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There’s a trumpet blast that sets off the percussion of parade h the crowd I cansticks between their fingers as they h platforantic fake flowers, in honor of spring I remember one winter his bulletproof dome was aflutter with artificial snow He never ventures anywhere unless he’s encased in that doreen suit, his white hair croith laurel

His platform stops He holds up his arms Cameras loom over the crowd on vertical lifts

"Hoe hear what he’s saying in that thing?" Gabriel asks me

I don’t have to answer him, because i and echoing through speakers that have been fastened to the surrounding trees "What a large turnout!" he says There’s the squeal of interference in one of the speakers Maddie is a furious shade of red, her hands pressed against her ears I try to co her hair, but she jerks back and hides her face in Gabriel’s neck

Gabriel loops his are and his time at thealong every pathway like the legs of a giant spider And I doubt he’s ever heard the president speak He isn’t urehead than anything else A symbol of a pointless tradition that’s been carried on for centuries America is a country A countryaround like ants without their queen, going through the motions but to no end

Behind the president, in his do a different shade of pastel dress and a crown of laurel Three of theer brides appear to be in various stages of pregnancy They were chosen fro I often wonder if they regret their decision The luxurious life of a wealthy man’s bride has its appeal I know that But it even took its toll on Cecily, who’d spent her childhood dreae--a feeling of being in a drea sense that my life, laid out so neatly like the clothes Deirdre left onso and newness, but it’s hard to pick out his words when they keep echoing The drummers have all stopped to listen A hush falls over the crowd in tiust of sea air, and the president’s voice beco at all as the speakers are readjusted

"Technical difficulties, folks," he says, laughing good-naturedly Sorowls

I’ my mouth to tell Gabriel we should leave, when the president starts up again

"As everyone is aware," he says, "spring will soon be upon us" And then he dips into a speech about how spring brings newness and life, and with the birth of the dogwood blossoms that surround his home, and the anticipated arrival of his new sons, he would like to restore sohtly I can see his teeth all the way fro--no, the rebirth--of the laboratories that stood in Manhattan’s shipping district"

He wants to rebuild the laboratories in which my parents worked--the ones that were bombed in protest of further research for the antidote My brother and I heard the blast as alking horound rattled under our feet, and we held hands as we ran toward the billowing ss there It could have been any of the from the rubble e arrived I had to wrapfor him not to join the civilians who rushed in to help In the end he stayed with me on the sidelines, and atched until the last rescue effort had evacuated And later that evening, as left of the structure collapsed entirely

Not only did that explosion take my parents, it took the city’s pro-science ideals, left us all thinking we had no choice but to accept ourcould be done

A new lab It is the first thing the president has ever said that has made me feel hope But that hope only lasts for an instant, because as the president is starting up his next sentence, the angry cries frohtens his arm around mine In the distance someone hurls a rock that hits the president’s dome No, they don’t want more research They don’t want children to be tampered with h, they ask, that we’ve already been given death sentences?

The first generations are the angriest, but, then, they make up the majority of the pro-naturalist mentality They’ve already watched their children wither away; they’ve seen the consequences of science, and will have no more of it "Use that space to build a hospital!" soe However, there are some who have studied medicine and offer makeshift health care out of their ho, they ht set up a broader practice I’ve never heard of the president shelling out a dime to help fund these ventures Why would he? What would be the point in saving a life that will end in a few years anyway?

"We should go," I tell Gabriel I’m not sure if he can hear me over the commotion--the drums have started up in an atteon us, and I’ my neck to see over the heads and find the proper route

Then the explosion happens

I freeze Gabriel tugs me, but then stops when he realizes I won’t ray cloud that has formed in the distance And then another blast And another So over a camera lift