Letters Home :: Creative Writing Essays

Letters Home The vid screen is dark and ominous, as if it holds secrets that is not for the likes of men to know. John Poldeck, a middle aged, balding man of forty-eight steps forward toward screen and console to activate the beast, this oracle of silicon, plastic, and glass. Today John is hoping for word of his son Kirk, of whom nothing had been heard of since he left for UNDF Marine Corps training at Camp Lejune, South Carolina, a beacon for the phony tough and crazy brave looking for ill conceived adventure and glory. At least that was John’s opinion on the matter. As a mid level market analyst for the transnational ABSCOM John was used to battles fought with market shares, balance sheets, and stock options. For the forty years since the birth of the revamped United Nations war and the conductors of war, the military, had been a dying business. John could still remember the eager look on Kirk’s face when his son had uttered words like, duty, honor, patriotism, words which seemed as alien to John as the worlds the UN exploratory fleet claimed to have found. â€Å"For Christ’s sake John will you turn on the damn console? What the hell is wrong with you today?† John glanced at June, his wife of twenty years and counting. Her dark skinned face was a sharp contrast to his pale complexion, and anger, tinged with concern for her son, clouded and darkened her visage even more. He looked at his wife without comprehension. â€Å"What?† June sighed, and then in a kinder tone, â€Å"The console John. I know you’ve been angry ever since Kirk left for the Marines, hell you’ve been mad ever since he first brought up enlisting. A fool’s errand you called it. Perhaps you’re right. All I know is that he might have sent us a letter today.† A fool’s errand. I remember when I said that John thought. That had been a nasty episode, one of many that had occurred during one of the endless fights he had had with Kirk over this business of enlisting. Try how he might he could never convince his son that business was where the opportunities were. Kirk had then coldly informed his father of his contempt for the Transnationals that now ran everything on Earth, including the UN, and his contempt for anybody connected to them.