I write short stories. Check out my book, Elementary Forms of Religious Life, for samples. I’m toying with a story inspired by the saga of a failed-businessman who, I am waiting to hear, has been caught snitching bon bons while taking out the cat litter.
Three military men appear in this strange and dysfunctional spectacle.
The oldest soldier was a pilot shot down over hostile territory, tortured, held as a prisoner of war for five years, was released, and became a U.S. Senator.
The second soldier flew combat missions in Iraq, became an astronaut, and commanded space shuttle missions. He retired from the military when his senator wife was shot in an attempted assassination and was elected to replace her in the U.S. Senate.
The third military man was a part-time member of the National Guard, led small infantry squads and sat in an office during three tours in the Middle East. He became a cable television anchor where he projected a tough persona on camera while presenting his own off-camera spectacle of drunkenness and erratic bullying. But, by golly, he looked the part.
The TV drunk was appointed to a casting couch cabinet as Secretary of Defense. He disclosed classified information on unofficial and insecure media and, in the interest of transparency, I suppose, invited a journalist to listen in. The leak jeopardized the lives of troops on the ground, no doubt more seriously than when he led rifle squads.
The failed businessman derided the prisoner of war senator for allowing himself to be captured.
The casting couch secretary accused the astronaut senator of sedition and tried to strip his military rank and deny his pension when the astronaut quoted the Department of Defense Law of War Manual on social media.
I won’t be writing this story. It’s beyond belief and I’m too busy avoiding cat bon bons from Venezuela in the news.