1905
Canada stepped off the exit platform of the train station looking very annoyed. Just a few days earlier, he had been relaxing in his home in Ottawa, free from the stress that usually concerned him. That is, until he received a call from his twin brother begging him to come down to visit. Normally, if he really did not want to go, Canada would simply tell America that he was busy. However, this time, America seemed especially excited and insisted that Canada arrived as soon as possible. When it became apparent that America was not going to take no for an answer, Canada grudgingly packed his bags.
Before Canada had time to look around for his boisterous brother, with whom he had agreed to meet at the station, the American had rushed over, nearly knocking the Canadian down.
"Canada!" America shouted, "I'm so glad you're here! I was afraid you weren't going to show up because it was so last minute…"
"Yeah, well you're lucky I was in Ontario instead of say, B.C. otherwise I would have never made it all the way to Ohio in time for…wait, what are we doing in some hick town in Ohio anyway?" America had refused to tell Canada the reason for the trip over the phone.
"Hey!" America objected, "Dayton is not some hick town! And we're here because I have something to show you. Here, follow me and we'll walk and talk." America grabbed one of Canada's bags and started down the road.
"Wait, we have to walk?" Canada complained.
"C'mon! It's not that far, and when you see it, it'll be totally worth it."
"You still haven't told me what it is."
"Oh, yeah! Well, you know how a few years ago that guy from Germany's house made an airship?"
"Yeah…"
"Well some guys here made one too!"
"You dragged me all the way down here for a zeppelin?"
"Well, no, not exactly. You see, they didn't really make an airship, at least, not like that. It's… smaller and you can steer it more. Oh, and it doesn't have a gas bag. Instead it has wings, like a bird."
"What? How does that work? Do you have to flap them?"
"No, you don't flap them. And it has something to do with gliding on air currents, but it's kind of hard to explain."
"Are you sure these men are for real. Like, you don't think this is all just a hoax?"
"No, I don't. I've been working with these guys during my free time for a couple of years now, and I've seen them fly with my own eyes. They can really do it. You just have to see for yourself. Speaking of which, we're here."
America stopped in the middle of the road and faced towards an empty field.
"Uh, there's nothing there," Canada said dumbly.
"Oh yeah, it's over this hill," America replied. "Follow me."
He started walking straight through the tall grass. Canada followed with a sigh. Soon they approached a small shack with only three walls. A balding man in his late-thirties was walking out of the building.
"Hey, Wilbur!" America greeted, waving at the man, "He's here!"
"Oh, so he is," the man, Wilbur, said. He turned back around into the building. "Orville, come on out! They're back!" Another man, also in his thirties but with a rather magnificent moustache[1], exited the shack.
America set down the bag and placed his hand on Canada's shoulder, gently pushing his brother forward. "I would like you to meet my friends Wilbur and Orville Wright. Wilbur and Orville, this is my dear brother, the Great White North, also known as Canada."
Canada blushed at the dramatic introduction while the Wright brothers eagerly shook his hand and spouted about what an honor it was to meet him. America beamed in the background. "Yeah," he said, "They didn't believe me at first, and I had to take some, uh, extreme measures to prove it. Let's just say I got a stern talking to from Teddy [2]," America chuckled as the Wright brothers paled. "Anyway, do ya'll mind showing us the flyer?"
"Of course not, come on into the hangar," Wilbur said as he gestured towards the building. Everyone walked inside, and Canada laid his eyes on one of the strangest contraptions he had ever seen. It was made out of wood and canvas and vaguely cross shaped, with what looked like a fuel tank and propeller in the middle. Canada wondered if this bizarre machine was what America called 'the flyer.' It sure didn't look like it could fly.
"Isn't it wonderful?" America asked, too busy admiring the mechanism to listen to the answer.
Canada was still confused. "Um, how does it work?"
America smiled at the Wrights. "Why don't we show you?"
About an hour later, the two sets of brothers had moved the flyer out of the hangar and set it up on what the Wrights had described as a catapult.
"We don't have a way to take off on our own yet," explained Orville, "So we use this to start the flyer."
Wilbur was being strapped in the flyer by America. After everything was declared safe, the catapult was pulled and the flyer, with Wilbur on it, was launched into the air. Canada was sure that the whole contraption would fall, but to his surprise, Wilbur and the flyer soared through the air.
"Oh my god!" Canada exclaimed in total disbelief. "I didn't think it was possible."
"I know, right?" America replied, "It's amazing, isn't it? You should have seen it the first time. Wilbur was in the air for almost forty minutes."
"That's how long you can stay up there?"
"At least, but we're working on lengthening that."
The North American brothers stood for almost thirty minutes watching the flyer. America was beaming with pride while Canada could barely believe his eyes. At last, however, Wilbur landed and both brothers were broken from their trance.
The nations helped the Wright brothers return the plane back to the hangar and everyone walked to the house America had been renting nearby. They discussed plans for the flyer over dinner.
"So Canada here wanted to know exactly how the flyer works," America said before taking a bite of chicken, "I figured you guys would be able to explain it better than I can."
"Are you insinuating that you played no part in designing the flyer?" asked Orville good-naturedly, "because we all know that simply isn't true."
America blushed. "Come on, I didn't do that much."
"You know," said Canada thoughtfully, "I don't think I even want to know how it works anymore. I think knowing would kind of… I don't know… ruin the mystery. Or take away the magic. Or… something. You understand what I mean?"
America nodded his head. "Yeah, I do. Some people don't need to see the details to be amazed. And that's okay, but some people like to work behind the scenes and get involved. We like to figure out how things work and learn how to do new things. And that's another thing I wanted to announce to you, Canada. Orville and Wilbur are planning on establishing a flight school."
Canada looked at the brothers, clearly impressed. "So you two are going to teach people how to fly?"
The Wrights nodded eagerly. "And one of our first students will be your brother."
America smiled. "It's true! I'm going to learn how to fly, Canada!"
Canada couldn't help but notice the look of sheer joy on his twin's face.
Later that night, the Wrights had left and America and Canada were left alone in the house. The two nations sat in comfortable silence, pondering the day and all that had become of it.
Suddenly America spoke. "You know, this whole thing, about flying, it's really great, you know?"
"Yeah, it is," replied Canada.
"I mean, now that we can fly, we can go anywhere. There's nothing to stop us anymore. We can be free."
Canada looked at America. He had a distant expression on his face and his blue eyes were gazing at something that only he could see. "Did I ever tell you about the time I told England that I wanted to build a ship that flied."
Canada shook his head.
"He told me it was impossible."
Canada rolled his eyes. That sounded an awful lot like something his cynical caretaker would say.
"He said that we already tried it a few times and it didn't work so we should give up and accept the fact that it was never going to happen." America's expression hardened slightly. "I didn't want to give up, though. I wanted to prove that we could do something that we thought was impossible and show everyone that we can do anything."
"So you reached your goal then," Canada confirmed.
"Yeah," America said with a slight smile, "I guess I did. At least, I reached one of them."
Before Canada had time to ask what he meant by that, America stood up and announced his going to bed. Canada was left to wonder alone.
Authors note:
[1]Seriously, check out that moustache, it is wonderful.
[2] Teddy Roosevelt, the American president at the time.
I didn't mean for America to get so broody there at the end when I started writing this chapter. If you didn't like it don't worry! Not all of the chapter will be like that. If you did like it, there will be at last a few more chapters like that. Once again, if you have any historical events that you think would be nice to see in this story, post them in the comments!