“cough – Let me light a new cigarette, this one is fading faster than poor Gibil. So, you’ve seen it right, the new world order eh? Heh heh heh. Oh yes, times have changed and discipline is the watchword. Gibil has a natural tendency towards chaos; but he does what he can under the circumstances. Sorry my friend, I will stand to your side so my smoke does not blow in your face. You youngsters these days; a bit of smoke and soot and you’re up in arms. Not like in Gibil’s day; fire and smoke made a proper mess back then.”
“My work for the evening is almost finished. They brought in another soldier, knocked out he was – a big fella too with a tattered face. Took him up to the shed the poor man. Still, whatever he did I’m sure he deserves what is coming eh? Heh heh heh. Now, now, don’t think Gibil is a horrible man who doesn’t care for the suffering of others; that would be most untrue! But some things must be and some actions must happen for an equal action to happen. That is science my friend, that is the way of the world.”
“You cannot beat the world my friend, many have tried and every one of them fails. Once in a different place I remember a village that tried to do things different. Not the same as everyone else; they tried to ignore science and the world and the world answered them back with a great flood. It wiped out their fields, their animals and their homes. Nothing remained a good clean up. Heh he- cough.”
“People eh? They all think they are different, that if they do it something else might happen. Oh Gibil has seen them come and go; my father cleaned their mess and fuss and I clean this generation’s. It is always the same; people repeat what other people have done and the same results happen; a fuss and then a flood. The flood cleans all eventually and not even a brave king can hold his hand up to the tide and make it stop.”
“Yes my friend, the new often is the old dressed in new clothes but Gibil sees through them. They never change, they always wants more and demand better things. But things are inevitable. They cannot be stopped or challenged, not matter how hard you punch or sweep. It is not the way of this Earth. What we do has an end and then it starts all over again. Take this cigarette; it is done and now I light a new one heh heh heh.”
“Men follow men follow men. And men follow what they want and need. And everything ends up in the same place every time. Kinda stupid if you ask Gibil, but nobody ever does, heh. The Officer used to have men following him and now those men are dead. He feels responsible but now has to follow other men. This, my friend, seems out of whack does it not? Responsibility doesn’t just go away over night; otherwise who would have children? HEH he- cough. Serves Gibil right; but I like to smoke and I am an old man. My hearing is not what it used to be, speak up. Oh? Is everything futile you ask? What a question to ask an old man. Oh!”
“Some people believe life is a circle, when you die you start again. Something like that when you go, you go to the best place you could imagine. Or the worst in Gibil’s case, heh heh heh. Where you go is not the point, it is what you do when you are here that counts. Trust me, we Gibils have seen many lives; things are not so different now than they ever have been. Just better television and cars, but people are still people, they do what they do and waste their time on horseback carrying big lances and chasing imaginary giants. Gibil can only shrug. He does not know if things are futile but there is a lot of worth in life my friend. You only get so much before it is taken away. Live a little, eh? See the World.”
To Chapter Fifty-Seven – The Gifts of Enki
The Angry Farmer 