May 16, 2015

New York, First American Empire

"Your majesty we have almost arrived back at the palace," Lord Maxwell stated as our car rolled down FDR Avenue.

"Thank you milord," I replied.

It's been three years since we've been in the palace, and New York in general. In 2012, a hurricane named 'Sandy' practically ruined the entire city, including the palace. For three years it's been being rebuilt, and revamping the city so that it could resist natural disasters in the future.

During that time we had relocated to the Spring Palace in northwestern Oregon, on the coast of the Pacific. It had been nice, but I missed home.

The past twenty years have been crazy in general. My fourth pregnancy came to term on February 16, 1997, and I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Mattéo and I named him John Charles, to keep the old dynasty name going. Hamilton left America in a hissy fit, and we haven't seen him since, though there have been some tabs that my agents in the Imperial Bureau of Investigation have kept on him.

Mattéo and I have raised John Charles well, and I believe he is a fine young man. He turned eighteen a few months ago, and even as a teenager he was much different than his brother. He treated everyone around with utmost respect, he bowed, never rolled his eyes, and spoke clearly and concisely. A fine young man indeed.

Junior is also living a good life for herself. In 2002, she married Marquess Fabien of Tejas and added the title of Marchioness Josephine to her long list of titles. As neither of them was able to have children of their own, they adopted a boy named Lucas in 2008, who was nine at the time, and he became the Earl of Corpus, a region in southern Tejas. Lucas is now 16, and Junior is now 34, which is absolutely unbelievable to think about.

Lily grew up, gave up video games in her late teens to the most extent. In 2004, she married Conor, crown prince of Ireland. Yes, the same Conor who rejected Junior. Apparently, he was a good man deep down. She has had two children, Eire and Conor Jr. In 2011, Eire, the Irish king died after fighting through liver cirrhosis for two years. So my daughter, now my thirty-two-year-old daughter is Queen of the Irish, adding another ally to my belt. 

Sophie is doing well too, now that she has married the new Greek king, Constantine the Third. She seemed alright with it at first, they even have a daughter, Cassandra, though, since 2013, it appears that there is more than meets the eye. I do hope the Greek is treating her well, she's too sweet to face the horrors of a bad marriage. 

Victoria... oh Victoria that girl has gone through a lot recently. She continued to reign as Queen of Persia and Samarkand for many years, raising her children, and eventually having a total of six. She had two more boys, Farhan and Maxwell, named after the Lord in my nobility, and a princess who she named Alexandra, after her late birth mother. She also met her birth father, named Darius, in 1997. He was a drunken drug addict when he dated Alexandra Newman. When she got pregnant, apparently, they both agreed he would be better off not in Victoria's life due to his habits. Finally, in the early 90s, he got sober, cleaned himself up and began looking for Victoria. They had a harmonious reunification and even today, Darius joins us for family gatherings.

But then her life collapsed so suddenly, none of us saw it coming. January 4, 2011. They had visited for Christmas, and everything seemed fine. Ali seemed fine, Victoria seemed fine, the grandchildren were fine. They had decided to tour the northeast together for a romantic winter vacation while the kids went back to Persia. They went to Philadelphia, West Point and Fort Ticonderoga before stopping in Boston.

Then early on the fourth of January, Victoria called. Ali had committed suicide in their car, shooting himself. She ran back into my arms and sobbed, and sobbed and sobbed. Mattéo, Junior, John Charles, and all of us comforted her as she cried her heart out to the lord. Nobody had seen it coming, and especially not Victoria.

When she returned, she tearfully crowned Bahman as the new Shah of Persia, at the age of 21. She has returned to America, reconverted to Lutheranism and now stays with us. She's quieter, but still the same Victoria we all know and adore. She refused to even consider remarrying, as she told me that it would just be impossible to love another man like she loved Ali, which was completely respectable. Besides, Persian nobles are hounding her to remarry, after all, she fulfilled her duties as Ali's wife. 

The world has changed dramatically as well. Napoleon's realm expanded greatly with the invasions of Saar in western Germany and Sardinia in Italy. He still rules France, though he is aging, as most of the currently ruling monarchs.

Konrad is aging as well and is now in his mid-80s which is depressing because I am only twenty years younger than him. God, I can still remember when I was a little girl and he was a young man. But age has not treated Konrad well.

Sasha and Tamil Nadu has also been going through an interesting transition. It's one of the most liberal nations in the world and her people love her. I've been granting her lands much autonomy, though the other Indian states have been increasingly repressed due to their rebellious nature. Sasha is now fifty years old and still going strong, which is incredible. She has four children who she loves, but her husband, Prince Aqueel of Kashmyr she despises with every ounce of her being. She was forced to marry him after all so she had an heir so it's not like she chose him of her own accord.

Moving on, Russia fell to a communist revolution in 2006 following a brutal civil war, and now China has a strong, but unstable ally.

Sato still rules Japan, and they remain stronger than ever in the face of a joint communist invasion. We have been mending our relationship so that we can work together to stop East Asia from falling to Communism.

Our empire still holds firm and fast and our people love the throne. As much as Hussain desires to undermine our authority over the Arabs, they won't let him. Rebellion funds go nowhere, his threats are empty and Arabia has fallen into a mess. Practically the entire world except Russia and China have sanctioned them and even then, China is landlocked and Russia has almost no access to international waters.

So that's the general gist of what has happened in our world in the past twenty years.

"We have arrived at the palace your majesties," Maxwell stated.

We rolled up to the palace.

"Whoa..." Mattéo gasped.

"Magnificent!" John Charles said with his jaw dropped.

"Mom, how much did you spend to get the palace rebuilt?" Victoria asked.

"It would be best if you don't ask..." I replied.

The palace looked amazing. The marble had been reimported, freshly cleaned, and sparkled in the sunlight. Massive flower beds bloomed and butterflies and birds flew around. If the outside is as gorgeous as the inside, then the $2 billion dollars perhaps hadn't gone to waste.

The car rolled to a stop and guards moved forward to open the doors. They did so and we stepped outside. The palace shimmered even more than through the tinted windows of the limousine.

"Wow!" Victoria gasped again.

"Let us go, everyone," I replied.

"Follow us your majesty," One of the guards stated coldly.

We tread behind the guards, up the stairs where they opened the massive doors.

"Welcome home your majesties,"

We entered the palace and we were not disappointed! The walls were lightly painted, the marble flooring was cleaned and sparkled. Paintings dotted the walls, and the massive portraits of our greatest leaders, and my ancestors.

John Charles The First, John Charles The Second, and Charlotte. Their elegant portraits sat on the wall where all people entering and leaving the palace could see. They were on the third floor of the palace beforehand and now were in sight of everyone.

"John Charles, Victoria, you may go upstairs and unpack, Mattéo, may you follow me to the throne room?"

Mattéo stiffly nodded. Our son and daughter took their bags upstairs and my husband followed me down the hall towards the throne room. Mattéo has changed a lot physically. He's lost a good majority of his hair, and what was left had lost any color. He looked a little more wired out, but being 62 years old. I looked far older too. My hair had grayed and throughout my fifties, I had desperately tried to keep it colored before I eventually gave up. I almost always wore glasses now, though sometimes my eyes worked well enough without them.

Mattéo still walked with a cane, though his limp had gotten better.

I think we both felt self-conscious about our age, and it only got worse when Junior was in the same room or brought up in conversation. They referred to me as 'Josephine Senior' and my daughter as 'Josephine Junior' which didn't help much. I wonder how much time I have left on this earth... I am sixty-five, in decent health, but this job is stressful and tiresome... I wonder if one day I'll just drop at that blasted desk of mine. No. That's not what I want...

"So Josey, what was it you wanted to speak to me about?" Mattéo asked.

"Well Mattéo... look I'll be honest, we're not the youngest birds in the nest anymore, I'm especially getting older and I have been considering... abdicating..."

Mattéo paused.

"What do you think? Is it a good idea?"

He sighed and scratched his beard, which had also gone white.

"In my humble opinion... no I do not think so..."

I nodded, "Now, may I ask why you think that?"

"Well, John Charles has had no training once so ever, and you know how long it can take to train an heir to be ready to succeed the sovereign. Do you remember when you were thrust upon the throne when you were fifteen? How unready you were?"

"Yes... yes I do..."

"I do not want John Charles to struggle to take the reins as you did, I know he'll be a great emperor, just like you, but I want him to be ready!"

"Oh yes of course, I completely understand! Were there any other concerns that you had?"

"Yes there was. The political chaos that would unfold from it would be astronomical... after all, you would be the first American sovereign to abdicate the throne... all others have died on it..."

"I know, I know, but that's the whole thing I am trying to avoid! I don't want to die at that stupid desk, or on this throne..."

He nodded.

"Well, remember, that is just my opinion, I cannot stop you from doing anything my dear..."

He kissed my forehead and began walking away, "I'm going to start reorganizing our linens and clothes okay?"

I nodded.

"Of course Mattéo! I'll be up in a bit!"

He disappeared up the stairs as I paced around the throne room. I was alone now, by myself, and only accompanied by my own thoughts.

I wondered how I should proceed now that we are back in the palace. I wondered how much longer I desired to stay on the throne that sat still and idle in front of me...

I need to inquire advice from the rest of my children. I am sure that Lily, Sophie, Junior, and Victoria will have something to say regarding the manner of this dilemma I have.