Déjà vu

Chapter 2

"Lucy, wake up. It happened this morning."

Della softly shacked her little sister while whispering this words to her. She didn't wanted to shock her immediately with the death of the King. How relived she was when she saw Lucy's calm look!

"I was certain that it would be today." confessed the youngest one while getting of from her bed. "What do we have to do? Act as nothing has happened?"

Della was a member of the House of Parliaments and her sister was working at the Railway Secretariat; to sum up, they were members of the two most important assemblies of the kingdom. Their high positions gave them a lot of privileges but at the same time, it had many disadvantages: for example, they had the obligation to have a perfect attitude all the time, no matter what. A King doesn't die every year, so the situation was kind of new for the two sisters who didn't knew what to do.

"Maybe we can organize a party. What do you think of this?" laughed Della.

"If this is the definition of funerals for you, than yes, we can." answered Lucy.

They were trying to not worry much about the situation, but they both perfectly knew how disastrous it was. The fact that there weren't any direct descent complicated everything. Della could already imagine how difficult the next months will be at the Parliament. How are they going to decide who will be the King or Queen of Agmen?

As if Lucy read her minds, the youngest sister declared:

"I know that what will happen next won't be easy for us."

"I know, sweetie." sighed Della.

The older one stood up from her sister's bed and started to prepare herself for the day. During her shower, she imagined how many debates will take place during the next months, how many work she will have and how long will be her days. She sincerely hoped that Lucy will have less problems at the Railway Secretariat.

The kingdom was a Constitutional monarchy since its first days. The King or Queen governed the kingdom with the House of Parliaments, whose members decided with the governor of the laws. Five ministers always worked with the governor: the Railway Secretariat, the Minister of the Market, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Education and the Prime Minister. The latter works at the House of Parliaments. The Railway Secretariat managed train lines and freight transport.

The organisation of the kingdom was based on seven national railway lines. Every station corresponded to one village. The central station corresponded to the city where is located the Royal Palace, the House of Parliaments, the Railway Secretariat, the Ministry of the Market, Internal Affairs and Education. Every village had either fields for agricultural activities, either factories; it determined the village's speciality. All villages were responsible of the production of its speciality which must be redistributed through the kingdom. Every four years, the House of Parliaments revamped its members. All villages elected two members per village to be a part of it.

After a fast breakfast, the two sisters went out from their loft to go to their respective works, in a full black costume due to the national mourning. It was urgent to start working the soonest as possible due to the enormous quantity of work.

"This descent thing is a real thorn in the flesh, isn't it?" said Lucy while they were walking. "I am sure that the King Alfred II perfectly knew how many problems will be if he didn't get married."

"Yeah, of course, you're right, the King wanted to destroy the dynasty." ironically replied Della.

"I didn't say this." retorted her sister. "But imagine if Alfred II knew something deeper than... than everything. And that this everything made him change his way of look at the monarchy and..."

"Stop this non-sense!" interrupted her the oldest one. "You can't say this kind of thing, especially if you work for the government."

Della felt guilty for being so rude with Lucy, but she knew that her sister wasn't right. At least, she hoped so.

"He was just an old man who died without descent." said Della. "It's not the first time, and probably not the last one."

Lucy nodded as a sign of approbation: arguing with her sister was the last thing that she wanted to do.

The House of Parliaments and the Railway Secretariat were two buildings located next to each other. The walk from Alem sisters' apartment lasted approximatively twenty minutes, a time considered as really short for most of the people living the central area of the kingdom. Having one apartment for two was very economical for the girls and they weren't planning on changing it.

The central area wasn't the most beautiful place of the kingdom to Lucy's liking. She preferred her home town, a little village specialized in the production of flower. If her parents weren't absolutely convinced that she should became a politician, she would of became a florist. She loved to organize plants by colours or biological properties, she liked the smell of flowers, take sun baths in the fields while walking all the day long... But it was far away from the cloudy urban central area.

"Here we go!" told calmly Della when the girls arrived in front of the two impressive political buildings.

"Are you going to talk with Emma today?" suddenly asked her Lucy with a suspicious smile on her face.

"What?..." stuttered while blushing the oldest sister. "Emma Lind? She is just a colleague from work, nothing else."

After this unclear answer, Lucy's goodbye was a smirk.