(A cave skillet. Red glow that casts no shadow. Silence. Enter Lieutenant Commander Juan McCain with both arms splinted and bandaged, one bony crutch steps in for the lifeless left leg. No blood. Just white tape a violent pink in the ruby light.)
McCain
And here I wanted to be young again.
(A short, thin, Southeast Asian man with a narrow heart shaped face and long grey wisp beard dressed in grey pajamas meets McCain mid-oblivion.)
Uncle Ho
The Vietnamese people have an expression for that.
McCain
Don’t go there?
Uncle Ho
Can’t go there.
McCain
At least my way allows for the option.
Uncle Ho
Whether to go with reality or a memory of a delusion that you got wise to and now miss?
McCain
Like youth?
Uncle Ho
All the children here when you were here grew up in war.
McCain
And I grew up here. I sincerely hope that the people of the United States and the people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam-
Uncle Ho
The people. But you and I did not die as part of the people. We chose to command.
McCain
I represented and I tried for command. Didn’t get there.
Uncle Ho
I ran our revolution when we were in the bush but by the time you Americans came I was a figurehead.
McCain
Uncle Ho.
Uncle Ho
Comrade McCain, didn’t you find what you were looking for the last time returned?
McCain
Last time I was looking for what I thought I had lost of myself.
Uncle Ho
And now?
McCain
I’m looking for what I thought America had lost.
Uncle Ho
Thought lost but you don’t think so now?
McCain
The war divided our nation.
Uncle Ho
And kept my nation divided.
McCain
Maybe America’s was earlier - like the Civil Rights movement.
Uncle Ho
Which was just a later battle in your civil war that has never ended.
McCain
Reconstruction. Jim Crow.
Uncle Ho
Civil Rights, Affirmative tokenism, Black Lives Matter.
McCain
What about Obama?
Uncle Ho
Last straw of Affirmative tokenism.
McCain
Yeah, another Harvard Law School genius with a white mother.
Uncle Ho
Versus another Academy hotshot with an admiral father.
McCain
And grandpa. I was the better senator.
Uncle Ho
It wasn’t about that. It never is. They kept me around because I was still the face of change.
McCain
I couldn’t close the divide either. Obama was right. The government can’t close the divide. Only the people can bring themselves together.
Uncle Ho
You know I’ve always been a big fan of the United States.
McCain
So I’ve read.
Uncle Ho
It broke my heart when Eisenhower supplied the French after promising us that our country would be ours again after the Japanese were driven out.
McCain
The Cold War was all fear. Nobody wanted to win. What was there to win? My party claims that during George H’s tenure the Cold War was won? Won how? The Berlin Wall which never worked in the first place was pulled down. The hats and name tags change and some adjustments to the pecking order and what have we got? Russia and China in our face again and they’re more dangerous than ever and we’re more dependent. And we say we won that cold one?
Uncle Ho
The second you assholes left we had China muscling in.
McCain
You had a straight out border war.
Uncle Ho
They’re too big to forgive or bargain with. My country is my pussy. Push into it an inch and I’m cutting your whole fucking tiny dick off.
McCain
I thought China was nuts.
Uncle Ho
I’ll cut those off too.
McCain
That’ll change China’s voice but it won’t change their tune.
Uncle Ho
It’s what power does to big dogs.
McCain
How did you bring Vietnam back together?
Uncle Ho
I didn’t. You were not driven out until seven years after my death.
McCain
When I was alive I thought that wars ended.
Uncle Ho
When you’re alive you have to believe in life.
McCain
And what do you believe in if you’re dead?
Uncle Ho
Peace.
McCain
I’m dead and I don’t believe in peace.
Uncle Ho
The United States of America has no peace to offer at this time.
McCain
I failed.
Uncle Ho
Obama was right. The government can’t close the divide. Only the people can bring themselves together.
McCain
Now I know why they call you Uncle Ho.
Don Arrup
Satire1
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