Good Lord, I didn't expect it to get this long. Can anyone tell I was really looking forward to the Civil War flashbacks?

I thought Texas would be first, with his need for nationalism and independance, his humiliation at having to join another country with his. I could have seen it coming if perhaps Virginia broke off, needing her space and not having the patience to deal with not only a family but now a government she neither agreed with or could stand. Perhaps even New York, thinking that perhaps they'd back off the campaign promises in efforts to keep the Union together. But if you actually had me guess who would have gone first, I would never have fathomed it to be South Carolina.

She handed me a note and left. I can't remember all that it said, but I remember the message, loud and clear. She left her siblings, leaving the message behind that said, "Come with me if you want, but I want nothing to do with you if you don't." And the impression she meant it. She didn't even look at her sisters as she left the house, off to make her own mind and way.

Less than two weeks passed before three of my sons stood before me - Mississippi January ninth, Florida the next day, and Alabama the day after. Each one said things similar to South Carolina's note: that the new administration was going to wreck the economy, intrude upon their sovereignty as states, and that they just didn't want to stand for it anymore.

"Alright," I said to the three: in light of them all leaving around the same time, Mississippi decided to just hang around for the two days following until his brothers joined him to follow their sister to her new country (I guess they co-conspired). "There seems to be some problems here surrounding the security of some states in their rights. How do you suggest we fix this so no one leaves?"

"Easy," said Georgia. "Impeach the idiot. Take him out of office so he can't do this to us." I think we were all a little surprised to hear that from our fairly-polite Georgia.

"You can't say that, Georgia!" New Jersey said, getting to his feet. "We picked him fairly, through the process we've used for almost eighty years! He's the new boss and he isn't doing anything wrong! Nothing says the feds can't do that!"

The fifth state to leave, unsurprisingly, was Georgia.

Louisiana left sixth, and his brother Texas - who I expected to leave long before he did - was the seventh. Texas, armed with all sorts of ideas for a nation, took the leadership role away from his adopted sister, who from what I saw had no problem letting him, but I noticed she was always at his right hand.

Of course, though hate each other they say they did, the newly-dubbed Confederate states couldn't just stay away and leave well enough alone. No. In the same vein, the Union states couldn't stay away from the Confederacy either. The Confederate states called the Union twenty-eight idiots who had no idea how an economy worked. The Union comeback was that the Confederates were a bunch of rogues who were denying a whole group of people their "unalienable rights," for no reason other than the income.

What did I see? Sibling rivalry at its finest. And...something which, for the first time, I didn't know how to handle. I had gone head-to-head with other nations before. But everytime I tried to get involved in this, I would be overstepping my bounds somehow. Especially since I had "no jurisdiction" over them anymore.

I still regarded them as my children, no matter how hard they tried to push me away. I never forced myself on them: that was the job of their northern siblings. They didn't call this "the war between the states" for nothing. But I never recognized them as a separate nation: they were simply...going through a phase.

Unfortunately, not all other nations saw it as such. From what I'd heard in my southern ventures, they were attempting diplomatic relations with all sorts of European nations. France and Britain were getting calls for recognition from the south: even Austria and Prussia were considering recognizing them. And Mexico down south, who had cut every diplomatic tie with me since annexing Texas, was considering opening trade along their shared border with the Confederacy.

Why would you think of helping them in this illusion that they're somehow separate from us? I included in a letter to my former friend. I was not pleased with the damn Brit trying to interfere with my government and politics. I made it clear that if he supported them, he'd pretty much secure a spot on my enemy list.

He wrote back: So, apparently you're the only one in the world allowed to declare a secession? I won't hear more of this; I'm dealing with them, not you.

He was such an ass sometimes.

I watched a lot of relationships deteriorate during this war. Mine with my children was the one that hit me hardest personally. I was becoming distanced from them. And they couldn't care less. But as I said above, I never stopped for one second thinking they were my children. I put a lot of effort into making sure we as a Union didn't completely alienate them, though it was clearly what they desired.

There were three others that I watched completely derail. The first was the most obvious: Texas and New York. The two always seemed like they hated each other, but I always believed their opposing viewpoints kept things from getting too boring and honestly gave the two a reason to live. It went from what I thought was a rivalry and a difference of opinions turned into serious arguements and soon it got physical. I had no idea what I could possibly do to stop them. Texas wouldn't listen, and after a while, neither did New York. Or any of them, for that matter.

Each of them clung more tightly to their guns than all their siblings combined. Shots were actually fired, as they put it, before the real fighting began. I knew there were going to be problems with differences in opinion, but I didn't actually think it would come to raining bullets.

Everything came sort of to a crescendo at Fort Sumter in spring of '61. South Carolina came back with demands that I abandon my military base near her capital of Charleston. She said that my military didn't belong in her country. Of course, she didn't have her own country. So, I naturally refused to move my soldiers.

This was the beginning of the American Civil War. What made it worse, was that the so-called Confederates won the battle.

Our north was not pleased with it, but the ones on the border were starting to sway in their loyalties a bit. Two more relationships met their climax and resolution at the battle's after math. Both between sets of formerly-close sisters, who we all thought were...ah, my attempt at a meaningful lead-in isn't working, so maybe I should just explain instead.

After the Battle at Fort Sumter, four of the border states whose loyalty to the Union was faltering made their final decisions. We'll begin with the eighth state to leave: Virginia.

Honestly, I was surprised she didn't leave sooner. As seemed to be their ritual, the seven southern siblings came to retrieve their two new ones, Virginia and her western region. I, once again forced to stand to the side, noticed a peculiar look about the little girl. As her older siblings approached, she kept casting her glances around to them, to Virginia, to the Union behind her, and back to the Confederates. She seemed strange...I had never seen the child make a decision about anything, but if I had to guess, she just might have been.

Texas and South Carolina headed the pack as they approached Virginia and West in the no-man's-land (aka, the middle of the room). Upon seeing her twin sister, North Carolina made to move forward; New York flung his arm in front of her.

"No," he muttered, making sure the Confederates couldn't hear. "I'm not losing another of you today." He never noticed that North put on her brave face for these and for battle, but always came back with us, letting her anxiety and emotion overtake her and cried. I never saw how South acted, but from the way they acted before and since, I wasn't sure either was truely capable of functioning properly without the other. I thought the seperation of the colony of Carolina way back when would've killed them. She broke her empty gaze from the smaller sister country and instead threw the sharpest knives from her eyes at her brother.

"Alright," called Texas (for no reason; the Virginias were five feet away). "You're ready to join up?"

"Indeed we are," Virginia said, straightening her spine and taking her little sister's arm. Maryland near me mangaged to turn a laugh into a cough.

Virginia stepped forward. West kept looking back at her union brothers and then just stopped dead, letting her wrist slide out of her sister's grip. Said sister turned around upon realizing she was no longer leading a smaller state.

"West, we're going." She gestured to the Confederate side of the room. West just stared at her a few more moments, Virginia becoming more visibly aggrivated by the second. Then:

"No."

Even Texas looked afraid for the girl. Every breath in the room was held.

"What do you mean, no?" The usually dangerous voice of Virginia had something new in it…perhaps a hint of bewilderment?

"No. I'm staying here. I like what they say better." Next to me, I heard Maryland breathe, "Little West, now's a good time to shut that mouth." "We've already done away with ours on the Northwest, and we're moving toward more industry. We have coal."

Virginia tried to laugh. "What do you plan on doing? You're going to become your own state or something? Just up and claim your lands and move to their side?" she said mockingly, derisively. West gave a scowl to rival her sister's.

"I will be my own state."

Her eyes widened. She looked right into the little girl's own brown orbs, just two shades off her own, and saw her resolve.

"You can't do that."

"You can sececeed from us," she said, stumbling over the word secede, "I can sececeed from you."

Virginia stepped back, her eyes searching for the one piece of evidence that would alert her to the child joking with her. All she saw was West's resolve. Virginia had finally grasped the concept: West was not joining her. She closed her eyes, apparent she was about to cry. She opened them, the held-back tears shining in her squirrel-colored eyes as she raised her hand against the child and and advanced.

She was greeted halfway there by New York, handgun pointed at his sister's face. Texas in the background raised his; Alabama and Mississippi grabbed at his arm to make it come down. Only blinking once and not missing a beat after, Virginia swatted the weapon away without effort and scathingly replied to the move, "Put the toy away, York: we both know you don't have it in you to pull the trigger." He still backed up to shield his youngest sister from the beast before him.

"You have no right to tell her she can't stay. You aren't her complete overlord. You can't tell her against what she wants to do."

The room was packed wall-to-wall with a crushing silence.

"You filthy hypocrite." Virginia said flatly. "Don't you think I didn't hear what you just said to North Carolina. 'No. I'm not losing another of you today'." North Carolina looked visibly ill for some reason. "When it's your cause," she said, raising her voice (in both volume and pitch) and stepping closer, "it's perfectly okay!"

"Virginia," South Carolina said in a voice we'd never hear so small again. "We came to collect you, let's just go. We can handle York 'n' North 'n' whoever else needs handlin' later."

As was expected, Virginia ignored her.

"You Yanks are somethin' aren't you?" Having no other weapon she brought her finger to New York's face as though to scold. "Say whatever you like, as long as it favors you." She turned her full, frightening attention to her younger sister, who was trying very hard to look like she wasn't cowering behind her older brother. "Nice to see that after all the work I put into you, you choose to align yourself with the likes of them!" she shouted.

"Will you calm down and just leave, Virginia?" North Carolina dared say. Virginia, who really was trying to be civil under all she was experiencing, unleashed all her fury on her sister.

"Don't even pretend you don't see why! You know exactly how this feels: to want so badly to destroy it and not have any means in your power to make it happen!"

North stepped forward, right into her sister's face. "I never wanted to destroy her."

"No...you weak fool, you wouldn't raise a hand against them if they invaded and killed you!"

"Who else stayed out of Sumter, Vir-?"

Virginia slapped North Carolina across the face. Both sides erupted over the move. Maybe now was a good time to... Maybe not, as when I advanced, Virginia knocked the weapon out of New York's outstretched arm and picked it up, aiming at me.

"Don't you even get involved here! Don't you dare!" she shrieked. "You're nothing but a figurehead!" She made no attempt to stow her tears now. "And, you're just like HER, or can't you see it through those stupid glasses?" She threw the handgun to the ground. Everyone backed away. The deafening silence was back. And what should break it but a small uttering of a simple phrase.

"Big sister..."

Virginia looked up, red-eyed, to her former charge. West wasn't yet fully grown: she didn't realize that because she was the fuel for this fight, that she really needed to get out and stay out.

"Never again." Virginia's voice went low and angry, not unlike that of a cat's snarl. "I never want to hear that phrase again, least of all from you! You're no sister of mine, less so then those traitors of the north!"

"We, traitors!?" Connecticut questioned. "Now, wait!"

"You're the ones who betrayed us, remember?" Massachusetts pointed out.

"How so?" Alabama said, arms folded, stepping forward. "You knew these laws would kill our economy, and you voted for the bastard anyway!"

Please stop them, somebody, I pleaded in my head.

"As far as I see it, there's no betrayal, just one side versus another," Kansas, a slave-holding state who would surprisingly stick to the Union, piped up.

"Oh, who asked you, Kansas?" Ohio and Indiana yelled at once.

Maryland crouched down next to a retreating West Virginia. "Welcome to statehood, little sister," she whispered so only she and West (and consequently me) could hear her. She then added sarcastically, "Couldn't have picked a better time."

"Why don't you leave Kansas alone? Besides, it's clear he's coming with us later," Louisiana said.

"Actually, I have no intention of leaving."

"What? But - I thought you saw it our way!"

"I do. Doesn't mean I have to join you. Have fun over there."

"Kansas, grow a f*cking backbone," New Jersey called over the arguement.

"And you'll still be under someone," Georgia was saying against Virginia, who she apparently worried was going to try to upset their hierarchy. "Texas won't give up the leadership role on your say-so."

"Yeah, well we'll see what happens when we meet at Richmond."

"Idiot," Texas said loudly, causing most of the fighting to die down slightly. "We won't meet at Richmond, we meet in Montgomery."

Virginia turned to face him, her visage returned to stone. "Wait until the warm season."

"No way!" yelled Alabama. He was a fairly new, young state, so having an important job like holding the meetings at his place gave him a sense that he was needed for something. "I've been the capital since the beginning! You can't just take it!"

"Why don't you let someone more experienced handle the big jobs, Alabama?" Virginia snapped.

"Keep talking sh*t like that, and we'll just leave you with the Union!" Texas growled. "We don' need tha' kinda fightin' 'twixt us when we got them Union swine to deal with!"

"Leave me, then. I'll make my own nation!"

"No one's making their own nations!" I yelled.

"Lina made hers! Why don't we all just let damn Virginia fend for herself?" Florida yelled. "Block trade and diplomacy -"

"If Europe recognizes you, they'll recognize me! That's where trade will happen!"

"In case you haven't noticed, our recognition by Europe is either circumstantial or non-existant!" argued Texas.

I put my face in my hands and pushed off from the wall, getting fully to my feet. I strode past the fight unnoticed until the door behind me slammed. The voices died almost immediately.

"Well," said a boy's voice. "We'll get going an' see y'all on the battlefield." What must've been sixteen feet made their way to the opposite door and departed. I reeentered. The remaining twenty-eight looked confused by the whole thing.

"Well, if you're going to be a state, you have some paperwork to do, West." Maryland let her smallest sister out the door past me, completely disregarding my presence. The rest of them started to dissipate awkwardly, not knowing which way to look.

New York approached North Carolina in the center, still struck dumb by sister Virginia's words.

"North...about..."

"Don't speak. This time next month you'll be good as dead to me." She made her way to the door, head still hung. New York closed his eyes, knowing exactly where he made his mistake.

The last three to leave were Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. These 11, including with them Kentucky and Missouri who never actually left, gathered themselves under the "stars and bars", which eventually became a blue spangled X on red. So, in response to them taking thirteen stars...

"And, done," Maryland announced later that summer, finishing her and Ohio's secret sewing project. She held up a small version of our flag, the blue rectangle blazened with twenty-three white stars. "Our new banner," she explained to her brothers, who were all trying to find what she'd done differently.

"I don't get it," New Jersey finally said.

"You don't? See," Ohio said, pointing to one of the stars. "There's West Virginia."

"Why that one?" Vermont asked.

"There's less stars than before," Connecticut said.

"Well, yeah, there's less states, stupid," Massachusetts chided.

"Put them back, Maryland."

All twelve assembled turned to look at me, a hard gaze behind my specs.

"Look, Pa," Rhode Island said, "let's be reasonable. There are deaths and stuff happening. They don't want to come back."

"I don't care. We're winning this war and they will come back."

"Pa," New York stepped in. "I get it. They're your children. You want them together." He came closer and said under his breath, "I want my brothers to come home, too." Then he straightened, stepping back into his leadership role. "But you can't force them with words, and at this rate bullets aren't working either."

"Bullets can only work if they're shot, York," Delaware called. New York turned a deep shade of red. He hadn't been able yet to shoot at his siblings, true to Virginia's taunts. I'm sure he still remembered her words.

"We can negotiate all we want, and let our men die and theirs," he forced himself to go on, "but the fact of the matter is that there will wind up being three nations on this continent."

"Four," Delaware called again.

"And why should we represent on our banner those who don't want to do with us?"

I looked right at him. "I guess you don't want them back as badly as I hoped."

"Hey, Maryland, why are there only twenty-three stars on this thing?" Indiana asked.

"There were thirty-five of us. They took thirteen, and we kept West Virginia. Thirty-five minus thirteen plus one equals twenty-three," Maryland explained.

"There will be thirty-six on there by tonight," I said.

New Hampshire frowned. "There are eleven of them."

"Yeah, but they claimed thirteen."

"We're still here!" Missouri yelled.

"Missouri, you're so far away from us in the south that you may as well just join them," Ohio said flatly.

"No one else is joining the Confederacy!" New York yelled at the top of his voice.

"That's like saying since Oregon and California are so far away, and especially since California's south, neither of them belong here either!"

"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?" New York screamed, finally getting the attention of the gathering before him. "No one's leaving! Everyone belongs! And we're getting them back! Are we clear? Maryland, put the damn stars back on the flag."

"Dear God, it's just a model," she said, clear exasperation in her voice.

"I shouldn't have to keep them all together," New York mused, watching them all go their ways. "That's supposed to be your job."

"Hey. No one wants me involved, remember?" I said. "They don't call this 'the war between the states' for nothing. And what's wrong? You're doing a good job of it. No wonder Delaware and Penn thought you fancied yourself higher than them."

I left the bewildered young man to his thoughts and went out for a walk.

Wow, that was a lot of words. Okay, next time, real world.