`THE MERCER HOMESTEAD // PARCEL 10`
`ACREAGE: 40 MILES OF SUBTERRANEAN BEDROCK`
`STATUS: SOVEREIGN & UN-ENCUMBERED`
`HELD IN TRUST FOR THE LINEAL HEIRS // AD INFINITUM`
`INSCRIPTION: BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.`
`BALANCE DUE: ZERO.`
And resting on a pedestal of hand-carved Wisconsin greenstone beside the garden gate…
Polished until the solid brass hardware and white silk embroidery gleamed beneath the morning sun…
Was That Very Silk Wedding Gown My Mother Had Crafted with Her Own Hands.
Its hand-stitched train encased in clear crystal resin, a bronze plaque mounted across the pedestal reading:
`THE NIGHT BEFORE MY WEDDING I OVERHEARD MY BRIDESMAIDS THROUGH THE HOTEL WALL.`
`A BRIDE’S UNYIELDING VALOR RAISED THE BEDROCK OF THE REPUBLIC.`
`BUILT PLUMB. HELD TRUE.`
A pair of white-tailed sea hawks broke from the high canopy of the northern pines along the shore, circling high on the thermal updrafts above the water, their broad wings catching the sun as they banked clean, deep, and free across the limitless blue American sky.
