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  Celebrating the Fourth 
 by HannibalFan52  

 Celebrating the Fourth

 by HannibalFan'52

 Summary: In honor of Independance Day

 **********

 John Smith looked across to the large, fancy tent set up on the grounds
of the park, and the half-dozen or so smaller wedge tents set up behind
it. The whole thing seemed to be masquerading as an 18th-century military
encampment that had somehow traveled through time and space to
late-20th-century Los Angeles.

 Re-enactors dressed in colonial garb went about the activities of
everyday period life - churning butter, playing music, spinning yarn,
cooking over open fires, and so on. The `local militia' and `Continental
soldiers' had drilled, King George III had been hanged in effigy, and a
Liberty Pole had been erected - and subsequently chopped down by `British'
troops.

 Right now, he was watching a target-shooting contest between the assorted
military re-enactors, using reproduction muskets, black powder, and lead
balls. One of the younger men was doing rather poorly, and he couldn't
help but chuckle.

 A commotion in the camp drew his attention. A courier on a beautiful
black horse galloped up to the larger tent, yelling for the Continental
officer who occupied it to come out. Smith couldn't hear everything that
was being said, he was too far away, but he noted that the officer
accepted the papers the courier delivered with an air of excitement. At
his signal, an older boy started to beat a tattoo on his drum, while
several youngsters ran through the encampment, encouraging re-enactors and
spectators alike to gather in front of the officer's tent.

 When all who were interested had assembled there, the officer mounted a
low dais, and began to read:

 `When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station
to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation...'

 He hadn't even gotten halfway through the Declaration when a ruckus
distracted the attention of the spectators. British troops pushed through
the crowd, their leader accusing the reader of treason, and attempting to
arrest him `in the Name of the King', while the crowd joined the Colonials
in shouting them down, taunting them with epithets like `bloody-backs',
'red herrings', and `lobsters'. Before long, patriot troops came to the
rescue, driving off the British after a brief skirmish, much to the
delight of the public.

 As the throng broke up, Smith decided to wander over and see how B.A. and
Murdock were doing with their barbecue.

 **********

 Darkness was falling, and Smith sat alone on a blanket, not far from one
shared by the other two members of his team. He hardly looked up when a
re-enactor in a blue-and-buff uniform coat, his auburn hair pulled back in
a club, dropped down beside him.

 `Pulling your shots today, weren't you, kid?' he asked, a grin tugging at
his lips.

 `How could you tell?' Face asked, pulling off his tri-corn and wig and
tossing them aside.

 `You'd never have done so badly if you hadn't,' Hannibal replied, lifting
his cigar to meet the flame his lover already had dancing in the air
before him.

 `Well,' Face admitted, smiling in his turn, `I didn't want to take
advantage.'

 `Did you have fun?'

 `Yeah. Gotta hand it to our ancestors, though,' the younger man said with
a grimace. `Those muskets have to weigh more than my sniper rifle did. And
loading them! Did you know that even a professional soldier could only get
off four rounds a minute at best?'

 `Kind of gives you a new appreciation for what they accomplished, pulling
off a successful revolution like that, huh, Tem?'

 `Sure does,' the younger man answered thoughtfully.

 Hannibal chuckled as he reached over and pulled Face close, kissing him
gently. They sat quietly, secure in each other's presence, as fireworks
lit the sky...

 End

  
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