Blast from the Past: Flowers in Basra, April 2003

[Plaid Adder]

I was going through the journal I kept during the first year of the war (@#$!! I can't believe there's a "first year" now) and I came across this entry from April 8, 2003. It was inspired by my hearing on the news that a little girl in Basra had presented an American soldiers with a bunch of flowers. I'm posting it here now because it seems to me to have become relevant in horrible new ways all of a sudden.
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April 8, 2003

Woke up with this in my head:

--We need flowers.
--What for?
--They want flowers. I don't know why.
--Flowers?
--What are they going to do with flowers?
--I don't know. It's important to them. Is your garden still--
--No water for two weeks in this heat and you're asking for flowers?
--What is it now? What do they want now?
--Flowers.
--Oh my God, oh my God.
--Are you sure it was flowers? The translator wasn't--
--Oh my God, oh my God, they'll kill us all.
--Please. It wasn't the translator. I saw it on the screen.
--They didn't say they want flowers?
--No, but they do.
--How do you know? You don't speak--
--I was watching with the doctor, he told me. He understands them.
--We should ask the translator. If the doctor made a mistake--
--No. We don't ask. That's the whole point. They don't know we know they want them.
--If you give them flowers and they don't want them they'll kill us all.
--Why don't we ask? To make sure?
--If they know we know they want them it won't work.
--You have lost your mind.
--Listen--
--You have lost your mind and now you think we can give them flowers and--
--It's nonsensical. A mistake. Flowers? What could they do with them?
--Listen, will someone just find the grocer and ask him--
--He is dead. God, you don't--
--I'm sorry. I forgot. He was alive yesterday.
--Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
--Someone take him out of here. Listen. It was a show they made for their own kind. They don't know we can see it. It's a secret.
--Then when they find we know it they'll kill us all.
--No. Not a secret. It's...I don't know. They want flowers.
--Then they should tell us--
--or just take. Take, why not, who can stop them?
--That's the point of the flowers.
--What? What? Did you hear--did you hear--
--It's nothing. An overflight. The point is they can't take the flowers. We have to give them.
--Crazy. They can take anything.
--Has anybody got a garden that still has flowers in it?
--Why flowers?
--Does anyone still have a bunch in a vase on a table--
--Does anyone still have a table?
--Be serious. If the gardens have died and the markets--
--Nobody comes to the market.
--I know. If the markets are dead, then isn't there anything growing wild?
--But why flowers?
--I don't know. They expect it.
--There's more shade out by the bombed school, some of the garden is still growing.
--They expect it?
--It's what they came for.
--They why don't they tell us?
--That's what they came for. To make us guess.
--Are they mad?
--Of course they're mad!
--What about these?
--Oh God. Oh God.
--But you did say flowers--
--Yes. They'll do. Oh God.
--Who's going to give them--
--Don't look here. I'm not ready to die.
--Oh God. These are the only flowers you found?
--Does it matter what kind?
--No. No, not to them.
--A little girl, that's safest.
--Yes, that's safest.
--Not my girl, for damn sure.
--I will do it.
--But is your mother--
--She doesn't hear any more, she doesn't talk, I can't ask.
--You are sure they want flowers.
--Yes.
--Not something else.
--Yes.
--All right, go then. Walk slowly. Hold them like this. Smile.
--Yes, like that. Exactly like that.
--The smile! Her mother should see her.
--Slowly. And keep your hands still.
--Why flowers?
--I dont' know. It's important.
--There! She is coming back.
--Oh God, oh God.
--You're a brave girl. You're a good girl. We'll tell your mother when she's feeling better.
--What did they say? What did they say?
--I don't know. They smiled.
--That's good, isn't it?
--Yes.
--Will they leave now?
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Yes, they will leave now, if their leaders have ANY GODDAMN SENSE!

But what are the odds,

The Plaid Adder