aloha: Hawaiian; exclamation & noun; used when greeting or parting from someone
present:9/21/1984
Ginny is glaring at him meaningly as she cuts Lani's cake, and Alfred looks at her plaintively.
She just glares at him more.
With a sigh, Alfred disappears, making sure Lani doesn't notice him leaving.
He trudges down to the basement, unlocking one of the storage rooms.
Memorabilia and relics from every decade, every state and corner of his territory sit on the shelves.
There are flags- just about every single one he's ever had, plus all the various state flags from throughout the years- folded into triangles and stacked and then miscellaneous artifacts, ranging from an authentic revolutionary war gun to a WWII-era Japanese katana to a box of Confederate gold.
Alfred goes straight to the back wall, lined with industrial shelving and neatly organized metal safe boxes, where more sensitive items are stored.
He lets his fingers run over them, reading the labels.
Pieces of Mississippi River Panorama; John Banvard. Personal correspondence; Washington. Letters, Prohibition-Era; Cassidy. Transcript of Speech, given on May 29, 1856, in Bloomington, Illinois; Lincoln. Assorted Films (Silent). Journals, 1790s; William. Wright Patent-Copy. Film Negatives; Calypso. Personal correspondence; Hamilton. Fair Copy of the Declaration of Independence.
His fingers stop on one of the boxes. It's one of the larger ones, on one of the bottom shelves.
Possessions of Kaia Hoapili, Personification of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Alfred sighs, and pulls the box from the shelf.
past:12/19/1842
The first time he meets the personification of Hawaiʻi, she and her delegation are asking for recognition as an independent nation.
Hawaiʻi stands proud and talk and does not beg for recognition, not for a single second.
America extends his hand, and Hawaiʻi takes it without hesitation. Without fear.
"Alfred F. Jones."
"Kaia Hoapili."
present
The other states make their excuses and scatter when they see the box.
And so Lani is alone when Alfred sets the box down on the table in front of her.
He hands her the key and watches as she sits forward to unlock it.
Alfred watches Lani's sharp inhale as her eyes land on the photographs on the top of the box.
Lani's fingers ghost over the photograph, tracing her mother's face. Tracing the features they share.
The dark, endless, fathomless eyes. The thick waves of dark hair. The gentle curve of a smile. The dark, tanned skin.
YOU ARE READING
The States
FanfictionThe stories of the United States throughout history. -This is a collection of stories to go along with my other fanfic. -It is not chronological. It isn't really in any order at all. -Can be read in pretty much any order, stories with multiple part...
