Author's note:Way back in 1992, Mike Resnick caught me in a moment of weakness & wouldn't take no for an answer. He needed a story for his forthcoming anthology: Alternate Presidents. I hate alternate history stories; they depend too much on knowing genuine history of the period. Worse, my subconscious (which never does anything the easy way) insisted I tell the story in 1st person, from the point of view of a male Civil War veteran. I'm not a fast writer but Mike needed it fast, so fast that I had to e-mail it to him. I wasn't happy with the result but I figured Mike would have the good sense to reject it. He didn't reject it. It wasn't until I read through the printed edition that I realized why Mike had bought the story. To my surprise, I found the story I'd written had little to do with elections or alternate history, but a lot to do with how a man felt about his daughter. To this day, I think Mike bought the story from me because I caught something of how he feels about his daughter. In all the talk these last weeks about the Electoral College & that election back in 1888 where one candidate won the popular vote but the other became president because of the Electoral College vote, nobody once mentioned the third party candidate. Her name was Mrs. Belva Ann Lockwood & she ran as the Suffrage Party's candidate. Her running mate was Mr. Benjamin Love. That's why their campaign slogan was "Love Our Lockwood." I've broken the story into 4 chunks. Sorry if the format makes it difficult to read or print up, but I'm coming off a persistent eye infection & a nasty case of the plague...& I'm heartsick from over a month of CNN & NPR. I did the best I could. If you spot any typos, please e-mail me so I can fix them. And now I'll let the past speak to the future.... |