Brevity is the width of soul.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Epicycle

Samir hid his AK-47 in a barrel, turned the corner and joined the queue.

It was a long queue flanked by rails and and barbed wire. Dogs and small robots walked it up and down, barking and beeping seemingly at random. Nobody came from the base; there had never been an attack to the queue.

It took Samir three hours to reach to head of the queue. His father was manning one of the counters, and the person before him was kind enough to let Samir pass so he would be attended by him.

Samir's father mumbled a blessing as he stamped his citizenship papers and gave him his Army's commission. "You are a soldier now," he said, passing him his papers and his M16. It was the standard phrase, but it was also a joy and a warning. Samir smiled and walked away.

The queue continued unfazed as it had for the last ten years.

.finis.

2 comments:

DarkDancer said...

wow... that was impressive, and very powerful imagery, even though it was just a tiny snippet of a scene. That actually would have the potential to go really far.

razorsmile said...

w00t! Welcome to blogger :)