On the Creation of the Flag

On this episode of George loves Martha…

 

“More cobbler, dear?”

“Not now, Martha.” George scoffed as he added more sloppy lines to his drawing. He was to deliver a fully colored sketch of the new country’s flag design to Franklin by tomorrow. There was no time to waste.

George ate the last of his cobbler with his spoon, satisfied with himself.  “Zesty, isn’t it?” George set down his box of crayons and turned towards his wife, whose face held a rather bitter expression.

“Maybe a tad less red.”

“Less red?” George huffed, looking down at his drawing. The entire flag was red. A symbol for the bloodshed of the lost men. “Less… That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, Martha.”

Martha sat across the table from her husband and sketched a new flag. This one with circle of exactly thirteen stars atop a blue square background. In converse, alternating red and white lines came horizontally from the blue mass. “This is much better George, don’t you think? The blue complements-”

“Martha…” George sighed, resting his hand lightly on his right cheek. “I’m running a country here. I honestly couldn’t care less about your complimentary colors. Men are dying for these-”

“They died over there in England for that tea. They can die here for some interdependent colors, George.”

“Oh, Martha…”  George rose from his chair and casually strode to the nearest window. “We are no flawed system. How dare you compare me to the motherland…” George barely finished in a whisper.

 

Later

 

Eagerly, the men gathered around the political table as George pulled out his masterpiece. “My wife said it was better than Eugene Delacroix’s, Liberty leading the people.”

Franklin, Jefferson and Hancock glanced at each other. “A bit red isn’t it?”