I always think I should go earlier or later to avoid the line, but this time, I thought...I'll listen to what other women order. I might get some ideas. But I got even more discouraged.
Life with my aunts was dull. I didn't feel like getting married, but it seemed to be “the thing to do,” as they say. My aunts kept saying, “He's nice. He has money. He'll make you happy.” But I still couldn't decide. But I really wanted a life of my own, and a child. Then his business suddenly hit the rocks, so I married him. Things like that happened after the war. My aunts had changed their minds. They said a pretty girl like me could do better and find a man who'd give me a good life.
“My youth was but a gloomy storm
With occasional flashes of dazzling sun
Thunder and rain have created such havoc
That in my garden few buds remain
Now I've reached the autumn of my thoughts
And I have to use the spade and rake
To reclaim a bit of the flooded land
Where water burrows pits like open graves.”
“The Enemy,” by Charles Baudelaire.