159.

   My eyes never left the flag. Who will stand up to these thugs? Where are the men and women of the world? If a few speak their minds, won’t others follow? For God’s sake, it’s so obvious. A liar is a liar, a thief is a thief, a murderer is a murderer, a mass murderer is a mass murderer and yet they walk among us unchallenged lying and thieving and murdering. Are we all really that blind? When you work yourself unconscious every day to feed your family, to keep your home, when you fall into bed and pray you won’t wake up in the middle of the night and lose an hour, two hours, three worrying about how you’ll get through the next day, do you ever ask yourself, am I really that blind? What were we going to do, I thought, bring out the guillotines? What will we say to a corporate assault rifle pointed in our face?

   The flag dipped in a down draft. It danced toward me then suddenly stopped. It hovered just over my head. I looked up at it in disbelief. Then I’ll be God damned if it didn’t drop down on top of me. And there I stood, stupefied and humbled.  

   It warmed me against the chill of the fog. I buried my face in its colors and my fantastic gift of a dream came back to me. I could feel Claudia’s breasts pressing against me. I looked into her beautiful eyes. Conrad’s blue eyes looked deep into mine. He pulled me to him. Pat and Nanette were chuckling at me. My world had been illuminated. They taught me volumes. They gave me hope. They loved me.
   Then it hit me. What the hell was I going to do about it? Tell everyone?