George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 98

George Bush’s Great America – Episode 97

In a dimly lit alley, where sunlight struggled to penetrate, an old man indulged in his tobacco pipe. Despite knowing the dangers of tobacco, he found that nothing quite soothed the anxieties of the world like alcohol and cigarettes.

While most people would settle for cheap cigarettes, the old man, nearing his 100th birthday, remained loyal to his pipe. He found that smoking a cigarette after enjoying his pipe made the cigarette taste like sugary garbage, so he insisted on the pipe.

The tobacco pipe was a simple, wooden piece, but even a novice could tell it was well-maintained.

He tapped the pipe a few times, dislodging a clump of residue. After refilling it with finely chopped tobacco leaves and lighting it, the secret to his long life turned into smoke, scattering in the wind.

The dead-end alley was usually quiet, punctuated only by the old man’s smoking, but it wasn’t always so. The alley was his domain, but it also belonged to the children.

“Oh, it’s Grandpa!”

“Grandpa, tell us a fun story!”

“Hurry!”

The children adored the old man. They loved the sweet, smoky scent of tropical fruit that seemed to emanate from him. It was a rare scent in tobacco, usually achieved through special flavoring, but this sweet aroma was a unique characteristic of certain Virginia blends.

The old man favored Virginia blends, which helped mask the stale odor that often accompanies aging. It wasn’t intentional, but he figured it was better for the children to like it than dislike it.

But what the children loved most were the ‘special stories’ that only the old man told, tales that other adults wouldn’t dare to share. Once, he even delivered a mischievous lecture on the birds and the bees [a euphemism for sex education] that rivaled a top-tier instructor, much to the chagrin of some parents.

But what did he care? Children had a right to know the world. These days, adults were too overprotective. Back in his day, kids knew everything by that age, and if the family was well-off, they were often already betrothed.

“Heh heh, you kids are so eager. Just wait a moment.”

The Story Grandpa rummaged through his mental storybook, considering various tales before settling on one.

‘That’s right! I feel like shit today, so this story will do just fine!’

“Do you know about the DDS?”

“Yes, we know!”

“Mommy said they’re the uncles who protect our city!”

“Heh heh, you little rascals are quite bold. DDS is Duterte’s henchman.”

“Henchman?”

“Heh heh, it means a real son of a bitch.”

“Wow!”

Children are truly innocent. Their sense of good and evil is still developing, and they simply crave exciting stories. Just look at the superhero stuff they enjoy these days. Isn’t it mostly about heroes bullying villains?

“The DDS started cracking down on criminal organizations they had been watching, when they had the chance. Just randomly, mind you. If you were involved, they’d start by filling up temporary detention centers. Though they were more like interrogation waiting rooms.”

Having said that, the old man took a few puffs of his cigarette. The children, intrigued, had asked him for a cigarette a few times, but no matter how wild the old man was, he wasn’t about to offer cigarettes to children, so he always refused.

“It hadn’t even been three days since it opened, but it was extremely unsanitary and teeming with disease. Well, it was a very unusual administrative process for the DDS, who would usually just start blasting away with guns when they saw a criminal. Once the screening process was over, they took them all to Duterte.

Some of them were innocent, but to Duterte, who was seeing red [enraged], they all looked like criminals. It’s truly ironic. The mayor they elected to protect their safety and lives was now threatening their safety and lives!

So they learned a lesson that became their blood and flesh, but they couldn’t use that lesson. Because it really became their blood and flesh!” [A dark joke implying they were killed.]

“Wow! How do you know those stories, Grandpa?”

“I was caught yesterday, you see. Those damn bastards. A 100-year-old geezer doing terrorism because he’s about to die? I can’t believe it.”

He shook the residue from his pipe, refilled it with fresh leaves, and lit it a few times with a lighter. He should have tamped it down with a rod, but he was too engrossed in the story to pay attention.

“Story’s over, over! Go away, you brats, go away.”

He took a deep breath of cigarette smoke and exhaled it forcefully, scattering the children. Still, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, running through the alleys as if they were the first to do so. Watching them, he felt like he was seeing his own childhood, and the savory tobacco tasted bitter.

“Cough, cough. Damn it. Still, I managed to get away.”

He hadn’t lived for 100 years for nothing. It didn’t take long to use all his connections to get out of there. It was just that the DDS guys treating him like a criminal bothered him a bit.

‘I thought I was caught!’

He wiped away the tears that had formed from the excessive cigarette smoke and chuckled heartily. It was clear that he was one of the main culprits behind the Davao explosion. However, unlike other indiscriminate explosions, what he did was more like insurance fraud than terrorism. So, the scale was relatively small compared to other explosions, only blowing up a house.

‘Who would think that someone blew up their own house? Right?’

He had joined Al-Qaeda around his 80s. To be exact, it was the Mujahideen [Islamic guerrilla fighters] back then. He was better at using his head than doing physical labor or fighting on the front lines, so he served as an officer. After the Afghan civil war, he returned to the Philippines without anyone knowing.

And for now, he became affiliated with Al-Qaeda. To be precise, he had ties and affiliations in many places, so it was quite a stretch to say he was only affiliated with Al-Qaeda; ‘He was also affiliated with Al-Qaeda’ would be more accurate.

‘Al-Qaeda is changing.’

Al-Qaeda, which had been a scattered network of cells, was recently becoming more professionally organized. Even the protection of its members, which had been a mere pretense, was starting to work properly. I guess they usually call this protection money?

Who cares? He didn’t even know how many days he had left in his life, so he would just enjoy it as much as he could. The old man had no family. Instead, he had a healthy body and a positive, clear mind that allowed him to live alone.

“Yesterday, Duterte’s henchman came to catch me, and today, Al-Qaeda’s henchman has arrived. What brings you here?”

The old man blew out cigarette smoke again, obscuring the vision of the man who had approached him carelessly.

“Cough! Cough! Damn it! Please watch your language. Are you trying to kill someone?”

The man was a company employee who had been grumbling about Duterte’s face plastered all over the newspaper.

“There aren’t any people around here, so it’s okay. Take a look around. What do these look like?”

“Buildings?”

“Yes, buildings. And abandoned houses where people have disappeared for the past five years.”

The old man puffed on his pipe three or four times, fully savoring the nutty flavor that rose from the tip of his tongue and traveled through his nerves.

“So, why did you come?”

“Sir, our organization suspects you.”

“Then turn it back on them. Tell them how a 100-year-old geezer could drag that heavy bomb all the way to the city.”

“They don’t seem to care about that. Besides, one of the organization’s men was caught, and so far, you’re the only one who’s been caught. They also suspect your faith.”

“Why?”

“Because of what you’re smoking so diligently right now.”

The old man twitched his eyebrows a few times and then spoke logically as if he had come to his senses.

“Damn it, you stupid bastards. So, you want me to leave the organization? How many times have I helped with my connections! You moronic idiots!”

Did he say logically? Isn’t it true that the concept of logic always changes like a kaleidoscope depending on the observer’s point of view? At least in the old man’s mind, it couldn’t be more logical than this.

Having spewed out as much logic as his lungs would allow, the old man fidgeted with his pipe nervously. The warmth rising from the pipe’s entrance felt irritating for some reason today. He flicked the flint on the lighter a few times to light the pipe, but the worn-out lighter only spat out flashy sparks.

“Damn it. Out of gas. Do you have a lighter?”

The company employee rummaged through his pocket and held out a golden Zippo lighter. Even though it was golden, it wasn’t pure gold; it was just a very thin plating. If he had his way, he would have wanted a lighter made of pure gold instead of plating, but his budget wouldn’t allow it.

“A Zippo lighter?”

The old man frowned deeply as he looked at the Zippo lighter the company employee held out.

“Zippo lighters taste like gasoline.”

“Then you won’t use it?”

The old man grumbled a few times, then sucked on his pipe and used the Zippo lighter to light the tobacco a few times. As expected, it tasted like gasoline, ruining the tobacco flavor. He had no choice but to smoke it, but what value was there in pipe tobacco that had its deliciousness taken away? Still, after inhaling four or five times, the flavor returned.

“Who cares? Aren’t you thinking something similar?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t think I’ve lived my age for nothing. The you I know has a stronger sense of self-love than anyone else. Wasn’t the reason you joined Al-Qaeda to avoid useless conflicts? Because it’s easier to have a foot in many places, even if it costs a bit of money.”

“How did you know that, sir?”

Before he knew it, the company employee’s title for the old man had changed from ‘old man’ to ‘sir.’ Moreover, if there was a reason why he admitted it so readily, it was because he had come to this old man for advice in the first place.

“I’m living a similar life. I didn’t think I’d live this long, so I’ve been running out of money this year.”

So, he even committed insurance fraud with a bomb. The result was successful, but he didn’t know how long this luck would last. Moreover, if Al-Qaeda was suspecting the old man, he knew better than anyone that it wouldn’t end with just suspicion.

The old man was troubled about what to do with the pitiful young man who was hovering in front of him. He was concerned about the young man in front of him if he were to screw over Al-Qaeda as it was. At this rate, he would become a scapegoat in place of the escaped old man.

“Duterte hates drugs so much, right?”

“Yes, well, that’s right. When it comes to drugs, his eyes roll back and he’s killing everyone. He’s even shot and killed them himself a few times, they say.”

For smokers, tobacco is thought. The old man realized that this was his last breath. Therefore, this was the last time he could handle this 100-year-old deep thought with this breath. The tobacco leaves had also run out, so the old man could no longer smoke his pipe.

“But why?”

“You, let’s draw a big picture together.”