His Majesty (Slide Away)

60.

John had ended up driving his own car to Hersey's County, as one of the Royal cars would have been too recognisable. So John took his own Mini instead, an old car that he had purchased to renovate but had just not had time to complete. Martin sat in the passenger seat, keeping a look out through the window for the Queen. John's eyes kept mainly focused on the road, though he too was searching.

The county was a dull place, full of worn down flats with weeds growing in between the red bricks, knocked over rubbish bins with trash spilling onto the ground and stray felines everywhere. There was a small river that ran through the middle of the county, the bridges to cross to the other side having been vandalised to the brim. The potholes in the road were unbelievable, John having to keep his eyes constantly on the road so that he didn't break his car.

"This place is..." Martin began, but losing his train of thought at the sight of two stray cats digging through a broken rubbish bin.

"...Awful." John finished, leaning up in his seat and peering over the bonnet through the front window so that he could clearly see the road. "Are you sure Mimi came here, Martin? I mean, does she even know about this place?"

"Mimi knows about it, alright. She just always avoided talking about it." Martin responded.

"Why? The place is horrible!"

"Exactly. This place was always on the agenda in the early days of her rain, however she would always skip to the next point. After a while, we stopped putting it on the list." Martin shrugged. "I asked her about it once, years ago, and she said that 'you can change a person's living space, but mentally they will always reside there' . I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but if I am honest, I did not wish to know more."

John did not respond immediately, rather falling into a train of thought. He remembered how Mimi was just a few weeks ago, was short and miserable with everyone she met. How she invited Paul to breakfast with her just so she could terrify him, and how just a few weeks ago she had not spoken to her sister in months.

"What changed?" John asked, all of a sudden, leaning back into his seat slowly.

"What do you mean, your highness?"

"I mean... Well, since Brian, you have been the closest to Mimi. Why did she stop being like that? Why did she stop the bitterness, the spitefulness?"

"John..." Martin sighed, looking down.

John was taken aback. Martin had just referred to him with his real name. No royal title, he was just John. Martin had never done this, so John figured he must have meant buisness.

The Prince pulled the car over onto the curb next to a brick wall, stopping the engine and turning around fully to face Martin.

"Mimi always gives in. When she met George, she gave into happiness. When she became Queen, she gave into the role of ruler. When she lost George, she gave into the role of sadness and bitterness. Right now, she is giving into the role of something..." Martin explained clearly, staring right at John. "Maybe it's the fact that she almost died, and that made her realise that she has to appreciate things, maybe it's something else but we don't know. Nobody knows. Nobody other than her, so all we can do is just deal with it. Try and help her, try and understand, even if we can not."

John stared at Martin for a few more seconds, before staring down at the gear box of his Mini. He tried not to think into it too much, however he could understand what Martin was saying. Mimi did let everything that happened effect her, all of her. She only really became spiteful and cruel when something effected her so negatively, when uncle George died.