The Flag

36 0 0

by cw-henry

by cw-henry

A DIRTY back alley. A scruffy military VET, in his sixties, is sleeping, covered by a large American flag. A COP in his late thirties enters, spies him, strolls over, pokes him with his foot.

COP Hey. Wake up.

VET (Stirs sleepily, a bit drunk, waves his hand) Go ‘way.

COP (Reaches down, tries to pull the flag away) Get up!

VET (Violently yanks back) Get offa me, pig!

COP Pig? What are you, a “love child” from the sixties?

VET (Curling up, wrapping the flag tighter about him) Matter ‘a fact, I am. Pig.

COP Well, Mister Hippie-Dippy, I’m a veteran of The United States Army, and I do not care to see my country’s flag lying in the dirt. Get up!

VET A veteran? See any action?

COP Desert Storm. For the last time, get up! (Places hand on billy club)

VET (Staggers up, flag still wrapped around his body) You fought in the Push Button War? In the Super-High-Tech-Ballistic-Video-Game-Save-The Oil Wells-For Democracy Expeditionary Force? Lemme shake the hand of a hero! (Offers his hand)

COP Give me the flag, smart ass.

VET No. It’s mine. Get your own.

COP I fought for that flag. Dirtbags like you don’t deserve to share the same country. Give it to me! (yanks at flag)

VET Leggo, pig! (Whirls away, falls down, still holding flag)

THE COP grabs the VET, yanks him to his feet, throws him against the wall, forcefully places handcuffs on him.

COP You’re going down to the station. (Takes flag away, gently folds it, places it under his arm) To think I risk my life for pricks like you.

COP pats VET down, then spins him around. VET wears an old military jacket emblazoned with medals.

COP What the hell is this?

VET You’re a veteran. You tell me.

COP (Pokes at the medals as he describes them) Good conduct medal, purple hearts - one, two, three! Any pawn shop sells these. What the hell? A silver star! Where did you steal this?

VET I earned it, pig! In Vietnam. They gave it to me for saving a coupla lives in a pointless war. I got the purple hearts for gettin’ dinged three times. Then they awarded me the Good Conduct medal for being stupid enough to sign up for another tour of duty and not fraggin’ the friggin’ college boys they gave us for officers! That makes me a war hero. How ‘bout you?

COP I... never got to fire a shot.

VET Too bad. I got to kill lotsa people. Not always on purpose, either. Sometimes, when the bullets were flyin’, it was kinda hard to tell the good guys from the bad, the young men from the old women. Sometimes children would get caught in the fire fight. Ever put a screaming, bleeding infant out of its misery? I did. Poor kid caught some shrapnel. Its guts were hanging out of its belly, and it was screaming... screaming! We lost our medic the day before. Booby trap blew his legs off. Whaddaya do when you can’t help an innocent baby dying in a stinking jungle halfway to hell? I’ll tell you what I did, officer. I took my Army-issue M-16 rifle, placed the barrel against that sweet kid’s head and blew his little brains out... You wanna arrest me, pig? Arrest me for that. Not for sleeping on a piece ‘a lousy cloth - which I paid for more times than I wanna think about!

SHOCKED and confused, COP stares at VET. Then he gently removes the handcuffs and hands the flag back. He pulls some bills out of his pocket, holds them out.

COP Here. Get yourself something to eat.

VET (Takes the money) Thanks.

COP Take care of that flag, will you?

VET nods. COP exits. VET wraps the flag around his body.

VET I’ll take care of her - like she took care of me.

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