Makarovia? Where The Hell Is That? Freshman Year - 15. Chapter 15

My view of what was happening in Makarovia was not from someone that knew Makarovia before, nothing for me had changed. I didn’t have a history here so it wasn’t as bothersome for me. Peter, however, did. We did go over much Makarovia. As small as the country was it didn’t take too long. The thing was, there was a lot of land was there, but not necessarily all that fertile and very rocky. Nothing I was going to plan to get done was going to be done right away, but I wanted to see if it could be done and then plan how. I looked at some sites where there could be terraced farming. I was thinking about importing the soil needed. I would need to do research and find out the best way…new ways if possible to do this. We would lose this growing season, but we’d be ready next year.

Peter and I walked through the many areas of this joint base. Uniforms were just uniforms and very similar, fatigues were green and differences were designated by the flags of their countries on their sleeve or lapel. Paths were now able to be seen due to the amount of foot traffic from the many soldiers and personnel that cut through grass and now was bare. What I didn’t like was the abundance of trash we saw.

“This needs to be dealt with,” Peter said a little heatedly pointing at the beer cans around and various used bags from pretzels and chips. “No one in Makarovia does this.”

I nodded. “Then we need to address it now before it becomes a major problem.” I agreed and walked toward the command office, which for now, was a temporary office in a trailer like building. We entered the office and saw various military personnel doing various jobs to get things organized. The commander…or commanders were in the office discussing things about how it was to be done. One was British, the other was American. Both single star generals. The first one was very British, General Hammond from the sound of him…and the British flag on his arm. Thin and tall, well dressed in his uniform speaking clear and precise. A man in his late fifties with thinning hair that was also turning grey. The other was American and had a sort of drawl, not quite Southern, mid-west maybe? General Burke was…let’s just say…he apparently had to work to keep his waistline trim. He wasn’t fat at all, but I could see he would be if he didn’t work at it. Dark hair and in his late forties and not bad looking. Neither of them were.

General Hammond turned as we walked in and smiled instantly. “Prince Petro! What a nice surprise.” He came over with his hand extended. “It’s an honor to meet you.” He turned to me. “Do I call you Prince Eric yet?”

The American General didn’t look happy at our surprise arrival.

“Just Eric is fine,” I said shaking his hand. “Until the marriage, any title would be honorary.”

Peter nodded. “And I prefer just Peter, thank you.” He said using English with the accent heard clearly. “I realize that things right now are sort of up in the air as you are getting adjusted. However, there are some things that need to be done.”

“Such as?” General Burke asked a little irritated.

“We have limited services available and cooperation will be needed,” Peter said. “The main concern I have right now is waste.”

“Waste!?” General Burke repeated in disbelief. “We’re trying to get things organized…and you’re worried about garbage?”

Peter almost moved back at General Burke’s, not quite harsh words.

“There will be a problem if we don’t deal with it now.” I stepped up. “It is a concern, General. It may not seem like an important issue now, but it will become one soon.” I walked forward, not bothered by his knowing how important his job was here…or so he thought. “What we saw was garbage left outside and not disposed of will become a problem.” I shrugged. “Not a lot, but you’ve just begun here. If not dealt with now, it will become a problem. It's more effective to be proactive, instead of waiting for it to be that problem to deal with it.”

Peter was looking at me smiling. “Makarovia has limited ways of dealing with things like garbage and waste. It needs to be addressed before it gets out of control.”

General Hammond was smiling as he glanced at his counterpart. “I agree.”

“Your help is needed to help secure Makarovia…” Peter said, “but to keep things from getting out of hand. Cooperation is required.”

Looking at General Burke, I got the feeling he was less excited about this…whole situation. “Why are you here?” I asked directly to General Burke. “And I mean, what is your position here with the military?” I asked him.

He frowned at me. Whether it was because I was challenging him about something obvious or because I was half his age or because of something else…and we all know what that something else would be. I just knew he didn’t like us for that one reason. I was sure about it. “We’re here to establish a military presence in Makarovia.”

“And that presence is held in control because you are an authority,” I said nodding.

General Burke nodded. “General Hammond and I both are that authority.”

“Well…” I patted Peter on the arm. “Peter here…is an authority in Makarovia. Whether or not you think so…we both have King Olek’s ear. Peter does have his ear as his brother. If needed, we can have him tell that to you, but…I don’t see a problem with complying with Prince Petro of Makarovia about how things work in his home country.” I smiled. “Prince Petro wants to talk about garbage. Fine. Your presence is needed in Makarovia. You get what they have by doing this, it just seems easy to do what he asks.” I shrugged. “You’re not actively mining, so have some of the troops police the area. That's not asking too much. Dispose of the trash in a way that eases what Makarovia has to do to get rid of it.” I smiled. “The trash we saw was in front of the quarters for the American workforce, so…” I left the statement there as Peter stepped closer to me and took my hand. I saw General Burke’s frown grow as he looked at our hands. “And now I get it a little clearer idea of what the problem is.” I looked at General Hammond. “Did you know about Makarovia before you got here, General Hammond?”

The British officer smiled. “I’m afraid I only read a little about it before, but I did know about Makarovia’s remarkable history before I arrived.”

“Did you, General Burke?” I asked.

“I really don’t understand.” General Burke said.

“I’m marrying Peter,” I said. “Here in this country Peter's and my wedding was not only allowed but encouraged, by both his mother the Queen and brother, King Olek himself! It’s no crime anymore for a lot of Europe now. It never was against the law here.”

General Burke shook his head. “I know that.” He said a little disgusted. I wasn't certain if the disgust was from our marriage or being confronted by what he didn’t approve of.

I nodded. “The President said at dinner that night; that we all need to be more tolerant.” I saw his eyes grow a little darker and his dark eyebrows came together a bit more. “She said it because our own Vice President was having issues with Peter and me, that should be their stance with us and others like us. There are quite a few of us here in Makarovia. If our being what we are bothers you, perhaps there’s somewhere else you should request to be assigned.”

General Burke nodded as he began to rise from behind his desk. “I’ll be honest. You’re right.” He admitted. “I don’t like gays. To me, it’s just…disgusting!” He said honestly. “But I was asked to do a job…”

“Thank you for being honest.” I interrupted. “Someone asked you to do a job? Who cares!? That’s an easy fix. We tell King Olek, he calls the President and she assigns you somewhere else! She is your Commander and Chief!”

General Burke stood holding his hands up. “No, please don’t do that.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “I did it because of how I feel. My wife tells me to become…tolerant...as you say. I don’t dislike you, but the thought of where you put your willies…” he shuddered. “I’ll just have to become…used to it.”

Peter shook his head and looked at me, asking what a willie was. Telling him, he frowned. “Why? Why do you care where we put..." he shook his head, "our willies...you aren't doing it.”

“We just…didn’t have them…” General Burke explained.

Peter again shook his head. “No, you misunderstand me. Why do you need to get used to it at all? You’re not involved.”

I nodded smiling now at the General. “Frankly, what you straight guys do disgusts me.” I smiled. “What you touch and why…you put your willies…” I pointed at his crotch and shuddered. “Ew! Most of the time when I see a good looking guy with a girl, I think…what the hell’s he doing with her!?” I shrugged. “I guess we both need more tolerance.”

General Burke nodded with a chuckle. “If we didn’t put our willies where we do, there’d be no human race.” He came around his desk and held his hand out to both of us. “I didn’t mean to offend you. We will have the men take care of the waste problem today. Please, I promise to do a good job.”

I took his hand and shook it liking him more now. “That will work.” I smiled. “Of course, you know you were probably the focus of many erections that had to be taken care of by some of your men. You’re not a bad looking man.”

General Burke started to turn pink but nodded. “I’d rather not know about them. Thanks.” He said lighter smiling.

I turned to General Hammond. “What about you?”

General Hammond gave a shrug and smiled. “My sister is gay. I have a cousin I love dearly that’s been with his husband before they could get legally married! I have no problem with it.”

“Wonderful!” Peter said shaking his hand. “We will be talking about what to do with all the personnel here now. We have to have plans in the works before it gets to be too much.”

“Most of our refuse is taken care of.” General Hammond said. “Is there more we need to do with it?”

“Take care of it how?” I asked.

“We burn it.”

I nodded and looked at them both. “Well…if you could…all of the organic garbage we can use for compost. They need to increase their farming output. That compost will help.”

“There’s nowhere to plant.” General Burke said simply.

“There will be if we build some place,” I pointed out. “At least, that’s the plan.”

General Burke nodded. “We can help with that, too!” He volunteered. “We could even help with the construction of greenhouses.”

“Enough to plant crops in?” I asked.

General Burke smiled. “Why not?”

“I thought of terrace farming.”

General Burke walked slowly as he thought about what I said as he strolled around his desk. “Sure. That’s a good idea, we can do both, don’t you think?”

“Greenhouse terrace farms?” I asked.

“Sure, and they don’t have to be on the side of the mountain. There is land that is rocky, but can still be built on.” He shrugged. “Why not? You provide the material and we help you build them.” Then he grinned. “As you pointed out, we’re not the active miners, my people need something to do.” He said logically.

“How do you know so much about terrace farming?” Then I smiled. “How do you know about farming!?”

The General smiled. “I was raised on a farm. Nebraska.”

I was liking him now. “That would be great, General! Perhaps you can come to the palace one evening. We can discuss it?”

General Burke smiled. “It’s David.” He said holding his hand out again.

“I’m Eric, as you know,” I said taking his hand. “Tomorrow night, if you have no other plans? Say about eight?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Bring your wife,” I said looking at General Hammond. “You come, too. Bring your wife.”

General Hammond shook his head. “My wife’s in Bristol. She won’t make it, but I’d be delighted. I go by Edmond.”

“Thank you for listening, David, Edmond.” I said and took Peter’s hand. “We’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Peter and I walked back out to go back to the palace. Peter was just smiling at me.

“Stop it,” I said without looking at him. “You’ve got something to say, say it.”

“You handled that…very well.” Peter said. “Do you see how much you’re needed in Makarovia? You didn’t back down at all from General Burke’s words.”

“He just needs to get over that discomfort about gay people,” I said simply. “After this, I think he’ll come around.”

Back at the palace, we were presented with requests from many groups. Again, the fact that we were doing something that never had been done was at the forefront. Requests from groups with the LGBT community wanted interviews and one group wanted to do a feature about an American Prince in Makarovia. Those were things I needed to make sure Olek and Queen Alla knew about before we agreed. It was at dinner when Queen Alla looked up from her plate.

“The pictures for the web site need to be done.” She said. “Is there a chance we can do it tomorrow?”

I frowned. “Won’t we need dress clothes?” I realized I hadn’t prepared for that.

She nodded. “You did bring a suit.” She said as if that was impossible.

I am gay…but I was never a particular sort of fashion-driven gay, but I knew what we needed to do. “You want me to be in a picture in a suit I got from Walmart?”

She laughed a little and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll call Jori. He can come and do your size tomorrow. He does all Olek’s suits.”

I tried not to make too much notice of Olek and Peter in a discussion that was done in very soft whispers. Peter finally nodded and whispered back to Olek who waved at me and whispered something else a little louder.

“Guys,” I said smiling at them. “Whatever’s going on, couldn’t you have discussed this before dinner in private?”

Peter sat up more smiling sheepishly. “Well…there is something that you should know.” He lowered his eyes slightly. “It’s just a tradition here and I didn’t see we really needed to do it, but…”

“What?” I asked now puzzled.

Queen Alla nodded. “Oh, yes.” She smiled at a memory. “The proposal.”

“Proposal? He already proposed.” I said simply.

“Yes, but…” Olek gave a shrugging nod. “It wasn’t done…traditionally. Not here anyway.”

“Remember when I told you before…about something I was going to do to make it official?” Peter asked.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“The official proposal and announcement doesn’t come from any of us.” He waved at his mother and brother. “It comes from Makarovia.”

“The whole country.” I clarified.

Olek nodded. “I’m afraid so.” He shrugged. “It’s a way of showing the world we…as a country…are behind any future marriage. Queen Alla and our father did it. His father did it…it’s just…what’s done.”

“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “How does this happen?”

Peter looked at his brother. “I’ve never been to one, as Dad was the last one to do it with Mom.”

“There will be a formal party.” Queen Alla explained. “A select few are chosen to witness the proposal. In the past, they were mayors or town leaders that came to the palace and witnessed the formal proposal. They will be asked if they back this marriage and the answer given by all. You give the answer of yes or no given to Makarovia and it is officially recorded.”

My eyes widened. “That sounds like a wedding!”

Olek chuckled. “Well…yes, it is sort of. Only this wedding will be between you two and Makarovia.”

“We’re marrying the entire country!?” I asked astonished.

“That’s right.” Olek grinned. “There is a small ceremony and you will be asked some questions about what your role will be…they will be asked about what their role will be with the new couple. They will be marrying you.”

“Wow,” I said. “A whole country.”

Queen Alla chuckled more. “It is quite a big event in Makarovia. The people will swear to support you and defend you both, then the announcement goes out officially…from Makarovia.”

Peter reached in his pocket and pulled a little box out. A ring box.

“An engagement ring!?” I said to Peter.

He opened it and a gold ring, much like a high school or college ring, but with Makarovian Crest on the front. “And then…you and Makarovia will become more than engaged…but officially married, you to them, them to you, after we say I do!” He grinned.

My eyes widened even more. “How many are living here now?”

“Just over two million, why?” Olek asked.

“Two million…that’s going to be a hell of a wedding night!” My mind just couldn’t quite grasp it. “I don’t think I’ll have the strength!”

Olek laughed out loud, Queen Alla sort of giggled, but Peter’s eyes softened as he smiled. “The only Makarovian there to worry about that night will be me.”