{"id":2043,"date":"2016-01-23T12:20:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T17:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/?page_id=2043"},"modified":"2016-06-02T18:19:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T22:19:37","slug":"scene-9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/?page_id=2043","title":{"rendered":"Scene 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"09guns\"<\/p>\n

Henry and Malcolm continue their conversation at the wall.<\/em><\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Interesting?\u00a0 If the whole damn Empire State Building came crashing down on your fool head, you\u2019d find that interesting?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Well, wouldn\u2019t it be?\u00a0 You gotta admit \u2026<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

But what about my head?\u00a0 I don\u2019t deserve \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Hang on there, Slippery Jim, seconds ago you were complaining that it was all just the deranged ravings of a crazy old coot, so what\u2019s to worry?\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t happen, remember?\u00a0 Malcolm, as much as we differ, I am deeply, deeply disappointed at your lack of conviction.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s not the point.\u00a0 What I don\u2019t deserve is being forced to work with a deranged, a senile, a, a \u2026\u00a0 It\u2019s just not right.\u00a0 It makes a mockery of our mission.\u00a0 You\u2019re unstable.\u00a0 While you sit here babbling about your insane hobby, they could be getting ready for another attack.\u00a0 You can\u2019t see a thing behind all that smoke \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Chill out, Slick.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

\u2026 for all you know, thousands could be heading our way right this minute.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Son, you\u2019re starting to get on my nerves.\u00a0 First off, we\u2019d hear them, they make sure we know they\u2019re coming.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Suppose they change their tactics \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

They don\u2019t and won\u2019t.\u00a0 And, if there was gonna be another wave, spontaneous aftershock, in technical terms, it\u2019d have happened by now.\u00a0 You got this high noon mind frame, but frankly the key to this job is handling the boredom \u2014 and staying alert at the same time.\u00a0 We\u2019ve most likely got a few months to kill before the natives start getting restless again.\u00a0 You play chess?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Why do they send in the helicopters, anyway?\u00a0 If they didn\u2019t flame the bodies, we\u2019d have a clear field of fire, but now \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

They didn\u2019t use to.\u00a0 But then they\u2019d get good and ripe and, depending on the wind, that could be a mite unpleasant for the neighbors.\u00a0 Ever play hearts?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

I think I hear something out there.\u00a0 Maybe we should \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Two-handed pinochle?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m serious.\u00a0 Maybe we should fire through the smoke and see what\u2019s \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Cooking?\u00a0 And have all the gunners up and down the wall firing at ghosts?\u00a0 You could try canasta?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

They\u2019re crazy out there.\u00a0 We should be getting ready right now just in case.\u00a0 They\u2019re totally unpredictable.\u00a0 We have no idea \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

We?\u00a0 We?\u00a0 We?\u00a0 As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, what you mean we?\u00a0 You better get into the rhythm of all this, son.\u00a0 Cuz if you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll be sitting here watching, day after day after day, all wired up, seeing them crazy niggers behind every brick and rise and ruin.\u00a0 Way before the next charge, you\u2019ll be totally bugfuck crazy.\u00a0 A rat will knock over a tin can, and you\u2019ll start blasting.\u00a0 A thunderstorm will set the shadows to dancing, and you\u2019ll see the hordes of hell coming at you.\u00a0 Or you\u2019ll get numb, start thinking they\u2019re never coming, and when they finally do, you\u2019ll be watching them pull your arms and legs off and still not believe it\u2019s real \u2014 I\u2019ve seen it happen.\u00a0 How about checkers?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

No no no!<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Damn.\u00a0 This could be a real long summer.\u00a0 Anyway, after a few months, a few guys will wander out onto some of the heaps.\u00a0 You can take target practice if you want, but single shot only, cuz you don\u2019t want to get everyone all alarmed over nothing.\u00a0 It\u2019s understood that single shots don\u2019t set off any alarms.\u00a0 You lose points for that.\u00a0 I can usually slip in maybe a hundred shots at that Empire motherfucker around that stretch, one at a time.\u00a0 I try to keep them all in a 6-inch spread, maximize damage.\u00a0 But lone loonies mean it\u2019s time to start getting alert, and you gotta shift gears.\u00a0 See, if you\u2019re gonna last out here, you learn to hang loose and stay alert at the same time for when all of a sudden it\u2019s time to start making whoopee.\u00a0 So don\u2019t you be giving me no young twerp lectures about lunatic crazy when you haven\u2019t even seen the sun go down out here.\u00a0 \u2026 Any good at backgammon?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

At least I don\u2019t hear little voices in my head telling me to shoot down tall buildings.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Where you from, son?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m not your son!\u00a0 \u2026 \u00a0From the enclave a mile northwest of here.\u00a0 And I studied \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Okay, Lamont, spare me \u2026<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Did you know my psychology of pathology scores were so high that I beat out over a hundred other applicants for gunner?\u00a0 So I know all about \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

And just what is it that you don\u2019t know?\u00a0 Exploring that might be the path of wisdom.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Like how?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Your words say you got all the answers, but your eyes tell me something else.\u00a0 Things don\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 To you, I don\u2019t make sense, yet I been here a long time.\u00a0 Crazy niggers try to storm the wall, but they don\u2019t learn as well as lab rats.\u00a0 You hear rumblings down below, and I don\u2019t just mean down below in your gut.\u00a0 You can\u2019t really be as tight a tight-ass as you make out, can you?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Hey, it\u2019s not like I have nothing to learn \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Your humility is most touching.\u00a0 Look, one of the rules they don\u2019t teach is that as long as your guns speak true, anything coming out of your mouth is off the record.\u00a0 The masters understand that us being able to talk about shit is actually necessary for us vets staying functional year after year.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it doesn\u2019t matter you reporting me, your report would never make the record.\u00a0 The real record is just too terrible.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Okay, okay.\u00a0 But \u2026 so Henry, you\u2019ve been talking off the record.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

So it\u2019s Henry now, eh?\u00a0 But yeah, I never talk on the record.\u00a0 So what\u2019s bothering you besides me?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Well, now, just off the record, you understand \u2026 yeah, of course.\u00a0 Okay, here\u2019s the main thing I don\u2019t quite get.\u00a0 It\u2019s that I know that the official role of us gunners is to protect the community and all, but it doesn\u2019t quite make sense.\u00a0 You know what I mean?\u00a0 The community isn\u2019t paying us.\u00a0 The white people are paying us.\u00a0 But we\u2019re supposedly here protecting the community from the white people.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

I guess you\u2019re not quite as big a dummy as I was starting to think.\u00a0 So what of it?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Yeah, well, it\u2019s hard to talk about.\u00a0 Hard to figure out.\u00a0 But if the whites really want to get rid of these crazy niggers, why don\u2019t they let us take the attack to them, instead of just waiting around for the next wave?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got the firepower.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got the technology.\u00a0 We could just \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

We again?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

All right, they.\u00a0 They have the means to destroy every living thing in there if they wanted to.\u00a0 So what the hell are we doing out here?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

“They” now?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Damn you, old man!\u00a0 As you said, things don\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Point taken.\u00a0 Do you, not we or they, do you want to wipe them out?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Off the record?\u00a0 Well, worse things could happen.\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s where it\u2019s all going to end, anyway.\u00a0 Then I wouldn\u2019t be stuck in some ruins gagging on burning bodies and having to listen to some old crazy man.\u00a0 My personal opinion, yeah, kill \u2019em all and be done with it.\u00a0 I\u2019d put these guns on armored personnel carriers and \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

\u2026 and if those crazy niggers captured an APC?\u00a0 Have you noticed that not only don\u2019t these guns move, they can\u2019t swivel in more than a 180 degree arc?\u00a0 In other words, you can\u2019t turn them around.\u00a0 The so-called natural order of things rests on a very narrow foundation.\u00a0 My fucking around with the Empire State Building, that don\u2019t matter.\u00a0 It goes way beyond that, yet it\u2019s ridiculously simple.\u00a0 The powers that be, they want the community alive and, if not kicking, at least breathing.\u00a0 Under control, sure.\u00a0 But not dead.\u00a0 Why do you think it\u2019s lasted this long already?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

I guess desperate people can be pretty resourceful.\u00a0 Catch fish in the river?\u00a0 A few gardens.\u00a0 Pigeon stew and rat soup?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

The community is alive because the Ministry wants it alive.\u00a0 Food shipments arrive every month, but never quite enough to sustain a community that size.\u00a0 Instead of wasting time on psych stuff, maybe you should have focused on economics.\u00a0 Not that economics isn\u2019t all lies too, but its lies are a tad more interesting.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Food shipments?\u00a0 Now you\u2019re talking crazy again.\u00a0 No contact is allowed \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Or folks being shipped out.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet they didn\u2019t tell you about that at the academy either, did they?\u00a0 How did they describe the supreme policy?\u00a0 I\u2019m a little fuzzy there.\u00a0 The basic manual?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe foundation of modern society is that cultural currents must be free to follow their natural authentic destiny without contamination from either dominant or submissive cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Exactly.\u00a0 All bullshit.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

What you\u2019re saying is impossible \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Y\u2019know, if you listen real careful late at night, you can hear the trains rumbling down below.\u00a0 You\u2019re young, so you probably never heard subway trains, but there\u2019s nothing quite like it.\u00a0 Now, what they\u2019re carrying in or out, I couldn\u2019t tell you.\u00a0 I hear stories sometimes, and they might be the gods\u2019 own truth, or they might be amazing tales.\u00a0 But one thing\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t finished us yet, and it sure as hell ain\u2019t \u2019cuz they can\u2019t!<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Haven\u2019t finished us?\u00a0 What you mean us, Black man?\u00a0 You talk like you\u2019re one of them.\u00a0 I mean \u2026\u00a0 (points into the community)<\/em><\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

See, your \u201cus\u201d keeps getting all confused.\u00a0 As it should.\u00a0 Don\u2019t know why they haven\u2019t destroyed us or them or whatever, don\u2019t much care.\u00a0 We gunners are just playing in a much larger game, Mongo, and that \u201cwe\u201d is the only \u201cwe\u201d that counts.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know what the game is.\u00a0 Where we\u2019re different is that I\u2019m comfortable with the not-adding-up, but you kind of freak.\u00a0 And in the end, freaking will make you nuts!\u00a0 How\u2019s that, Mr. smartypants psychology genius?<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

The \u201cus\u201d is in your voice, not your dictionary \u2026<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Good point.\u00a0 Did you know I grew up about a half mile over that way?\u00a0 (points into the community)<\/em><\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

What you talking about?\u00a0 Even at your age, the wall must have already been up.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Of course.\u00a0 I grew up in there, in its shadow, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Couldn\u2019t have.\u00a0 Nobody gets out of there alive.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Oh right.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going anywhere, are you?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think so.\u00a0 Then gather round you people, a story I will tell.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Like I could stop you.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

See, I was just a kid when the wall went up, but it didn\u2019t seem to matter much.\u00a0 I was a real tough kid, toughest kid on my block.\u00a0 Not the meanest kid, mind you.\u00a0 There were a lot meaner.\u00a0 But I was the toughest.\u00a0 I was part of this gang, but I only fought when I chose to fight.\u00a0 Insult my mother, I didn\u2019t care because the old whore was long dead.\u00a0 I hurt people when there was something to gain from hurting people, never for sport.\u00a0 I ended up the leader because I simply avoided doing the stupid shit that got all the hotshots dead.\u00a0 The wall didn\u2019t matter, the other side was just a different neighborhood as far as I cared.\u00a0 What mattered was whether another gang was taking liberties with our turf.\u00a0 More and more guns were turning up in our neighborhoods, fancy guns, special ammo, and lots of it.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t understand that, it being special ammo, the supply was easy to cut off.\u00a0 Anyway, all these gangs were playing like it was Stalingrad or something.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Stallin’ who?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Fighting pitched battles house-to-house, cellar-to-cellar, like each was a kingdom.\u00a0 Ancient history, like Waterloo and Gettysburg and shit.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give me that gaping stare.\u00a0 You think I never read a book?\u00a0 And the old folks were just trying to keep their families alive, or they were drinking or doping themselves to death, or they were slicing each other up with razors and shit. So our block had this old lady who was kind of a spiritualist healer-type, or an old witch if you believe in that stuff.\u00a0 A mother to the motherless, adviser to the lovelorn, whatever. \u00a0So she got shot, murdered one night, don\u2019t know why, don\u2019t know by who.\u00a0 So I did some thinking.\u00a0 You surprised, academy boy?\u00a0 I did some thinking.\u00a0 Thought this shit\u2019s gotta end.\u00a0 But who the hell am I to end anything?\u00a0 My gang is no bigger than any other in this war of all against all.\u00a0 But of course you understand the concept of field of fire, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 (Malcolm gestures out to the burning bodies)<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course.\u00a0 So we take this old shack standing under the remains of some concrete highway, and we brick it up on the inside, so it still looks like an old shack, but bullet proof.\u00a0 And then the block across the street, we burn it down.\u00a0 To the ground.\u00a0 Nothing standing.\u00a0 Most perfect killing ground you could imagine.\u00a0 And I sent out word that we had this really gigantic dope stash imported all the way from New Jersey.\u00a0 And the other gangs came after it.\u00a0 Or they tried.\u00a0 Oh, how they tried.\u00a0 Cutting each other down in their rabid greed, and walking straight into our guns.\u00a0 And when they were heaped up dead out there, more gangs figured they\u2019d move in.\u00a0 Their bodies joined the heap like some La Brea gun pits.\u00a0 We wandered through the remains, picking up the guns, gave them out to every single man, woman and child on our turf.\u00a0 We were supreme!\u00a0 There\u2019s some big word for it, hitchy, hedgy, hegemonic, that\u2019s it.\u00a0 And we had peace.\u00a0 We were free.\u00a0 It was unbelievable.<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

Free?<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

To starve in peace, as it were.\u00a0 Some time later, I get a visit from some fancy old nigger wearing a shiny suit, and mind you, nobody wore suits in our neck of the woods.\u00a0 This stranger, he asks me, was I proud of myself?\u00a0 I said that, gee, I hadn\u2019t thought about it too much in a philosophical sense, but yeah, sort of.\u00a0 He asks me to follow him into this van.\u00a0 I say no, I don\u2019t go with perverts.\u00a0 He leaves.\u00a0 Two nights later, I wake up in this cell, and the old guy walks in and says welcome to the academy.\u00a0 I say fuck your academy.\u00a0 So I get told I can either die right then or I can learn a useful profession.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t planned on dying that day, so \u2026<\/p>\n

Malcolm<\/h4>\n

So Horatio gets his guns and marries the boss\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

Henry<\/h4>\n

Actually, I did.\u00a0 Point is, there\u2019s all sorts of back and forth between inside the wall and outside.\u00a0 Them inside got their myths they gotta maintain, and them outside got theirs.\u00a0 But nothing works without that back and forth.\u00a0 Nothing makes sense, and nothing works.\u00a0 So I\u2019m no answer man, I\u2019m just your gunner man.\u00a0 And do me a favor, son.\u00a0 I don\u2019t personally care if you want to kill everyone out there or not, cuz you got no say in any event.\u00a0 But you be real, real careful. \u00a0I get tired of breaking in new partners so damn often.\u00a0 So how about some gin rummy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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previous scene next scene Henry and Malcolm continue their conversation at the wall. Malcolm Interesting?\u00a0 If the whole damn Empire State Building came crashing down on your fool head, you\u2019d find that interesting? Henry Well, wouldn\u2019t it be?\u00a0 You gotta … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2043","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P77v4L-wX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2043"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2043\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}