A Kingdom of Our Own

Chapter Thirty Three - Changing Seasons

For the remainder of autumn, Skandar was convinced that there was going to be a war in America.

“It’s coming, I just know it,” he would say apprehensively to himself on many an occasion, comments of which normally arose completely out of the blue. He was restless and talkative and said that the signs of an emerging conflict were everywhere – in the high prices, the bad tempers, and the stupidity and greed of people. President Johnson’s intervention policy had been an utter disaster and now that so many thousands of American’s lay dead, the credibility of he and his divided government lay in tatters. Worse still, bloody crimes were becoming almost a routine occurrence in the cities, resulting in the emergence of a widespread sense of fear and insecurity amongst the population.

“It’s not going to be an ordinary war however,” he pointed out, “but one where neither side can claim to be completely innocent.” In other words, it didn’t matter which side you decided to take, a traitor or a hero, because either way you would end up drawing the short straw in terms of morality. As a consequence of this, Skandar believed that the only rational option that remained was to withdraw from human civilisation, claiming that Dalton’s father’s reluctance to do so had been the worst and most lethal mistake he’d ever made. “Being loyal to your country,” he added sincerely, “is a dangerous and foolish commitment to become a part of indeed. Don’t you boys forget that.”

As you can imagine, Dalton and Harry failed to find themselves being drawn in by Skandar’s rash assumptions. Despite the fact that they held an extremely high regard for his opinion over matters, the fact that he was the sort of person who relished to blow even the most minor of issues completely out of proportion forced them to question just how much truth there actually was in what he was saying. Still, it would have been a lie to say that they weren’t grateful in many ways for the insight he gave them into present events in the outside world. Given that they lived in such an isolated community, it was only very rarely that they would come to hear about what was happening elsewhere in the country and although it hadn’t bothered them too much at first, over time it had become the most significant difference from life in Portland that they were struggling to become accustomed to.

As a matter of fact, they hadn’t been able to leave the settlement for nearly a month and so obviously when they got given the chance to go into Waterville as a treat on Christmas Eve, they were quick to capitalise on the opportunity. More than anything they wanted to spend some time around normal people that didn’t preach to you every second of the day, and where better for that, they both thought to themselves, than the Diner that Skandar had taken them to.

                                                 *

Harry sat in a booth at the far end of the Diner, slurping lightly on a soda, dressed in jeans and his favourite Christmas sweater. Dalton meanwhile sat facing him and began to devour a large sundae, with chocolate ice cream already smudged around his mouth after the first spoonful. They were both in higher spirits than they had been in a long time, having settled into their new routine, and were currently occupied watching an old black and white television set which was showing back-to-back episodes of Batman. It must be noted that back home they hadn’t particularly cared for the show, although after having lived like luddites for the past few months, anything was a thrill to watch and when a Universal Newsreel update came on during a commercial break they found their state of excitement growing all the more. As soon as the two words “UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL” appeared in bold on the screen, they rose eagerly out of their seats, wanting to pick up every word the reporter said:

Thousands of demonstrators opposed to the Vietnam War assembled in the nation’s capital yesterday for a mass protest. For the most part orderly, minor scuffles did occur between the demonstrators and hecklers. A three hour parade took the demonstrators across the Potomac River on their way to the Pentagon. It was at the Pentagon that the first test of strength was to come, with Military Police being dispatched to contain the crowd, quickly leading to clashes breaking out. Federal Marshals arrested several who attempted to break through the protective line. Reinforcing the Marshals were a second wave of MP’s with fixed bayonets. Overall some 400 demonstrators were arrested, two soldiers were injured, and tear gas was used. Six people even managed to break into a Pentagon side door, but were quickly apprehended, bringing an end to the day-long disturbance…