Suspicion
Imagine the wave of a wooded hillside, autumn-dappled, and you imagine
an uncertain sequence. Perhaps two men stand there talking about their
guns and trying to decide what to do next. They could try to hide the
contraband or mail it at the village post office.
This was an interesting episode, wasn't it? It could have been Victorian
England or four hundred years ago in China. It could have been today.
They could have been selling equipment used to build nuclear weapons.
They could have gorgeous wives waiting for them in the cabin.
Their wives have been through the ringer, but the people in town blame
them for their husbands' hostility. They could be in Georgia or in the
former Yugoslavia.
Since her commandeering husband never appears at the door, one wife
decides to take a different approach, to rename herself and do drugs.
This is the lesson-drawing part, where the outgoing Minister of Personality
and Local Color risks his position for a few moments of carnal pleasure
and thinks it was worth it.
The other wife is preparing for a return to public life. Because hermeneutics
is both a science and an art, she places a handgun and a feather on
the table.
There are no children. The daily pressures of being detectives have
made the women barren of desire to reproduce their husbands. They've
seen those who express opinions publicly go down in flames, though they
cannot document it.
It is tragic and ironic that both men were model cops, perfect fathers
to the local orphans, but fell into suspicion. They want to revive their
careers, but they feel more wrong than right, as evidenced by the hands
shoved into their dark jackets, fingering triggers.
This may be a bad time, but the wives are riding three hours by train
to a community meeting. The subject is Suspicious Husbands, and the
keynote speech is entitled "You Must Take Responsibility in the Company
of Mean Souls."
But I have to tell you, I've seen that program once via satellite from
China. It speaks mostly of the violent history of Japan. It points out
that black folks suffer twice as many serious complications from diabetes
as white folks, but attributes this fact to salt. Everyone concedes
it is a failure. For example, it cites Mexico, where husbands disguise
themselves as corrupt officers of the police, as having the healthiest
stock market and economic indicators among Latin American countries.
Many corporations seem to believe that the best way to increase profit
is to cut down to the bare minimum of involvement in the personal level,
as do many countries and many husbands. Imagine their chagrin at the
end, when they might just as well have thumbed through A Guide for the
Whole Atheist and found the information they needed, on page 42:
"The Mountains have brought forth a mouth."
by Brian Clements