Caught in the devil’s bargain.
Laguna Beach 2005
108
The sun comes red over the Laguna hills.
Ben strides to Chon’s apartment.
Knocks on the door.
Waits.
A sleepy O, clad in one of Chon’s T-shirts, opens the door, sees the look on Ben’s face, and screams
Nooooooooooooo!
109
He’s all right, Ben tells her as he walks her to the bed and makes her sit down.
He’s wounded, some shrapnel, they got most of it out, he’s in the hospital, he’s going to be okay.
“God.”
Ben allows himself a slight smile. “He called-classic Chon-and said-”
110
“I fucked up.”
111
“Is he coming home?” O asks.
“No,” Ben says. “Also classic Chon. He’s hoping they can ‘put him back together’ enough so he can go back to his team.”
“Jerk,” O says. When Chon calls her a couple of hours later she asks, “They didn’t shoot your dick off, did they?”
“No, it’s still there.”
She feels good hearing him laugh. She says, “Okay, I’m going out and buying a nurse’s uniform…”
He laughs again. “ A Farewell to Arms. ”
“Is that some kind of sick joke?”
“No, it’s a book.”
“Yeah, I don’t do books,” she says. “Okay, ‘Navy Nurse’ or ‘Candy Striper’?”
“Candy Striper. Definitely.”
112
Ben walks back to his place.
He was going to tell Chon about being shaken down, but now he can’t.
No way he piles on with this.
So he needs to handle it himself.
He needs a plan.
That leaves Chon out of it.
113
Chon hangs up and relishes the thought of O for a few minutes, and then moves off it because a real nurse comes with his meds.
Sanitized word for drugs
Which there’s a war on. And there’s also a War on Terrorism and they’re connected, Chon contemplates as the meds take hold-the politicians either are on drugs or should be.
A bunch of religious fanatics mostly from Saudi Arabia fly planes into buildings and we invade…
Iraq.
It’s a generational thing, Chon muses.
Bush Sr. goes to war against Saddam Hussein and puts troops in Saudi Arabia (which was bin Laden’s reason for going to “war” against America), and Hussein tries to kill Bush Sr., and then Bush Jr.-faithful son, loyal son-uses bin Laden’s attack as an excuse to get payback for Hussein’s attempted hit on his dad.
41 as Brando
43 as Pacino and featuring Saddam Hussein as Virgil “The Turk” (near miss there) Sollozzo. And the U.S.A. as a collective, credulous Diane Keaton
Just this once, Kay, I’m going to let you ask me about my business
Shut the fucking door in her face and get on with it, lock yourself up with the Cabinet and the Congress and
Guzzle the Kool-Aid.
No, Chon decides, the problem with the politicians is not that they’re on drugs, it’s that they’re not.
The drugs they have for bipolar, schizophrenic paranoid delusions are so good now.
They work.
Problem is, they work so well that the patients think they’re cured and stop taking them and get sick again and do crazy shit like invade Iraq in the delusional belief it’s going to make their fathers love them.
So please, Mr. President
Chon thinks as he floats into a drug cloud of his own
Please
Don’t go off the meds.
114
Drug Warrior Dennis Cain
Gets up in the morning feeling no different, which is almost a disappointment after making a Faustian deal for his soul.
I mean, you think you’d notice, right? Something different.
Yeah, not so much.
