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Iceland stared at the envelope in his hand as he walked down the hall of the conference building, literally bumping into Seychelles not paying attention to his surroundings. “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Seychelles replied. “It wasn’t even that hard. Plus I was kind of spacing out there a little myself.” She noticed the envelope in his hand. “What’s that?” She hoped it wasn’t something important she forgot at her house before she left. She wouldn’t have time to run back and retrieve it before the meeting started.
“Oh, just . . . a personal letter.” He had checked his mail just before leaving for the meeting and brought it along with him, not wanting to be late and fearing there was no time to run back to his house and safely put it up somewhere where he could get to it later and remember where it was.
“. . . oh.”
“Nothing you’d need to worry about for the meeting,” he assured her.
“Oh.” Seychelles perked up. Now she was kinda curious what it was, but she understood it wasn’t her place to know. If Iceland wanted to tell her about it, he would, though she couldn’t help but wish it so.
Iceland stood there awkwardly looking at the carpet.
“Do you want to walk to the meeting room together?” she asked him.
“Sure,” he replied, blushing lightly.
Seychelles smiled warmly at him. “Okay. Let’s go!”
The two ended up walking to their destination in silence, Seychelles less nervous than Iceland. When they got to the two doors, Iceland grabbed one of the big handles in his free hand and opened it. “After you.”
“Thank you.” Seychelles entered and Iceland followed.
After both were inside, they went to their respective seats, sat down, and waited. Iceland placed his envelope on the table in front of him. The room started to fill with other nations. Eventually Norway entered. Iceland involuntarily looked downwards at the polished wood before him to avoid looking at him. The island nation still hadn’t decided whether he should tell him about what he had done, at least not before he had a chance to look at it by himself. But if Norway sees it, that might not be an option anymore.
Finally Germany entered with France, Greece, and Austria and the meeting commenced.
**********
One mind-numbingly boring world conference later, there were still some stragglers in the room. Most had left immediately afterwards, at least from this room, but those that still had business to attend to here were sticking around to complete it.
Norway was one of them, so Iceland hadn’t reached for the envelope yet. As the Scandinavian nation approached him, he began drumming his fingers on the wood, trying to act natural.
“I couldn’t help but notice your envelope,” he said.
“. . . yeah.”
“Is it business related?”
“. . . sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“It . . . does involve you. Probably.”
“Probably?” Norway was getting more confused by the second.
“. . . I took a DNA test,” he admitted. “I just wasn’t sure how to tell you.”
Norway’s face lit up with curiosity. “Well, go on and open it!”
Iceland looked around. “Here? Are you sure?” He wasn’t sure if this was the right place to do this, considering the potential for airing dirty laundry. There were definitely some nosy gossips among the nations.
“I’ll keep any prying ears away, unless you want them to hear.”
“O . . . okay.” Iceland slowly picked up the envelope and slowly, carefully opened it, not wanting to damage the information inside. He pulled the sheet of paper out, unfolded it, and slowly read it. “It . . . it says, you’re my father.”
Norway couldn’t help but beam. Of course he had already known this or rather had heavily suspected. The immigrants who had permanently settled Iceland had been Norwegian after all, but he hadn’t had proof and didn’t want to lie to him, even if unknowingly. He had always acted in a fatherly fashion towards the island colony (even when he didn’t want him to), so Norway figured Iceland wasn’t all that shocked either. He certainly didn’t sound like it; he rather stated it matter-of-factly.
“And . . .”
Norway was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts. “And?”
“Ireland . . . is my mother.”
A loud noise got both of their attention and they looked for the source.
A few feet away, between them and the door, stood Ireland, who appeared to have just dropped a bunch of papers onto the floor.
**********
Seychelles was just heading out the door of the conference building, intent on going home right after finishing up some work, when someone suddenly grabbed her arm. She startled and looked at who grabbed her. “Oh, it’s just you Monaco.”
“Of course. Where are you going?”
“Uh, home.” As if it wasn’t obvious.
“Right now?” She shook her head. “Not when the word is a juicy new piece of info has just come up. Why, it’s practically scandalous!”
Seychelles internally sighed. Sometimes her fellow Francophone’s love of gossip was tiresome. She didn’t understand how she had any energy left after a long day of work. The island nation just wanted to go back home and relax on one of her beaches.
“Well, come on.” Monaco started dragging her back in. “All the female nations, and some of the male ones, too, are in the bar to hear about it.”
Seychelles didn’t care but this had happened enough times that she knew it was easier to just go with it; the sooner she went and listened a little the sooner she could leave.
Monaco dragged her by the arm to the building’s bar and pushed her way through the crowd to the counter where everyone was huddled around. When they got through, Monaco let her go and Seychelles could see who everyone was circling.
Ireland was sitting on a barstool downing a shot of whiskey. She slammed it down and spoke. “So I had just gotten all my papers organized—took me all mornin’—and stood up, on my way to Germany’s office, when I hear my name. So of course I stop to listen and what do I find out? That I have a kid I never knew about.”
The crowd started chattering excitedly.
Seychelles agreed that would be quite the shock. As young as she was, she couldn’t even fathom having a kid, much less not knowing about it.
“Who’s the kid?” Taiwan asked.
“Iceland,” the redhead responded.
Seychelles figured her wish had come true, just not in the way she had hoped.