Many thanks to @Gary Oswald - and to the readership, who liked this so much despite being set in a place so deeply personal to me.
And another thanks to Gary for some fortuitous timing - on Tuesday I'm hosting a panel on alternate history as a genre at the virtual convention run by William & Mary's science fiction and fantasy club, and there's a very real possibility I'll do a dramatic reading of this piece then. They'll all probably hate me for it, but it'll be worth it.
