Completely still he finds himself beneath the comforter and sheet above him. Not a thought crosses his mind, or maybe several thousand. It’s difficult to tell. On the wall, through the curtains and all, the red, blue flashers strobe against the textured wall just behind the television. His eyes fix onto where the wall and ceiling meet, but not below, where the bi-colored lights dance.
He clutches the sheet against the spread, turning them and pulling them closer to his chin, where the covers meet. He is protected under here. Like nowhere else.
There is commotion outside the small room, on the second floor of the small inn. Outside, on the walkway, many footsteps can be heard. Many bodies coming closer to the room. All converging on the room. He pays no attention; clutching the covers closer to his chin. Mumbled radio communication, footsteps… it’s all lost within his mind now. He has no ideas of what’s to come. It doesn’t matter. No loss comeforth can compare to what he fears he’s lost.
Again, more of the flicker of lights upon the wall. All lost within himself.
***
Finally comes the knock. Several voices hush as one, taking command, orders that the door be opened. He lies there. Still. No intention of rising from this safe place. Again the command comes. This time, a flicker of acknowledgment seem within his eyes, flicks toward the door and the two thick bolts, and tiny chain that protect him from this safe place, and what exists beyond.
He lies there a moment more, not quite sure of what to do. Then, in a moment of calmness, he pulls the bed covers down, revealing his fully-dressed self; pants, shoes, pressed-shirt and all. He lifts from the bed and makes his way toward the door.
Slowly, he scuffs his feet across the thin carpet. He raises his left hand, pulls the chain, turns the lock with his right, and the light from outside peeks within.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
—
More here.
Finally arriving at today’s quarters, he walks through the sliding double-doors. He hadn’t made arrangments beforehand, which is so unlike him. Straight from the airport to the jobsite today he went. From the seat of his rental car, he drove south along the coastline as the sun drooped. A trailblazer this time; same as, well, countless times before. Wasn’t it also a trailblazer on that day as well? Maybe. Wasn’t important he supposed. But it made him wonder. A single, simple thought as this was typical lately. A single simple thought flooded and consumed his whole mind. A single and simple thought that he so indulged in that his mind felt like an open plain. A wide open space for this thought to completely fill. A place so clear and clean that he couldn’t remember the last time that it was, well, like this. A place to simply lose himself in while driving south, and without even hoping, simply expecting to come across a place to lay for the evening. A place to forget that he’d forgotten about all those things that he’d come to belive, truly don’t matter. A place to think about this Trailblazer, and try to remember if it were as similar to the one that day.
If that even mattered.
*Â *Â *
He handed over his card to register the room. When returned, glided toward the elevator, glancing to his right where there was a lounge. There were a few sitting at small cafe-like tables; reading, retrospecting, watching TV. He pressed the call button for the elevator. Not a thought through his mind. Clean, clear. Wide open space.
He rounded the corner and was off to his room. He swiped the card and entered, setting his bags close to the entrance. The sun was just making it’s final decent. He had no idea what tim it was and really didn’t concern himself with such things lately, which didn’t matter. Eager to simply live the day ahead, he was always on time to engagements of late, beacause he had been rising early. Life seemed to pulse by some inner feeling of when things were to be done.
As the last beams settled behind the mountaintops, so did his head on the pillow. The bedding was already turned down when he entered the room, so all that was necessary was to pull of his shoes, set them neatly next to the bed next to his and slip underneath of them.
