Rise To The Crown- The Story of the Third-In-Line

Twenty-Five (2009.5)

Delly's grandparents, particularly Charles, wanted her to be proud of her heritage. And what better way to do that than learning British history at the British Museum?

That's why Delly found herself holding her grandpa Charles's rusty big hands and walking into a very very old-looking building. 

Their guide, Frank Lee, is an old man, who, to Delly, looked as old as the greek-styled museum building. Frank is a true historian and has been a senior member of the British Museum for 40 years now. 

Before starting the tour, Frank likes to say some things to make himself look more deep and professional, "History has no rights or wrongs, at the end of the day, with the passage of time, everything wouldn't matter."

Adelaide thought this was quite funny. If history has no rights or wrongs, and after a long long long time when Frank becomes history, would what Frank just said be right or wrong? about how history is neither right nor wrong? 

Delly's little mind got entangled in the loop of rights and wrongs. Even as the three of them walked into the first exhibition. 

Frank introduced Delly to the Rosetta Stone, or "the big black stone" as Delly called it. He talked about the process of deciphering the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Charles was very interested, but Delly, umm, not so much. Since she doesn't know how to read hieroglyphs, she didn't care for them, Delly wanted to see something more interesting. 

"Hey lil buddy," Charles bent down, "what are you looking at?"

So, for the next few hours, Delly would point to a random thing that sparked her interest and Frank would explain it to her. 

They were making their exit through the museum and Delly had one final question to ask Frank, "Frank, why did these artifacts come here?"

"Oh dear," Frank looked at Charles, wanting to get approval that he can talk about this, "long story short, we stole them."

"Huh?  Why? Don't we have a lot of treasures ourselves?"

"Well, yes. But we always want more," he paused to look at Charles again, but he wasn't looking at him, so he continued, "We colonized Africa to get their mummies, the First Nations to get their fur——"

"But Frank, if you feel so bad about it," Delly cut him off, "why don't you return them back to Egypt?"

Hypocrite, she thought.

Then, she didn't care for the bunch of words that Frank said after. They were excuses, in her opinion.

_

The ride home was largely silent. Charles wasn't very happy with how Delly behaved with Frank, his long-time friend. 

Delly, on the other hand, was thinking about some very deep questions. She pondered, "Frank is ashamed of our history, but does not want to do anything about it, because he lived off of that. So, why does he pretend like he cares?" She knew too little of the world to give a proper explanation, but she knows that it isn't just Frank, a lot of people do that.

_

Laying in bed, Delly thought about history. 

What did she know about history? She knew that her family's history is basically the history of England but does that mean that she must be responsible for everything her parent her grandparents, and her ancestors did? Including colonization? Including the stolen artifacts?

If she was, what can she do about it? She can't change the past, it already happened. But she also doesn't want to become a person like Frank, all talking no doing. 

If she wasn't responsible for what the colonizers (her ancestors) did, was she responsible, or does she have the right to love in Clarence House? A House that her ancestors built? If she wasn't responsible for the bad things that her ancestors did (such as colonization), should she be enjoying her life on top of the good things that her ancestors also did? If the answer to both questions is no, then her conclusion would be that she doesn't have any connections with her ancestors. Further questions would lead to things like: Does she have a right to enjoy anything that anyone has ever given her? What does she have a right to? What can she enjoy?

So, everything comes down to the conclusion that irrespective of your ancestors and your opinions of what they've done, you should be defined by who you are to by who your ancestors were. 

But, in Delly's case, the royal family is defined by who their ancestors were. Adelaide is, to everyone, William the conqueror, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, etc. (or at least a continuation of them)

Delly has the burden to prove that she is competent. 

Delly knows god damn well that, just as how she can't change history, she can't change the fact that people view her family, the royal family, as the symbol of both the best and the worst part of British history.

But, she can make people's perception of her family and their history, better. 

A/N

This chapter might be confusing and might require re-reading a few times to understand the full meaning that I wanted to convey. I'm feeling very philosophical and deep today lol.

I was absent for a long time cause of finals I'm sorry :(

Irey ♡