Byrom Lighthouse Bush studied the massive ship before him and its omnipotence reminded him of his father - whom he called "The Old Warrior" - welcoming his father's condescension thinking it was a substance of love and not disdain. He had often seen and heard his father's anger commingling in his speech with the twitching expressions running rampant all over his face ... "What we need is a billion sledgehammers to smash the riff-raffs' heads in!" He had said after the nation had voted a cripple into his White House.
"But dear the poor devils have had inferior education, if any at all. How can you expect the ignorant to have voted for your Hoover and for full capitalism?"
"On the contrary my dear. That's what rankles me the most! Most of the riff-raff haven't even attained a third grade education. But my dearest one, if we can get them in for let's say twelve years and do a good job in Americanizing them and indeed give them the education they deserve by riff-raff teachers just a little brighter than they - then I'll warrant you they won't be able to think themselves out of a wet paper bag!" ....
This father of his never stopped fighting the aristocratic poliomyelitis man in the White
House and all his liberal cronies many of whom the Old Warrior believed were "Jew bastards" - always trying to give the lowly a better chance - as if they had such a right to the "American Dream". "They have a right to die for the dream but that's all! Look at all the riff-raff that makes up our once glorious army that defeated the Kaiser with one hand tied behind their backs getting little support from the limeys, frogs and nigger dagos! Black Jack Pershing showed them the way and do you know how he received that name Black Jack, Byrom? It was when he commanded niggers before the great war, and they had helped him put all the red niggers on the reservations where they belonged; wearing their dirty shade of red skin. And I tell you Byrom those black sons-of-bitches respected him like a master of the manner!"
His father believed indeed his God did love the dying of hunger the most for he
had made so many of the miserable "stink weeds" who were always
looking for handouts; taking money from those who had garnered their wealth
on their own magnificent heroic merits! "The super elite needs no one, Byrom. They pull the puppet strings and I only wish they can get rid of those Jews and put them on reservations too! They will drive this country into socialism, I'm afraid. They have all ready begun with their social security and medical care help programs. We won't be a great nation until we've destroyed social security completely! And mark my words Byrom Lighthouse Bush - that day lives in the future!"
Byrom's mother's, a Jenny Blue from 'Shuffling to Buffalo", uncontrolled smile - that was given full reign when her
husband lost his position as second chemist at Dupont's six months after the
crash of '29 because the man with his socialistic tendencies had interfered with big
business assured Byrom's father, a Cornell graduate, he was acting wisely in
disciplining Byrom whom she had attempted to name after the great club-footed English
poet who had lain with many many of the ladies of England - so awesome in face he was.
"Manners at my father's table, Byrom, are all important. Thanks to Ma-ma and
Pa-pa we have their roof over our heads and their foods in our stomach and
when my parents return from Atlantic City, I shall tell them not only about
making us smell your rotted food while we are eating as the riff-raff do in their caves - and if
you plant stink weed what do you expect to harvest my son with the speech
impediment? But I shall tell them how you were caught throwing stones at the mansions on The Row - our greatest money-makers who had gladly paid taxes to show their vast wealth but the filthy Jews and do goobers took away that great privilege from them to attempt a democracy that all would share in the paying of taxes like one big club but they never realized its the elite's club and they and foreigners are not welcomed inside!" the old warrior said using his best sullen and sarcastic tone to display what a gentleman owed to pride, temper and most of all - disgust.
The punishment after the fifth infraction was always administered in Pa-pa's study.
To be fair Byrom had to have four warnings before the "hellfire" overtook his skin, so white.
Out came the long wooden match, similar to the ones the lamplighters used to light the night in the quaint small New Jersey town not terribly far from Princeton, from the father's vest and in seconds its flame was licking upward
towards the seven year old boy's palm. Within a moment, Byrom was collapsing
into his father's thigh - before landing onto the hard floor which was rippling into the shapes of strange waves ....
How Byrom admired The Old Warrior for making the boy in him, the father of
the man he would become, understand the many lessons of life.
The ship's sad sounding blare made Byrom despair; reminding him of how much
he missed the man he called Father who was dead. How now could he make the dead see? He tried to find him among the darkness shrouding the ship but no eyes came shining back at him. END
Links to other sites on the Web
Stories by Jerry Vilhotti
Waterkat Home