{"id":24002,"date":"2026-04-19T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/?p=24002"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:28:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:28:49","slug":"marching-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/flash-fiction\/marching-orders\/","title":{"rendered":"Marching Orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Aldous spears a meatball from his plate he smells the spaghetti-breath of his old drill instructor. You\u2019re a fuckup, Harris!<\/em> What are you?<\/em> Across the table, Al\u2019s father Charlie is twirling pasta onto his fork and trying to get it past his sauce-red lips before it falls back to the table.<\/p>\n

Not that Al notices; he\u2019s back on the parade ground. I am not a fuckup!<\/em> The drill instructor pulling him out of the line, making him march by himself. Across the field and back, the others doing pushups while they wait, hating Al and the drill sergeant both.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Charlie\u2019s fighting his own battle. \u201cGet me a knife,\u201d he orders. Long strands of spaghetti slide off his fork and splash half-on, half-off the edge of his plate. His son\u2019s got to be good for something.<\/p>\n

Al says, \u201cThe drawer too far for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the field and back in a straight line, nothing wrong with the way Private Harris marches, no sir. Until he\u2019s back in formation, until he\u2019s the only one whose polio-twisted hip hitches as he lifts his knees high. What the fuck is wrong with you, Harris?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnkle\u2019s swollen.\u201d Charlie attacks his spaghetti with the side of his fork, then sighs. He\u2019s always told his boys, If at first you don\u2019t succeed, say to hell with it and give up.<\/em> He needs a goddamn knife. But his ankle\u2019s been hurting him since 1939, since the night before he was due to ship out with his buddies. It wasn\u2019t even his fault; he was only a little bit drunk when the car slammed his motorbike into a brick wall.<\/p>\n

Al shoves his chair back from Charlie\u2019s kitchen table, letting the chair\u2019s feet screech across the linoleum. He stalks to the utensil drawer. Strides back again, only a slight twinge in his hip. Nothing wrong with the way he marches. I am not a fuckup, sir!<\/em> Lets the knife clatter to the table and drops himself back onto his chair.<\/p>\n

Charlie cuts his spaghetti into inch-long pieces. Much easier to shovel into his mouth. Much easier to sit back and let somebody else do the marching. Take the desk job, watch the war from behind a telegraph machine. Deliver the messages to somebody else\u2019s family. I regret to inform you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Al stabs another meatball and chews. I am not a fuckup.<\/em> His old man is quiet now that he\u2019s got his knife. Al clears his plate and watches Charlie eat. Short strands of spaghetti laid out all in a line on Charlie\u2019s plate, ready to march straight into the maw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s always told his boys, If at first you don\u2019t succeed, say to hell with it and give up. He needs a goddamn knife. But his ankle\u2019s been hurting him since 1939, since the night before he was due to ship out. It wasn\u2019t even his fault; he was only a little bit drunk when the car slammed his motorbike into a brick wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":24968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3530],"tags":[1888],"class_list":["post-24002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","tag-military","writer-linda-m-bayley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002","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\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24002"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24971,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24002\/revisions\/24971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}