Re: United We Stand [7/?]
anonymous
May 15 2009, 03:00:15 UTC
I'm so glad you guys like it! I think I've included all the states that entered the Union between Maine and Nevada, at least in passing. Sorry, Mountain States, but you didn't exist yet, LOL.
Sorry for the delay in updating. I'll try to get more up tonight because I'll be out of town this weekend ^_^;;
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“What’s that sound?” asked America, rubbing his temples. Only California was around to ask. Even though Oregon had come into the Union relatively easily (as a free state, too - Massachusetts was pretty happy about that), Pennsylvania still suggested that he take things easy for a while.
So there had been a sort of mass exodus from America’s house, the states moving back to their own legislatures, leaving him only with his very youngest and a few servants. It made the house very quiet, now, very lonely, like the rest of his life stretched before him endlessly without respite.
That is, until the sound had started that morning, a little soft whine, and America for the life of him couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He searched from emptied room to emptied room, trying to find the source, noting carefully where it seemed to be coming from, until he found California in a room, sitting on top of a trunk.
“I don’t hear anything,” said California, but it sounded like it was definitely coming from that room. Sometimes, though, California could be so oblivious…
“Don’t you hear that?” America asked, and California paused from her reading.
“Oh,” she said, and by then, America was sure it was coming from that trunk she was sitting on.
“Get up,” he ordered, and once California hopped up with her book, America kneeled down painfully to open the trunk. It was a gift from long ago, with a five-number lock.
It might have been a baby raccoon inside the trunk, some animal that California found outside. Maybe she was trying to hide it away from him, like some precious thing that needed to be locked away, like those letters of America’s that were still missing even when only he had the key. But anyway. He’d have to talk to her about how she couldn’t just take animals into the house, but then he realized that what was inside the trunk wasn’t a little animal at all.
Instead, it was little Oregon, flinching at the light.
“God,” America breathed. California only stared.
“How long has she - oh Lord -” America picked Oregon up, cradling her close as she continued making those small wines, probably too tired and dehydrated to cry. “Why?”
America’s mind raced, trying to think of what he should do with her first, trying to gauge how long she’d been locked up in the trunk.
“I know she’s annoying as Hell sometimes, California, but you’ve just got to deal with it -”
“I didn’t do it.”
“Don’t lie to me!” If there wasn’t going to be anyone around the least, the very least the ones around could do is not lie to him.
“Dad,” she said, and pointed to the box, somehow still calm, “Think, Dad. Who else knows the combination?”
And America realized for the first time that, despite everything, California was a very smart little girl.
Sorry for the delay in updating. I'll try to get more up tonight because I'll be out of town this weekend ^_^;;
---
“What’s that sound?” asked America, rubbing his temples. Only California was around to ask. Even though Oregon had come into the Union relatively easily (as a free state, too - Massachusetts was pretty happy about that), Pennsylvania still suggested that he take things easy for a while.
So there had been a sort of mass exodus from America’s house, the states moving back to their own legislatures, leaving him only with his very youngest and a few servants. It made the house very quiet, now, very lonely, like the rest of his life stretched before him endlessly without respite.
That is, until the sound had started that morning, a little soft whine, and America for the life of him couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He searched from emptied room to emptied room, trying to find the source, noting carefully where it seemed to be coming from, until he found California in a room, sitting on top of a trunk.
“I don’t hear anything,” said California, but it sounded like it was definitely coming from that room. Sometimes, though, California could be so oblivious…
“Don’t you hear that?” America asked, and California paused from her reading.
“Oh,” she said, and by then, America was sure it was coming from that trunk she was sitting on.
“Get up,” he ordered, and once California hopped up with her book, America kneeled down painfully to open the trunk. It was a gift from long ago, with a five-number lock.
It might have been a baby raccoon inside the trunk, some animal that California found outside. Maybe she was trying to hide it away from him, like some precious thing that needed to be locked away, like those letters of America’s that were still missing even when only he had the key. But anyway. He’d have to talk to her about how she couldn’t just take animals into the house, but then he realized that what was inside the trunk wasn’t a little animal at all.
Instead, it was little Oregon, flinching at the light.
“God,” America breathed. California only stared.
“How long has she - oh Lord -” America picked Oregon up, cradling her close as she continued making those small wines, probably too tired and dehydrated to cry. “Why?”
America’s mind raced, trying to think of what he should do with her first, trying to gauge how long she’d been locked up in the trunk.
“I know she’s annoying as Hell sometimes, California, but you’ve just got to deal with it -”
“I didn’t do it.”
“Don’t lie to me!” If there wasn’t going to be anyone around the least, the very least the ones around could do is not lie to him.
“Dad,” she said, and pointed to the box, somehow still calm, “Think, Dad. Who else knows the combination?”
And America realized for the first time that, despite everything, California was a very smart little girl.
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And poor little Oregon. I liked how you described her distress. I actually started feeling really bad for her. (Poor thing!)
Ugh 50 kids, ohh America you need a babysitter.
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