Laurens, I like you a lot!

Chapter 10

I woke up to the sound of boots in my ear. A man bent down and pressed his cheek to my nose. I woke up with a start, my nose smashing him in the face.

"Watch it!"

"Burr?"

"Looks like you're really taking on the tomcat role, huh, Alexander."

"You have no idea."

"Let's go, kid," he said, dragging me up by the arm. He took me to his house and he let me get cleaned up and borrow some of his clothes. They fit alright for clothes that weren't mine.

"Explain."

"Eliza knows everything about what happened with John. So does Angelica. I tried to reason with her, but that's her sister I messed with. She's a hurricane and Eliza's the eye."

Aaron nodded with understanding.

I looked down at the ground and said, "In the eye of the hurricane there is quiet, for just a moment. A yellow sky."

I told him about the hurricane that destroyed my town when I was seventeen, and how this is far worse.

"But I wrote my way out," I said. "Wrote everything down far as I could see. I wrote my way out. I looked up and the town had its eyes on me."

He leaned in, his chin leaning on his hand. His arm was resting on the table.

"I wrote my way out of hell. I wrote my way to revolution. I was louder than the crack in the bell. I Eliza love letters until she fell. I wrote about the constitution and defended it well, and in the face of ignorance and resistance, I wrote financial systems into existence."

I took a deep breath, knowing these last words would have to be powerful and mind-bending and breaking.

"And when my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance!"

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and I turned to see George in the foyer buttoning his shirt.

"Hello, Mr. Washington."

"Go home, Alexander. That's an order from your commander."

"I have no where else to turn," I stammered, defeated. I had no one else in my life who wanted me, except for these two. My wife doesn't want me. Her sister doesn't either. The only man in my life whom I loved is now dead. No parents, and now my father-figure is kicking me out.

I realized that my resistance was to no avail. I grabbed the clothes I had worn here and tucked them under my arm. I made my way out, onto the street. I began to walk back to the bar. Sure enough, Peggy was still tied outside. We rode back to the house. My house. Mine and Eliza's house. The one we painted blue on the inside. Our house.

I knocked on the door; I felt like a stranger in my own house. My bags were still packed on the porch, so if she didn't let me in, I could just leave. I don't know where I'd go.

I was just about to turn and walk back to Peggy when the door opened. Eliza looked at me, her face red and blotchy from the tears, and began sobbing. She hadn't said a word but I knew she needed me. She began to collapse, her knees almost buckling underneath of her. I caught her under the arms, wrapping mine around her. She cried into my shoulder, whispering my name between sobs.

"Alexander," she gasped.

"Shh, shh, it's okay," I said. We weren't a sight for sore eyes, that's for sure. We were crouching down on the steps, so I pulled her closer to me as I sat down. There we sat for about 5 minutes in complete silence, save for the occasional sniffle.

Finally, I asked her, "What's wrong? What happened, Liz?"

She took a deep breath and finally said, "All you wanted was to redefine your legacy, and I could've helped you but I didn't and I, I, I.."

She started sobbing again, and her words were drowned out.