Discover more from Soaring Twenties
It’s a new week, which means that we are back with another hidden gem from the archive of one of our roster of writers. Monday’s are for highlighting the forgotten, the overlooked and the under-appreciated works that we feel deserve more attention than they got on the first go-around.
And so here we have a (very) short piece of fiction from
that neatly packs a punch into a mere 400 words. Give it a read and feel free to either comment here or click on the original version to subscribe to the ‘s SubstackEnjoy.
TJB.
“Why are they so interested in war?” Nicolas says as he closes the door to the big red building.
“And there he goes again,” One of them says, and begins to smile.
He sits on the staircase while his friends stand, looking at the tiny cars in the far distance. He looks up at his friends and looks down the hill to see these cars as well.
He sighs and smiles, “Look at us. Sooner or later, we will be done with all of this and be 6 feet underground all because they’re obsessed with war.”
“Yes, we know that Nicolas,” another says, “which is why we are behind this building to enjoy the view before we leave.”
They all laugh and sit on the steps with him as they continue to look down the hill.
“So what’s on your mind?” One of the friends asks.
Nicolas grabs from his shirt pocket, a cigarette box. And passes 2 to his left and 3 to his right.
“What are we now? 23?” He looks to his left and right, “16 of us sat at this spot 2 years ago but look,” he points at each one of them, “just the 6 of us left.” He sighs and finally lights his cig after the lighter gets to him. He inhales and exhales, the smoke blinding his view of the cars.
“Remember that night?” He asks.
“Yeah, how can we forget?” The two to his left say.
“How can we forget that night?” The other three to the right say as they continue to smoke their cigs, and tears begin to cloud their eyes.
“I don’t want to shed tears right now brothers, but those men were going to be something! Those men were going to be something great! My beautiful brothers were going to be Amazing!” Nicolas’s hands begin to shake as he speaks, “But now they are gone from us because the old men wanted war and we young men who haven’t seen the truth of war wanted war. And now, again, another war!”
“What will be, will be brother,” Ulrich to the far right says.
“What will be will be,” Nicolas says. In the distance, they notice a crash and flinch “guess we cannot stop wars after all.”
"No you can’t, for life itself is war,” They hear and turn around.