Prologue
My story is what the title indicates; one of love and the hard road that love can entail. It concerns a number of people all of whom have effects on each other, even though they may never meet. You will meet all of them.
Meet Stephanie.
To say that Stephanie is lovely is to understate the truth about her. It is not just to say she is physically lovely, although she is certainly that. If you must have some details, then be satisfied with a couple. She has those most beautiful of colour combinations of black hair and blue eyes. I add, that the rest of her is very nicely arranged.
Stephanie's loveliness extends beyond the physical to include a bright and sparkling personality in addition to which is a depth of character. Some people may possess one or two of these qualities, but to have all three is not so usual.
That Stephanie is the sort of person she is might seem suprising since her parent's marriage came to an end when she was ten years old. After that, her mother took in a series of live in lovers who, starting when she was about twelve, all had a go at groping Stephanie.
It might have been the very sordid nature of this situation that caused Stephanie, at age fifteen, to come to a resolution she never wavered from until forced to do so. She resolved that her virginity would be a gift from her to the man she married. Unusual by today's standards? Yes, but surely not completely unknown.
In the course of time, and by dint of her own scholastic efforts, Stephanie qualified as a Pharmacist and fortunately gained a position in a 24-hour Pharmacy near the flat that she was renting.
Enter Francesco.
Being the sort of girl she is Stephanie was never short of dates with men, but none of them had ever struck just the right note for her. Most of them seemed to anticipate easy sex with her, but she fended off all pleading, bullying, bribing and soulful weeping.
Then one day Francesco entered her life. He came into the Pharmacy with a prescription for his mother and was served by Stephanie. His dark good looks and sparkling black eyes immediately thrilled her. They engaged in a little light banter, and he left. Other girls working in the shop made giggling remarks about this young man putting his shoes under their bed, but I am afraid they had little hope of that.
Stephanie did not altogether forget Francesco after he left. He kept popping into her mind's eye, and this made the day rather pleasant for her. If she thought that this was the last she would see of him, she was very wrong. The next day he marched boldly into the Pharmacy and asked for her by name – she wore a badge with her name on it – and when she came to him, he announced in an oddly stilted sort of way, "My name is Francesco, and I would like you to come with me to see a film tonight."
Stephanie was somewhat taken aback by this abrupt invitation. She pointed out that she could not discuss the matter just then, but if he could meet her at lunchtime, they could talk about it. He agreed to this, and they duly met, and went to see the film that evening.
I do not wish to linger long on the details, but one date led to another and after an initial attempt to get her to have sex with him, he tried no more. The whole thing started to take on the appearance of an old fashioned courtship. Francesco plied her with flowers and other small gifts, and it culminated in Francesco announcing that his parents would like to meet her, so she was to come to dinner next Saturday. Francesco had an interesting way of making an invitation sound like a command.
Francesco met her at her flat, and escorted her to his home. If she had any doubts about the reason for the invitation, they were soon clarified. It was a general appraisal of her person. Was she a catholic? (She was in a perfunctory sort of way). Why did she live alone? Where were her parents? Most embarrassing was the mother's attempt over washing up to discover the condition of Stephanie's hymen through a series of questions about boy friends in the past.
The visit over, Francesco escorted her back to her flat, kissed her good night in the rather courtly way he had, and departed.
Another royal command was issued for the following Saturday. This time there were no further questions, and after the meal, Stephanie found herself alone with Francisco for about ten minutes. Francisco made economical use of this time and, taking a small box from his pocket and opening it, he announced, "We shall be married." The box contained an engagement ring.
Now to be fair to Francisco, Stephanie had not only fallen in love with him, but made no attempt to hide the fact from him. In fact, she had come to adore this handsome but oddly restrained young man. Given the situation Francesco probably had some right to expect a positive response, and this he got.
When the parents returned to the scene, Francesco announced the engagement, and the usual kissing and hand shaking took place. Thereafter dates were fixed, priests were seen, and all the other pre-marital activities carried out.
Meet the Boys.
It was at the time of all this activity that Stephanie found herself doing the evening shift in the Pharmacy for a couple of weeks. Her flat being only a couple of streets away, she usually walked between it and the Pharmacy.
One night, having finished work, she was walking home when she passed three parked cars. She took no particular note of this, as cars were often parked thus. It was just after she passed the third car that she heard doors being flung open, she was seized and dragged into the car. As she struggled and screamed a blindfold was quickly wrapped around her face and a hand clamped to her mouth.
The car took off, followed by the other two that had been parked behind it. She was taken to a local reserve, dragged out and flung onto the ground. For a moment, hands held her down, and she saw woolen Balaklava helmets covering faces. Then an iron bar was placed over her throat, and a voice said, "One sound out of you, bitch, and we press this so you can't breathe."
Their method of removing her clothing was to cut it from her. Police afterwards conjectured that cloth cutters shears had been used. She tried to plead, to tell them she was a virgin, but this only resulted in pressure from the iron bar on her throat.
The first to enter her ripped through her hymen. When he finished he must have seen blood on him from her deflowering, and a voice said, "Look what the filthy bitch done to me," and a kick crashed into her ribs.
How many men took her she could never afterwards say, perhaps ten or a dozen. The other two cars had followed them, and all three were packed with men. For Stephanie it was a nightmare of pain and humiliation. She thought they would never stop.
When they had finally finished with her, she heard someone say, "Better kill her, so she can't talk." "Another voice said, "Na, she ain't seen nothin." The iron bar was removed from her neck, and another kicked smashed against the side of her head. She sank into merciful black oblivion.
She was found, still unconscious, by two would be lovers seeking seclusion in the reserve. As she surfaced from unconsciousness some three hour later, she at first saw everything through a mist. As this cleared, she saw first a nurse standing beside the bed she was lying in, and at the bottom of the bed a man in a white coat. It came to her that she was in hospital. A female voice said, "She coming round."
Stephanie's personal world was one of excruciating pain. She in fact had sustained two broken ribs, a badly bruised head but fortunately no fracture, a bruised throat with some inner damage, a raw and bleeding vagina, and other cuts and bruises resulting from the savage treatment she had received.
She felt a slight prick in her arm, and within seconds, she slipped off into a deep sleep.
Meet Francesco's Father.
When Stephanie awoke from her sleep, she saw through the haze Francisco sitting beside her bed. Turning her head, she saw a policewoman sitting on the other side. The haze cleared, and the policewoman asked, "Do you feel like answering some questions." Stephanie, who was experiencing the return of pain, did not feel in the least like answering questions, but never the less replied, "Yes." And so it began.
In the following days and weeks she was subjected to seemingly endless police questioning. Some of it sympathetic, some of it suggesting that somehow she had initiated the rape. Apparently the suffering and humiliation of the rape was not enough, it had to be added to.
Francesco visited her everyday, bringing flowers and fruit. He sat holding her hand and speaking words of comfort and love. His parents came to see her but for the most part sat silent.
After a couple of weeks, the worst of her injuries had started to heal, and she was released from hospital with instructions to come back for further treatment and tests. Francesco drove her to the flat and escorted her in. He did not stay, saying he had something he must do.
During the following week, there was no visit or communication from Francesco, but on Sunday night there was a knock at the door. Anticipating Francesco, she was surprised to see his father standing there. She invited him in and asked him to sit. He refused the offer of a seat and stood, coming brutally straight to the point. "My son cannot marry you, you are no longer pure, you are defiled. The ring please."
Stephanie was numb with shock. Hardly realising what she was doing, she removed the ring and he snatched it from her and left. Stephanie stood swaying in the middle of the room as coldness swept over her. She fell down in a faint.
How long she remained unconscious she didn't know, but when she came to she tried to crawl to the toilet. She failed to reach it, and there, on the living room floor, she vomited, defecated and urinated.
A Tragic Interlude.
