Author's note: The Last Post was copyrighted in 2016. It is a novel about the working class men who have fought America's wars and the rise of fascism in America. It prophesized the January 6th, 2020 march on Washington and the assault on the Capitol, and it is a story that we ignore at our own peril.
The Last Post
by Marcello Tino
The time is now. James Caleb Brown is at Arlington Cemetery amidst an army of white crucifixions. He is standing in front of the graves of his two best friends, Charlie Tremaine and Bob Sumner. In the background, he hears gunfire coming from the direction of the Capitol Building and the National Mall where supporters of the President have assembled. The President, whose supporters like to call him The Boss, recently lost the election, but he claims that it was fixed, and he has called on his supporters to march on Washington in his defense. They have come. They have come armed, thousands upon thousands of them, many of whom are veterans. Bases on the news that James Caleb Brown was receiving from his cell phone, one hundred thousand people are laying siege to the Capital, and the battle has begun.
How did we get to where we are now? It seemed to James Caleb Brown, who was called the Reverend by his friends because he was the post chaplain at the VFW, that with each war we have fought, we have become madder and madder, and, now, in an ultimate act of madness, we have turned against each other, and we are now at the threshold of a civil war. What have we done wrong? What is it that we have left unresolved? What have we lost or ignored? What is gnawing at our bones?
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