January 18th, 1974
Edward took his seat at the end of the front row of chairs in the Resembool town meeting hall and sat back, ready to see how the first round of speeches went for this year's mayoral election race. It had been a while since anyone had actually bothered to run, given no one had had anything against the current mayor, so it had been quite a long time –a couple of decades actually- since there had been a need for real elections instead of a formality.
The room was buzzing and crammed to the brim with curious citizens, even those who didn't actively partake in local government. Ed privately thought whoever won should propose a larger town meeting hall and separate government building. The place was just too small for Resembool now. The town would never be Central, but it was still far bigger than Ed's childhood village memories.
Next to him sat Winry, then the rest of the Resembool Elrics; Reichart and Deanna with their daughter on Reichart's lap, Urey, Ted, and Callie. Everyone was wearing good clothes. Nothing too fancy, but Deanna and Callie were both in dresses, the boys in slacks and nice shirts. The only members of the family in suit-dress were Aldon and Cassie, and Ed would have expected nothing less.
The two mayoral candidates and their wives were seated up on the platform behind the podium from where the speeches would be made. Aldon wore his best suit, and Cassie looked lovely in a simple knee-length pale green dress with a very small blue-flower print, and a flowing skirt. Her long dark hair was braided and twisted up on her head in a way that looked sophisticated and yet reminded Ed of when his daughter-in-law was younger. She had worn it that way for years out of habit from dancing. Her smile was relaxed and happy.
Ed couldn't help comparing the two couples and sizing up the competition, even though he had seen them before. Ron Causwith also wore a suit; though Ed thought his might be silk. He was a leaner man than Aldon; slim, with hair that was already just starting to go a bit thin up top despite being nearly the same age.
His wife, Rilla –though Ed thought he'd heard her full name was Marilla- outdid them all for fashion. At least, she did if you were going for up-town. Her dress was mauve silk, straight-skirted with a small jacket, and her blond hair had a trendy cut that was above the shoulder, but Ed wouldn't call it short. She also wore more makeup than Cassie did. Not distasteful, but far more noticeable.
They had only one son, an eight-year-old who was sitting at the end of the other front row in a small suit, looking uncomfortable and bored, but sitting very straight and behaving himself.
Ed glanced back at Callie, who was about the same age, but seemed more interested in what was going on than the boy did.
He only turned his attention back to the podium itself when Frank Withens, the butcher, who was running tonight's meeting stood up and smiled. "Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the first Resembool pre-election town meeting this year. Tonight you're going to get to hear a bit from both candidates, and both will be happy to answer questions once they have had the opportunity to speak."
Without any further words, Withens got down and out of the way. Ed had to admit, he liked politics in Resembool. It was much simpler and more straight forward than dealing with the bureaucracy of Central.
Ron Causwith got up first and stepped up confidently to the podium. "Good evening, people of Resembool. I know that my family and I are relatively new to this fine town, but in the years we have lived here, we have become very fond of it, and it is my desire to serve it, and you, to the best of my abilities to continue to bring Resembool forward!"
Causwith's speech was interesting enough. Ed heard a lot of talk about progress and expansion, and while it sounded exciting and all well and good, he knew a lot of Resembool folk still preferred their change in small bites. He couldn't help but wonder how many of them would really go in for further modernization.
When it was over, Aldon stood up and took the podium and Ed settled his mind to listen to his son's speech, even though he knew what Aldon was going to say.
"Good evening, everyone," Aldon smiled. "And thank you for taking the time to be here tonight. To introduce myself well, I'm pretty sure everyone here knows me already," there were several chuckles in the audience. "But just in case there's someone new tonight, I'm Aldon Elric, that guy who's married to the head nurse and whose kids have taken up half the school." Another few chuckles followed this pronouncement. "But seriously, Resembool has been home to my family since well before Cassie and I actually came to live here, in my great-grandmother Rockbell's house, and it is a place that I have grown to love dearly. I've spent the last couple of decades here, on various committees, helping design and build nearly half of the new structures in town. I have always been glad to offer my ideas, and my opinions, and my sweat where needed to help Resembool grow and develop. But, there are a lot of things that make this town a wonderful place that shouldn't change either, and I want to make sure that while we may do things like pave more roads, and improve the electricity and water in town, and build the new city hall extension, that we don't lose sight of what makes our community special in the process."
Ed nodded, a little impressed with Aldon's public speaking ability. Not that he had ever thought his son wasn't a good speaker, but he'd never heard him give a formal speech.
"That said, the projects I would intend to focus on first, if I am elected mayor, are the building of a new school –or large addition to the old one, meant to accommodate the fact that in the past twenty years the number of children going through the school has effectively quadrupled. I would also like to see a decision made on the location of the new river bridge between here and the town of Calavelle, and come to a solution regarding the old common grazing grounds, and determine a proposal for future town growth to allow for the continuation of the existing agricultural base."
Ed tried to gauge the audience, and he thought they seemed at least as pleased with –if not more than in several cases- the previous speech. These were all issues that had a very immediate root in people's lives. The school, the grazing lands for sheep not being interfered with by thoughtless building. Ed had to admit the reason for the fences around his gardens was so that the occasional herd of sheep could wander across the Elric land unmolested, and without eating imported Xingese plants. The bridge to Calavelle would help increase travel time, but would also probably increase the amount of traffic going south-west of town as well.
Aldon didn't linger, and wrapped up the speech quickly after that. When he finished, the meeting was open for questions, and Ed sat and listened as both men were peppered with questions about their own platforms, and about their opinions and how they would handle issues the other man had brought up in his speech where there was no overlap.
When it was over, in true Resembool style, everyone was dismissed, though they planned to reconvene over at the old church which, to Ed's bewilderment at times, continued to sit quietly in its little spot on the corner of the main town square, and he suspected there might actually be services for anyone who cared to stop in. He hadn't been in there except for social gatherings since the time he had spoken with the minister after Pinako died.
"So how did I do?" Aldon asked as they walked across the green, falling a little behind the hungry crowd, all ready for coffee, cake, and conversation.
"Wonderful, honey," Cassie smiled at him.
"You definitely had the old town folk nodding," Ed added. "I don't think you'll have any trouble getting their votes honestly. And your reputation for being in on the progressive projects isn't hurting you, but it might get you votes with the folks who are for more changes as well. I'm not sure you'll have a chance with anyone who wants to try and turn Resembool into a bigger city." But then, that wasn't who they were aiming for as a target audience anyway. "Even I know better than to go hounding people to change their minds when I have almost no chance of success."
"Really, Ed? When did you finally learn that lesson?" Winry teased him, holding on to his arm as much for warmth as anything else.
Ed grinned. "When I gave up arguing with you on how to do the laundry."
January 19, 1974
:And that's when the sea rose up in anger and submerged the entire lower city of Malathos, right up to the palace,: Al swept his hands dramatically across the desk in front of him, using alchemy to pull the water from his glass through the air and across the room, where it landed in a bucket by the door. :Or at least,: he grinned at his students, who were watching wide-eyed. :That's how the legend goes.:
For a moment, there was silence, then a burst of scattered applause as wide-eyed teenagers stared half at him and half at the bucket where the water had gone, mesmerized as much by the use of alchemy as the dramatic retelling of a piece of Cretan history.
Thrakos Argyros raised his hand. :Excuse me, Professor Elric, but don't people think now that the sea's destruction of the lower part of Malathos was actually caused by the defensive army having alchemists?:
:Some do,: Al nodded. :And they may very well have, but even an alchemist can't permanently raise the height of the oceans, or change the tides. No one is powerful enough to alter the Earth's natural balance that much, and it would destroy that balance which is, of course, not how alchemy works when used properly. Now, for homework, I'd like you all to read the next two chapters in the book over the weekend, detailing the history of Malathos and its rulers.: At the slightly crestfallen looks, he smiled. :Because, at the beginning of February, we're going to be taking our first hands-on trip into the field, and we're going south to the ruins of Malathos themselves.:
Every face in the room went from glum to exuberant in a matter of moments, and this time there were several cheers. Minxia looked like she might bounce right out of her seat.
:Which means,: Al went on, holding up a hand, :That I expect all of you to do particularly well on this test, and on everything we're going to cover leading up to this trip. The other teachers won't let anyone go who isn't doing at least passing work in every class. We will be gone for over a week, and we will have to take assignments with us. Be grateful the other professors have agreed to be kind that week.:
:How kind?: Thrakos asked, and several students chuckled.
:They promised not to have tests that week, or the week you get back,: Al replied. Really, he knew they had done this because they knew the students wouldn't get all their studying done, and didn't want to have to deal with that many bad tests to grade. But he didn't need to tell his students that part. :So show them you deserve that reprieve, all right? There will be more information as we get closer to the trip. Now have a good weekend. You're dismissed.:
The students leapt to their feet as the bell rang, chatting excitedly, some about the trip and others' minds already elsewhere. Not that Al minded. While he'd never attended high school, he did have some memories of being a teenager –albeit very odd ones.
In the hallway, Al spotted Verno Palakis, the advanced mathemetics instructor, staying out of the way of Al's eager stream of students. :Hello Verno,: he smiled.
The wispy-haired man smiled back, looking slightly bewildered. :I don't know how you do it, Alphonse. Did I really just hear cheering coming from your classroom? My students are never so enthusiastic. What's your secret?:
Al chuckled. :It's all in the delivery.:
:This is going to be so exciting!: Angelique grinned as she sat down next to Minxia and Thrakos in one of the many available study areas around campus. :I can't wait to go.:
:Well if someone doesn't get his grades up, his Amestrian teacher probably won't let him go with us,: Minxia looked at Thrakos. There was no way she was going to let him skip a study session. :How can you be getting a C in Amestrian?: Minxia shook her head at Thrakos, purposefully speaking her native tongue.
"The same way he's getting a C in Cretan Literature?" Angelique suggested with a chuckle as she looked down at her own Amestrian book.
Minxia never minded helping her friends study Amestrian. It was her first language, and she was acing Cretan, which made it easy to teach. Of course, she was almost fluent in Xingese, but she hadn't even attempted to teach them that! It was only the fact that her mother was willing to speak it at home that allowed her to learn and keep up with the language of her mother's side of the family
Thrakos grinned sheepishly, though he shot Angelique a dirty look. "I'm trying!" he wailed in Amestrian. "There are too many rules."
"You want rules, try Xingese," Minxia sighed, but smiled back at him. "Your whole family speaks Amestrian though, don't they?"
"Pretty much, and most of them speak Aerugean or Drachman… for political reasons." Thrakos did stick his tongue out at that last part. "Except Uncle Ziro. He says he learned them so he could talk to all the pretty foreign girls."
"Then how come it took your uncle decades to get one to marry him?" Angelique teased coyly. Her accent, Minxia noted, was actually decent, though Angelique had a much better grasp of grammar than Thrakos did, as well as the accent, and her grades showed it since she had a high B in the class. "And she turned out to be Aerugean anyway."
"Hey, Aunt Larise is pretty awesome," Thrakos retorted. "Not Ziro's fault he didn't meet her earlier."
"No one said it was," Minxia cut in on the discussion. Now was not the time to discuss the romantic intrigues of the Cretan Presidential family, about which she knew far more than she ever let on, especially to Thrakos, since she had heard tons of stuff bantered about at home when Grandpa Al and Ed and Winry and the older folks all started talking. Aunt Sara had joked once about how they had almost forced her into an arranged marriage with Ziro or his brother, though Minxia was fairly sure it was a joke given the laugh it got out of everyone. She had not asked for clarification since she had supposedly been in her room studying at the time, not on the stairs listening to everyone chatting in her parents' living room.
Secretly, Minxia had at the time –being eleven- though that it sounded silly, but not too bad. After all, she'd seen pictures of Ziro Argyros. He was really good looking, even now. Though in his teens the picture made her blush a little.
She had never mentioned to Thrakos that she thought he looked a lot like his uncle.
"We should get back to work," Angelique agreed.
"I hate conjugating verbs…" Thrakos sighed but he did pick up his book and drop the subject.
"And what do you like to conjugate?" Minxia asked.
"I thought I'd wait until I was older for that," Thrakos grinned back with such a wicked expression Minxia felt her ears go warm, and probably pink.
"You're awful," Minxia tossed a pencil at him, and it bounced off his nose. "Quit that or I'll transmute your eyebrows into caterpillars."
"Alchemy doesn't work like that. Even I know that much," Thrakos quipped.
"They'll look enough like caterpillars," Minxia threatened. "Green, and huge and furry, and all the girls will run away screaming, and the boys will never let you live it down."
"All right!" Thrakos sighed. "I give. You really are a minx aren't you?"
"Got a problem with that?" Minxia smiled.
"Nope, not a bit."
January 21st, 1974
The clock on his wall read one in the morning James Heimler realized as he squinted up through his glasses. The thirteen-year-old hadn't meant to stay up so late, but the book he was reading on steam-powered inventions had been utterly absorbing. He yawned, stretched, and looked to see how many pages he had left. Nearly a hundred. No, no matter how willing he was to be dragging on his feet tomorrow, he should really get sleep before school. He pulled out a bookmark and closed the book, setting it down on his bedside table.
He stood and went over to his door to turn off the light at the switch, when he heard a click downstairs that sounded like the front door. He paused before he realized that he hadn't heard Ian come home earlier from his date. It was probably him.
Then he heard footsteps in the hall, and stepped back from the slightly open door as he recognized his mother's stride as she moved down the hall, and then downstairs. His heart hammered a little, even though he doubted his mother would have been mad at him for not going to bed because he got lost in a book. It happened at least once a week. But Ian…. Coming home this late? He had guts… or a death wish.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" his mother's stern tone came from downstairs.
"One-ish," Ian replied. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"How considerate," Sara sniped. "Did you happen to remember that curfew is ten on a school night?"
"I lost track of time," Ian objected, though he didn't sound particularly upset. Given the warning tone in his mother's voice, James would have been ready to beg forgiveness. Ian was asking for trouble. "Dinner ran long and we went to the late movie. The pay phone by the theater didn't work either. Don't blow a gasket, Aunt Sara. I'm here. I'm safe. I haven't been mugged."
"Maybe you should be muzzled instead," Sara growled, though James was confused at the comment. "You look like a clown."
"Oh lay off," Ian retorted sharply. "We didn't do anything, if that's what you're asking. Geez, Aunt Sara, I'm almost seventeen, and it's not like I have anything major at school tomorrow. So I'm a little late, what's wrong with that?"
Oh damn… have you lost your mind? James winced. This was not going to be good.
"You know very well what's wrong with that," Sara replied with a cold, hard edge to her tone that James knew meant it was just hiding the fire underneath. "You broke several house rules tonight. You were out over three hours late on a school night, and you didn't call once to tell me the plans had changed or that there were delays, or even that you were all right. And I know for a fact there's a half-finished essay lying on your desk. That's not acceptable and I won't put up with it."
"What are you going to do?" Ian asked.
"Simple, you lose the right to be out of the house after dinner for the next week," Sara replied. "You can go to school. You can go to rehearsals and filming. That's it, and you will be driven there by me or Franz."
"But… there's a party at Lizzy's Friday night!"
"You should have thought about that before you decided to stay out late," Sara said without a hint of apology. "Now I recommend you go upstairs and finish your school work and get what sleep you can. I have plenty around the house that needs doing to keep you busy tomorrow evening."
There was a moment of dejected, angry silence, during which James was almost sure he could hear Ian's mind turning over downstairs. Then his cousin seemed to relent. "Yes, ma'am," he replied shortly, and James heard footsteps on the stairs.
Quickly he stepped back from the door again just in time to see Ian storm past –his mother's earlier comment clear in that he could see Ian's date must have been wearing red lipstick- and then he was gone again.
Before his mother could come up the stairs, James quietly shut his door and turned off the light, making do with the light from the moon outside to see his way back across the floor and climb into bed. He felt a little stunned by what had just transpired. Ever since he moved in, Ian had been a model student, or well enough for him; his grades weren't always perfect but he did his work to the best of his abilities, and James had always thought it was pretty cool how he could balance school and working as an actor.
But this was the first time he'd ever heard Ian outright defy James' mother like that. Normally he was helpful around the house. Sure they disagreed sometimes, but James didn't expect people to get along all the time. It seemed to happen a little more often of late, though it was normally small things, and normally if Ian was late it wasn't by more than a few minutes.
Sleep began to overtake him, and James rolled over, hearing Ian in the next room as his chair scraped and he appeared to be settling in to finish that essay. He felt a little guilty because he felt oddly torn. Part of him agreed with his mother; the part that always followed the rules, but part of him wondered just what it was like to stay out late with friends, go to the movies… make out with a girl. Ian wasn't just smart, or good looking, he was honestly popular without having to fake anything… and James –glasses, good-grades, nice guy James- couldn't help being curious, and a bit jealous.
He'd have to find a time when his mother wasn't around to ask Ian about it.