Weighted Diamond, pt 1

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A new day unfolds like a letter from the envelope,
Nana day, Its your day, a day unlike any other,
The letter opens with a wax seal, it's from your Family,
Nana day, Its your duty today, today you go off and away,

A new day unfolds like the new coat around your waist,
You take the purple today, Oh hay nana purple today,
 The coat fits heavy, the child's crown bearing you down,
Nana day, Its today you wear a new gown off and away.

 ``````

You take the hansom today. There's too many kids at the Children's Center for hansom rides, but there you are in your new white coat with purple trim. Your hair is short, but not boy short, and pale blue with swirls of shifting light blue coloration.


You're just a little taller than the average kid at the Children's Center. You wonder if there will be any kids at the new house.

You see a man in a top hat remove the hat and bow at the hansom as you pass him by. Adults seem to be waving, not shaking their heads.

You can barely say the name of your town: Ellsworth. It's hard to say but trying to practice over and over made your whole class start giggling. But you didn't hesitate, and once you figured it out, you pronounced it loudest of all the class, and correctly. A lot of kids were just mumbling. You helped one of the mumblers who couldn't get it though.

You have heard teachers tell you, "You are too loud!" many times. You're just trying to let them know you know the answer.

You were focused on the people and everything around you, but then, suddenly, the flowers. You saw pansies and lilacs and petunias and lavender. The smell of flowers was stronger than the smell of smelly horses.

The clop clop of horse beats stopped in front of the house surrounded by purple flowers. The driver opens the door for you. One of the horses whinnies.

"Go right on in, dearie," said the old driver, and he tips his cap, turning back to the hansom.

 You hesitate for a moment at the lavender, trying to enjoy the smell, but its all a mixed up flowery smell.

You decide to confidently knock on the door, feeling the soft wood-grained texture of it.

*knock* *knock* *KNOCK*

You were about to knock again when you heard, "I'll be there in a moment sweetie."

The woman who opens the door has the same color hair as you do, with splotches of white. Her hair is braided, but you can't tell what kind of neat braid she's done it in. She's face to face with you after all.

She's holding a jagged knife as she opens the door.

"Oh dear, it's .. kinda my letter opener, sweetie," she says.

She doesn't ask your name but just gestures for you to come in. You firmly close the door. It definitely shuts, but makes the house rattle slightly.

"This is our den," she said. There were hallways that lead to other hallways. You caught a glimpse before being lead into the den.

There were three chairs in the den. One was a rocker with a wicker basket next to it containing paper and what seemed to be a big stack of letters. Another was straight backed, but cushioned, and the third reclined. They were tan colors.

There were no play things or anything for you to do with yourself, so you sat down and asked questions.


After being asked the first question, she said, "This last one is from Aunt Sadie in Outer Kingston. She says she hasn't written in a while, but she wanted to urge Daniel and I to be God parents whenever possible. We already agreed when we decided to take you in."

She went back to writing a response to Aunt Sadie. When you asked about Daniel, her husband, she said, "Call him Lord-Regent of the Flowers. He should be home soon."

The last question got a quick answer, "Look, Listen, Learn."

She finished writing the letter, folded it up (not in a simple three parter, but in beautiful triangle folds, that seemed like a lot of work), and stacked it with the pile you hadn't noticed before, on top of the mantle.

There was no fire going in the room, but the fireplace had a nice mantle, and the lady of the house stacked completed letters in some kind of weird stacking system. There were dozens of completed letters!

You felt a desire to ask about the letters and why there were so many, but something stopped you cold, instead you "Looked, Listened, Learned."

Your God-mother wrote small letters, delicately, yet with some speed. Using one petite A5 page, the top inch taken up by a monagram, she wrote three paragraphs, leaving plenty of margin on all four sides of the page.

Miesha
Lady of Letters

Her cursive Y looped way down into the next line, and her I dots were filled in. While her letters had extra compared to what Miesha had learned, they all stayed joined together and on the same line.

You also noticed the way she read letters. Each time, she would pick up an envelope in her right hand, the knife in her left, and somehow slice open the beautiful envelope without tearing it on the jagged edges of the dagger.

She would put her eye-glasses on, then fold each page when done with it and place it on her lap, but you noticed Miesha refused to read beyond the second page. Most of the letters were two pages long, but you had watched long enough to notice twice that she stopped reaching long letters after the second page.

After reading each letter (or what she choose to read out of it), she would smoothly toss the letter into the inert fireplace, but the letter didn't flap in the wind like you thought it would.

After reading a letter and throwing it away, she already knew who wrote it and neatly addressed the envelope, both from and to. She never had to pick up a letter from the fireplace to remember.

After the envelope she would write the letter, and stack it like previously mentioned.

It was four hours of watching the woman go through letters that taught you this.

She had finished the letters in her wicker basket, and motioned you to follow as she went into a small bedroom which had been turned into an office. Actually, it was a series of file cabinets.

One side of the bedroom had a basket on top of the middle of three oak file cabinets. Above the basket a monogram displayed: "Lord-Regent".

There were four file cabinets, these unfinished wood, and each had a basket on top of them which was empty.

Seeing that all four baskets were empty, Miesha pulled open the cabinet drawers. She took a decimeter sized stack of papers from the front of the bottom drawer of the first cabinet, placing the stack in the basket above her. In this same way, she filled all four baskets from the four cabinets.


That was a lot of letters, you pondered the possibility of even getting through all of those.

It wasn't finishing the newly full wicker basket of letters that ended Miesha's day. When the Lord-Regent arrived outside the door, she asked you to do something.

"Take that basket and put it next to my letter cabinets."

You didn't have much trouble lifting the basket, it was a little heavy for you, but the jostling envelopes didn't fall out of the basket.

When you got back to the den, the stacks of letters on the fireplace mantle were gone.

"So this is our God-daughter," said Lord-Regent of the Flowers.

He smelled of the flowers he must of been busy with.

"I need to get cleaned up. Bellflower, get cleaned up for dinner."

At first you thought he was talking to Miesha, but you started moving towards your room anyway.

Between hand gestures in the vague direction from Miesha, and a lucky guess, you figured it out.

Your bedroom was the last one down a hallway with other doors that you didn't even consider opening. Lord-Regent had gone past the intersection of hallways straight through, instead of turning left.

From the front, the house had looked big, but now it looked bigger than the Children's Center. Your bedroom also had a full bathroom. Your own bathroom. You had no context to understand that.

The bathroom lights flickered on, showing the large glass mirror with a trim decorated in silver tracing

No one drew up a bath for you, so you figured the Lord-Regent expected you to act like a big kid and take a shower on your own.

A new blouse and skirt were neatly folded on the bathroom countertop.

You were tempted to splash and be silly in the water, to take a long shower, but somehow the desire wasn't there, so after a short time under the hot water you dried off and got dressed.

The blouse was soft against your skin, it's color pink. The skirt was white with purple horizontal stripes.

You brushed your hair all alone, with the new hair brush. It was short enough to not worry about any more. You wondered if you would ever have long hair like the women you'd seen in town. Whether braided or loose, it seemed exciting.

You'd brushed your teeth that morning, but decided, hey might as well make a good impression for your God parents.

Finally you make your way back out of your room cleaned up and refreshed.

The den connects to the hallway which turns shifty ways leading the hallway that goes to your bedroom and other hallways that you don't want to explore, oddly enough. Across from the den is the dining room, which is connected to the kitchen.

Lord Regent and Lady of Letters were already sitting at the dining table when you got there. The dining table was rectangular, and could surely support 8 to 10 people. When you reached to pull out a chair next to Lady Miesha, the Lord Regent directed you to the far end of the table.

You sang the song of dinner-time, as you had since you were old enough to talk.

`````
 As we sit down to eat,
We never forget to say,
Honored Protectors,
We are thankful.

[Man of the House]
I lay my sword astride this table,
Heavy I pick it up, I never hesitate,
Defend this night-sup I must,
Lest overrun we fall on our cups,

[Woman of the House]
I lay my dagger astride this table,
I walk in unison with my husband,
Defend this night-sup I must,
Lest overrun we fall on our cups,

[Others]
I lay my life astride this table,
I do anything I am told to,
 Fight in the last I must,
Lest overrun we fall on our cups,

[All]
Thankful we are as we toast,
Let this food strengthen the house,
Let it make firmness in our bones,
Lest overrun we fall on our cups,

`````

You felt the weirdness of singing the other part all by yourself. You had never heard yourself sing alone like that.

You hesitated and didn't try to grab some of the chicken breast and potato yet. Instead you waited, with your hands holding the napkin on your lap.

Lord Regent took a portion for himself, passing his plate to Lady Miesha, who gave him some of the roasted potato wedges.

"The new greenhouse is finally doing well," he said as Lady Miesha filled her plate.

You passed your plate down to Lady Miesha after she had filled hers.

"Aunt Sadie wrote. A farmhold near them was overrun. Now they are worried. She's been training to use a crossbow, of all things."

Your plate had a small piece of a chicken, and a little bit of potatoes, but you didn't mind, it looked delicious.

You neatly cut your chicken into pieces while the two of them are talking.

"I can't get away from thinking she needs more flower beds. I guess I'm carrying the job home, hun," Lord Regent said.

"She's put a few around the back yard, but she doesn't look the smell. I think she's allergic," Lady Miesha answered.

"Unfortunate. Bellflower, did you hear the soda jerk is visiting our lovely little town. I bet you'd like to try a root beer float?"

You finished swallowing the hot potato you were eating and thought of the right way to answer.

"I'd really like that. Can we go, sir?"

"I'll swing by late morning, and take you. As long as you think that's a good idea, hun?"

Lady Miesha smiled, "She's just doing some light duty tomorrow, that would be fine."

You wondered what you'd be doing tomorrow other than carrying the wicker basket or getting letters for the Lady.

"What's your favorite kind of flower, sir?" you asked, with some trepidation.

"Poppies do the most to protect against night-stalkers. I love the look of Cherry Blossom, but we can hardly get any good seeds,"

"My favorite flower to smell is lavender," the lady said. "We've got the safest house in town thanks to you, Sweet-rose."

"I get complements all the time on your thoughtfulness, hun. Why, Sheriff Cal said he needed to send something to his mother in Leadsville, and his mother was so thrilled to hear from you."

"He's a good man," she said.

The talk was at turns sweet, business-like and informative. You tried to understand your new god-parents as you finished your plate. They didn't ask any questions of you, and you waited politely as the conversation continued well after dinner was done.

This is one of the things you were taught about living in a house with a family. You did not leave the dinner table until the Man of the house got up, and most families considered dinner time their chance to have daily conversation.

So it was a good hour before Lord Regent of the Flowers got up, and your God-Mother asked you to wash the dishes while they turned on the radio in the den.

The meal wasn't that messy, so you just brushed off any stray meat or potato bits into the bin, and then filled the sink a quarter-full, applying just a dash of dish soap to the mix.

You cleaned off the base layer of gunk after letting the dishes soak for a minute, and then scrubbed the plates, forks, knives and glasses thoroughly, draining the water. You dried each piece until every bit of moisture was gone, and then tried three different cupboards before you found one for plates, glasses and utensils.

There were eight sets of dinner-ware, enough to have some people over for the night. Finally, after you did your best job with the dishes, you went to the den.

"... national unrest remains high. Home Law remains in effect. All surrogates must be tested weekly. All non-surrogates must undergo--"

"Time for bed, sweetie," Lady Miesha said, intercepting you before you actually got there. "Lord Regent's listening to his radio programme."

You turned back, heading towards the wing of the house that had your bed, but you caught a few words of Lord Regent's program turning back on. You regretted it.

".. royal blood--"

You knew it must be important stuff, not something for a child of the house to hear. You couldn't completely resist the pull of those two words. There was, after all, a Royal Endowment Center in town, and some of the adults at the Childrdn's center had said that word before.You didn't know what it meant.

Your house clothes had been nice and comfy, but the bed clothes you put on now were very soft and fluffy. The bed shirt had drawings of petunias and lilies on it.

You'd only looked at your bathroom closely before, so now you took in the bedroom proper. The desk was small, but it had a smooth wood finish, and a small three legged stool.

The surprising thing was the small lacquered black case on the desk. It was long and skinny, and opened up by a set of hinges.

What was inside the box could be either a letter opener, or a dagger, or both, you supposed. You carefully closed the lid and got under the covers, sheet, blanket and comforter all.