Kleinzeit

Solo

After breakfast Kleinzeit, high on Greenlite, put Pain Company through morning drill, detailed some of them for bedpan duty. He asked the nurse to draw the curtains round his bed, dismissed her.

‘What’re you going to do, then?’ said the nurse.

‘Going to go it alone,’ said Kleinzeit blipping confidently.

‘Buzz me if you get into trouble,’ said the nurse, and left.

Kleinzeit called Pain Company to attention, addressed them briefly:

Athens has been defeated, he said. We mourn the loss of comrades and brothers. Looked at in another light, however, Athens has not lost, Sparta has not won. The war is always, always the enemy mound rising outside the walls, always the cold surf, the frightening appearance of the ships as they sail in. Always a war that cannot be won, fought by troops who cannot be defeated.

You all know what is required of you. Do not give way through fear of the surf or the frightening appearance of ships as they sail in. Right, then. Let’s get on with it.

Shaking his spear and crying his war-cry, Kleinzeit led his men to the beach, fought, prevailed. They came back singing, put up a trophy.

Tomorrow the bathroom, said Kleinzeit.