The Difference

He looked over the remains of everything they had tried to save. There was no school to teach the children, no house for the others to pray at, and no hall for them to run their lives. All those golden rabbits they had chased into the lives of the poor were failed. All those golden rabbits got away. Nothing but barren rock and walls of mud stood, from years of work and fighting.

The door creaked open behind him, and another man he didn't know walked in. He was dressed like himself and carried a basic rifle for his defense and the hopeful safety of this barren land. No move was made to greet this new acquaintance, but he sat down on the floor all the same, taking up with the other man in looking over the wasteland would-be paradise. They sat for a while in silence, occasionally hearing the clicks of gunfire in the distance, and once ducking for cover as a distant bullet became much closer.

Finally after the sun had set some more and the shadows began to contrast the golden light the other man spoke up, not directly to him, but there was nobody else to respond “I showed up to make peace. To make somebody's life better.”

He looked over at the newcomer and clenched his teeth. Past countless firefights and too many close calls with I.E.D.'s he still had the most trouble talking to others. He could keep his head in a firefight, but only if his mouth stayed shut. Whenever he let go, his jaw opened and he began to scream, he would start to cry and get shell shocked to the point that he had had to sit down under tables in the heat of combat; trying to just get a hold of himself, let alone the chaos around him.

And now he looked at this man he had never known, who he would only meet in the burning heat of this shelled out paradise. And with the most courage he had shown to date, he opened his mouth and spoke “I came here to save someone. I fought battles for the people I'll never meet.”

His domain collapsed in those two lines, what he worked for was pure and true, but it was to move a mountain over the Pacific. With all the time and all the care and determination he could try, but he could never win; never lift the last stones. He was unsure of the ground he walked forth on, but he still spoke more. “It can't be done can it....maybe by someone, but not by us two....I can work my life away, but this place will always be desolate.”

The new friend looked over at him in a soft voice that ushered confidence and the will to do something; even if it wasn't everything, he said “Thats the difference though, we are someone, and us two isn't everyone. There will be a someday, but it might not be today, or even in our lives however long they may last. And even if all you do is just talk with me here, you've only moved a pebble, but its a pebble that was lifted up and brought to a better place. Some will move boulders and others will cover miles in their life, but everyone will do something.”

Author's Note

I don't support war. I don't condone the loss of life. But I'm an adamant supporter of helping others, and if that means I have to pick up a gun, I'll be the first one down the line. And that's The Difference.