I love to hear family stories, just ask my dad. (I’m trying to force him to write his stories down so that they can be preserved forever—have you started yet, dad??) I think my family has wonderful stories and that we have a wonderful way of telling them, however, communication barriers, like not really understanding Spanish, can give family stories a whole new allure and edge. The following are two stories told to me this past Saturday by my ten year old sister and twelve year old brother…enjoy…
The first, as told by Alex, recorded by me…
Apparently, the family did not always live in the house I’m in. Once, long ago, when Freddy (or Alex—whichever you prefer, it is the same person. As is Grace and Steph) was in third grade my family lived next to my grandparents behind our house in a little shack or up the street in a house that was small. Anyway, getting to the exciting part of the story, one day Alex was sitting in a bed when he decided to play with fire. Accidentally he lit the bed on fire! He called to Grace to come with water but the poor girl did not understand and only came with a handful of water. LOL!!! (at this point they were both dying of laughter) Stupid, Stephanie, a handful of water won’t help the FIRE!! (This is very thrilling, I know, so I’ll give you an entered paragraph to catch your breath.)
Okay, so the next part was sort of confusing but this is the clearest rendition I got; Next a giant wind blows the door shut. Alex had already escaped the fire but Grace was stuck inside the room with the burning bed—there is smoke everywhere! Alex, young man with super strength, pulls or pushes opens the door with brute force. Grace escapes. The dad comes home and punches Alex in the nose until it bleeds. The police almost come to the house. The mother never learns of the fire.
Second, as told by Grace, recorded by me…
Once when Grace was very little, only four or five years old, she went with her brother to buy something at one of the little corner stores. But because her STUPID big brother didn’t WATCH HER like he was SUPPOSED TO (Sounds like the beginning of that time I got lost at the beach, doesn’t it, Kate? Hahaha.) and since he was walking REALLY fast and she couldn’t keep up because she was young, DOGS ATTACKED HER! (Okay, side note, i KNEW that I had REALLY good reason to be frightened of the dogs!)
Anyway, the dogs are attacking her and Alex sees this from afar—and here comes the really hilarious part—he sees her trying to keep the dogs away with a little branch! Only a few inches long!! Duh, THAT’S not going to work! So he runs to her as fast as he can with rocks and pelts them at the dogs until they leave poor Grace alone. The injured pair return home at which point the father grabs a big branch with many thorns. Freddy runs away, down the street, as fast as he can because he believes that the branch is for him, however as it turns out the father did not intend to beat Alex with the giant tree branch. (THANK GOD.) Instead, he goes outside to beat the dog. (p.s. I’m SO in favor in that that it scares me.) The same dog later bites another man. They feed the dog poison and it dies. I’m not sure whether this was a community decision or the decision of my family, either way, GOOD RIDENCE TO BAD RUBBISH. Also, the hand motions that went along with the poisoning part of the store were quite hilarious.
Unfortunately, Grace did not escape with battle wounds, two scars remain, one on her upper leg and one on her butt. (Oh, hey Kate, does THAT remind you of anything? Hahaha again.)
Not sure about you, but to me these stories seem chockfull of truth and accuracy.
This is the best story ever told.
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