I nod and look at the group of people standing in front of the statue with beaming faces.
“Find what you were looking for?” He asks.
I look down at my hands and smile. Really, I did. I lost Eric, but I think I found him. My brother is alive! Even if he isn’t, then I still obtained a family. I nod at Will and say with a big smile, “I sure did.”
“Alice, some last encouraging words for your people?” The woman points to me in a question.
I jump from my seat and jog to the tiny stage. The people that are in front of the statue sit back down and wait for my last words. I smile at the crowd and speak, “When anxiety and fear grab me by the tongue and dry my mouth, I don’t panic anymore. I’ve been there before, I know the feeling, and knowing it makes it less scary – I am all the stronger from my battle scars. So instead of letting fear take me down, I tell myself everything will be all right. I remind myself that I am a good person, I do good things, I have a heart full of love and the world is full of good people out there. Fear can hold us back stop us from reaching our dreams. I can’t say it never comes again, but from now on each victory shall get a little easier.”
The crowd cheers for the motivation speech. After a few moments, I think of my next words. Slowly, I start to speak once more.
“Thank you, every single one of you. I thought I lost all of my family. Thankfully, I obtained something even better than that.” I look at my friends in the front row and I turn to the statue. Letting out a deep breath I continue, “I know you’ve all lost something important to you. Your job, family, friends, Liberty, natural rights, etc. but you got it back. You did, but the rest of the United States is persuaded that we are terrorists. Soon, the head of C.T.O. shall find out about what we did. Soon, we may have to leave our now free home to help other people’s homes. I promise, I won’t stop until the world is free. So you can leave New York and do as you please. We don’t even know what it’s like outside of our country. All I know is that I want you,” I point to the crowd, “to be safe, to be comfortable because we are all family now. We need to be there for each other. We are all friends. ‘Trust and honesty, Alice’ Eric used to tell me, ‘for without it, no one is safe. No one will be happy.’ I want to make my brother proud. I want to make the whole world proud. I want you to be proud of me. Eric is our leader therefore I speak for him. No more hiding, no more sadness. All I want now is Freedom!” I shout.
The crowd cheers and stands in applause. I smile at the people and keep a fist in the air. Everything has changed for me. I used to cry about the change but now I embrace it. This was meant to happen and I’m glad it did. My apartment isn’t home. At least, not anymore. This is home now. I will do anything to keep my home safe.
And if freedom is what my people want then that’s what I will give them.
Alice: The Leader Page 22