Grace
Chapter 54: The Book of Snake.
Morning. Vet, ready for work, prepares his dress uniform for later.
Grace, ready for work, comes from the kitchen with coffee.
Grace
I made coffee.
Vet
Where’s the kid?
Grace
Gone for a walk, I guess.
(Rest)
That gives us some time—
She hugs him romantically. He pulls away.
Vet
Don’t. I’ve gotta go down there, make sure things are set up, and then come back here and get dressed. I can’t be late today, huh? Hurry up if you want a ride in.
Vet exits.
Grace
I’ll leave the door open for him.
Vet
Don’t worry about him. Come on.
Grace exits. Hours pass.
Around noon, Snake enters, whistling a tune.
He carries a nice shopping bag from his recent expedition.
After making sure the coast is clear, he deposits the bag’s contents in the bedroom. He returns to the living room.
Taking his phone out of his pocket, he records himself as he speaks.
Snake
The Book of Snake, Chapter One.
He stops recording. Deletes. Starts over.
Snake
The Book of Snake, Chapter One.
(Rest)
The Book of Snake, as told to you by Snake himself, coming to you recorded from—from the grounds of my training compound. And to be broadcast throughout the world in the fullness of time. Ok.
(Rest)
Three Strikes. He’s got Three Strikes against him. Three Strikes and now he’s out.
(Rest)
You’re probably at a similar place in your life. That’s why you’re watching this. You’re probably watching this and wondering what to do. Like me you’ve done good, or if not all good, then you’ve done as good as you could. As good as you could within the confines of his rules. Living, if you want to call it that, bowing, stooping, scraping, crawling, working, just to get by, just to make ends meet. Punching his clock. On his time. We gave him a chance, didn’t we? We’ve been trying to work within his rules, haven’t we? More or less, right? More or less.
(Rest)
Trying to work within some rules made by a man. Made by, made by “The Man.” His clock. His rules. His order of things. His system. And guess what: his system don’t work for us.
(Rest)
Evidence of good: None. Evidence of bad: Strike One. Strike One is a crime in his past. A crime that he will not even admit to. An unspeakable series of crimes made against our person. We have given him every opportunity to admit his crimes, but he has chosen to ignore said opportunities. And so he has earned Strike One.
(Rest)
Evidence of bad: Strike Two. Strike Two happened in the past and continues happening in the present. Strike Two involves both the past and current female members of the family unit which he beat down in the past and now, even with this fairly new member, continues the beating down and doesn’t see anything wrong with it. So Strike Two.
(Rest)
The Man, he likes to promise you something better. I’m telling you you’re a fool for wanting his better. Take his better like a trained dog, take his hand, take his handshake, live your life in the palm of his hand, and for what? So that when he makes a fist he can just crush you?
(Rest)
His systems and his rules and his laws, they aren’t for you. They’re for him. And the day has come for us to start wiping them out.
(Rest)
More evidence of bad things: Strike Three. He’s not content to beat down your past, he’s not content with beating down your present, that’s right, he wants to beat down your future too, doesn’t he? The Man was promising us something better, right? He was promising us some golden castle where we could, where we could eat ice cream every day, or whatever. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve heard his promises. All about what he’s going to do for you. But he never does anything. He’s got a carrot on a stick and he’s just holding it out there in front of your face, just holding it out there, just holding it out there, he’s a big man, promising you stuff, but one day you get it: he’s not holding it out there for you, he’s just holding out. And he’s always going to be holding out on you. He doesn’t got anything for you. He doesn’t want you to succeed. He wants you to fail. And fail big. He wants to spin your good into bad. He wants to leave you with nothing, all broken and sad. He wants you to follow in his footsteps so he can feel big, but in the end, I’m telling you, he wants you jobless, homeless and hopeless; rejected, neglected and disrespected. You know what I’m talking about. So Strike Three.
He opens his footlocker, taking out a hand grenade.
Snake
Maybe you, like me, Served. Maybe you like me had a mother and a house. Maybe you lost it all. And when you cried out to The Man he turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. Blind and deaf to you. Not wanting to have shit to do with you. Figuring we’ll just dry up and blow away. Come again another day. Go away and come back tomorrow. Well tomorrow is now. And we are not going to blow away. Instead, we are going to blow him away.
He hears Grace coming home. Quickly locking up his trunk, he takes his phone and grenade, heading through the backdoor and into the backyard.
Grace, on the porch, looking through her most recent notes.
Choosing what she’d like to add to her Book.
Snake
The Man likes keeping Us down. The Man has dug a hole for you, a hole in your yard with your name on it, and it’s up to you to do something about that. Take some kind of action. He had his chances but he struck out. Strike One, Strike Two, Strike Three. 3-2-1-Boom.
Entering the house, Grace checks to see that the coast is clear.
She takes out her Book and transfers notes from her waitress pad.
In the backyard, Snake is holding his grenade up to his phone. He continues recording.
Snake
Now we will strike. And when we strike against The Man, striking him at his Ceremony, we will be careful, we will be smart. And after we’ve struck him, and after we’ve wiped him out, we will escape. We will move on. To the next target. He’s just the first of many. He’s got it coming to him. He’s got it coming. The push-back starts here. We gotta rise up. And I’m gonna lead the way. Snake. Snake. Snake will rise up and lead “We the people.” Do not tread on me. Cause I will take you down.
(Rest)
(Rest)
The Book of Snake will continue. More later. Stay tuned.