2 September 2018

Maggie settled into the comfortable chair at the Governor's desk. "Gran, why don't you want to run for Governor again?"

"I might try again, someday, Maggie, just not this year." Colleen smiled thoughtfully at her granddaughter. "Much like you've put your language studies ahead of much of the dueling since Myria became Baroness of Old Market."

"Uh huh," Maggie sounded incredulous.

"I know that tone." Collie chuckled.

"You mean like how I know it when comes out of you?" Maggie countered.

"Point taken."

"Hey, I earned that monikawhatis of Baby Baron and I'm proud of it. I do like Baby Baroness better, but what can you do?" The girl lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

The redhead's eyes twinkled as she recalled hearing someone say they'd earned their black eye in a brawl. Perspective could be everything.

Maggie was rummaging through a stack of local papers. "You think Aunt Rhi has a chance?" Her eyes widened. "Mrs. Von Tombs is running" Oh, boy! This is gonna be good!"

Colleen suddenly looked amused. "Now, my girl, we have a race!"

Maggie tilted her head much like a curious puppy. "We didn't have one, before?"

"We did, but I expect it will be a more interesting one now."

"If Aunt Rhi wasn't running, who would you vote for?"

"I suppose it would be Pharlen." Colleen lifted her as eyes as if peering over a pair of glasses.

"What about Lynnie and Peter?" Pure challenge, it was in Maggie's tone and her expression.

"If no Aunt Rhi and no Pharl, I'd vote fer the children."

"Really?" The girl's voice jumped an octave.

"Children's ideas of what is best or fun tend to be motivated by pure intentions." Colleen set the paper down and lifted her glass of tea. "I'm not saying that all children have honorable intentions. Many don't. Most think of what they or those closest to them need comes first."

Maggie was still reading. A photo of Pharlen's campaign poster had been published causing the pre-teen to roar with laughter. "Gran, has Desdenova's Mom always been so....so....umm..."

"Eccentric?" she added helpfully.

"I was going to go with odd, but that's a better word." Maggie giggled as she reread the text on the photo about insanity.

"She has been eccentric for as long as I have known her. I expect she was long before that as well."

"I'm a little confused about her ideas on city improvements. The way the poster is worded, it seems like nobody tried to clean up the water and build houses for people." Maggie's lips morphed into something akin to the puffing of a cigar. "And what?s wrong with heroes, anyway?"

Avoiding the hero question for the present, Colleen set her glass on a coaster. "Do you remember when the sewers were being cleaned up and mapped?"

"Well, yeah, but doesn't everybody?" Maggie's forehead furrowed and her dark brows lifted.

"I'd like to say yes to that, Clover, but they don't. Some creatures are better off left alone; many live in the sewers to hide. There are those that would hunt them for dissection purposes." She lifted a finger. "To one species, water is pristine, but to another, it can be poisonous. Filtration systems have been made available for those that need the water with or without certain minerals. It's a case of having to pick one's battles."

Resting her jaw in her upturned palm, Maggie seemed fascinated by her grandmother's logic. "That makes sense. You do what you can do because there are things you can't do."

"Precisely, my girl." A pleased smile flickered on her lips. "I can't change the fact the something in Rhydin's water tends to cause population increases. I can and have, however, seen to it that women have services available to help counteract it or help with medical care they will need for their pregnancies." She expected the subject of terminating pregnancies would come up at some point, but Maggie didn't ask today.

"Gran, what about the roads?" She glanced up at the district map Colleen kept on the office wall. "And other things!" Maggie's hands flew up in an excited gesture.

"Some neighborhoods like Little Elfhame and the WestEnd already have programs to help the people living in them. As the Governor, I left them to live as they needed and wanted to." Her index finger was lifted. "However, I left the option open to anyone in the city to file a request for aid. Some people don't want help and prefer doing things their own way." She brushed some hair out of Maggie's eyes. "In my years on Rhydin, Maggie, I have been reminded time and again that most people would rather a hand up than a hand out. If I've been able to do that for people in this past year with the new facilities in Dockside and for the young adults in need of help through Sarengrave House then I think I did rather well in such a short time as a Governor."