A Conversation About the Gradual Collapse of Civilization

Old Friend and his husband, Lonnie, stood on a hilltop not far from Old Friend's family farm, looking out with binoculars towards various surrounding towns. It was nighttime, and it was one of those translucent blue nights where you imagine things are as clear as daytime, but for a tint of the lens. So Lonnie was shook with fear and anger when he saw, through the binoculars, that there were no lights on in any of the towns. Old Friend didn't care to look; "It doesn't matter to me to see," he said to Lonnie when the latter requested the viewing excursion, "but I'm happy to go with you."

So here, now, Lonnie spied, shook, and took the binoculars from his eyes. "The thing that makes me angriest," he said, staring in the same direction that he had looked with the binoculars, "is that Newt somehow escapes like a fiend right as everything goes to Hell."

"Why should that make you angry?" Old Friend asked. Old Friend wore a wool jacket, though Lonnie wore shirtsleeves alone. Old Friend got cold more easily.

"He always gets away. Like a fiend. Always."

"He lost his speakership."

"But he still had people paying attention to him for god knows how long."

"Not like he did before."

"Why do you always protect him?" Lonnie said, finally turning to look at Old Friend.

Old Friend looked down at Lonnie and smiled his general gentle smile. "We've been having this argument for decades."

"But why?!" Lonnie assumed the position of a cartoon character who might jump excitedly upside down.

"Politics for some people is actually a job," Old Friend said. "It's not the real person. It's a job. I happen to believe quite strongly that the Newt you hate is a job, and then there's Real Newt. And Real Newt loves me and loves you and is a kind man."

Lonnie looked out at the towns through the binoculars, and still just saw darkened buildings and houses and blueness. "Well, he did a shitty job," he said, and Old Friend laughed, clapped his hands, and said that it was time to go back inside.