WAR LOVER

WL can savor the sight of a young couple hand in hand by the eternal sea. Two different hearts brought together to be one. WL rejoiced in it like the explosive foam of the waves because the War Lover knows where and when she will be with her hero next. She will place flowers on the floor under his name on a wall, after a flash his body was blown to bits. The movement of armies, the massing of men and machines were of no interest to WL. That was done with quiet cooperation and concern for ones comrades, only the sparks of loss caught his eye. The desperation, the keening, crying, wailing, the ripping of clothes and tearing of hair filled the void for WL. Only that could raise him from his stupor. He loved war and the decades of peace between major breakouts were a bore to WL. He wondered around hapless and half asleep. The winner for War Lovers attention was Russia at war with America and the surrounding states in the east. Troops at the border who could not endure the pain wave and civilians killed by being buried alive were of particular interest to him. He did not need a newspaper to tell him about the fighting. It was in front of him. Bernie, the Golden Adonis as he was known to the world was a mystery to WL and WL had no interest in mysteries. The world had to be laid out, splayed as it were for the War Lover to absorb. Oddly as

discerning as he was of the lives with their hearts ripped out, Bernies strands of pain and fear wove no fabric in the War Lovers mind. The struggle of east against west had gone on for so long it was taken as a natural condition and on the checkered map of the east it was considered obligatory for small neighbors to fight and hate each other, like the big nations. Small but costly wars in the east then occupied people during the drawn out war with the west. That smell in the air and a vague taste sensation in the mouth alerted the War Lover. It was familiar and from his ancient youth. He pushed away from his small private table and with others stood in the street, frozen by the spectacle growing before the Kremlin. It was the outline of a man towering against the sky and glowing like the sun. Others on the street shielded their eyes or ran to hide. Leaving his pyramid after 40 years did not raise an eyebrow on the War Lover but Bernies sudden appearance under the vast dome over Moscow woke him immediately. War Lover joined the crowd, it roused him, the excitement of young men and boys driven by the beating drums to put on a uniform to go forth to kill and die just like days of old when war was still something special and not like today when it has been reduced to drudgery. War Lovers mouth watered.

Bernie, having foresworn his ability to raise pain in the Russian people had little to offer but with his ability to enter their minds was able to gather a consensus. However he did not have to make the effort, when he made himself known in the street by expanding his

glowing form the local Muscovites immediately recognized him and attacked by throwing trash at him. Police raced to the square to push the people back and encircled Bernie. Riots broke out in attempts to attack the glowing forty foot tall form but were short lived as his presence still had the effect of making everyone depressed and filled with suicidal thoughts. The Russians could not go near despite his putting every effort into containing such an effect on people. That was his natural personality before he was changed by the energy of psy waves; he was a depressing person to be around. War Lover staggered away from his posh restaurant to observe the sight. Police in riot gear after pushing away the citizens also disappeared from the streets. The mayor and a few city officials soon appeared in a small corner of the Kremlin square and made themselves known with translators in tow and all dressed in the special protective suits from early in the war. Bernie shrank as they approached and opened a kit that was previously out of sight; from it he donned a special garment, a floor length robe to cover his human form which in shrinking became strange and grotesque. His glow could only be seen as light beamed out the sleeves and from around folds in the hood of the robe. In the empty street WL approached the tense and official scene. A policeman in regular uniform rushed forward to stop him but doubled up with nausea before he could get near the War Lover. He listened as the translator shouted from under the safari helmet with a lead cloth

screen before his face. The only words War Lover could discern were about peace and rebuilding. No! No! War Lover shouted as he reached the group. Fat and slick with sweat WL looked into Bernies eyes, others were weak and trembling but for War Lover the effect was like quickly sucking down a liter of vodka, the weakness of the flesh transformed into strength of spirit. Bernies presence filled WL with visions. The translator spoke, I have come to announce the end of all hostility and to restore Russia. There can be peace and prosperity for all. Robed, Bernie looked like an ancient monk from the Czars time and War Lover did not hesitate to confront him. Where is the justice? War Lover asked, he had no concern for justice but he knew the concept would ensnare Bernie. What about the veil that protects the enemy? Will you lift it? I have extended the veil around Russia for your protection. No more bombs will fall and no more minds will be damaged. War Lover insisted, We do not want your veil, we want freedom. You must lift your control from the entire world. Freedom was another meaningless concept that WL used as bait.

Deep in caves the Russian people worked like slaves. The workers sacrificed everything to hide their efforts from a force which could enter their minds. At a depth of hundreds of meters they built secret weapons. They could not take mind blockers because their work was

too demanding, the best and brightest Russian boys and all of the efforts of the people went into the caves.

Very well, the old Russian in the center said and a sublime look passed over him; Bernie released the conscious effort he had been making for many years to maintain the forces which protected an entire continents. Everyone in the circle felt it too. Bernies vitality became restored but it did not last. In the caves the Russians had built and readied nuclear ballistic missiles, one warhead for every thousand Americans. When the protective screen went down the missiles launched automatically. Bernies cosmic eye saw the launches a thousand miles away and he was impressed at how well they had hidden these weapons, to avert the danger he had to divert thirty thousand objects ascending and arcing above the planet. Or he would have until he looked into the minds around him. Their hope was in killing. Revenge in destroying their enemy was justice for the Russian peoples. He saw through the eyes of mothers who could not save their boys because they had to look into the faces of other mothers who already sacrificed their children to build the great weapon. He felt from pain of birth how these patriotic women did their part, offering their boys. No one sent to the caves was allowed to leave so that the project would never become known to the enemy. Within an hour after his appearance old fashioned newspapers screamed;

United States Surrenders! All the modern electric billboards lit up in the cities. Surrender was not accurate as the devastation of the US left no means of communication. They interpreted the presence of the Golden Adonis on Russian soil as the sign of surrender. Effectively the war was over and equal to surrender.

Children who caught a glance from afar laughed as did everyone who saw the pictures of Bernie on the evening news. With the Russian propensity for gothic exaggeration Bernie was soon called the Giant Elf. Drawings of his human form, fat, old, and hunchback with a long sad face was all they saw since no typical camera could record him when he was glowing. That evening War Lover ate a whole chicken while reading headlines and he knew what was next and that it would be soon. He knew what was in the heart of every Russian. It was going to be sweet, well worth the wait.

From his corner table at the exclusive restaurant War Lover received his spies and agents. With the devastation of the United States millions of men young and old emerged from the factory caves. Old men who had not seen the sky in forty years emerged resolute; they had gone down as children who were filled with determination. After a lifetime spent hardening their wills while never hearing innocent

laughter or experiencing love, they climbed out as a force desiring to assert their long hidden power. Having crushed the west they next turned on their neighbors. The people were set in motion and WL retreated to enjoy the spectacle. A newly reconstituted army went out to collect tribute for saving the east. Disregarding old boundaries they enter the small border towns, War Lovers devotees felt superior and exalted when they were killing the latest enemy and the enemys family. Like watching a thousand cable news shows, WL was pleasantly stuffed. So passionate were they that they cut off their victims heads and heaped them in the village center like in the old days. War Lover enjoyed the frantic song of the flies and the lovely lapping of the maggots. So relished by humans that they developed it into an art form, how could anyone not love war? He loved the last two centuries and laughed at the smoky comedy of the snap and flash of the gun. Surprise and splatter, the looks on the faces, War Lover found mechanized warfare far superior to dreary strokes of the sword and arrow wounds. War Lover especially enjoyed artillery turning men into puzzle pieces. There was no science man did not bring to bear in war. The War Lover delighted at the most recent digital innovation. One side had been frying the brains of its enemy from across the ocean. In the beginning doctors in Russian cities could not explain the rash of suicides. Asylums were filled with patients bleeding from the ears. The wave also caused the phenomena of children now adults who from birth never stop crying.

The War Lover showed them the way and they did well as smart and frightened followers. When they seemed too happy in their united front against the common enemy the War Lover used paranoia to finetune their fear. War Lover then took time to visit the enemy in the west. The American enemy sacrificed everything to energize the weapon. They lost their precious freedom as they handed power to the Golden Adonis. As always the War Lover went among them to stir up suspicion and enforce the silence between neighbors as the war churned. Even their craving for material things dried up in exchange for a pip on the collar or a stripe on the arm, a worthless document, or a handshake from a superior. Security concerns and professional envy made it hard for anyone to form friendships in the west. Everyone wants to get ahead and you have to step on someone to do that. For years War Lover cultivated cynicism in the west and depraved hope. If it rains on an America then hope is that it is clear over Russia and our pain wave is hitting them. When everyone supported the war then the War Lover created war resistance by making sure they kill a lot of children, or he could send the stock market down. With war came prosperity based on free spending for costly weapons built to be destroyed and spending on sickeningly sweet sentimentality offered to the public between funerals for heroes in flag draped coffins. It was the kind of prosperity that brought on a new dark age.

The War Lover had been in fear of losing weight in the recent centuries; he had to work hard to keep the fires burning. Early in the

American Civil War, on the night before a battle troops on opposite sides of the Wabash River were restless and men of the north and south exchanged songs across the water. In 1914 it almost got out of hand when in the field soldiers called their own truce to exchange tobacco and religious medals, small tokens of hoped for peace. Fortunately the officers began executing their own to remind them who is the enemy. After that War Lover resumed work getting Christians to fight Muslims. The love people once felt for the cause of war remained unchanged but recently they questioned war as a way of spreading ideas. But that was all changed in half an hour with the nuclear thrashing the United States received. The Americans were returned to the early days. No longer capable of dropping bombs on unseen enemies or polluting their minds with a ray, for the American people the time of pointed sticks and eye gouging along with the judicious application of fire had returned.

Copyright 2014 A. Rosenberg