The Mere Tide P30

At the recruiters-Fools of the call-A premonition

West then far into country and from people. To towns she would not enter but for the outskirts. To dash into bars to requisition whiskey with a mask on. 

One day to enter a street where in uniform a woman stood on a street corner. And all caution. This female a sergeant surveyed the street for the listless and meandering suddenly confronted with a calamitous mishap of child bearing down upon her holding aloft rifle and head.

Oh shit.

Dachni reached the sidewalk by miracle unscathed and cursed upon by the halted traffic. She danced round the sergeant who backed and backed.

Look look its head an can shot up aldy an goes took an Alessa work of could citizen look look look! Hey true really is was in the desert an said hey an this here nigger come ta try an rob of horse an stuck him a yaonet an tooked his heart thisis is head. Crossed everwhere benned the world an in the mounties an up an down an tubed an thowed an saw floods an locusts an rain fire I the desert wayyyyy sly ompta heathen home an foughted rusks an broke a train an caught a king! Look! Look! Its the head turned out an has favor of Yandvilai so ettl brin ye wricked luck in any kinder fight haps rings rings an woo! Sightly goes moon an hard breaks it down to sun.

The sergeant had backed herself to the wall of the recruiting center. The door opened and a corporal no more than looked out then was set upon.

Hidy hi! Which one are you?

Ohholyshit.

He slammed shut the door and then opened it cautiously and looked to the sergeant. What?

I have no idea, said the sergeant.

Dachni was still jumping about and the sergeant stilled her with a hand.

Whats going on?

List! Aint ye for list?

I…what?

Dachni hunched over and burst upward. Lissssstin!

This is a recruitment office.

Aye! Aye!

I…wait. Are you trying to enlist?

Aye! Its rain fire.

The sergeant looked at the corporal but Dachni dropped the head and snatched at her blouse.

Listen! Listen!

The sergeant took the hand and put it from her. Hold on, she said. Hold on.

Nagghhhhhh.

Hold on. Whats your name?

Essa. Ess. Less. Alessa. Gillespie. Alessa Gillespie.

Ok. Calm down. Calm. Calm. Calm.

Dachni slouched in impatient exasperation.

Hurrrrry.

First things first, said the sergeant. Is that your horse?

Dachni looked into the street. The horse was meandering nervously in the lanes while the traffic swerved around it and the drivers shouted and blared their horns.

Thats horse. Its not.

Get that out of the street.

Dachni dashed for the horse flinging as she did the head down the sidewalk where it rolled spraying blood against the storefronts. She picked up the trailing reins and led the horse to the sidewalk and looked for a place to tie and did so to the door of a furniture store. The manager would have protested but then he saw her scapulars of teeth and ears and he thought better of it.

The NCOs were conferring when she ran back. Hey hey hey.

They looked at her.

Can you tell me where that head came from? said the sergeant.

Offa nigger.

How did you get it?

Fightin. He hadda big ol knife an he tried ta rob the horse but run up to his charge an slid an stucked him in the belly then shot him off blaw! An tooked his head.

Ok, said the corporal. He looked down the street at the head. You cant leave that lying around. Get it and come inside.

Whoakay!.

She skipped down the sidewalk and got the head and dashed back. They held the door open for her and she went in. In the lobby a dozen recruits watched. They sat their seats and watched this diminutive homunculus track shapes of blood in the carpet. The sergeant pointed at an empty chair.

Sit there. Stay still.

Dachni plopped down and beamed at the staring faces. Outside the corporal was securing the grade to a bike rack in front of the office.

Wheres yall froms?

The recruits looked at her. She looked at them each in turn for answers slow in forthcoming.

The grad.

The same.

Aster.

Grad.

Roseville.

Beograd.

Aha.

Where are you from? said a boy from Pelican.

Mounties. By Perm.

Are you Russian?

Dachni spat. Shit no.

The corporal came in. Dont spit on the carpet.

Dachni clasped her hands to her headtop. Sarry.

Dont say sorry just do it.

Ok.

He rubbed the spit out with the toe of his boot. He leveled a finger at the recruits. You all are responsible for this hot mess until Im back.

Yessir.

Sir.

Aye sir.

He gave a last doubtful look at the child and then went out of the lobby down a hall.

Whatre you doing here?

She looked at the Roseville recruit. He was young but big. His hands big and clean.

Gonna list. They say list an ye get to be American.

I think you have to be American first.

Noo. No no no that aint true they said ye could list an then ye can. Ye aint got ta be already.

Another recruit watched quietly. A somber youth of twenty. Its ok. Im from the country too.

Whatre you doin here?

He jangled his keys in his pocket. Waiting on dinner.

Does they feed ye too?

Yep.

And drink ye too?

I guess.

Hows it sounding gethered?

I dont know.

Laurence said that this is the great pivot.

Laurence?

Voice on the radio.

It is that. How did he say it? We in this generation…are part of the great pivot from chaos to order or something.

No out of the great disorder.

He called us the first unmauled generation in three centuries.

That isnt going to last. If what everyone is saying is true.

Shit, said a city son. I wish theyd get on with it.

The corporal came back to the lobby. Dont worry, he said. Were already on, the with is coming.

Amen to that. Im ready. Its going to be hard but there isnt a damn thing in life easy worth doing.

Shit. Patly grew up on the leather tough edge of the jagged edge of a rusty town. Its going to take more than a head to scare him. Thats the truth. Where did you get that head anyway?

Dachni looked at the boy from Aster. Head?

Yeah, he said pointing at the head in her lap.

Oh. Founded it.

You just found somebody’s head in the desert?

Everthings in the desert.

The Aster recruit looked away with his chin in hand. Yeah.

Dachni watched him. She watched the others and she had in that watching a dread intuition that there was not one soul in that office who would not be dead in two years. And silent prophetess would that thou couldst have spoken for each would perish and every man and woman who in this place signed their name to the line. The Aster recruit paralyzed at Gomel would be fed alive into a grinder to become nutrients for the clones, them of the grad obliterated by artillery and the rest in their way even that demure son of the country who knowing better but hoping more would be bayoneted in a ditch under an apple tree.

I have the video, said a recruit named Charles.

Play it.

Come here.

They gathered round. Charles coughed into his elbowpit. Would do again when inhaling vesicants. Excuse me. On the tablet a man stood behind a podium in a stadium. Charles pressed play and he shifted into motion.