Microstory 2015: New Mexico

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Papa met a lot of cool new friends when he went to college in Utah. He was still friends with some of them even as an adult. A few of them were at his funeral. One summer, after he was finished with his junior year at Promontory University, some of these friends decided that they wanted to go hiking and camping. Normally in the summer, papa would go home to stay with his parents, but he wanted to go on the trip too. They had done trips like this before, but always somewhere close. A mountain called Wheeler Peak would have taken them twelve hours to drive, but none of them wanted to be on the road for that long, so they bought train tickets instead. The journey was actually longer, because trains have to make a lot of stops, but it was much more comfortable. It was a popular destination for college kids, so a train went pretty close to both places. They still had to take a car to get to the mountain. They didn’t want to spend money on a rental, so they hitchhiked, which means they asked for a ride from a stranger. Dad says never to do that, because it’s dangerous, but papa and his friends were okay. They hiked for several miles up the mountain, and it was really hard, but they enjoyed it. I’ve seen the pictures that he took while he was there. They’re very beautiful. Once they were finished with the hike, they went back to the train station, and took different trains, because they needed to go to different places. Papa did end up going back home to Idaho until it was time for his senior year.

Microstory 2014: Utah

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Promontory University is a college in Utah that’s near Salt Lake City, to the north. The city is named that because it’s next to the Great Salt Lake, which is a really big body of water that has salt in it, like an ocean. It actually has more salt in it than the oceans. I don’t understand how it works, but Mrs. McKinney told me that she’s going to teach us the water cycle in a couple of months, so we’ll probably all learn more about it. Anyway, after the big trip in Europe, my papa decided to go to Promontory University. My grandma said that it was only about 2 and a half hours away from where they lived. So he was able to be out of the house, and learn how to be an adult, but he could also drive back home, and then back to his dorm in only one day if he really needed to. I don’t think he ever had to do that, though. He loved being at school. It’s where he learned the skills that he used when he got a job. That would not happen for a long time, though. After he graduated, he joined the military, but we’ll talk more about that in a few slides when I talk about Rhode Island. At Promontory University, he studied Architectural Engineering. That’s what people use to draw out buildings before other people build them. But he didn’t do much with buildings. His work had more to do with vehicles. That will come up again later too.

Microstory 2013: Maine

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I’ve been telling you stories about my papa going all over the country, but that’s not all he did. He also went to other countries. After he graduated from high school, he and his parents didn’t think that he was ready for college. He wasn’t stupid or too young. They just thought that he should do something else first. A lot of people do something called a gap year, which is when you wait to go to college. This often means traveling to other places. What my papa decided to do was to go on a big ship all the way from the United States to Europe. Specifically, he went from Maine to Portugal. Portugal is a country in Europe where they may sound like they speak Spanish, but it’s actually its own special language called Portuguese. They speak it in Brazil too. Papa did a lot of driving, but he flew in planes sometimes too. This time, he flew to Maine, and stayed for a couple of nights before the ship left. It left from a city called Portland. You’ve probably heard of the Portland in Oregon, but there’s also one in Maine. The ship was this really big thing called a freighter. They carry a whole bunch of cargo across the ocean. Even though it was really big, there weren’t that many people on it. Papa didn’t work for the ship company, but they let him ride for very little money as long as he helped clean. It took three weeks. When he got to Portugal, which the capital of is Lisbon, he spent another couple of nights there, and then he started to backpack all over Europe. The whole trip took him about four months. Dad thinks that papa went through a storm in the middle of the ocean, but he’s not sure, and he obviously made it home safe and sound.

Microstory 2012: California

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As I mentioned on the last slide, my papa one time went to two different states. Actually, he also went through Utah, but he would not have counted that yet, because he didn’t even stay the night. After the college tour in Arizona, he went on to San Diego, California. It was here that people were holding a convention for EmptyCon. You’ve probably never heard of it. They don’t do them anymore, because most of the fans are dead now. The first time they did it was the first convention in the history of the world. Soon after movies were invented, a bunch of them were made that told the story of a man who accidentally traveled to a thing called EmptySpace where there weren’t any suns or planets. Aliens only had ships, and there were stars that were far away that gave them light. I’m not sure how they were able to build ships without planets, but whatever. Papa was probably the youngest fan of the movies, which are kind of stupid now that scientists know more about space than way back before. He spent the rest of the weekend in San Diego, talking with other fans, and the people who owned the movies, but none of the actors who were actually in them, because they were long dead even by then. I’m not into the movies, and neither is my dad. That’s not a problem, though. Both of them taught me that it’s okay to not like everything that the people you love like. I did some things with my papa, and sometimes he did things on his own. It’s the same with my dad. They did things without me too. Always keep an open mind, though. They taught me that too, so maybe I’ll start liking EmptySpace one day when I’m older.

Microstory 2011: Arizona

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My papa applied to go to a ton of different colleges, and got into a lot of them. Grandma says that he filled out more applications than most students do. She laughed when she talked about how much money that they must have spent to send in all of those applications. Did you know that just asking to go to a college costs money? Maybe I won’t go to Harvard. It’s probably really expensive just to apply! As I was saying, grandma can’t remember why he did it for so many of them, but she thought maybe he was playing the odds, but I’m not sure what that means. He only went to visit a few of them, mostly to the ones in the states that he had already been to, but it was the first time that he went to Arizona. He didn’t end up going to school there, so no one can remember which school it was, but everybody thinks that he only chose it because it was on the way to California, which was where he really wanted to go. He wasn’t going to San Diego for a college, though. On the next slide, I’ll tell you why he was there instead, but apparently, he didn’t really care about touring the college. It was just an excuse to drive south. The capital of Arizona is a phoenix, which my dad says is his favorite mythical animal. I think it’s pretty cool too.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 29, 2420

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Generated by Google Workspace Labs text-to-image Duet AI software

“Hello,” Mateo replied. “Do you know someone named Venus Opsocor?”

“She’s a colleague of mine,” Senona answered. “Let me guess, she’s giving you trouble with the Nexus.”

“We’re trying to leave the galaxy that we’re stuck in, and return to the Milky Way. She wants us to go to a specific planet.”

“Do you want to hear my advice?”

“Do whatever she says?”

“Pretty much.”

Mateo nodded. “I was afraid you would say that.”

“I know who you are,” Senona went on. “I met your wife, who asked me for help with an issue you had, so I know that you know the drill. You get one wish. That wish can be to be sent somewhere other than wherever Venus wants you to be, but if I were you, I would not waste my one wish on that. I would pick something else.”

Here again is why Leona should not have picked him to do this. The only reason she did it was because she already received her wish, and would not get another. It was up to him to figure out how to resolve this whole situation, but their issue of only being able to go to Worlon from here was not the only one. They also needed to help Arcadia and her family get back to wherever they wanted to go, and the Flindekeldans might need help too. They prided themselves on being stuck here, but they never really were until about twenty years ago. They always had a way out, it was just somewhat difficult to accomplish. And they could have made it impossible for themselves, but they didn’t, so why not? Why the hypocrisy? And why wasn’t someone smarter here in his place, like Angela, Marie, or Ramses?

“Oh, I’ve seen this before,” Senona mused.

“You’ve seen what?”

“Some people come here alone, or if they’re not technically alone, they’re only responsible for themselves. They can choose whatever they want, and not worry about whether someone will get upset at them for not choosing something else. But a lot of people here will return home to expectations. One wish per traveler is a lot of pressure, so one thing I like to tell people like you is to try to think of something more general. Don’t ask me for a list of requests, and hope they’ll count as one thing when combined. Find a wish that helps everyone all at once. For instance, if all of your friends wished for a good meal, but they don’t like to eat the same thing, don’t list each one’s favorite foods; just ask me to give everyone whatever they want to eat. Simple. General. Doable. Obviously that’s a terribly pedestrian example, but I didn’t want to muddle your desire with something that is anywhere close to what you might be interested in.”

Simple, general, doable, Mateo thought to himself. That was good advice, but he still wished he were smart enough to translate it to his situation better. Ha, maybe he should just literally wish to be smarter. Nah, even if Senona were capable of that, it would be selfish, and meaningless. Think, think, think. What would be simple, general, and doable? He had a decent idea of what Senona could accomplish, and he also knew that they would ask for a final answer, rather than saddling him with whatever first came to mind, whether it was good or not.

“Okay,” Senona began, noticing how he was struggling with it. “Let’s switch gears. Let’s do the opposite of what I just told you. List the things that you need to accomplish, and I’ll see if I can figure out the wish from that.”

“Well, my team and I need to get to the Milky Way Galaxy so we can start helping people all over the Sixth Key with whatever they need. Arcadia and Vearden need to get their daughter back there too, but so they can keep her safe, and raise her right. The Flindekeldans, I believe, need access to a Nexus, but they don’t want it to be too easy to get to.”

“Hm.” Senona thought about it, or maybe they weren’t thinking at all. Maybe the came to the right answer right away. “Try this: I wish for everyone I care about to be wherever they truly wish to be.”

“Oh. Will that work? I mean, Baby Cheyenne only lives for one day every year. They can’t stop it. I’m sure her parents would wish her to not be on that pattern.”

“Yeah, but we’re talking about space, not time. That would be a different wish.”

“Right. And how does that move the Nexus? It’s too far away where it is right now, but it’s not a person, so it doesn’t wish for anything.”

“I can talk to Venus about that. Let’s just call it a bonus. The one wish rule is not an inherent limitation. I could give you as many wishes as I want; I just don’t.”

“Because it would set an untenable precedent, I get it.” Mateo thought more on it, and echoed, “I wish for everyone I care about to be wherever they truly wish to be. Hmm...is that enough?”

“What more could you ask for?”

“Well, just because I don’t specifically care about someone, doesn’t mean I don’t want them to be happy.”

“That’s fair.”

“So.”

Senona smirked. “So...”

“I wish for everyone in the entire universe to be wherever they truly wish to be.”

Their smirk widened into a full smile. “Final answer?”

Mateo thought on it just a little bit longer, then he nodded. “If you can do it, then yeah...final answer.”

“That’s a good one. It’s a big ask, but yes, I can do it. Might take me about a year.” They winked at him.

“Thanks for this, and for helping me get there.”

“You got there on your own. You should stop selling yourself short. You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, but a hammer isn’t meant to be sharp, yet it’s just as useful as a carving knife, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

Senona nodded. “That console over there can conjure just about anything from the bulkverse. It’s also a sequence terminal. Just press the symbol for zero again, and it will return you to your last location whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks again, Senona.”

“No problem.”

As they were walking back towards the rowboat, Mateo could hear something move on it. “Is someone else there?” he questioned.

Senona turned back but said nothing. “No,” came a familiar voice from the dark.

“Holly Blue?” Mateo asked.

Another pause. “No.”

Mateo laughed. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.”

One more delay in the response. “Thanks.”

He could hear them whispering to each other as they rowed into the shadows.

Mateo went over to the console that was sticking out from the platform. It looked just like the same old dialing pad from any Nexus control room, except that there was a speaker at the bottom. “Umm...one egg,” he requested in a funny voice.

A tray slid out from the front like a CD drive in a computer tower. One hard-boiled egg materialized on it. He cracked it and ate it slowly. “Okay. A dozen eggs.”

A carton of eggs materialized on the tray.

“Cool. Let’s try something else. A dozen secure subcutaneous transmitters that allow instant communication across vast distances, including alternate realities, and parallel universes, which can neither be detected, nor unwillfully surgically removed.”

A box appeared on the tray. Mateo opened it to find twelve discs and implanting instructions on a piece of electronic paper affixed to the inside of the lid. “Yes. These will do. No more secret emotion codes. He was never gonna be able to learn every letter anyway. This made much more sense. Not quite telepathy, but they should still be able to hear each other, even at a whisper. Ramses became so obsessed with coming up with a purely organic remedy to their weak original bodies that he didn’t think of something as simple as this.

Mateo thought about asking for other tech, but this was probably enough. He didn’t want to be greedy, especially since he already wished for all but world peace. So he pushed the two buttons, and returned to the Nexus building on Flindekeldan II. All of his friends were waiting there, sitting on the steps, the floor, and the wraparound ramp that led to the control room. “Hey, kids.”

“You’re back,” Leona exclaimed. She had been sitting in the control room. “You wished for Arcadia, Vearden, and Cheyenne to go to Dardius, and to place Flindekeldan II in orbit around the same host star as Flindekeldan I?”

“Did I?” Yeah, Dardius was a good place for them. They would be safe there.

“Did you?” Olimpia pressed.

“Was that wrong?” He couldn’t speak for these people, per se, but he had a decent idea of what they wanted, even if they refused to admit it. They didn’t want a way out, but they also did, or they would have sealed up the original emergency exit long, long ago. This seemed like a good compromise. It was hard to reach, but not impossible. You had to work for it, which meant you had to want it. For anyone who truly wanted to stay on this planet, all they had to do was ignore the other copy of the planet that was orbiting on the other side of the sun, which they should never be able to see anyway.

“Well, it’s just that they don’t have ships of their own. They’ll never make it here.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing for the last two days?” Ramses asked. “They’ll keep the Dante as an emergency shuttle. We don’t need it anymore. Let’s call it a gift.”

“This is a gift too, to you.” Mateo presented the box of communicators.

Ramses took it. “Oh. These were a good idea. Yeah, thanks.”

“I thought you were going to wish for Venus to let us go somewhere other than Worlon,” Leona said, almost scolding him.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Mateo explained. “We should go. There’s a reason that she wants us to. I’m willing to trust her. She’s done a lot for us.”

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Extremus: Year 64

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Generated by Google Workspace Labs text-to-image Duet AI software

Tinaya Leithe is First Chair now. She’s been that way for nearly a month. This was never part of the plan, but ever since she was first asked to run, it’s the only thing that ever made any sense. She didn’t technically win by a landslide, but she won the greatest majority of any non-incumbent candidate on the ship so far. And that goes for all elected positions. This is good, because the Extremus has been historically divided, which only ever makes things more difficult for everyone. Good laws don’t get passed, bad laws do get passed, and the people are just generally unhappy. She doesn’t have the highest approval rating out of everyone, but when combined with everyone else, the current administration enjoys the most support from the populace. It’s looking like this is going to be a peaceful three years. She hopes that she’ll be reëlected at that point, and then again, and then again, but she’s not thinking about that at the moment. The least successful leaders are the ones who focus so much energy on maintaining power that they don’t actually do anything with that power. She has some ideas, and she wants to see them through, even if it means she has to get them all done during her first time, and then go back to civilian life after a loss.

Her first major order of business was going to be changing the way the Council is run, and how it’s structured. They’ve been accumulating power, and they can’t be left unchecked, or it could get out of hand. Unfortunately, it’s looking like that’s going to have to wait. The Bridgers have been asking for a meeting, and she’s run out of excuses to put that off. She doesn’t know exactly what they’re going to say to her. She doesn’t even know whether they’re happy or mad that she’s chosen this career path. But she knows that the conversation is going to be awkward and uncomfortable, and she’s not looking forward to that. Lataran has been putting off her own meeting on the other ship too, and they’ve decided to increase their strength through numbers by going together. The Bridgers would have probably not agreed to that, which is why they’re not warning them of this. They’re just going to show up at the same time, and that’ll be that.

“The First Chair and the Captain gone from the Extremus proper at the same time,” Lataran points out. “Sounds risky.”

“They’ll be fine,” Tinaya replies as she’s waving her hand in front of the door to the portal that will take them to the Bridgers. It used to involve time travel, but that experiment has been abandoned. It’s just too complicated, annoying, and headache-inducing. It may just be a coincidence, but Tinaya did suggest they get rid of it, so maybe they actually listened to her. Wouldn’t that be nice?

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. Things are going smoothly on my end,” Lataran replies as they’re walking down the hallway.

“Same on mine.”

“And on mine,” comes a voice from behind them. It’s fellow spy, Rodari Stenger. They’ve not seen each other in years. That’s what happens with him; he disappears for long periods of time, and then pops up again.

“What do you do again?” Lataran asks him.

“I run Year 217 now.”

“I thought that Year 217 just meant—”

“I know what you thought,” Rodari interrupted. “The Bridgers are liars. I’ll explain another time. For now, we need to talk about our strategy.”

“Strategy for what?” Tinaya asks. “The meeting? Are you going to be there too?”

“I’m meant to just be a fly on the wall, but I don’t think that’s the right way to play it. We should come up with a secret code that lets us communicate with each other on the downlow.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Tinaya decides. “Whatever they’re going to say to me, they can say it, and I’ll respond appropriately.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” he says.

“Do you know Leona’s Rules for Time Travel?” Tinaya asks him.

“By heart,” he replies.

“Rule Number Fifteen, don’t—”

“...antagonize the antagonist. All right. I’ll follow your lead, but you should know that I’m on your side, not theirs. Whatever happens in there, we stick together.”

One major disadvantage in him constantly disappearing on her is that she has to constantly relearn to trust him. It’s impossible to know what he’s been through since last she saw him, or how much he’s changed. She’s changed. But he’s not let her down so far, so she’s just going to jump right back into it this time.

“We stick together,” Lataran echoes. She sidesteps over to him, and takes him by the hand.

“Wait. When did this happen?” Tinaya questions.

“A few years ago,” Lataran explains. “I would have told you, but...”

“But we’d drifted apart. I get it, I’m not upset. Just...”

“Surprised?” Rodari guesses. He kisses Lataran’s hand, then gently separates himself from her. “We shouldn’t get used to it. We don’t know what they’ll say in there.”

What should have taken less than a minute took them a million years to cross the distance, but they can stall no longer. They’re at the door. It opens on its own, reacting to their presence. No one is on the other side to greet them, but lights flicker on and point their way down to the right location. Tinaya doesn’t come here often, but when she does, she doesn’t ever go to the same place twice. In fact, the hallways never look quite the same, even though they literally look alike. It’s entirely possible that they can be moved around to create confusion in case of some kind of intrusion. That or she’s just crazy, and everything is the same way it always has been.

They follow the lights all the way to their destination. This door opens on its own too. A woman is on the other side of it. “Tinaya Leithe, Lataran Keen, Rodari Stenger. Thank you for coming. And thanks for coming together. That’s exactly how I wanted to do this.”

Of course it was. Tinaya reaches out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Madam...”

“You can call me Spirit. I’m Spirit Bridger of the Bridger Section Bridgers. Please, have a seat. There’s water on the table. Those dials on the glasses adjust the temperature instantaneously. You’ll find teabags on the buffet behind you, if you would like.”

“Thank you,” Lataran says politely.

They all three sit down, the girls on one side, and Rodari at the far head. Spirit then sits across from the First Chair and Captain. “Thank you for—I’ve already said that. Sorry, I’m new. I’m..your new...handler. Let me start over. I’m Spirit Bridger, your new handler.”

“What happened to—?”

“Shift change. We do them over on this side too.”

“I hope not to sound rude, because I genuinely don’t know, and sincerely want to know, what is this about? We were not told any details, so I’ve not come prepared.”

“Normally, when a new Captain is selected, or a new First Chair is elected, an onslaught of meetings will be called, designed to go over all the things that they were not allowed to know before. The temporal engineers will reveal any secret projects, they’ll be read into the Three Bears War, and we’ll call our own to reveal everything they’re now entitled to know regarding the Bridger section.”

“What the hell is the Three Bears War?” Lataran questions.

“That’s nothing I’m authorized to discuss.” Spirit is very confused. “You’ve been the Captain for months. You should have been told about it by now, though.”

“Well, I wasn’t.”

“Reach out to Omega and Valencia. It’s not really my problem, so any attempt I could make to read you in would be pointlessly unhelpful.”

“I see.”

“Perhaps when Tinaya is read in, you could sit in on that meeting as well,” Spirit goes on. “But today, we’re here to talk about this place. Of course, you both already know about it. And you know a lot of things that a normal First Chair and Captain would not be told. Good for you. And good for me; this’ll be easy. I only need to say one thing.” She looks between Tinaya, and then Rodari, and then back to Tinaya. She does that a few more times. “Don’t get married.”

Now Tinaya is the one who’s confused. “Are you talking to me? Are you telling me to not get married, or him?”

“Both of you. Don’t marry each other.”

“Why would we get married?”

“Yeah,” Rodari agrees, “why would we get married?”

“I dunno,” Spirit admits convincingly. “That’s just what the cards say.”

“What cards?”

“The tarot cards.”

“You read the future through tarot cards?”

“Not literally; it’s just an expression.”

“No. It’s not.”

“Well, whatever, I don’t, but our seers say that you’re somehow on the path to getting married, and I have been asked to ask you to take another path.”

“We’re already on a different path; we’re not together. I’m...” He stops himself from saying anything about Lataran. It would actually be fine if he really were with Tinaya, but not Captain Keen. That’s a no-no.

“We can be honest with her,” Lataran determines. “She has no legal pull on Extremus proper. “We’re together.”

Spirit narrows her eyes at them. “Hm. I don’t know anything about that. Like I said, the seers only mentioned a path towards marriage. They never told me what might cause it. But then it goes for you too. Don’t you two get married either. That would compromise your position just as much. We’ve never had a captain, nor a first chair. Now we’ve got both at the same time, and we’re not going to take that for granted.”

“We weren’t planning on it,” Rodari promises.

Lataran hangs her head low. They’ve not seemed to resolve their situation yet, though they’ve probably been trying for the last year. Lataran isn’t allowed romantic entanglements in most cases. If Rodari still has a real identity on Extremus, he doesn’t qualify as someone who’s allowed to distract the Captain from her responsibilities.

Tinaya can see that her friend doesn’t want to think about this anymore. The only thing she can do to save her is redirect attention. “Can I marry someone else? I just need to know whether your seers are planning to control every aspect of my life, or what.”

“They didn’t make that clear,” Spirit replies, “but I wouldn’t recommend it. I believe it too would go against their plans for you.”

“The whole reason you people supposedly chose me is that I’m apparently more in control of my own destiny than most people. I will not be boxed in.”

“Tinaya...” Spirit reaches towards her, placing her hand nearby, but having no intention to touch her. “I’m on your side. I’m your advocate. That’s what a handler does. You don’t have to convince me of anything. You do whatever you feel like you need to do, but you have to understand that there are consequences to every action. If they don’t like the choices you make, you may find yourself regretting them. That’s not a threat. It’s just a concern. No one lives in a vacuum.”

What are the Bridgers playing at here, and who is this Spirit Bridger? She looks young, which could mean that she wasn’t part of the original crew, but was born later, or she could just be sufficiently ageless. They have access to technology that regular Extremusians do not. This is beginning to feel more like a conspiracy, and less like a vital mandate. The Bridger program was formed to ensure the continuity of the mission, but if it’s become corrupt, then that mission is compromised anyway. It’s time for internal affairs. If it’s necessary, and no one else can do it, then Tinaya will bring them down, even if it means that she goes down with them. “We literally live in a vacuum.”

“I’ve said what I needed to say.” Spirit taps her handheld device. “You all have my number now. I would like us to communicate more than you did with your previous handlers. That is all. The lights will show you out.”

Tinaya leaves the Bridger section alone, letting Lataran and Rodari have whatever conversation that they need to have in regards to their relationship. She has to get to another meeting. It’s just with Arqut, though, so it probably doesn’t have anything to do with this bear war, or whatever. He surely doesn’t know anything about it either. Once she’s back on the Extremus, she teleports to the Mirror Room, which has become their ad hoc meeting place, even though they have no use for the mirror, and it’s not like they have to meet in secret. It takes her a moment to notice that he’s not alone.

“Ah, we were shootin’ the breeze. We didn’t think you would be here so soon.”

“My other meeting was shorter than I thought it would be,” Tinaya replies. She nods at the other man in the room. “Council Leader.”

“I’m not Council Leader anymore,” Cleader clarifies. “I’m not even on the Council anymore. I’m too old to last beyond the next twelve years anyway, so I might as well pick sides. I’ve chosen yours, of course. If you’ll have me, I would like to serve you in any way I can. I have some pretty good ideas, if you would be willing to hear them.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell me one big idea?” He’s not a bad guy, but she’s in a bad mood.

“Well,” Cleader begins timidly, which is unlike him. One of these days, she’s going to have to learn his name once and for all. “I did notice one demographic that you missed out in the last vote, and if you want to secure reeëlection, you’re probably going to need them in three years. Officials who start out at your approval rating generally go down a little. Just a little, but it could be enough to get you out of office.”

“A missing demo, huh? And who would that be?”

“The utra-monogamists. If you want to win again...you should get married.”

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Microstory 2010: Washington

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This is a really short slide, because I’m not allowed to say much about why my papa went to Washington state. But I had to put something here, because papa did go there when he was 16. I don’t understand it all the way, but papa had a friend who needed a surgery that she wasn’t allowed to get in Idaho, or some other nearby states, so papa drove her up to Spokane Washington. Back then, she could have done it in Oregon too, but Spokane is actually closer, even though it looks like it’s farther away on the map. Dad says that she could get it in Idaho if it happened today, because the laws have changed, but this happened in 1989. Thank you for your understanding.