America, Who Are You? by Anima Armstrong

Author:Anima Armstrong [Armstrong, Anima]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781458201294
Publisher: Abbott Press
Published: 2011-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

BEN

After a sea voyage from New York to Dover and to Brest France, Sylvie took a train to Nice and arrived exhausted to her parent’s house in the south; Athena and Pierre stood at the door and looked at the new child with wide eyes full of tears: Ben was seven months old.

“Yes” Sylvie felt, I have given them a real joy and they deserve it.

Something was born in Sylvie while she was in Hawaii, her solitude, her duty as a good girl?

A wind of revolt blew in her she wanted finally to be young, to shake the shackles of war, fear and hatred that she had known while in Europe. She had never been a real child always duty bound by her parents, her sister, marital ties, she had known too much “duty” now she was going to be “young” Yes she had been happy in America but she really did not have a youth, however she had a great life as a teenager, she did later but she had been very involved in being good.

While Ben stayed with her parents, she went out dancing and seeing people, she became an epicurean she grabbed life and let it fly.

The long wait for a wayward husband in Hawaii, the long hours alone with a child all that brought out the wild side in her; to be young and carefree was what she wanted. She brought pretty clothes; after all she gave her parents a child, Arabella a new husband now her turn had come to live in a carefree way. Selfish maybe but she felt that way.

She returned to America and went to Georgia where Eric had been sent by his company. She liked what she saw : Spanish moss flying lazily in the wind which gave everything an aura of mystery, languor and beauty, she remembered Scarlet O’Hara in “gone with the wind” and she crossed Georgia a great state she felt : The American south was definitely different from the north; gentler, softer and the people she met had a great culture a lot of American writers came out of the south. The only thing was the black entrance for people of colour. It seemed so unfair to her sense of justice in the fifties. She walked through the black entrance and let them stare at her. She was unafraid, she felt that way, and she could have been black as well: her dad had taught her that.

They went to Cuba on vacation, that was before Castro yet you could feel the tension in the air and the street held soldiers of Batista’s army: Sylvie loved the Copacabana with its great South American rhythms and the beauty of Havana. Ben was now two years old, he was beautiful: a little hell on wheels running everywhere specially when one called him and he went in the other direction.

Eric bought a speed boat and went with Ben for rides. They went to their club and swam. Life was sweet:

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