James Whittaker

The Capital of Country A

It is a day of early December. So the weather is cold and windy. Yellow and brown leaves are falling hard, making a huge mess littering the road. The sun that refuses to shine makes the day is even more gloomy.

Yet, there is a huge crowd of people at city square. Almost every kind of people are there, adult, kid, young, old, male, female, trans-gender, white, brown, black, yellow, red, even rainbow. Every one looks excited. Many kids, and some adults, are having flags on their hands.

Today is a big day for this country. After winning the election a month ago, now James Whittaker is taking oath office to be the latest president of this country. He won the election by far. Out of 50 states this country has, 31 states chose him. This crowd obviously is his rooters. They are waiting for his first speech as the president that will be held right after his inauguration. Rumors said, beside announcing his ministerial, the president will announce some new policies regarding immigrants, guns ownership, and how this country will withdraw its embargo to some countries. All the policies will be set in 100 first days of his work as a president, just like what he promised in his campaign. Such a quick and bold movement. No wonder he is loved and adored by majority citizens of this country.

A tall blonde woman is walking toward the crowd. Beside her, there is a little boy with one hand is holding the woman's hand while his other hand is holding a red balloon. When they are passing an ice cream truck, the boy just stop. Even when the woman forces him to move by pulling him, the boy stubbornly stands still. The woman turns her head toward the boy and speaks to him, trying to coax him, but instead to walk again, the boy is starting to cry and soon having his tantrum.

The woman's pitch is increasing, telling the boy to stop crying and behave himself. But of course the boy's tantrum is getting worse. Their dispute is attracting people surround them. The woman exhales heavily. She then stomps her feet to the ground before starts walking, leaving the boy.

Knowing that the woman left him, the boy cries harder and screams, "Noo !!!" He then runs to catch the woman with his hand is still holding a red balloon. Suddenly..

BANG !!

The sound of explosion is followed with screams from the crowd. At instant, people lies down on the ground and a merely few seconds later cops, both in uniform and not, are coming and ambush the woman and the boy.

"Get down !! Get Down !!" A cop yells at the woman while pointing their long gun toward her.

The woman with pale face is raising her hands and shouts, "Please don't shoot! Please.. please..."

"On the ground now !! NOW !!" The cop yells back at her.

The woman grabs the boy who is still crying and in stammered lies down on the ground. Once she is on the ground, the cops move toward her and arrests her.

"His balloon is popped. That's it... I swear to you. Please... I'm no terrorist," The woman begs in between her sob. The cops ignore her and just drags her away.

"Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommyyyy!!" The boy screams in fear and panic to see how the woman being dragged away. One of the cop approaches him, forcefully lifts him up on his shoulder.

Seeing one of the cop shoulders the boy forcefully, the woman pleads again, "Please, don't hurt him... please... he's just a boy..." But once again, the cops just ignore her.

They bring both the woman and boy away from the crowd. Other cops are coordinating with one another via their communicators while still on alert mode. Only more than ten minutes after the chaos happened, the shocked crowd can gradually becomes normal again.

Around fifteen minutes later, again, all cops are being alert. Some are running while communicating with others via their communicators. They create a formation around the front door of the capital building, including in front of the podium. Undercover cops are also taking their places, watching all around them to see any suspicious thing or movement.

I put binocular out of my eyes as I make a long sigh. I then walk just a couple of steps to place my self behind a rifle that has been stayed steadily on top of its holder for quite some times now. I sit on a chair behind the riffle, put one of my eye on the telescope, and place my index finger on the trigger.

Less than five minutes later, the crowd is cheering to welcome a group of people who just came out of the capital building leaded by the president himself. James Whittaker waves at the crowd with a wide smile on his face. The crowd cheers louder to respond his wave.

Once the cheers subside down, a man approaches the podium and starts to speak, "Ladies and gentlemen... the president of Country A... Mr. James Whittaker"

The cheers start again as James Whittaker walks approaching the podium. Still with his wide smile, he puts his hands on to the podium, waiting for the cheers to subside down again. Mr. Whittaker then gropes his suit's inner pocket to takes out few pieces of paper.

"Thank... thank you," He says a little nervous, ends it with a cough.

With a heavy heart, I empty my lung slowly. At the end of my breath, I move my index finger a little to pull the trigger. Two seconds later, couple of miles away, the crowd is panicking as the man in front of the podium go down with a bullet hole on his left chest.

@@@@@ AUTHOR'S NOTE @@@@@

I'm sorry I skipped publishing last week because I'm on vacation. I had a great vacation, and now I'm back !! ^^