A quote: “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” ~~ Benjamin Franklin
I’ll start with a story …
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The backhand caught Anna by surprise, her head snapped around and she staggered into a wall. She turned back, bringing her hand up to her mouth, tasting blood on her lip and realizing it was already starting to swell.
The redcoated captain glowered at her even as his two aides were too shocked to respond.
“I’ll take nothing from you, woman, but direct answers to my questions. If that small tap fails to make you concentrate, remember we hang spies and your sex will not spare you.”
She drew herself up, squaring her shoulders, “Sir, you’ve already imprisoned my husband, leaving me to hold and manage our land and take care of our five children. Where does the good captain believe I find the time to be a spy?”
He stared at her and she met his gaze, steady, refusing to drop her eyes. Infuriated, he stepped towards her raising his arm … and this time the aides reacted, grabbing his arms and pulling him away. A third stayed behind, tipping his hat. “I apologize, Mrs. Strong. Times like these …” his voice drifted off. She raised an eyebrow, “Sir, ‘times like these’ is never an excuse for striking any gentlewoman, especially a citizen of the Crown, even you believe her a rebel.”
He gave a curt bow and hurried out the door. She watched the patrol of the British Army gallop away and gave up a prayer of gratitude that there had not been a Hessian among the group else …
Anna moved quickly, first back in the house as her children crept out of their hiding places, faces concerned. She gathered them for quick hugs and shushing them towards their chores to keep them busy as she grabbed the laundry basket and hurried outside to the clothesline strung across the backyard where the breeze off the Long Island sound made short work of drying them.
The sound where members of the Culper Ring would be watching as she hung colored petticoats and white handkerchiefs – code — to get word to General Washington.
The British captain was right. That slap had focused her concentration. She hung faster.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe stock standard license
Wombat Lace says: Great story, Darlene! Clever!
Scott says: The Cilver ring.. true unsung heros of rhe Revolution.. ” Washington’s secret six” is a great read on the subject.
Scott says: Culver.. damn fat fingers
Conrad Bradbury looked out at the New York skyline from the flag bridge of the USS George Washington. How different everything looked when it was your flag flying from the mast high atop the island.
He’d been a newly minted naval aviator back in 1976, when he’d been privileged to watch the tall ships sailing into New York Harbor for the Bicentennial. He’d been assigned to one of the last diesel-powered carriers, which he’d thought to be so terribly old-fashioned — until he considered what it would be like to fight aboard a ship dependent entirely upon the wind for motion and maneuverability.
So much had changed in the years since. He’d flown from conventional and nuclear carriers, commanded carriers and their air wings embarked, service punctuated by two times as a flight instructor training the next generation of pilots. The technology had changed too — not just the airframes and avionics, but also the integration of satellite intelligence and weather forecasting.
And the Big Apple had undergone its own changes, most terribly the Great Outrage in the Energy Wars, which had completely rearranged the skyline of Lower Manhattan. New buildings were rising to replace the ones destroyed or damaged beyond repair, but nothing on this pale blue dot Earth could replace the souls who’d perished on that dark and dreadful day.
New York had survived that horror, just as it had survived the British occupation during the War for Independence. And he and his would be on watch to ensure that it would continue to do so.
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