Song: "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire
Disclaimer: Don't own ANYTHING!
It was late at night. Jasper was slouched in a chair in his room. Tomorrow was the battle with Victoria's army. He turned on his TV:
The Eastern world, it is exploding. Violence flaring. Bullets loading…
.. and then he turned in off. He didn't need that now.
His mind went back to when he enlisted in the Confederate Army.
(begin flashback. A Confederate Army Enlistment Bureau, 1861)
"What're you doing here, boy?" asked an old man in front of him in line at the bureau.
"Serving my country! Whaddaya think?" was Jasper's excited reply.
"I see how it is… You're old enough to kill, but not for voting. You think that this war is gonna be quick and over with? No lives lost?" came the response from a middle-aged man behind him.
"Oh, no sir! War's really bad. But…" he tossed his pistol around in his hands for a minute.
The old man pointed at the gun and laughed, "You don't believe in war, yet what's that gun you're toting?"
And the middle-aged man put his arm on Jasper's shoulder, "And even the Jordan River has bodies floating."
"Even so, I don't think this war will last long!" Jasper reasoned. He must've told this to the old man fifty times today!
The old man laughed again, "But you tell me over and over and over again, my friend. How you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction…"
Jasper couldn't stand the pessimism surrounding him, "Don't you understand what I'm trying to say? Can't you feel the fears that I'm feeling today? I'm not yet 20!"
(end flashback. Fast forward to the day before the battle of Galveston, TX. 1862)
A tired soldier was dragging his feet towards his commander, the dashing young Major Jasper Whitlock. "What're we gonna do about all dem people down there by Mexico?"
"Mexico? Please tell me you mean the one that's only a mile from Galveston. Not the one by Panama!" the major laughed.
"I mean the one you mean. You know that."
"Well, then, yes. We have to try to save the civilians! Obviously!"
The tired soldier sat on a tree stump, "Are you sure they'll attack?"
"If the button is pushed, there's no running away. There'll be no one to save, fill the world in a grave," Jasper explained.
The soldier was ten year's Jasper's senior. He gestured back towards the campfire, "Take a look around you boy. It's bound to scare you, boy."
"They might not attack tomorrow. You may never know," Jasper said seriously.
The soldier shook his head, "And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend. How you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."
(end flashback)
Jasper had been sitting in his chair now for an hour, his mind far away. He did not want tomorrow to come. All of a sudden, he could hear a knock on his door.
"Who is it?" the southerner's voice cracked.
"Carlisle. May I come in?"
"Sure."
The doctor entered his "son's" room.
"What's wrong, Jazz? Is it tomorrow?" asked Carlisle.
"Oh, you have no idea. Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulating."
"So you've just been sitting here for who-knows-how-long? That's not a waste of time," Carlisle smiled.
"I'm sitting here, just contemplating. I can't face the truth, it knows no regulation."
"Well, what would you have done with your troops? The Civil War, kid! C'mon!" an attempt to cheer him up.
"Civil War: Handful of senators don't pass legislation. And marches alone can't bring integration. When human respect is disintegrating."
Carlisle agreed, "This old crazy world is just too frustrating. But tomorrow will be fine. I'm sure of it. Nothing to fret over."
Jasper remembered the words he had heard so long ago, "And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend. How you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."
Again, his mind went elsewhere…
(begin flashback. Jasper and Alice's dwelling, 1950s.)
"Hi, dear! I'm home!" came Alice's piping voice.
"Hey. I'm in here," Jasper called from their living room. He had just bought a new TV last week.
Alice kissed her husband and sat down next to him, "What's on?"
"Good ol' Joe McCarthy! Y'know…" Jasper smiled.
A black and white imago of the infamous senator appeared on the screen. He held up his fist, "Think of all the hate there is in Red China. Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama. Though you may leave here for four days in space, when you return, it's the same old place."
"Senator McCarthy! Glad we don't live where he's from," Jasper laughed. Alice joined in.
Happy times.
(end of flashback)
"Jazz? Jasper? Helloooo?" Carlisle waved his hand in front of Jasper's face.
"I'm not worried about tomorrow anymore, I think. As I told my soldiers; 'The pounding of the drums, the fight and disgrace. You can bury your dead. But don't leave a trace. Hate your next-door neighbor. But don't forget to say grace!'
Carlisle laughed.
"I'm going to read downstairs. See ya later," Jasper sat up and walked out of his room.
Carlisle's smile faded after Jasper left the room. He shook his head and he gazed off into space.
"And you tell me over and over and over again, my friends. How you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction," he whispered.