Patriotic Duty

Patriotic Duty
A short story by Wolf Larsen

The fancy sports car pulled up to the curb. An older man in hip clothes and a younger woman in a sexy dress get out of the car. She is his "girlfriend" or maybe his granddaughter, it's kind of hard to tell.
As they're walking towards a super-cool super-chic super-expensive restaurant they pass by a young man sitting on the sidewalk by himself in the cold.
The man is missing some body parts, things like arms and legs. The sign around his neck says:
HOMELESS VET
PLEASE HELP!
In front of the man sitting on the sidewalk in the cold is a plastic cup with a few coins in it.
The older man walking along with his girlfriend or granddaughter blurts out, "WHY DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY'RE ENTITLED TO SOMETHING?! THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH THIS COUNTRY!"
His girlfriend or granddaughter doesn't say anything.
As he enters the restaurant the hip cool older man is thinking, "WOW! Everybody is seeing me with this hot babe on my arm! This is great!"
Inside the restaurant the old man and the young lady sit down. The old man starts talking. He wants to impress the young lady.
"Business is booming!" exclaims the old man. "The government just ordered a new machine from us this morning. Of course they're going to use it to make weapons. I'm a war profiteer!" he exclaimed laughing.
The young lady smiles at him.
"God I hope Barack Obama gets reelected! He's great for business!" the old man says laughing. "He's even better for business than the Republicans!"
The young lady looks away. She doesn't like politics.
The old man seems to notice her change in mood.
"Well actually, I'm just doing my patriotic duty for my country to help us defend ourselves against the terrorists. After all, we're a freedom loving people, and that's why we need a strong military!" he said with a softer more sensitive voice.
She smiled at him again.
While she smiled at the old man she thought, ""I can't wait to dump this limp sack of shit! But for now I need him to pay the bills. I just can't seem to find a job anywhere!"
The old man was excited because he knew that she liked him! He couldn't wait to get her home! Boy oh boy was he excited!
Then – fast forward now – they ordered, ate, and the bill arrived. The old man kept the receipt, because after all it was a "business dinner", or tax write off. Then the old man excused himself to go to the bathroom so that he could discreetly take that little blue pill.

Copyright 2011 by Wolf Larsen. Advance permission is given to anyone wishing to publish and/or distribute this work to do so as long as no alterations are made to the work, credit is given to the author, and the intent of such publication and/or distribution is not hostile.

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