Menolyrical; Final Friday Fiction

A new 'badge' for this year's challenge posts. I am also going to give you something different each month this year, rather than a serial (Hindertwig did take on a life of its own, didn't it?!)

This month, in response to a query, I suggested that one could search Google Books (or any other online equivalent) for a page 87. As an example, I simply typed in "War and Peace page 87" and got a very unexpected and (one couldn't help think) pertinent return...

American War & Peace Cycles; 1686 to Present by Dennis J Foley. (I kid you not.)
 8 - Treaty
12 - Surrender
16 - Civil

There it was, every brick representing a drop of blood, of sweat, or a tear. The treaty had failed and it was deemed ‘the solution’. It was considered that there were no other options.

What was it about these leaders that they could see nothing but a total surrender of rights by the Opposition as the way forward? Surely they had not forgotten what it was to be civil towards others? Or perhaps they had. So set in their views, so determined that the Opposition was an enemy, they could not see the potential for friendship, for growth, for exchange and empowerment.  

Yes, that might mean surrendering something on our side, but what was wrong with that? Compromise is what lays the path to better things. There may be loss, but there is more gain.

Yet. There it was, with its bricks of blood and sweat and tears. The blood of those who ripped their skin on them (never give up trying), the sweat of those who layered them up (it pays, so what?), the tears of those divided by its presence.

Never mind though. There’s always the ocean…

(188 words)

© YAM 2019