Run!

Elias had a strange energy at bedtime last night, uncharacteristically so.  He did not lie down as he usually does, but stood at the foot of the bed looking at me with a peculiar smile.  "Hey Dad, if you were in a store and someone pulled a gun on someone, what would you do?"

The look in his eyes threw me off a bit.  It was intense but playful at the same time.  He seemed to be really interested in how I would answer this question.  "Well, I would just let him have the money out of the cash register so he would leave."

"But what if he put the gun to that person's head?"

"I would ask what he wants and see if I could get that for him."

"So, what if he shot that person?"  I could tell he was waiting for my answer with baited breath.  I told him I would probably rush the shooter to try and keep him from hurting anyone else.  Apparently this was what he was waiting for.  He threw his hands up in the air and then clamped them down on his head, "No!  No!  You would run away, OK?  You would run away!"  Then he jumped onto the bed and hugged me.

The big reveal was that he'd had a dream where I ran at the person with the gun and ended up getting shot and killed.  "So if that ever happens, Dad, run away, OK?"


***

DOD

The Department of Dance:  a satirical look at war

Enemies dug in on opposing sides of a valley.  They are at an isolated location that is far from the front, a geographical anomaly in a global war.  Rumors on one side have it that the other side has some brilliant new weapon that will soon be deployed and could be a game changer.  Noises were heard the night before off in the distance that sounded like muffled explosions.  The morning comes and strange equipment has appeared amongst the trees that has them spooked.  In a moment of extreme psychological tension, the strangest thing happens.

It turns out that the equipment are speakers and they start pumping music into the valley.  The opposing side is bewildered and put on edge, but slowly they find themselves starting to thump their feet to the beat and fingers begin tapping out rhythms on the butts of their weapons despite screamed orders from their NCO's to stop immediately.

Eventually unarmed soldiers appear moving forward in straight lines from the opposing treeline, then move side to side as they come onto the field.  They spin, clap, shuffle and slide in a kind of line dance pattern that repeats and is reinforced by the music.  No one knows what to do b/c the soldiers in the field are unarmed.

Some tone deaf gung-ho soldier fires off a shot, but does not hit anything b/c of the movements and his inability to discern the pattern.  The soldier next to him whacks him on the back of his helmet with a canteen and shouts "cut it out!"  Meanwhile the NCO's are running up and down the lines screaming to open fire, but are drowned out by the music.

BOOM shucka ping shucka BOOM BOOM ping
pa-pa-pa-pa
BOOM shucka ping shucka BOOM BOOM ping

Private Shmucatelli is the first to break lines and heads out into the field with a silly grin on his face, tripping and falling, but then pulling himself aright and moving forward out of the protection of the woods.  He has picked up on the pattern and is mirroring it on his side of the field.  Soldiers up and down the line look at each other with bemused WTF? expressions, shrug their shoulders, and begin to scamper out of their fox holes to join in the dance.

At some point the commanding officer, who has lost control of the situation, grabs a rifle and fires it into the field inadvertently striking Private Shmucatelli and knocking him to the ground.  The spell is broken and everyone breaks for their own lines.  Private Shmucatelli lies face up in the grass and wonders at the clouds framed by blue skies overhead.  He hears his heart beating in his ears as he bleeds out, BOOM BOOM ping... and descends into the deeper music.

The next day the hills are abandoned and the only sound is the song of a bewildered bird, “Poo-tee-weet?”

***

A Hole in Our Neighborhood

There is a hole in
our neighborhood
where a tree used to be.

It anchored the corner
and was the first tree
my son ever climbed.

A new family with two kids
replaced a family with three
who were much loved.

We didn't hold that against
them, but the unthinkable
toppling of that tree can

never be forgiven, ever.


***