I also remember having a "piglet pet". Can you believe it! I loved it. My mother actually put a string around his head in the form of rains and I used to ride on it as you would a pony.
It was short and pink with black spots.
I was four yeas old only but I distinctly remember riding on it over a bridge that was just outside our house, and kissing his back side by lifting his curly tail. At one point the bailiffs came and we abandoned our house in a small van. The piglet loss and the spade left behind the door with which I used to help my mother in the vegetable garden were my childhood possessions and I cried desperately for them.
My eldest sisters were in the process of dress making. They were very young but you had to earn your living somehow. The eldest stitched all day fabrics of different colours. Skirts and blouses were mostly her line of business. Coats and trousers were not part of her repertoire as yet.
My second eldest sister was very good mending stocking. This is a lost skill in the developed world, fortunately. A loose thread in those crystal stockings was persistent on moving either up or down the ladder at a speed. Her task was to place the stocking over a drinking glass, and catch the loose thread with a special needle, and at a painful speed, step by step, bring it back to its original position. Then delicately hide the stitch to pretend it was never there. For this she earned some ridiculous some of money, but she was entrepreneurial and one thing would lead to another. My third sister was only 3 years older than me, but she was very studious and she was already going to school and showing teachers and policemen that she could converse with reason and not be intimidated by uniform or status.
We lived in this house with many rooms and a very steep staircase. I remember climbing them once on my knees asking for forgiveness for having killed Ambrosio. Ambrosio, was my friend, a boy of six that lived in the same block. We decided to go by the river which was opposite our house to pick some walnuts we had spotted on a tree. He was very short, as was I. We practised stone throwing to show our target skills. Naturally we tired ourselves to no effect. The walnut defiant kept mocking us from her high an mighty position. -What to do! "Return without our price!"No way", best change strategic and demolish the high and mighty nut at any cost.
Ambrosio, decided to go on top of a wall and shoot the walnut from there. He moved and placed himself on top of this wall near the tree, while I continued displaying my throwing ability.
Unfortuantely,one of the pebbles hit Ambrosio right on his head and he fell over the wall. I run desperately to see the abyss he had fallen to ; when I discovered him flat on his back not moving. -That was it, "I have killed him". I run home crying all the time " I killed Ambrosio" " I killed Ambrosio".
At the bottom of the stairs I looked up and saw them steeper than I had ever seen them before. The weight that I was carrying on my small shoulders was overwhelming. I decided to climb the stairs on my knees supplicating forgiveness and crying out loud :
-"I have killed Ambrosio, I have killed Ambrosio!".
I had killed Ambrosio and my mother would kill me.
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