Free The Stone of Blood by Tony Nalley

do marked out of it with big red X’s.
     
    As a kid growin’ up in the country, ridin’ your bike seemed to bring with it a sense of freedom! No matter the rules, nobody was hollerin’ at you and nobody was makin’ you do somethin’ that you didn’t wanna do! Ridin’ on that smooth road with the wind blowin’ in your face made you feel glad to be alive!
     
    My bike was red and it had a long white banana seat on it. It also had a big spring on the front of it to make it look like a real motorcycle! We called my bike the “ Chopper King ” and my sister’s bike we called the “ Blue Flame ”. Me and my sister made up those names ourselves!
     
    “Hey Anna! Look! Scott’s comin’ out!” I said as I zigzagged just out of eyesight of Mama’s kitchen window. Scott was a boy who lived down the road. Not the one that had the creek. This was the other one that Anna liked.
     
    “I see him.”
     
    “You want me to tell him you LIKE him?” I said pickin’ on her.
     
    “NO!” she said as she gestured at me to stop it and to quit bein’ so loud.
     
    “I will if YOU WANT me too!” I teased again.
     
    “NO I said!” She told me.
     
    Anna was gettin’ mad at me now and I was smilin’ like a Cheshire cat! Scott was my age and my sister of course was a little bit younger. And it sure was embarrassin’ when you liked somebody and got teased about it! But it was one of the funniest things ever when you were the one that gotta do the teasin’!
     
    “Well all right, but if you want me too, I’ll TELL HIM for you!” I told her.
     
    “SHHHH!” She stated holdin’ her finger up to her mouth. “HERE HE COMES!”
     
    “Hey Scott, how’s it goin’?” I asked.
     
    I was ridin’ my bike around in circles now. I’d already forgotten about whether or not my mama could see me. The red barn blocked us mostly from Mama’s site, so that’s why we liked ridin’ close by it most of the time.
     
    “Pretty good. How are y’all doing?” Scott said.
     
    “Not bad.” I said lookin’ at my sister and smilin’. “Guess what Scott?”
     
    “What?” he said.
     
    “Anna’s got somethin’ to TELL YA.” I said.
     
    The look on my little sister’s face could’ve knocked me plumb off of my bike if I wasn’t already laughin’ so hard! It was just some good natured ribbin’ was all! At least wise since I wasn’t the one gettin’ the ribbin’!
     
    I had to stop ridin’ for a whole minute and just stand there on that road with the bike between my legs to catch my breath from laughing so hard!
     
    “ANNA LIKES YOU SCOTT!” I said bustin’ out loud!
     
    Anna became so embarrassed that she turned a bright red in the face!
     
    She gave me the meanest old scowled look that you’d ever saw!
     
    And then she rode her bike on up to the house!
     
    I knew that I was gonna hear about it when I got home! Cause I knew that my mama would surely be standin’ by our mailbox tellin’ me to come home at any moment!
     
    But as for right then, me and Scott just kind of looked at one another and laughed a bit.
     
    Well, I laughed.
     
    Anna was my sister after all and I didn’t let anybody else do no laughin’ at her!
     
    Scott might have just snickered is all.
     
    Laughin’ at sisters was somethin’ totally reserved for brothers only! It was an unwritten kid code or somethin’ like that. Cause if anybody was gonna do any laughin’ at her, well …it was gonna be me!
     
    ***
     
    November 1793
    In legislative assembly hidden beneath the streets of the Place de la Concorde , Paris, just as a young soldier of the Revolution reached his hand into the basket placed beneath the sharpened blade of the guillotine and produced the severed head of King Louis Philippe II and held it up to the roar of cheering crowds, the Grand Master of the Royal Order of the Wolf addressed the gathered congregation.
     
    “Messieurs, désespérée est l’heure que nous nous réunissons ici aujourd’hui.” At-il