The States

Dum Spiro Spero

one

They are formed at the same time. Identical. Indistinguishable aside from the ribbon tied in the neckline of their nightgowns- red for one and blue for the other.

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They share the name Carolina, but one is called Albemarle sometimes and the other is called Clarendon. Sometimes they call each other North and South. Mostly, they don't call the other one anything, because they never need to differentiate.

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The twin representations of Carolina don't need anyone but each other, and it stays that way for a long time.

They race through the forests and swim in the rivers and climb the trees. They go east and chase the wild horses. They watch turtles hatch and struggle into the ocean and kick away the crabs that try to eat the baby turtles. (One of the crabs pinches South's ankle and draws blood for his trouble, but that's alright.) They play with mountain lions cubs up in the mountains and try to catch fishes in creeks.

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One day, they start to fight.

They don't stop until they're split into two colonies, North and South.

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It's a summer after their separation that they make the promise.

It's hot, the air sticky and humid and they stand in a pine forest and pinky promise that one will never go where the other cannot follow, that they are forever.

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Georgia is a piece they hadn't realized they were missing until they found her.

One day, they're running across North's sand dunes after wild horses and the next a tug is guiding them South.

It's a weird feeling, like having a string looped around your heart and something pulling it like a leash.

At the edge of South's territory, the boundary they never cross, there's a girl.

Somehow, they know that she has come a long way to meet them, too.

She's tiny, but fierce, like the mountain lion cubs from so long ago. She plants her little freckled fists on her hips and silently dares them to challenge her when she tells them her name is Georgia. (She tells them apart without even trying.)

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They wander between their colonies, exploring and playing.

Georgia takes them down to see otters- which like Georgia and don't like North (he has the bite marks to prove it). They find foxes that have fur the same color as their hair and the foxes eat wild blackberries out of their hands. They spend a whole day knee-deep in a river with one of North's black bears trying to catch fish (they don't catch any, but the bear does). They boost Georgia up into an apple tree because she's the least likely to break the branches and she gets stung by two wasps trying to pick apples (she pouts at them for days after). Winters they spend in whichever city was nearest, stealing food and slipping into closed shops at night for warmth (South steals three silk ribbons for Georgia's hair one year).

They spend a summer climbing as far into the mountains as they can go, making it a game to see how far they can get before they feel the distinct not-yours feeling. They run into Cherokee a few times, and he always offers them a place to stay and they always decline. Sometimes when they decide to go exploring Georgia's land they run into Creek, and she always offers them the same thing.