This is the road to Mount Yibby between the trees. Now it's time for
me to listen to you. The general's voices are load. To General number
one, I go the quietest with the one arm held low, held gently
like a broken elbow. I asked her to tell me how she got her
injury A drought. She says, I didn't grow as she pointed out how
the water flowed. It had gone to the others. It's the way the
land lay. You can see the rain. It runs true still today.
But I do, okay, you do, I say. Then I salute
General number one. Thank you for your service. Thank you from everyone.
General number two, on the other side of the golf course gate waits.
His hair is long, it's lush around his face, open shirt, pale,
his chest, hair right there. No shame. He enjoys the game.
It was the part he was born to play. And those who fight
under him are glad to obey. Eye to eye, we stay. I
smile first this battle I want him to win. General number three is watching.
She is next in line. She is next to him, and I
have to keep moving. To General number five. I salute Generals three and
four as I passed them By stand straight before him. I take into account
his medals he's wearing everyone. It seems to me they look a bit messy.
You four in Korea? I say, yes, sir ma'am. I
mean I was in the airborne thirty three number five. We are going to
need your expertise. It can advise me aerially. Yes, sir ma'am,
I mean I would be pleased. I notice your parapraxis. Is there a
problem I have to ask? No, he says, I've served under women,
just none so bloody minded. He looks at the two holes beside him.
The dirt is still freshly turned with my own boot. Then I strip
all five's medals from him. They come off, no problem, like bark,
like an old snake skin a year or this is a new beginning.
Hey, Meghan, Pilby calls into the valley, uses my first name.
Are you okay? For fox sake? Man, don't break rank? What
he yells again, don't yell into the valley in case the enemy are listening.
Don't say my name? I say what. Filby yells again, You
mean Beyonce? What? No? Go away? But are you okay?
Yes? I say? He goes inside. I hear Destiny's child start the
General's laugh. It clears the air like a fresh breeze through there. You
can see I say what I'm up against. At least he's got good music
taste. Now, Generals, is the time to strategize. I have something
in mind. It is based on the Checkers Slovakian style, but we'll use
the technique on the Dar's Hill drive. The start of it goes right by
us, and the tourists season is coming up. General number five understands immediately.
He knows his military history, says to me, do you remember how
it went for the check Yes, I know how it went for them,
and I know about Lidus and the women of Ravens Brook. I also know
Billy Dare and the road he took through Nagerie Land, through our grandmother's camps
and our grandfather's farms. I try to stay calm. Rage every day is
my personal enemy. That's why I have these generals in front of me.
I breathe deeply. We will do it differently, learn from the Nagerie,
from all the original people of this country. Communicating the way we do it.
They won't even see and let me say this clearly, unlike the check
and their mistake. This is not an attempt to protest our fate. We've
already stared Hitler in the face and like that Tarantino film, now we're going
to kill every mother fucking ask one of them. There is a pulling at
my sleeve. It's Bossy, not now. I say, I'm busy,
but he won't leave. Then I realize I need a wee. Happens all
the time to me. Happens since I was a kid. Get caught up
in something. Forget my body, I say, generals, please excuse me.
BOSSI has my diary, I have other duties. But when we reconvene,
I will have your orders ready. But once I'm back in the house,
I lose hours. Pe'll be insisting on me attending a meeting to stop
the windmill building on how Itt Hills. Apparently you can hear them. I
can hear them, I tell him, yelling and brawling. It's boring,
Lisa. Windmills make electricity. These people bore the shit out of me.
And besides, what would they rather go back? Burning seals on Ki use
that to power their TVs and lights. Jesus Christ, Philby cries, don't
say that tonight, I assure him, I'll be silent behind enemy lines.
My mission will be facts to find. Foobie says, good. I can
leave my notebook behind. I say, where you're going to pretend you can
read and write? He says, okay, keep trying. He's smiling.
He holds my hand on the walk in. He says, it's nice,
isn't it, walking with me. You can't do that with one of your
trees. My so called trees don't lie to me. They don't drink alcoholically
or act like it's not their responsibility that I'm lonely. In fact, they
are not fighting against me at all, and they are tall. Unlike him,
He is short in stature and in thought, a five cent piece philosophy
to which I am not married. A creature like him is the very problem
we are fighting. But he doesn't see, just wants to be friendly.
The next day, I start early