Chapter 10

“So, what is it to be done with the prisoners? These aren’t situations envisioned very well by the Hague or Geneva Conventions, neither of which have been ratified by the Commandant on our side or the Imperial Wizard on his. Not, mind you, that there is any quarter given much of late. Or asked, for that matter. Kluckers are only surrendering when wounded like those chaps over there,” Doctor Anne Thorpe, our very British chief surgeon, inquired.

“Beats me. I do know that my ex-wife is among the civilians caught in that mess. That’s a real helluva mess,” I scoffed while kicking back with some hot tea offered in the English manner, with milk and sugar, by Dr. Thorpe after a lull settled in the fighting due to inclement weather.

I suspected that the Klansmen had mechanical problems with their military hardware due to the storm and didn’t wish to ruin any of their gear. They were just down to about half of their prior manpower, likely just about three thousand or so men. Plus, they probably didn’t want their hoods and robes to mildew.

“Your ex-wife? I knew that you were engaged, darling, but not that you were divorced. Was it because you liked to bed your doctors, love?” Anne winked at me, clearly thinking of our little tryst the night before.

“If you’re asking whether or not it’s because I cheated, the answer is no. Prior to, well, more recent chapters of my life, I was raised up to believe in monogamy. I don’t anymore, but I did back then, so whatever urges I had, I chose to keep it in my pants. Hell, I used to believe in Christ. I haven’t believed in him for a good while now. Being sent to prison for a victimless crime will do that to a guy.

“Nothing changes a man as profoundly as prison. I can promise you that much. Being divorced, abandoned, and betrayed by a spouse does that to a man, too. Megan simply left me to save her own share of the assets from seizure and promptly married her own boss. Clifford. What a fucking douche!

“Care to guess how she got caught up in this maelstrom? Yep, she followed her hubby to the camp. Literally became a camp follower for the Ku Klux Klan. Talk about stupidity! It could well lead her straight to DC and you know it. Hubby evidently got killed in action, along with about half of those motherfuckers. Good riddance, Cliff.

“She’s pregnant, by the way. Could be his, though she admitted to cheating on him and being pimped out by him now and then. I won’t judge her for that, just for leaving me when I needed her most, for being such a cold fish in bed and elsewhere when we were together. Maybe she’s softened up a bit since. Who knows?

“And most of all, I judge her for staying with an avowed racist and becoming a camp whore for the fucking KKK. That’s seriously low standards, not the whoring part, but the involvement with those hooded assholes. Wouldn’t you agree?” I informed Anne, who shrugged and then gave me a very warm and loving kiss on the lips, even using some tongue.

“Well, from what I’ve seen of this country in the past year or so since joining your medical staff, I would have to say that the Klan represents everything wrong about the States and precious few right things. Am I right to believe and understand that it was, in fact, America’s first domestic terrorist organization?” Anne asked as we drank our tea and ogled each other.

“You could very well say that. A Congress that had more backbone back in the day, with the full blessing of then President Ulysses S. Grant, banned that bunch of hooded pricks for a time. That was during the notorious Reconstruction Era, which was more good than many Lost Cause sympathizers care to admit.

“I strongly suspect that Colonel Lomax’s thinking is informed by his descent from Virginia Unionists prior to West Virginia’s formation. We’re both Mountaineers by birth and that’s a state formed for its Unionist leanings in opposition to the slaveholding planters east of the mountains. After all, most mountain men were too poor to own slaves. Our vice was moonshine, not chattel.

“My own ancestors fought for both sides, actually. On my mother’s side, two of three brothers fought for the South, one for the North. Then there were two sisters, one of whom married a Confederate artilleryman, one a Union cavalryman. On my father’s side, two brothers went blue, one went gray. One sister married a Union officer, the other a Confederate sergeant.

“West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee, were classic examples of the old ‘brother vs. brother’ trope, if you will. I wish that I could say that it’s not being repeated, but we all know that it is. In real time. While the majority sentiments were all Unionist, that didn’t prevent a significant minority favoring the Confederacy.

“But yeah, the Klan? Fuck those motherfuckers and damn them all to Hell, if it exists, which I doubt. I suppose that I’m just too jaded and cynical from five years in federal prison to ever imagine that there’s any kind of moral justice to the Cosmos at all. At least none that we don’t make for ourselves. If you want justice, you have to see to it personally. Frankly, I’m an atheist or at least an agnostic these days,” I confessed my rather unpopular infidel ways.

“If there were Gods, which would you prefer?” Anne teased me.

“Any but the Abrahamic type. Greek, Hindu, Norse, Roman, Celtic, Egyptian, even Aztec, would be better than Christ. I’d even take Ahura-Mazda, the Zoroastrian God, over Christ or Allah or Jehovah. I’m a bit jaundiced about divine beings due to my own rather miserable past. But at least the pagan or heathen Gods would have to work with and consult each other, so that would make some sense about delays in justice. It would have to get out of committee first, right?” I laughed now.

“Well, I’m an Anglican, but I won’t hold that against you if you won’t hold my membership in the Church of England against me,” Anne winked at me now, “to think, I briefly considered life in the clergy. I had thoughts of becoming a vicar someday. Then I saw how much more human pain and suffering I could ease, heal, and treat as a doctor than as a priest.”

“At least you can honestly say that you were born into it. Christened, too, I believe. The Church of England seems to be the default setting for most Brits. Unless you specifically adhere to something else, you’re automatically Anglican. A bit like being Catholic in Spain or Mexico, I suppose. Or Buddhist in Vietnam or Thailand, places like that. Or Muslim in Egypt or Jordan or someplace like that. Or Hindu in India. Or Jewish in Israel. You just plain get it with mother’s milk, don’t you?” I observed.