The End of Childhood
Chapter Thirteen
Amelia leaned against the wall of her childhood home's kitchen, watching with a sense of dread and pain as the scene before her unfolded.
Her father frowned across at her younger self "For goodness sake Amelia—stop drinking that coffee rubbish. I'm sorry about not being able to lower the tax on tea but that doesn't mean you have to have all of your little friends boycott it—" sipping on his tea and flipping through the newspaper, shaking his head. Things were getting worse and worse here in the American Colonies—he didn't know quite what to do. Amelia was getting more and more rebellious. Looking up over his paper when Amelia stood up from her seat and slammed her hands on the table.
"Dammit Arthur! Stop ignoring me like this! I bring up a valid thing my people need and you ignore it! Do you even care when I bring something up to you?" Amelia grabbed the newspaper from his hands and tearing it up, throwing the pieces behind her. "Why won't you treat me like an adult? You're gone for all but three months of the year and you act like you know every single thing that is happening here! You don't know anything about what it's like to live here—" getting more and more frustrated as she carried on ranting—it felt as if he never listened to her and what she said about the colonies and what was needed and wanted. It was is he still saw her as the small child he adopted all those years ago. "I want some respect! I want to be treated as your equal Arthur what is so wrong with that—"
Arthur's eyes narrowed, flashing with anger as she tore the paper from her hand. "Amelia Felicia Jones I will not be spoken to like that! I am your father and you will treat me as such! You're just a child anyways you don't know what it's like to be a nation—" hurt by her notion that he didn't know anything Arthur carried on—letting his anger carry him through this. "I'd treat you like an equal or an adult if you acted like one! You sneak out at night to meet with those damn ruffians that want to boot the crown out of the colony! What do you expect me to do? What in the world happened to you? You were such a happy child Amelia—"
The young woman stared at her father for a few moments—hating how this was turning out. She knew what was going to happen. For the past few months her friends had been telling her that if things didn't change, war could end up being necessary. Amelia had done her best to hold onto hope that things could turn out differently, that her father would allow her and her people independence but she could tell the likelihood of that was decreasing everyday. Not hearing her older self cry softly at the scene, not knowing that this moment is exactly where her and her father's relationship would begin to head downhill. "Arthur. I want to be independent." Even through her anger she could see the heartbreak in her father's eyes. She really couldn't blame him, she felt heartbroken too—but this was necessary. This had to happen. She needed to be free. "Not all of the Sons of Liberty are convinced about this but that's what I want… I hope we can work something out peacefully like adults." Walking out of the kitchen, glad her brother wasn't there to see all of this, she walked out of the house and to Benjamin's house, leaving her father in shock and her older self in tears.
((Sorry for such short chapters lately! College is getting a bit hectic and family is too and it's keeping me from writing as long of things as I would like, along with updating more frequently. But the next few should be fairly long compared to these past few so keep an eye out please!))