Clandestine

five

-diane-

I'm curled up in my chair, sipping my tea and paging through my book. The staff and the last of the stragglers have finally left and I have the house to myself. I plan to steal a few minutes of peace while I can before my father returns home.

I have no such luck.

My father bursts into my room. His cheeks are bright red, but I can tell he's sober. He would never risk embarrassing himself by becoming drunk. He's just angry.

I lower my book. "What is it?"

"The Assembly. Those little..."

I put a hand up, "What have they done this time?"

"They want me to come to a meeting today. Three o'clock. They say that my parties are becoming to be too much of a problem. What could I have possibly done? No one was hurt. Nothing happened. A few people had a little too much to drink but how is that on me? They are probably just mad that they weren't invited."

"Can they punish you for having a party and not inviting them?"

"I'm sure that they can come up with an excuse. Something about it endangering civilians and being a problem to the country. Sure, maybe it does cause a little danger. But only to the people who choose to come. Maybe they should first fight the hunger that is killing thousands of people every day. Maybe they should first fight the corruption in the military that is causing hundreds of people to die because of misunderstanding. Maybe they should first fight their own corruption that is causing people to lose their means of survival due to over taxation. Maybe they should first fight..."

I say, "I understand. It isn't fair. It's just because of our name that they want to punish you."

"I'm sick of being punished for my father's crimes. He made mistakes, horrible mistakes. Maybe they weren't even mistakes. He bribed the wrong people and blackmailed people he shouldn't have. I'm sorry he did that. But I had no control over that. How was I supposed to stop him when I was seven years old? Why do they have to keep punishing me? Don't you think they have punished me enough? I don't have a spot on the Assembly. I wanted that so badly when I was a child. I had all these plans on how I was going to improve this country. I was going to be the change. And now, because of my father, I'm just giving people a place to have a fun night and a few too many drinks."

I press my lips unable to say a word. How do I justify the unfairness the Assembly and his father has placed upon him?

I take a deep breath, "Just go to the meeting. It will look worse if you skip it. Speak your case. Maybe they will actually listen to you. I doubt they would give your spot back on the Assembly, but maybe they'll agree to leave you alone."

He laughs shortly, "I doubt that will happen. We, Diane, are the crap family. We are 'what's wrong with this country'. The Assembly can punish us and make sure the news catches up on it. Then they look so much better for punishing the problems with this country. When really, they are just following the same pattern over and over."

"Then don't give them that victory. Go to that meeting and prove them wrong. Prove your point so that no one can argue."

"How can I prove my point when I don't know what they are even going to try to pin on me? Maybe they want to blame me for the poverty in the country. What about the war they are on the verge of? I'm responsible for that too, right? And the murderer that just happened to one of the Assembly's son, that was me too. I'm what's wrong with this country. I'm sure that if they just got rid of me, this place would be paradise."

"Don't talk like that. Take a few deep breaths. If you get yourself worked up now, you might explode at the meeting. You need to be the reasonable one. Respond calmly when they scream at you. Make them look like the foolish criminals and you are the dignified politician."

He sighs, "You are right. I need to go prepare. I just know that Marcia Quintana is going to tear me apart. I don't know why she is personally offended by me. Just because her father incriminated my father doesn't mean that we have to be enemies. It's as though she is trying to turn everything into a drama."

"Politics, remember?"

He winks at me, "Of course. I forget. We need to get the corruption out of our government. Starting with the Quintanas."

I nod, and I know that it's true. The Quintana are the ones that are oppressing us. If it weren't for the Quintanas constantly bringing up my family in the news and dragging us through the dirt, we might be able to crawl out of our hole.

The Quintana are the root of the problems in this kingdom. Just this past week, Marcia Quintana has been trying to pass a new tax law. She wants to increase the taxes on the poor even more, by almost three percent. Meanwhile, she wants to drop the taxation on the rich by almost five percent.

And yet, she says we are the criminals.