By the power vested in me by God almighty, I proclaim Lawrence Roy Jr. the sovereign ruler and protector of this island, which shall be called England from this day forward. We played this game as long as the flood waters lasted. Each day we watched our islands grow and grow, like a cancer, until they merged with each other and all we were left with was a pasture, again, dotted with red and white rags hanging from sticks stuck in the brown mud like small tombstones marking their passage. History Daddy passed out while working at the cotton gin Couldn't get air into his lungs. Head went blank.
Legs quit working.
As if his body forgot the rules of functioning. Daddy told us the news in a shaky voice laced with fear and hope. We were studying history in Miss Miller's class around that time. She told us that Hitler changed the rules of mass killing forever. In one photograph a Nazi guard leaned against an opened doorway.