When Andrew finally got up the courage to call Solomon a few months later, he\u2019d found that his old friend was quite amenable to meeting somewhere for a drink. And so it was that Solomon Becker, no longer the kid Andrew had once known, entered Riley\u2019s Bar with a baseball cap jammed over his forehead. He wore sunglasses inside even though it was dark out. When he took the glasses off, Andrew saw that his pupils were dilated like he\u2019d just had an eye exam.<\/p>\n
They ordered cheap beers and whiskey sours and even, on the bartender\u2019s recommendation, a few old fashioneds, which Andrew had only ever seen in old movies. When they first began to drink, they spoke of nothing at all, or at least nothing of consequence. Andrew noticed that Solomon had developed a habit of speaking and smiling in a way that covered his teeth. The brief glimpses Andrew saw of Solomon\u2019s mouth showed that his teeth had more deeply yellowed and that one or more of the back molars may in fact have gone missing. It was hard to tell.<\/p>\n
As they spoke, Solomon made a reference to a year he\u2019d spent in prison, as though this were common knowledge. Andrew tilted his head in confusion, his forehead wrinkled. \u201cAm I hearing you correctly?\u201d Andrew said. \u201cYou\u2019re saying prison?\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon laughed thinly. \u201cSomebody tried to steal from me so I beat them up. It was pretty bad. I don\u2019t know. But now I\u2019m out. And that\u2019s pretty much it.\u201d Solomon seemed reticent to speak of it anymore, instead pointing to the tiny fake Christmas tree at the end of the bar decorated in colored lights and silver garland, still here even though it had just turned to February.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that Christmas tree. If you\u2019d decorated it with all white lights, I\u2019d have known you were with the government.\u201d The bartender laughed just the once, but then looked to Andrew as though he might be able to clarify\u2014but they shared each other\u2019s cluelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk to Naomi these days?\u201d Andrew said to Solomon. \u201cI heard she moved to New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s free to do what she likes. I can say nothing ties me to her anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s your sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly in certain narrow definitions of the term. Only in ways intended to drag down and confine. In a truer sense, I have no family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon shared with Andrew a series of beliefs he held: how every airline in America was conspiring to envelop the country every hour of every day with streams of mystery chemicals flowing from their wingtips; of Jade Helm 15, a supposedly above-board military training operation for twelve-hundred U.S. soldiers but which was actually a front for a hostile takeover from the government. There would have been a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when all of this would have struck Andrew immediately as complete and utter bullshit. But his conversations with Big Boy had shifted things in his mind. And he had seen enough in the Army\u2014the curtain had been pulled back just enough on the bureaucracy of America, a glimpse into how messed up everything was at the highest level. How orders were sometimes made up and supported by all involved despite having been based on the foundation of a lie. How the entire system was built around protecting the guy at the top. It was clear that the government would happily kill men and women and children for a lie. Andrew figured: a conspiracy theory is only crazy if the conspiracy isn\u2019t real.<\/p>\n
Solomon drew with a black-capped pen on a cocktail napkin the name ANDREW COOK. \u201cThis is your legal name, right?\u201d Solomon shook his head. \u201cThat\u2019s the fake you.\u201d Seeing Andrew\u2019s confusion, he continued. \u201cI\u2019ve been learning so much lately. The government, the federal government, has trillions of dollars in foreign debt, right? A lot to China, a lot to other places. This we can agree on, right? We\u2019re all fucked. There\u2019s no way the government will be able to pay all that money back while staying in a position of world power. And so what they do is, they sell the citizens of this supposedly great nation into economic slavery. And the way they do that is by selling our name, our identification. This\u201d\u2014he tapped with his middle finger Andrew\u2019s name he\u2019d written on the napkin\u2014\u201cis a representation of the Andrew Cook they\u2019ve sold as collateral against their debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew was confused and said as much.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know your birth certificate, right?\u201d Solomon said. \u201cAnything like that, any sort of contract with the federal government\u2014driver\u2019s license, permits, even your zip code. These are all examples of the tightening noose around your neck. And on these official forms, you always see your name in all caps like that: ANDREW COOK. That means they\u2019re talking about your straw man, the fake you they made up and sold based on what they think your earning power might be. To get out of all this debt. Because as I say, they\u2019re screwed. So that means that this\u201d\u2014he produced from his pocket a second pen with red ink and wrote beneath Andrew\u2019s name the words: an-drew: cook<\/em>\u2014\u201cis the real you. I mean this in a legal sense. When you sign this on a document instead of your government name, you\u2019re essentially telling them: up yours, I know what you\u2019re up to and I want no part of it. I opt out. It\u2019s a way to differentiate yourself from the straw man. an-drew. Of the family Cook. Are you starting to see? Are you starting to get it?\u201d<\/p>\n It made a certain kind of sense to Andrew, he supposed. He could make out a world in which this was the case, though he wasn\u2019t sure it was the one they actually lived in.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is real,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cIt\u2019s the truth. I\u2019ve devoted my life to this. Once you see that, everything else is going to slip right into place. It took me some time to get around to accepting it. But that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to do. You\u2019ve got to just accept it. It\u2019s the first step to harness the power of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe universe?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe power of the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the hell are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou know I\u2019m a warlock. A magus.\u201d Solomon said this as though confiding in Andrew that he\u2019d taken up bowling as a hobby.<\/p>\n Andrew paused. He nearly laughed but stopped himself. \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d He pictured incantations and long drooping sleeves, of magic wands and spells.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about controlling your own power. It\u2019s about asserting that power over others. You can think of a judge as a magus. Every cop you\u2019ve ever met is a magus. There\u2019s nothing that can stand in your way when you realize the power of consciousness.\u201d Solomon finished the last of his drink. \u201cYou think this is bullshit. Well, you know what? Just because I like you? I\u2019m going to show you the cosmic power of the mind. I\u2019m going to make things happen for you in a way they never have before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, gosh. Thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re being sarcastic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re very perceptive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou just go ahead and laugh it up. You go ahead and make fun. But just wait and see what happens. See if the universe doesn\u2019t open itself up to you in a big way soon.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few days later, as though compelled by an invisible force, Amos Brainerd called. Andrew hadn\u2019t seen him since Iraq\u2014had even forgotten that everybody used to call him Big Boy. The call felt like a sign from God.<\/p>\n \u201cYou remember that project I was telling you about? It got a little sidetracked but I\u2019m back on schedule now. Getting the whole gang back together. There\u2019s a real community here. There aren\u2019t many who will stand with us. But I think you might. I think you should. I would pay top dollar for a good man like you, Shortbread. I mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew felt the allure, said he was interested. He thought of Solomon, of his interest in these sorts of things, and asked if Big Boy would consider additional recruits.<\/p>\n \u201cI trust you,\u201d Big Boy said. \u201cIf you think so, I believe it. The more the merrier. Bring him along. All we\u2019re looking for are willing souls.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a willing soul,\u201d Andrew said. \u201cA kindred spirit, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCollectively, we\u2019ve got more figured out than you and I ever have in our entire lives, brother,\u201d Big Boy said. \u201cI\u2019m telling you. This is the thing you\u2019ve been looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew thought about the proposition a great deal over the next several days, turning it over and over in his mind until it gained traction, like rolling a snowball down a hill. The concept of moving out west did appeal to some part of him, a part he was barely cognizant of, the part that wanted to tame a wild stallion or eat bull testicles.<\/p>\n Andrew realized he\u2019d acquired a peace about the whole thing. He called Solomon the next day and explained everything. Said he was going to leave soon, but that Solomon was welcome to think on it for a couple days\u2014but Solomon accepted without hesitation. He said he had nothing to keep him here anymore; nothing at all. They left the next morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As they spoke, Solomon made a reference to a year he\u2019d spent in prison, as though this were common knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-austin-ross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18765,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions\/18765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}