stardustcboy's Diaryland Diary

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The Story of Little Sancho - Chapter 2: The young man, his love and his struggle.

Do not read this until you have read Chapter 1

THE STORY OF LITTLE SANCHO � CHAPTER 2: The young man, his love and his struggle.

so it came to pass, that little Sancho was to live with his Uncle Bill. In the first few weeks after the death of his family there were many relatives who came to see him. Most of whom he had never known nor met in his life. They invaded his families house and they took everything that was a reminder to little Sancho of the life he knew. Photographs, furniture, family heirlooms, jewelry, even little Sancho�s bed was taken by relatives. �your mother said I could have this� they would say, or �your father promised he would give these to me.� When all was said and done, little Sancho had not but his clothes and his toys when he went to live with his Uncle Bill.
Uncle Bill wasn�t the best of guardians to little Sancho. He was a gambler and a drinker and had a penchant for womanizing. He spent little Sancho�s megre $5000 inheritance (a fairly large sum then) on his vices; and again, little Sancho was left with nothing. he was forced to sleep in the basement, and they made him work in the fields and little Sancho�s heart grew hard and angry. He came to believe that God had forsaken him, that in fact there was no God. he came to believe that life was a cruel and bitter place full of woe and pain. For no matter where little Sancho looked, always was there sorrow; and no matter who little Sancho turned to, always they betrayed him. Day to day, he worked the fields and night by night fell prey to his pedophilic cousin in the dark basement of his Uncle�s house. Not much is remembered of those days, for little Sancho locked them away in his mind.
Many would have broke from the pain that little Sancho felt. Many would have gone crazy from all the sorrow; but not little Sancho. He vowed to himself silently every night as he cried himself to sleep that he would not live long in that small town, that he would escape and never come back again. He worked harder at school than any other of the kids he grew up with. Honed his mind and studied, so that one day he could go to college and make something of himself. This he vowed to the empty heavens above when no one was around to hear his pain.
Then, a time came when little Sancho could leave his Uncle�s home. his salvation was his older cousin Florence, 12 years his senior, she had babysat him on occasion when he was younger and still had his family. she had been living in San Fransisco with her husband Adolph, who was in the navy and stationed at a base there. She was pregnant with her first child and they were moving back to Colorado to start their new family in their new house.
So it came to pass that little Sancho went to live with his cousin and her new family. he was 16 then and becoming a young man. He wasn�t the best in school, but he tried his hardest and it was much better than any of his family had ever done before. He helped Florence raise her children, and in time, he was a part of a family of six. He was much older than all of the kids and they called him Uncle Sancho for he was good and kind and loving to all of them.
The time finally came when Sancho had graduated highschool. He was the first in his family to graduate junior high, and thus graduating highschool was looked upon as a great achievement. But this was still not enough for Sancho, he wanted more, he wanted to be all he could be and make for certain that he would never have to return to his hometown again. Thus, after highschool, Sancho went on to college. Being a poor Mexican, he signed up for the navy so that he could get money to go to college. Always Sancho was good with his hands, he could build things with wood and fashion items from the simplest of materials. This was his calling, and he decided he would learn all he could about craftsmanship, woodworking and steelworking.
While he was at college, Sancho met a woman named Pauline. She was his first love. A Navajo woman from southeastern Nevada. They new each other for a while, but then came another war. Far far away in the jungles, it was ordained that Sancho should go and fight for his country, for freedom. At this time the country was in great upheaval due to the war, and a young man had one of two choices � go to college, or go to war. Because Sancho had signed up for the navy to go to college, this was quite a dilemma. For even though he had chosen to go to school, the military had chosen that he should go to war. And so he did. As little Sancho boarded the plane to far off lands and far off conflicts, Pauline told him that she was pregnant with his child. he shook his head in sadness.

�when�IF�I return, we will be married and I will help to raise our child.�

and off he went.

The jungles were a dangerous place, as they usually are, but not because of lions or tigers; but because of men. There was much destruction and chaos. It was Sancho�s job to build bases and landing strips for planes and helicopters. He would toil in the hot muggy air to build shelters for his comrades. The days in the navy were hard indeed. Long nights spent patrolling in fear of the enemy. Hot, humid days sweating in the sun. Sancho had truly become hardened in both mind, body and spirit. But always he would look at the picture of his Pauline and dream of a day when he could return home to see his daughter, Christine. It was this dream that kept him alive, that kept him working, that kept him fighting. For war is not a pretty place, even your comrades show sides that you do not want to see, and when mortars fall from the sky like rain, you wonder if there is even a God in heaven who cares�.
But such was not the fate of little Sancho to die in the dark jungles far away, and after a time he returned home to his wife and child. like the dark and painful memories of his childhood, Sancho stuffed his demons of war into the shadowy corners of his mind and locked them away. He focused on his present, his wife, his young daughter.
For years after he returned Sancho worked on the reservation with his wife and cared for his daughter, but always there was the distant longing. The yearning for more. For on the reservation Sancho felt as though he was nothing. he feared that he was becoming just what he vowed long before in the lonely nights of his youth that he would not become. Day by day his yearning grew greater and greater until he could no longer resist. Destiny had not yet released little Sancho from its hold, for it had much greater plans for him; and it was the siren�s call of his own fate that lead Sancho to leave his wife and child and return to his education.
With a heavy heart, Sancho left his family. even though he knew that it would cause great pain to them, he knew also that by not following his heart the pain would grow even greater with resentment. Thus, despite his wife�s pleas and threats, he left and went back to school�
He was happy to return to school however; and his heart was buoyed with his learning and knowledge. He was a master of his craft, and had indeed found his true calling. So too did he find his true love. Though he was still married, he met a gorgeous young woman named Christa. She was vibrant and buxom, a blond bombshell, wild and happy. She breathed to him a new energy, one that he had almost forgotten, or perhaps had never really felt. At first they were merely friends and confidants. They both shared a love of dancing and he would accompany her and her friends to the bars and clubs and act as their protector and chaperone. It was not long before Christa began to feel a growing love for the young man named Sancho. He was hard-working, strong and handsome; but beyond that his heart was big and generous and loving. She could not help but fall in love with him, and eventually they both found profound love and happiness in each other�s arms.
But Sancho was a good man, a righteous man, and he could not in good faith love another while still being tied to his family and his old life. For years he sought out his wife, to end it, to serve the divorce papers; but she was diffucult to find on the reservations and it was a long time before it would become final.
This was not the end for Sancho, for he was not liked by Christa�s mother. She was a bitter, bigoted and opinionated woman who believed all Mexicans were womanizers and lazy good-for-nothings. His struggle for her approval was long and it was not for years to come that she would finally accept him as part of her family.
But Sancho was a good man, a strong and passionate man, and he came one day to the house of Christa�s parents to speak to them and seek their blessing. For he wanted nothing more than to love and marry Christa for all the long years of his life. So there he stood, on the doorstep of Christa�s father�s house with nothing but truth and love in his heart.

�Sir, I know what you and your wife think of me. I know she does not approve, but I am here to say to you today, that I want nothing more in life to love and cherish your daughter for the rest of my life. I promise you that I will work hard for your daughter. That I will respect her and cherish her as you respect and cherish her, and I will never leave her side.�

To which her father replied.

�Son, I am a tolerant man and there is no doubt in my mind that what you say is true. I see in you a good man, one that will indeed care for my young daughter and see to her happiness; but I cannot give you blessing. In part because I know you still are married, and in part because my wife, her mother, does not approve. You have a friend in me son; and when you are free of your wife and have seen to it that she is taken care of then and only then will I put in a word to my wife for you. You must be an honest man if you wish to marry my daughter, and you are not honest until you have taken care of your business. But let it be known now, that I am deeply moved by your presence here today; and I am grateful that you are man enough to speak to me. No go and do not return until you have done as I�ve asked.�

So it was that Sancho doubled his efforts. He wanted more than anything to be with his beloved Christa, to hold her and love her all the long years of their lives together. So he sought out with greater determination his wife and served her the papers for their divorce. When all was said and done he had completed the task that Christa�s father had set before him; but despite, her mother still did not approve. This however did not deter the young lovers, and they eloped. They moved far away to the tropical isles of St. Thomas to work and love and live�.

Many years had passed when Sancho flew his mother-in-law and his father-in-law out to those balmy sand beaches and tropical shores. He wanted to impress them, and show to them how happy their daughter was with him. So too did he want to make amends and learn to know and love his new mother and father, for they were really the only mother and father that he had had since he lost his so long ago.
When they arrived in St. Thomas Sancho and his wife showed them around. They took them diving and out to dinner and they all had a great time. In the end, Sancho had won their hearts, and his mother-in-law had a new perspective of her daughter and her son-in-law, little Sancho. Eventually they went back home, and all was well with Sancho and his new family. but this is not the end of the story of little Sancho, for his life is great and the story is long, and his greatest lesson had yet to be learned�

11:57 a.m. - 2004-10-16

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