It would be terrible. It really would be. I mean. Maybe I'm projecting my own family issues onto it, but I imagine that at first, they might not believe it because Archie had been reported dead before, and then it somehow turned out that he had only been prisoner in Spain, and then he was no longer a prisoner, but then he was again, and Archie never quite explained it when he was home briefly that one time before he left on the Renown, so who knows?
Perhaps he still was alive. Perhaps there had been a terrible, terrible mixup. The Gazette had been known to be wrong before.
And then, when the Renown comes back to England they find out from her crew that no, Archie is not aboard it. Yes, he did die as a mutineer in Kingston. In response to their letter, Captain Cogshill writes to tell them that he is sorry to have to say this, but Mr. Kennedy would have been hung if he hadn't died first. And they spend the next period calling up every single time that he was sulky or rebellious as a child, and they just torture themselves about it. One of Archie's older brothers comes home from the fighting, and they have to tell him of the news, and his face goes flat.
And then Hornblower comes to their door, hat in hands, without his greatcoat because he pawned it to get transportation to London where they now live, and tries to tell them about how it really happened. And he either has to lie through his teeth to them or to admit to them that their son died as a mutineer in order because of a debt he felt that he owed to Hornblower.
TOWER OF PAIN, MY FRIEND. TOWER OF MOTHERFUCKING PAIN.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-02-17 12:29 am (UTC)Perhaps he still was alive. Perhaps there had been a terrible, terrible mixup. The Gazette had been known to be wrong before.
And then, when the Renown comes back to England they find out from her crew that no, Archie is not aboard it. Yes, he did die as a mutineer in Kingston. In response to their letter, Captain Cogshill writes to tell them that he is sorry to have to say this, but Mr. Kennedy would have been hung if he hadn't died first. And they spend the next period calling up every single time that he was sulky or rebellious as a child, and they just torture themselves about it. One of Archie's older brothers comes home from the fighting, and they have to tell him of the news, and his face goes flat.
And then Hornblower comes to their door, hat in hands, without his greatcoat because he pawned it to get transportation to London where they now live, and tries to tell them about how it really happened. And he either has to lie through his teeth to them or to admit to them that their son died as a mutineer in order because of a debt he felt that he owed to Hornblower.
TOWER OF PAIN, MY FRIEND. TOWER OF MOTHERFUCKING PAIN.