Chapters
When Edward, our road manager, told me we would actually be interviewing Chief Representative Harriet Feinman of the Pacific Civic Administrative Union (Pacific Union for short), I thought he was joking. We've attempted to spend time with the heads of state in every country we've visited but this is the first time our inquiry was actually acknowledged, let alone accepted. Though the PCAU is a rather unique case, I suppose. The country is made up of three distinct regions- The central segment still called California (though a significant portion of the former state in the north is not a part of this district), the southeastern Nevada region made up of remnants of the former states of Nevada and Arizona, and lastly the narrow Cascade region composed of the Seattle/Portland/San Francisco corridor. To refer to these regions as autonomous would be to gloss over the role autonomy plays throughout the nation. Laws and regulations vary not just city to city, but neighborhood to neighborhood. Only the Laws of Seal, those written and approved by the federal government, are even enforced by police. Each region has its own legislative council and a Chief Representative, a sort of local president. CR Feinman hails from Cascade.
Come on in, Lucas. Make yourselves at home. Oh, and don't mind Iris. She's a friendly pup. Say hi, Iris. Can I offer you folks anything? Water? Juice? I'm particularly proud of our nation's produce. The grapes are in season.
Thank you, perhaps later. I was actually hoping to get as much in before your train leaves as possible. Speaking of which, your schedule is rather busy with national matters but you didn't appear at this year's North American Nations Conference. Was that a statement of some sort?
That? Oh, no, I just didn't really feel like attending this year. I got all the relevant feedback from Chalmers and McQuinn. They said I didn't miss much. All that international business is really more McQuinn's game, anyway.
Do you usually delegate responsibilities among one another like that?
I can't say there's such a thing as "usually" around here. Don't get me wrong, Chalmers, McQuinn and I have a system, it's just, ya know, our system. It works for us and the people are happy. That's good enough for me.
Are the representatives from the other countries okay with your not appearing at the conference?
Would it matter if they weren't? Look, I didn't do it to be the biggest bitch on the block, I did it because it was inconvenient. We're in the middle of a major rail update, the co-ops are all standing in line for state approval on the heels of the latest harvest and my daughter was getting her wisdom teeth out that week. It was a gesture just to send Chalmers and McQuinn. We only have a handful of trade agreements with the rest and absolutely zero interest in participating in their conflicts. We've got nearly 2000 kilometers of border with a big, fat nothing and we keep our side of the Texas boundary quiet, so they love us. I, like most of our people, couldn't give two pigeon shits what the illustrious delegates from the NAR have to say about anything.
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