#rose coldwell

People was useless when were in love so they created a pill that prevents that. It's free but obligatory to take. Police control the streets and are allowed to arrest those who didn't take it. People are happy now, they insist, as in the streets dull citizens walk or travel from their houses to their works with anything in their heads but their equally dull lives.

But the rebels always existed. Because it's fine if you choose not to love but they can't force you to feel absolutely nothing. The underworld, they say, is full of criminals and bandits. Full of smoke and fights. They tell stories in schools so kids from very young age are discouraged to be part of it. The pill is the salvation if you don't want to become one of them.

James Thorne looked at himself in the mirror after swallowing his pill. He felt nothing, as always happened. Just another day and the same emptiness inside him, like he was missing something. Only he had everything he wanted.

Maybe he should visit that girl. The same girl he always visited although she didn't live in his neighbourhood anymore. She was now downtown. She was part of the underworld.

The underworld that was full of outlaws and full of love.

Abe became the youngest member of Parliament at the tender age of twenty-two after a rather short lived career as a pilot. A socialist, a man of the people despite the golden spoon and perhaps the biggest admirer ,after the lady’s husband of course, of the first female to hold the office of Prime Minister.

“How does it feel to live out your dream?” the regal woman asks after he is summoned to Lady Rose’s paradise, Pebblebrock.

Absalom has been here before, his mother was rather good friends with Rose Coldwell and truly believed in charity unlike the other wealthy blue bloods around them. He had been little those first times, holding his mother’s hand at first and then awkwardly standing like a soldier at ceremony to show Her Excellency what a bright young man he was becoming. She would smile, congratulate him on his latest achievement and tell him one day they’ll be working together like she did with his father and later on his aunt.

Now, on the cusp of twenty-three, he is here with the former Prime Minister and founder of the British Socialist Party to tell her what an honor it is to be the youngest candidate in British history to represent the seat he practically inherited from his family.

“Terrifying. I fear I will be your biggest disappointment yet, your excellency.” He admits as nervous as he was on his first real flight into battle. As bad as his wedding day when all he wanted to do was throw up after Duke took him out for a stag night and they drank all the good liquor the Garrison held, as bad as when the Germans shot him down and he fell plane and all into the channel and somehow worse than when Mr.Coldwell asked him what he was doing in his wife’s office when he was nine.

“Call me Rose. And trust me, you won’t be.” The aging queen of the BSP says like she always did when he expressed modesty or fear of not living up to expectations and Abe tries his best to relax.

“It’s easy for you to say, ma’am, you have already finished the race and I’ve just started it.” It doesn’t work, he’s no longer the young boy who thought the sun shined out of Rose Coldwell’s ass, he is the newly elected MP who can fuck up so badly he will have to die to deal with the shame it will cause and topple everything his hero worked for. “I have always wanted to be like you, a good and honest woman who fights for what’s right and nothing like my father. You win because people believe in you and not because you bought them off with empty promises, you don’t let them grind you down no matter what they try and you have gone where no one else could have imagined going.

And here I am a kid who only got lucky because my dad was Tommy fucking Shelby and my mom the modern-day Nostradamus. I didn’t earn it like you did and that’s why I think I will be the biggest fuck up to ever happen to you and your party.”

He has never bitten his tongue as well as he’d like, he can be charming and appear honest while lying, but Absalom eventually breaks and the dam spills without the trained eloquence and elegance private school drilled into him.

Honest Abe, the American pilot Di had married called him that after the yankee president who ended slavery and paid for it with a bullet to the head.

Honest Abe, son of the Witch and the Devil.

“You won’t disappoint me, or anyone, young man. And I don’t need witchcraft to see it. You always had it in you, just like I did and those who came before us.” She reaches out and takes one of his hands trying to still the tremors that afflict his mother and cause things to tremble and shake along with it. Only Abe doesn’t break paintings or glass, not anymore at least. He has it under control after the Battle Fatigue set in and it made flying too difficult for him. “I was afraid just like you were and just like you I have people who have my back. I had Lady Bishop and you have me.”

The last three words were emphasized with a gentle squeeze of the hand making the desk shake like there was an earthquake and he was the epicenter. Somehow her reassurance eases him enough to make it stop.

“I’m sorry, I’m usually much better at controlling myself.” Abe is now doubly embarrassed about it all and wishes for nothing but the ground to swallow him whole. “You see, you are my hero. I have always wanted to be like you.”

“I know.” Rose lets go of his hand, no longer fearing for the state of her office should she release it, there is no fear or disgust or anything that would make the saying Never Meet Your Heros true. She is who she has always been even if he’s no longer the little boy who loved coming here and 10 Downing Street just to see The Right Honorable Rose Coldwell. “You never hid it as well as you think. You have a tendency to quote me more than you quote Tommy in your speeches.”

He blushes even if he hasn’t blushed since he was thirteen and he saw a naked woman for the first time in his life. It’s embarrassing, does she know he had a boyhood crush on her too? Spirits, that would be mortifying!

“Would you like some advice, son?” she asks and he nods ready to imprint every word into the skin of his heart. “Getting a seat is only the first half of the job. The real struggle now is keeping it and deal with the assholes that are around you."

He knows that too well, as good as they were in their field his dad and aunt struggled every election cycle to keep the faith of the people and keep themselves above the scandals their enemies unearthed.

To consider:

◍ For men is obligatory the use of a kippah because this will be a Jewish-Catholic wedding and even if the male isn't Jewish is just a matter of respect to our ancient traditions.

◍ Choose your attire thinking that the wedding will be celebrated in autumn and probably will be cold.

◍ In case of coming with children, let us know to make the necessary arrangements for them.

◍ Confirm your assistance before the date that's in the card. No exceptions.

Sincerely yours, Mary C.