"Are you doing anything this weekend, Cyndi?"
"I plan to sit on my butt and read magazines," Cyndi replied.
Mandy never understood that expression. how can you sit on the very thing you sit with? "I am so bored and I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself when I'm older."
"You think I can help you with that? What is the thing you like to do most, Mandy?"
"Have you ever heard me sing, Cyndi?"
"You can sing?"
Mandy started:
Tommy and Mary loved one another
All the class knew this,
When they were in the playground
They were in a state of bliss...
"Nice vibrato, silly song. Who wrote that song?" Cyndi asked.
"I dunno. I just heard it from someplace."
"You sure you didn't write it?" Cyndi asked.
"I'm telling you..."
"Do you think of Seward or Clarence when young that? C'mon," Cyndi teased.
Mandy, sitting on a tree stump, put her elbows on her thighs and her chin in the palm of her hand. "I wish i knew, Cyndi."
"Hey, here comes Seward!" Cynthia exclaimed, excited for Mandy. "Call him, Mandy!"
And Seward approached Mandy and asked her if she had seen Gina. Mandy did not answer. She wondered what was worse- a failing grade or being asked that question. Cyndi helped Mandy by pointing Seward in the wrong direction.
"Go after Clarence, Mandy. You are what he needs right now. Seward doesn't need you. Clarence is a sweet boy and needs a girl just like you." Mandy sighed.
Mandy went home. Lorraine would be home in an hour and a half. Mandy went to her room and listened to music. Daniel and Harry were playing and arguing in the living room. Then, the video phone rang. It was, of all people, Angela. Her biological mother. A river of emotions flowed through her. She wanted to hug Angela you and disown her at the same time.
"Hi, Mom!"
"How are things Mandy?"
"Dad's in prison."
"Is he really?"
Mandy wondered if Angela was trying to blackmail her- her own biological daughter. Angela wanted Mandy back. She was lonely. Angela had run off with some other man. Then, that man ran off with someone else.
"Don't you love me?" Asked Angela.
"I do mom. But Lorraine has two kids here. I'm their babysitter as well as their stepsister, see?"
"Look what happened to your dad!"
"Do you despise my father that much ?" Mandy asked, her blood starting to boil. To cool down, Mandy half-heartedly told Angela she still loved her and hung up.
"What was that all about, Amanda?" Lorraine asked.
"Mom wants me back with her. She broke the marriage up. I lived with her first, before you married dad. When I heard dad was getting hitched, I had to come back to him... and you. I am so happy I am living in a two-parent household again, even if dad's incarcerated. How did your husband die again?"
"Remember the great train wreck on the Richmond railway?"
"Oh yeah. How'd that happen again?"
"Some deranged guy set fire to the rails. When asked why he did such a thing, he said it was a 'physics experiment.'" Angela rolled her eyes and sighed. "But everyone knew he was taking innocent lives to make a political statement. The train is run by the government. That's why I don't want you going protesting, as much as I can't stand Angus Sage. My husband was on that very train. He was among the dead.
"I was at work when it happened. My workday was two hours longer than his. When I heard of the derailment, I just knew."
Mandy held Lorraine's hand.
"Do you love my father Lorraine?"
"Yes, I do. And I wish he were not duped into such a protest. It is why I don't want you at any of those riots. Understand?" Lorraine asked, wagging her finger at Mandy.
"Yes Lorraine. I promise."
"I love your dad, and I love you, Mandy."
"We'll get him out soon, won't we, Lorraine?"
"We'll see..."
"Has a bail been sett?"
"Not that I heard."
"All he did was take part in a little sit-in!"
"We elected this madman sixteen years ago, and at the end of his five-year-term, he made himself 'president for life' with a junta. You know I voted for Alice Carmody, the radical moderate. Not that she would have been all that better than Angus Sage," Angela sighed.
"I guess anarchy is the only way."
Angela clapped her hands very fast in front of Mandy's face. Doing so was the closest thing to legal physical discipline for children and adolescents (by parents) under the Richmond Constitution. Mandy was startled. "I... Yes, I'm sorry! That was a stupid thing to say!""
"Imagine had you said that in front of Sage's peace officers. The youngest one can be imprisoned in the land of Richmond is fourteen, you know."
"Sage is a paranoid, authoritarian, narcissistic blowhard of a man. He must be toppled by pacifist centrists like me!"
"You really want chaos in the streets?" Lorraine asked.
"Well, I guess my punishment would be a lot worse than that clap you just gave me."
"You don't want to think about that, do you, Amanda?"
"Lorraine, call me 'Mandy,' okay? I prefer Mandy." Lorraine ignored her.
Mandy stepped outside. It was windy. Somehow, she liked it when it was windy. She let the wind blow her long, untangled hair all over the place. She wondered if there would be any major protests soon. Still, Lorraine had a point- Mandy did not want to be placed in a round-up. Mandy also wondered if she could escape Richmond Island. But that is the land we separated from! I don't want to be seen as a traitor to my state! Could she go someplace else?
Mandy knew that there were other lands taken over by the Hillslandites. The land called . Broken Fields was free now, though, she knew. At first, the people resisted. Hillsland did not do it by force; rather, it tricked the Broken Fieldites by building a bridge there. More bridges were builtbetween Hillsland and Broken Fields. Broken Fields was once an empire unto itself. Now, it no longer considered itself an empire; the cities it took over had long forgotten that Broken Fields was once a small town unto itself that swallowed up other small towns. One town Broken Fields conquered was named 'Ganarsee.' Another was named Pushvik.
In the last one-hundred years or so, Broken Fields dwindled. The ruler of Hillsland, Rose Garden, gave the finger to the people of Broken Fields, which was now not much more than a ghost town. No, not a ghost town. A desert. But there was hope- farmers were trying to cultivate the land of Broken fields. Not an easy task, since there was so little land to cultivate there- Broken Fields is scattered with abandoned buildings that have to be torn down, Mandy knew. Mandy wondered if she could see Broken Fields, too.
"Lorraine, have you ever thought of visiting Broken Fields?"
"I have, Amanda. But it is hard to get there from here. The only boat is at the end of the Island. and besides, there's nothing there."
"Maybe we can change that. I wanna leave Richmond so bad! The city is dying!"
"Mandy, Richmond is already dead!"
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STOP"radical moderate" haha awesome!