It was a beautiful day in my palace. I was only 18 years old at that time. Actually, my life was a holiday! Suddenly, I heard my father’s voice:
- Martina, you’re going to have a horse riding class in half an hour.
My father was a noble man. Actually, he was the noble king of Spain. Everyone in the kingdom loved him. He put everything in order: the economy was stable, the agriculture too; but what he couldn’t deal with was the piracy.
While I was having the horse riding class with my lovely horse Gela, I realized that something was going wrong. The sky got covered with big black clouds, and bird songs stopped. I saw My father running to me very fast, and I could see how frightened and scared he was. He shouted:
- Martina, my dear, run and get yourself to a safe place! – those were his last words.
My father was shot in his head. Obviously, he was feeling sorry for not rooting out piracy out of Spain because his killer was one very famous pirate, One-Eye Jack. I can’t remember how loudly I was crying. Jack’s pirates plundered the palace, and they killed a lot of people who had been trying to stop them. It was like a nightmare!
When I woke up, I found myself tied in a cabin of a ship. It smelled so bad and unpleasant! However, I guess I couldn’t understand anything because of the grief I was feeling inside. Suddenly the door opened and Jack appeared. I don’t remember anything from that day on because it was hell. I was raped in the cabin. I don’t know why he didn’t kill me… Maybe because I was royalty?
I was basically a prisoner and a slave on the ship and I had to wait for my baby’s arrival in the cabin, for 9 months. It was so hard that I almost pleaded with God to let me die! Well, prayers get answered. I passed away after I gave birth to a boy. I was 19.
Now, when I’ve been dead for a long time, I can see anything I want. I look at the painting one of my offspring drew and what I see first is that my son doesn’t look like a very good person. In fact, he has a tricky eye… Anyway, he married a beautiful lady. He’s a chip off the old block! Then there were the aristocrats after them… How nice they look! ! M-m-m, what did they do? Maybe, they attended balls and feasts where everyone was wearing big wigs and long dresses.
Oh, what I like the most is the boy on the top of the painting! He’s so cute! It’s interesting that in his family tree he has ancestors who fought on both sides during the Civil War. Also, there’s a family of Puritans just above the Union soldier. Maybe, the man was a preacher and his wife was a homemaker. Ironically, there’re a flapper girl and her husband after the family of Puritans. I guess they had much more fun than their ancestors. Also, there’s a frontiersman fur trapper and his Native American wife right beside the Puritans. Perhaps, the girl suffered as much as I did because the man occupied her land. Like One-Eye Jack. Moreover, there’s a couple of a showgirl and a cowboy above them. She looks stunningly beautiful! I guess she worked in a saloon… Oh, I wish I were her…
And almost on the top of the picture I see a city couple. They’re amazing! She has a bright smile and he’s a handsome man. Anyway, the juiciest apple of the tree is the boy we can see on the very top. So many years have passed but I still remember how hard, and how disgusting it was to be a slave on the pirate ship! I went through the hell of the brutal pirates, the cruelty, and the unbearableness of it all. Was everything meant for the boy? Of course, it was. It was all worth it, just to see his smiling face.
