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To Nita’s way of thinking, things had been going pretty good lately. Darrell came home after work and watched TV of late. He didn’t stop off at the bar, anymore, he just sat in the living room watching. History Channel had been having shows about the war between Russia and Germany. Nita was cooking in the kitchen. She could hear the rattle on TV; it went well with the sound of potatoes frying. She looked in the living room and saw a little black German tank rolling by a farmhouse. The house looked like the roof was made of grass or something. It was on fire. The sound went squeak-rattle. A guy with an English accent was telling the story about it. Darrell was drinking a beer. Nita went back in the kitchen.

Nita checked the potatoes, turned them down a little, got the steak ready to throw on the pan. She could hear the English guy telling it like it happened and there was no other way. He sounded sad, like he didn’t quite approve. He said, “The Luftwaffe would destroy the Russian airfields; after which, a series of surprise attacks was to be launched.”She peeked out. On the screen a whining plane dived and dropped a bomb. When they showed the bomb hit it looked like the black dirt went up and came back down too fast the way old time movies do. It looked funny and it went boom. Nita laughed and that made Darrell laugh. Nita ducked back to start the steak.

The History Channel was having a month about the war between Russia and Germany. It happened a long time ago. From the kitchen Nita got to where she could tell what was happening by the sound. She heard a rat-tat-tat, and when she peeked in, she saw two German guys with a machine gun--just the two guys and the machine gun in the middle if a bunch of nothing. No trees or nothing. There was snow all over the place. Sometimes the sound would go crack, crack, and that meant guys with rifles. Or, boom meant guys shoving big bullets in a cannon and pulling a little chain. She saw they were Russian guys. She could tell by the hats. Darrell said they were Russian hats-Davy Crockett hats without the coontail. A Russian would pull the chain, and the cannon would be a foot in back of where it had been, like the camera wasn’t fast enough to catch the middle part. They showed the Russian guys standing around their cannon. They looked happy the way guys do around their stuff, the way bikers do around their bikes. Nita had seen lots of bikers with that look. Happy and silly, too.

Nita heard the TV sound go clippity clop and when she looked in it was some German solders riding horseback past a burning tank. They had rifles on slings on their backs. The German uniforms, the horses, the smoke all looked black against the white snowy background.

“I didn’t know they was still using horses back then,” she said to Darrell.

“Oh, hell, yeah they were,” Darrell said sarcastically. “You didn’t know that? Shit! Using horses in World War Two-yeah, they were. Using lots of ’em all the time. Can’t believe anyone don’t know that.”

Nita went back in the kitchen. It wasn’t like Darrell to get bent about something that wasn’t nothing. Once he’d made fun of her for saying something dumb when they were watching “Cops.” Nita and Darrell’d been living together almost four months now. She’d quit her job at the bar and Darrell, himself, never hardly went there anymore. Sometimes just for a quick one after work. Darrell was a stonemason. They got along real good. Her daughter, Shelly, was grown up and run off with some guy. Now it’s just the two of them in the house. This was lots better than her last man, Danny, who turned out to be more interested in Shelly. It’s good with Darrell. He just has funny buttons you gotta watch not to push.

One day Darrell’s buddy Boman walked over to watch TV and drink beer. The History Channel had finished with the Russians and Germans and started a week about the war between the Americans and the Japanese. It showed a car driving along. A Japanese solder was leaning out, waving a sword. Then it showed a body with its head gone and the English guy said the Japanese guy did it with his sword. Nita flopped down in Darrell’s lap and looked over at Bowman.

“Bet you didn’t know they was still using swords back then, did you?”

Bowman said, “No, hell, I didn’t know that.”

Nita grabbed a fist full of Darrell’s hair and shook his head around and pinched his cheeks and Darrell smiled because it felt good, and Nita said, “I bet old Darrell knew it. Darrell knows everything.”

The Americans and Japanese war sounded about the same from the kitchen except sometimes if solders would be in a jungle they’d throw in some jungle noises. Birds and stuff. The English guy made it all sound like it was something that just had to happen, no other way. Like lava out a volcano just has to flow red-hot down a valley to the sea and sizzle when it hits the water. Like the lava would come out the volcano and it was to go on to the sea. The English guy put Darrell to sleep, but sort of got on Nita’s nerves. They all took to making fun of the English guy.

The History showed how the Japanese got whipped pretty bad till you almost felt sorry for them; but then it showed some American prisoners so skinny you wouldn’t think they could even stand up, and you got mad at the Japs all over again. Then it showed the Japanese surrendering, their guys all decked out in top hats. Their Emperor was a little shrimp riding in a horse-drawn carriage.

Nita was by Darrell, sitting on the arm of the Lazyboy. “They sure did use lots of horses way back when Darrell was just a little boy, and me and Bowman wasn’t even born yet.”

When the show was over, Bowman said, “There’s something fucked up about that whole deal. The Japs are getting their asses whipped and they know it and they say they’ll surrender if we just let ’em keep their Emperor. We go-no, you gotta surrender unconditional; so they go on fighting, getting whipped, saying they’re ready to surrender, just let ’em keep that Emperor; but we keep saying it’s gotta be unconditional; and they keep getting stomped and nuked till they finally do surrender unconditional. Then our guys go-oh, by the way, we decided to let you keep the little pisswad after all.. See what I mean? The more you find out, the less it all means.”

“That’s the damn truth,” said Darrell. “The more you know, the less it makes sense.”

Nita said, “The more you will have gone on to know, the less it will have been showed to make any sense.” That got a laugh. Nita was getting pretty good at her English accent. She’d scrunch up her nose, poke out her chin, and keep her tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth.

Bowman went home. “Wheel of Fortune” came on. The guy spun the wheel and it made a dumb ratchety sound and there was stupid little bell music. Darrell didn’t even want to look at Vana.

Out in the kitchen over dinner Darrell was silent; Nita said, “What you got your drawers in a wad about now?”

“When I was a kid watching TV with Daddy one time, they had it on the news about President Eisenhower campaigning in Laramie, Wyoming. It was just a bunch of guys standing around in suits and ties, and the street was full a cars, and there were parking meters even. Fucking parking meters!”

“So?”

“So I asked Daddy where was all the cowboys and horses and stuff. Laramie’s out West, understand? I’d been aiming to go out there someday, get me a start as a cowboy.”

“That’s cute.”

“Daddy said, ”Anymore, they ain’t got no cowboys. It’s just like here now. Cowboys was way back a

Posted at 8:00am in Stories