Prince Stephan's Lamborghini - A Symbol for Executive Powers

(Here is another bit of writing from the Diablo Diaries, unedited and fresh off the brain. Little Princess Louisa thinking about Prince Stephan and monarchy. A hint at Stephan's terrible childhood experience.)

For an eight year old, I sure knew a lot about how geo-politics worked, and about monarchy. I was alone in Stephan's busy garage, thinking on that, and on my much older brother Stephan.

I turned up the Alpine sound system and replayed that Lynard Skynard song again, third time around. It blasted through the open scissor doors of the car, and filled the garage. It was a famous old song from America about freedom and a bird. I played air guitar and sang to the well memorized lyrics.

I loved sitting in Stephan's ancient Lamborghini, the one he brought back from one of his strange and long journeys. This machine smelled new, and felt just like a showroom car. Funny thing, this car was a 2001 Diablo VT. This was 300 years old! Sometimes Stephan would puzzle me with his machines and gadgets. Where did he find this car? Why did it always seem brand new? Where did he go on those trips?

Stephan had promised to skate with me today, but he's still at work running the estate, doing some homework and reading a bunch of diplomatic papers. I wished Stephan skated with me more often. He was suddenly all grown up. Way too grown up. He was bossy now, and sometimes gave me orders. He was now often in a fine suit and tie, cuff links, and really put on the graces. He simply used to wear jeans, a polo, loofers and perhaps a leather jacket. When out on the town, it had always been a rock and roll T-shirt, black jeans and mod boots - and shades, even at night! He stood rather erect now too. Of course that made him all the more cute - although I preferred his company out on the skate ramp, and not in cuff links.

When he was a teenager, before the pandemic, Stephan built a big skateboard ramp behind our horse barn, setting off protests from Mom that it made the horses nervous. It didn't bother them at all. Hell, now they are skateboard trained! Besides, they got attension from a gaggle of kids now, for my school friends all wanted to come over and skate. They then would feed the horses goodies. My friends thought I was lucky because of the ramp and the horses, and the big estate house I got to live in. I guess I was. But I didn’t get to do all the things my friends did, such as run around freely. I had to learn a lot more than just school stuff. I had political homework too, deportment coaching and foreign language training. I had to finish my schooling before I could go out and skate, rides horses, join my buddies or hang out in the garage with Stephan.

Stephan built a lot of things in his garage. Instead of working on a Political Science degree, as expected of him, he was going for an engineering degree. This upset the family a bit, but Stephan loved machines, and followed his heart. In his garage, he worked on electronic gadgets sometimes, and hacked around on his computers, those being all strung up in series. He did this on the sly, away from the adults of course, and I dug that. I was supposed to keep my mouth shut about that one. I feel privileged as hell to be included in Stephan's odd and genius world. He even taught me how to hack into certain data banks. It was all about finding out what was on record about our home country, and potential monarchy, at the U.S. State Department, the World Federation Foreign Affairs Agency, Russian Security Services and some British foreign relations sites.

And of course, when not plotting, hacking and scheming a kingly homecoming, Stephan modified his cars. He let me in on his car projects, and taught me the monarchy business too, while we worked together on the cars. He told me all about fuels and how cars should go on new fuels that are outside of World Federation control. He told me that the future kingdom will have to go off crop fuels and batteries most certainly, in order to survive economically and politically. This way, the World Federation would be less able to pull the plug and deny a freed people electricity and the resulting transportation. That had to be done soon. That would require strong executive powers on the national level, in order to override the World Federation’s near block on fuels outside their control.

While tinkering on his Lamborghini, Stephan talked a lot about executive powers for a monarch. He always did so in the garage, when no on else is around to hear us. I sensed he was being a rebel when he did so. He mentioned having an active monarchy a lot, not some passive symbolic one.

He would then put his tools away, clean up at the sink at the back of the garage, and have me do the same. Then the real fun started. We would take out the Diablo – and simply raise road mania hell. He then would let lose with his words, once in the car. It was just our ears in that car, that's why. He would spin the tires as he talked about how that kingdom of his will be. Executive powers, baby, all 12-cylinders of it.

"Louisa, little sis', you’ll have to be an executive monarch, an active monarch. You know, exercise some absolute powers on occasion. Don’t be afraid to jab in the throttle, the monarchy will take it fine. It’ll stick. It’ll stick because you will be essential for the nation and the people – for freedom. You’ll maneuver the track like an experienced driver, and plan your line around the corners. You'll be skillful and deft behind the wheel of your nation."

And then he would open the throttle up in the Diablo, explaining the exhilaration of a win, of victory, of liberty … racetrack talk included in our dialog about politics, world affairs and monarchy indeed.

So here I sat alone, in Stephan's Diablo, picturing that - and also thinking on the life he led. Not such an easy life, and one not without it's terror. Prince Stephan had come a long way over the past few years, recovering from what he had been put through. He kept his focus on the future.

Stephan suddenly appeared, his skateboard in hand, in normal jeans, minus the fancy suit.

"Louisa, you're running the battery down on the car!"

I shut the music down. It's time to skate indeed, even if this will be a short session. Stephan had to run back into the house, and back into his office. He indeed had his load of work to do now, now that he won his referendum.