Chapter 116
.
November 5th 2023
.
It was exactly one year before the next presidential election in America. John Smith had long ago announced his own candidacy in this election. But today, he planned to officially withdraw, and confess to his own crimes. John had made mistakes, starting when he was a child. After Pearl Harbor, many children, and even a few teachers, picked on the children of asian descent, and John Smith bullied them along with others. During the korean war, John never learned much of the korean language, but he learned to say one phrase very well. He learned how to say "I surrender, please take me prisoner." Ofcourse John didn't want to become a P.O.W., but if it came down to it, he would prefer that over death. One night, when he and others were out on patrol, they met a north korean patrol. Naturally both sides started shooting at each other. John Smith was shot, passed out for a minute or two. When he awoke, the north korean soldiers were literally standing on top of him. Instinctively John Smith shouted out, in korean, "I surrender, please take me prisoner!" Between the darkness, and the confusion of battle, the north korean soldiers thought that their own sergeant, who had already been killed, was ordering them to surrender. By the time they realized their mistake, it was too late. The result was that John Smith, became known as an american hero, and he went along with the lies that soon developed about that battle. He used these stories to get into professional baseball, become an astronaut. Admittedly he still had to work hard on both, but he might not have been able to do either were it not for the legends. And ofcourse John seduced women, many women. Sometimes these one night stands resulted in pregnancy, and most often he paid no child support. But then, the SBA kidnapped a young woman, a girl who might be his great granddaughter. Thus John Smith became their pawn, their presidential candidate. The policies they supported, mass incarceration, deportations, even talk of extermination, this bothered his conscience. But he did their bidding anyway. But no more, today John Smith would tell the american people the truth. And just maybe, he could find a form of redemption.