The revolution

Chapter one

Dear Mary Cooper JR,                        October, 24, 1764                   

    I am writing to you today to tell you that all is well. I know that it has been a long time since I have written to you but, I have a perfectly good reason. Lately we have had a British General staying with us. His name was Mr. Ronaled Jackson. Although the name does probably not sound familiar he stayed with us (unfortunately.) A little more on the situation, now that we have housed on British General we are likely eligible to house another one. Although it is not an option. We WILL house a second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on. We have no idea when, or who we will housebut, if I take a while to write back it is probably because I have another British General staying with me.
    Anyway, I hope all is well with you. How are you? I am all right given the circumstances. Have you heard any work from your brother or father? Are you still in the adoption center? Are you currently living with someone? Also, where do you live? I am still, same as always. Working downstairs in father's shop, working outside, and walking around town. All is very much the same. With me and the town.
    I still remember the first time you came to work for my father and I met you. You were the existing one and I was the quiet one. I was scared for the British to come because of the storeys I had heard. You looked me in the eyes and said:
    "If you're scared you have no chance. You are done. But what makes you scared? If you are scared the British will take advantage of you and the rest of thirteen states."
    I was so amazed by what you said but it was true. In our town, Jamestown, the British came through. They came through chanting,
    "Give us our country back! You will never make it!"
    Although I did not make a big difference, I stood with the other people chanting
    "LOBSTER BACKS!" At the top of our lungs.
    I do not know whether or not you have experienced it yet but, Vergina has something called the sugar act. Although, there is an upside. The king's parlement. This states that all the colonists can make their own laws. This is very good, but you probably already knew this.
Mary, I will end by saying that all is well and I hope the same happens to you. Please write back as soon as possible.

        Sincerely your friend,
Skyler Green

As they neared me and the people I was standing near, my stomach ached and felt like it was tying itself into a hundred knots. Each knot was pulling tighter as each step the British took closer to me. Mother always told me the best thing to do when you have a stomach ache is to take a big breath in than out. Check. But I guess Mother is not always right, this is definitely an example of that. Mother also said that the second thing you have to do is if you know what is causing the problem to fix it.
    It would have been so easy to just say- 'cheerio! See you later, and walk away. But, with all the strength I could muster up I stood there, disobeying everything that was taught to the British and to their children. But, I am NOT a British child why should I care what they and their children are taught? What they believe? Who cares? Not me. I should spit on them. They have ruined my childhood and others lives. This is my war and my life  to live and no Red horse is going to stand in the way of my life.
    I am scared and shaking like a psychopath, and that is when one Red Horse with a real horse came right up to me. He hopped off the horse with the reins in one unusually large hands. His nose was so long! Our noses were practically touching and he was standing two inches away from me but, I did not care.  In his breath I could smell that he had not brushed his teeth in days, weeks, posibly even months. Some of his hairs from his beard brushed against my chin.
"Move along Red Horse," I told him in a weak and weary voice but, enough that he heard.
"Right back at you. You are a skinny little piece of nothing that they call a child," he said in a snarky voice. Then he was on his way.
  I don't know why but, his words stung me. Maybe because it reminded me of how powerless I really was as a child.
As I walked home I replayed the man in my face over and over. I could still smell the horrendous odor somewhere deep in my nose. All I could think about was how much I missed Mary. She said: "Would you like one of these were you sneeze?" Holding up her fists. If he just brushed him off, she would have seriously punched him. Then, looked over at me and gave me one of those death stares that she always does whenever we both knew when one of us made a huge mistake.
When I finally got home I walked in and shut the door then went up to my room. I changed my clothes and went back downstairs to work some more.
The first thing that I saw was a pile of papers that Father had left for me to copy for this week's newspaper. I sat down at the table and picked up the first sheet of paper.
I reprinted each paper almost 100 times before I could stop. My hands ached but I still continued on. I had lots of work due to the shop that my father owned. Although I had many older and younger sisters and brothers a lot of the work fell on me. My entire family had many things to do. Each of my brothers have school, my older sister works in the clothing part of the shop, and my younger sisters work with my mother making candles or baking treats for the bakery. The long days seem never ending with all the work and no friends. If Mary was here right now she would know how to cheer me up.