Chapter 8

Paper

Amelia stared at the small slip of tan paper with fancy brown inked writing in her hands in confusion, looking up at her father with eyes full of doubt. Her brother peering over her shoulder at the bill as well; both children very, very much confused about what Amelia was holding. The girl spoke up first after a long while of silence "This is money…? How is this money? This is paper. Money is coins Daddy why are you being so silly?" not hearing her older self laugh at the whole situation. Arthur had brought home the new paper money that was going into circulation in her Colony of Massachusetts—remembering very well how revolutionary this idea was to her at her young age. Paper money? It was only the year 1690 and they were already coming out with paper money? What was next, carriages that didn't need horses or stoves that didn't need to be loaded with wood first before they were able to be heated up?

"It's made out of paper so it's more portable! Coins are heavy and this is really light." Sighing a bit internally, he hadn't expected this to be so hard to explain to his children—very much glad when Amelia had finally accepted the change in one of her colonies currency (Although was still very much doubtful that paper of all things could carry as much value as a ten shilling note or more), more so letting the whole subject drop so she and her brother could go outside and play. The man straightened up and sighed, ushering out the two children so he could go and make dinner.

The small, blond, Canadian boy was still curious about the note when they came outside. Gently taking it from Amelia to look at it more closely, "Do you think Daddy was serious when he said this was money? It doesn't look like money… money is supposed to be made out metal right?" still trying to figure it out as Amelia came closer as well, looking over her little brother's shoulder.

"I don't know Mattie… It says that it's worth ten shillings though, so it's got to be worth that right?" shrugging a bit and putting the note back into her pocket, still very much confused about all of this doing her best to shrug it off. "Come on Mattie! Let's go and play before it's time for dinner alright?" taking his hand and dragging him off to go play—the two debating for a small while about what to do before ultimately deciding on playing a quick game of tag before Arthur called them in for what she was fairly sure was going to be another god awful dinner. Sadly enough she was correct. Staring at the stew before her, wondering why it just looked so awful, had her father managed to burn it? Could you even burn stew? The broth was black and her meat that was floating in the stew was quite tough and chewy without much flavor at all. The girl gave her brother a look of anguish, mouthing when Arthur wasn't paying attention that they would need to raid the fruit cellar before bed.

The older Amelia watched her younger self and her brother's younger self choke down the stew the best they could, lying to Arthur and saying that they liked it, both knowing full well how sad and melancholy he became if he thought that they did not like his food. She wondered why even after all of this time she still pretended that she liked her father's awful food when they didn't even get along very well. Hell, she bribed her children to this day to get them to lie and eat his food as well. Amelia brushed one of her golden curls out of her face, still trying to figure all of this out. Why was she seeing all of these things over again? The last thing she remembered was getting on her motorcycle to pick up batteries from the convenience store—next thing she knew she was watching herself as a small personification, grow up all over again.

She had to admit though, she was learning things about herself and her family she hadn't known before—or at least had overlooked. She was learning how hard it was for her father to raise the two of them, something she could relate to. After the revolutionary war personifications of her own thirteen states began to pop up, and she was given them to raise as her own. Being able to see her childhood from a different perspective she was able to realize all of these things. Amelia had figured out that she truly had always been extremely protective of her brother, always defending him even from their own father. Just a little bit prior she had taken the blame for breaking a vase when it was Matthew who did it, she just didn't want her brother to get in trouble. Amelia thought about it, still wondering why she was watching these things all over again, coming up with the timid conclusion that she was watching these for some sort of lesson—not able to think of any other reason as she listened to her younger self and her brother's younger self hound their father about whether or not the paper money was real.