pierre | eight | fin [resub]

Everything is beginning to work properly but the day is nearing where he could so easily drop it all.

So much loss in one life time and what little he has left is now imbalanced. Pierre is walking on egg shells at the end of his prime. Fifty is not far away and what has he got left in his life? A wife, a son and three gravestones. Maturity came late, all for a role that has been a helter-skelter during the time of holding it. A position like mayor, with all its perks and powers trails behind a shadow filled with burdens. Smiles mask the reality that bites his neck, all these worries to contain in his office between his officials.

And he wants to do it all again for another round.

There is a thrill that he hasn’t had since he first met Abi. It is as if a chunk of his life has been missing until he delivered his acceptance speech. It came at the right time for him, a distraction from the mourning of his last daughter. Eva’s passing lost amongst all the celebration. Now the shadows are rolling in and unless he puts up a fight, he will be sitting on the floor of the ring defeated. It has been five years, has he done enough to win this crowd over again?

Once there was a time when the thought of being mayor was a passing dream. A free-willed childhood spent adventuring, dressing up as mayor and bossing his friends about. A tailor he would grow up to be, maturity lagged and catapulted him into the powerful seat.

Grey now captures his light brown hair, age may not be shown through his personality, but it is beginning to be projected on to his appearance. Wrinkles prance beneath his eyes and the consumption of alcohol and pies are starting to show on his abdomen.

A tailor’s spirit hasn’t left him, an attire well set out on his bed every morning. There is at least ten minutes of decision time whenever he is rummaging through his wardrobes. It is the only time he gets to make choices of his own, it is all to the officials whenever he steps into that justice building. He does have say sixty percent of the say, but nothing can be signed off without their full approval.

Thinking back to those times of cowering in a corner, growing up, there really was no leader trait attached to Pierre. Always the little man who used to be picked on, nothing but worry trailed behind him. Really nothing much has changed since. Now his worries are drowned in the glasses of gin and rum. It is so much easier that way. He gets to fill his throat with a delicious conotoxin and everything his forgotten…for the night. It is just the morning’s after that he regrets.

An only child, his father out of the picture from the beginning. He didn’t vanish to a grave but instead to the beds of other women. ”Your father was always a rat bag.” All the words that fell from his mother were curses about a man he never met and that is the only picture he has of him.

His childhood was very fast paced, dragged by his ear through it by his mother. Quickly put to work so that she could afford all the luxuries she spent her time purchasing. Even with the pocket change that he worked for, it could no way fund her binge shopping, he never found out where the money was really coming from.

”You need to have done something for the community to run for mayor.” Comforting words from his mother when he broke the news of his interest in the job. Except it is a lie. There was that one time as an apprentice tailor in the shop. A stunning young woman with a simple request, ”Do you have any old material to donate to the poor?” Not only did she take his rags but his heart too.

A sensitive soul is caped by sarcasm, there is no way he could carry his heart on his plate like he did as a child without someone dropping a cruel word or two. All those times when helped pick up the bullied kid just turned him into the victim. Only humour could save him from the crowd and that remains the same now as an adult. All the serious faces in the business, he can only keep a smile on their face so that they do not suspect the worry that makes his so soft.

A strong woman like Abandon, it always surprises him that she fell for him. A ring on each of their fingers and two sets of twins later and they are still together. A District beauty queen, a woman of the community in love with a man like Pierre? All the strains of the job and the horrors of the years before and still she shares a bed with him.

Three funerals, three daughters taken away far too early in life and how did he pay his respects after the third one perished? By delivering campaign speeches and leaving what is left of his family behind.

He has never dared to ask for he is afraid of the answer. ”Did I go for it too early? Should I have waited until now to go for it?” Selfishness took hold of Pierre five years ago and a part of him regrets it.

All these worries but he keeps his chin up and the beverage cupboard filled with his medicines. His love is with his wife and Preston now, they are the two that he fights for. Life has been comfortable in the mayor’s mansion, especially now with the addition of Pip. A scruffy little stray dog that wandered into their garden one morning, now the light in Pierre’s life. A mutt has filled a hole and kept the smile on his face.

”This is the best investment I have done all year?”

”Having a dog?”

”I’d be more thrilled with seeing a dog at the mayor’s feet than hearing him say that he has no choice but to cut funding somewhere.”

Battles in the mayor’s office, he used to block them out at the beginning. Nodding and agreeing, going along with whatever plan they had marked out on a rather large piece of paper in front of him. Eventually he began to open his mouth and he definitely picked up on the shock on their faces. Declining decisions and setting his own, he did run for mayor to make the changes himself after all. Maturity bloomed in the office, the strength to stand up and defend himself. It may have come 40 years too late but now he feels like he could take on anything except the feeling of constraint sometimes awakes. He is not quite the powerful man that he wants to be just yet.

Every year the one event he wishes he could hide from rolls in, as mayor he must show his face everyday during it. Forced to sit in front of the television and give his opinion on the tributes of the District. Conveniently a victor was gifted when he became mayor but the four years that have passed have brought nothing but frustration and the pulling of his hair in the office. Each year the fists to the desk have become louder, he got a bruise on his hand after the little Gillian was killed in the seventy-eighth. A girl so young, so much like Lily and Paige…

Each day he comes home to the two people that he is fighting on for, there is no way he is stepping down in the next campaign. He can’t have it all go to waste. He can’t watch another grave be filled.