First Draft Chapter 34

Rosa, Varro and Julius set to work on a map of the city, which they divided into on hundred different parts. Pax was still in the hospital, and so he didn’t help, but he announced his approval. The plan was for each section to become a different voting district, and each district would elect one representative, and these representatives would form a committee that would compose the new constitution of the city. Once the map was completed, Rosa proudly demonstrated it to show that the new government would include every part of the city.
Emma raised quite a fuss when she saw the map. On paper it looked very fair, since all the districts were close to equal size. The problem, Emma claimed, was that the poor areas of the city were more populated than the rich areas. After all, a big house might occupy the same amount of land as a whole apartment building, not to mention all the homeless who congregated the street. I was sure Rosa had made this error unintentionally. Why would she, of all people, intentionally favor the rich? Yet Emma sounded as if she were accusing Rosa of doing it on purpose. She never came out flat and said it, but she made several not so veiled references to Rosa’s strongly middle class background.
This sent Rosa and the others scrambling to redraw the district lines. The old map was quickly yanked down from its public place of display. Emma asked for a formal apology, and Rosa stopped short of this, but she did admit that the old map had been a mistake.
The problem with redrawing the districts according to population was that no accurate numbers existed. The last census was taken nearly twenty years ago, and, although I hate to say this because my father had been in charge of it, it wasn’t all that good a census in the first place. It wasn’t my father’s fault. Flash had given him a bare bones staff to work with. He had also encountered several less than helpful bureaucrats along the way. The bureaucrats just didn’t see the point of it. Why bother to create records of where everyone lived? When would this be useful? In the end, several of Urbaes’ poorer districts ended up being significantly undercounted, but no one really cared at the time. Those, after all, were not the districts where the important citizens lived.
Varro realized the shortcomings of the census data. To find out what the accurate numbers were would require more time than anyone was willing to sacrifice, so Varro must have decided that if things had to be unequal, they should be unequal in favor of the poor. In addition to satisfying everyone’s social conscious, this would have the added benefit of keeping Emma and her followers quiet. And so the new map was created, heavily weighted toward the poorer neighborhoods. Rosa took much of the credit for the new creation, although David told me that Varro did almost all of the work.
Amidst all the squabbling about the map, Ares complained frequently that there were more important matters for the government to concern itself with, namely the defense of Urbae. This was a reasonable concern, given that Flash still controlled the rest of Fabulae, and Urbae was surrounded by a sea of hostile forces. Rosa, Emma, and the rest of the Young Clodians were far more concerned about creating the ideal society than they were with military defenses, and so Rosa appointed Ares to be in charge of Urbae’s defenses. It proved to be a great fit for Ares, and he plunged himself into the task. He organized work crews to repair the city’s ancient walls, towers, and other defenses. He also created volunteer militias, and set about the task of obtaining weapons for them. There weren’t enough guns in the city for every brave soul that wanted one, but Ares was able to find knives and clubs for several.
And then, in the midst of all this activity, a letter arrived from Fenestram. Rosa red it first, but soon copies were printed on fliers and posted all around the town.
It was a letter from Clodius, written distinctively in his style, complete with flowery language and pointless details.
"Dearest citizens,
brothers, sisters, revolutionary comrades. Please excuse the tearstains on this letter, for they are tears of joy. Words can not express my happiness at what has happened. I feel instantly at one with everyone in the city, and I feel like all the dead are my dearest friends.
Although I feel bad at leaving my generous hosts, nothing can stop me from returning to you. I am making preparations for travel now, and expect to leave within the week. If all goes well this letter should reach you first, but I do not expect to be far behind it.
Clodius


It had rained for almost two days straight. When the rain finally did stop, the streets were filled with mud. Most of the streets in Urbae were dirt roads. Daily use had caused the dirt to become a hardened surface, but after two days of rain, even the most sued road began to soften up. The nicer roads had been paved with bricks, but they were soon filled with mud that got brought over from the neighboring streets. The brick roads had a drainage system to take care of the excess water, but it wasn’t perfect by any means. Pools of water would collect in the indents and ruts on the street.
But all this didn’t stop the crowds from coming. The streets were packed with people. Some of them actually dressed in nice clothes, despite the mud that lay all around. And they were all jostling each other, trying to get a better look.
Hermes and I darted in and out of the crowd, like two little kids. We were hardly little kids anymore. In fact, I was one of the tallest people there. Hermes was shorter than me, but he wasn’t in any danger of being mistaken for a child. And yet like children we couldn’t stay in one place. We moved through the streets, slipping into every thin space we could find.
"I don’t know why we’re here," I called back to Hermes. "I hate crowds, and I can’t imagine you’re too interested in this."
"What do you mean?" Hermes responded. "This is a historic event. We’ll remember this for the rest of our lives. Think about it Jon, we’ll be able to tell our grandchildren we were here." A space opened up in the crowd, and Hermes and I darted through it. A couple people shouted in protest at our boldness, but we ignored them.
"Everyone in the city will be able to tell their grandchildren they were here," I said. Hermes just shrugged his shoulders in response. "Do you know what I wish I was doing right now?"
"No Jon," Hermes answered flatly. "Do tell."
"I wish I was in the park right now, by the pond preferably. And I wish I had a nice big, cool glass of lemonade that I could just sip quietly and enjoy this nice spring day."
Hermes laughed. "Just sit by the pond and watch the ducks? You sound like my grandfather. You’re getting old before your time Jonny."
"I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t feel like I need to see this. I would be just as happy hearing about it." Hermes just smiled at me as we edged forward through the crowd. I looked around me. "And on top of that," I added, "I’m not even sure we’re going the right way."
"What?" Hermes stopped suddenly. "This is the way everyone else is going."
"I think everyone else might be wrong. Didn’t Rosa say he was coming by the 48th road?"
Hermes looked confused. "But that’s two blocks that way." He pointed behind us.
"Exactly. We’re going the wrong way.
Hermes thought for a moment. "Jon, are you sure she said the 48th road?"
"Well you were there too. Don’t you remember?"
Hermes scrunched up his forehead in thought. "Yeah, I think you’re right. That is what she said." Then struck by a new thought he added, "All the work it took to get us this far, and it was the wrong way."
We turned and headed the opposite direction. Both of us had been present at the town meeting the night before, when Rosa had announced what path Clodius would enter the city by. I don’t think anyone expected the huge crowds that lined the city streets to see him. For all our effort, neither Hermes nor I could get a glimpse of him as he road by. We were stuck in the back, trying to push forward like everyone else to get a glimpse.
Clodius entered the city triumphantly, on a carriage drawn by the four finest horses the city had to offer. The crowds cheered him wildly, and, though the streets were filled with mud and water, they also became paved with flowers that people threw in front of the horse’s feet.
We were able to make it over to hear some of Clodius speech. Rosa introduced Clodius as the father of the revolution, although Clodius looked so young up there that it was hard to imagine him as the father of anything.
Clodius began timidly. "I’m not much of a public speaker, so you’ll have to excuse me." His voice was loud and clear, but it was obvious he did not feel at home behind the speaker’s stand. He wasn’t near as confident as Rosa was. "I’m very honored to be here," Clodius continued, "and I’m honored by all the praise you’ve all given me, but I’m not sure if I deserve it. You see," he raised his voice slightly, "I’ve suffered very little in my short lifetime for my beliefs. I’ve suffered some, that’s true. Firsts I was expelled from school, and then I was banished from my beloved homeland, but I’ve led a very privileged life. I don’t know what it is like to go to bed night after night on an empty stomach, like so many of you have done for so many years. I don’t know what it’s like to have to look a hungry child in the eye and tell that child there’s no food more food left in the house. I don’t know what it’s like to watch my children first suffer, and then die, because I can’t afford to pay for medicine or for a doctor’s help." His words must have struck a cord with the crowd, because several of the people began crying.
Clodius pointed his hands out at the crowd and continued, somewhat more passionately. "You people are the heroes of the revolution. You’re the ones who suffered the most for this day. You’re the ones who risked your lives fighting against the Strates. And you’re the ones who deserve the praise today, not me." The crowd was silent. Clodius himself looked unsure of what to do. He shifted back and forth behind the speaker’s stand, as if unsure weather to continue or to stop. Eventually he stepped down, and Rosa reoccupied the stand.


The day of Clodius’ return was proclaimed a new holiday by Rosa. This marked the third holiday Rosa had created, since the day the barricades were erected and the day of the revolution were both holidays. I wondered how many holidays Rosa planned to create before the year was over, and if the calendar could possibly support them all.
At the end of Rosa’s two weeks, elections were held in each district to create the new government. Many of the Young Clodians nominated themselves in various districts, and most of them were elected. Emma, Ares, Bernadine, Pax (who was now out of the hospital, although his arm would remain in a sling for quite sometime), Dionysius and of course Rosa. Not every Young Clodian who nominated him or her self was elected, as was the case with Varro, Julius, Phobos, and Angela, but this was because they had made the mistake of nominating themselves in working class neighborhoods where strong labor leaders already existed. Clodius himself could have been easily elected in any district, so he nominated himself in a district that he felt didn’t have any other strong nominees.
Rosa, who was developing a passion for formalities, handed power over in a very elaborate ceremony. Several speeches were made and songs were sung. It was a big event, and the city center was jammed, but I got so bored I ended up walking out halfway through.
However, the new government was not meant to be permanent either. It was their job to create the new constitution of the land. Then, according to the process outline by Rosa, the constitution would be sent to the citizens of Urbae to be either accepted or rejected in a referendum vote.
But well this process was talking place, someone needed to do the day to day task of governing. The new revolutionary government decided to elect from their ranks an executive committee. The executive committee would consist of five members of the revolutionary government, who would be temporarily empowered to make decisions on behalf of the others. The rest of the government, of the Senate, as they were beginning to call themselves, could nullify any of the decisions of the executive committee by a majority vote. Otherwise the whim of the executive committee became the law of the land. No one was surprised when the Senate elected all young Clodians. Rosa, Emma, Pax, Ares and Clodius himself became the executive committee.
Rosa had, during her time as head of the provisional government, developed rather elaborate rules by which the Senate was supposed to conduct its business. The rules outlined how proposals were to be made, how they would be developed, how they would be argued, and how they would be voted on. The Senate’s first order of business was to decide if they wanted to adapt Rosa’s rules for conduct. Dionysius passionately argued that the rules were too rigid, and that the best way for the Senate to act was to talk informally among themselves until they reached a consensus. He was unable to persuade anyone else to his point of view, but the Senate did spend significant time adjusting Rosa’s rules. Clodius was elected as chair of the Senate, and was given the task of facilitating the discussion.