothing, he was going to teach this little bitch to never accept such things again. Carmen was only 9 years old. After he let himself out of his clothing, he grabbed her from the floor where she laid sobbing. He pulled her to him and ripped her dress and panties off. He forced her to lay down on the ground, he was going to take what was his, but before anything else could happen, Henry rushed in and pulled her father off of her, they fought for a few minutes. This allowed Carmen to escape. She ran to her room, sobbing hysterically, she hid in her closet for what seemed like ages. After about 30 minutes, her brother came in to her room to check in on her. He was cut up on his face, huge bruise to his eye, and his nose was bleeding. He grabbed Carmen to him, hugged her and consoled her. He found her new clothes to put on. Which wasn't much. Jackson didn't allow Carmen to have very nice things. She had all of Jessie's hand me downs, which Jessie often ripped, stained and just mistreated these before she knew she was giving them to Carmen. Jessie loathed Carmen because her father loathed her. Jessie never endured the same treatment. She was always allowed to have what she wanted.

Carmen never understood why she angered her father so much. But she took his beatings, and rantings in silence, but lay awake at night trying to figure out how to please her father. But to no avail, he still hurt her so much. She would seek solace in her mother, but mother lay around her room, sad, always crying, and never would leave her room. When Jackson was around, mother was his servant. She did as he said, no questions asked. He once made mother take all her clothing off in the kitchen and service him right then and there. In front of the children, he did not care, he wanted to teach his children that a mans home is his castle and he is in charge, no matter what. Everyone had to fall in line to his ways. Mother always felt that Jessie's relationship with father was sexual. Jessie wanted to take her mother's place so bad in the family. On many occasions she tried to seduce her father. But he never accepted her invitation. He didn't view Jessie below him. He would never touch her like that. She was his prized flower. He would groom her to take over.

Carmen rose out of bed to the shower. She had so much to do today. She had to be at her job at 10:30 am for her shift. She ran the receptionist desk at a beautiful museum. She studied hard at college so she could become head of the antiquities department of mediaeval history. She loved history and couldn't get enough of it. She wanted to preserve anything and everything that she could. She probably felt this way because of her father. She knew she deserved more out of life than she was given. She always had just the bare minimum while her sister lived like a queen. Often times at meals, she was never allowed to eat the same thing as everyone else. She was given scraps to eat. While everyone enjoyed better.

She quickly showered, dressed and headed out the door. It was a 25 minute walk to the museum. She didn't want to be late. She wanted to prove to her employer that she was worth every dime they spent on her. She was well paid for such a menial job. The museum director decided to give her the position because she was going to school for history. She had impressed him so much that in 6 months time she went from minimum wage to make enough to pay her bills plus her college. She certainly didn't want to let him down. Today, she would personally be leading the tour for the nearby prep school. This was a prestigious school and she had to be on her game. She arrived to work 15 minutes early, arranged for the tour to start and began. The tour lasted roughly 2 hours. She never tired of giving the tours. History was her passion. She would step back in time if she could. She never felt that she was for this world and time line. She often fantasized about some chivalrous night sweeping her off her feet. When Carmen was a young girl, when she would receive her sisters hand me downs, there were often old and ratty books. She would spend hours reading through them.