BENEFICIARIES

WE ENLIST AND GO PATRIOTIC to serve and protect the general public, to be all we can be for the benefit of self, family, and our nation. In doing so we are obligated to leave our own home and family and to sign away parental right of authority to a chosen guardian, for a however permanent or temporary term. That requirement is considered to be "BY LAW" of the military enlistment contract, signing care of minor children... children under the age of eighteen, for control of their accessing education, food, housing, and general welfare. We sign and choose well from what resources are available to us. Until that consigned enlistment contract ends we owe trust to that selected guardian and expect that they will do well by our beneficiaries. Weekend Warriors... National Guard, are now included in active duty military performance overseas.

In the beginning, NATIONAL GUARD and COAST GUARD were originally assigned "in-state" military duties under the guise of the particular state in which they aligned enlistment. They were required to perform monthly weekend assemblies after initial training with other military enlistees from the spectrum of military affairs. They were to respond to calls to mobilization to protect the home front, not for duty overseas. This arrangement permitted serving one's nation while serving home and family thereby maintaining a personal level of self-respect and patriotic duty. They were what was once termed "MINUTEMEN." Now, since the upset of the KUWAIT WAR and its expansion into DESERT STORM, every flank of America's military is pushed to the brink in remobilization to overseas duties in a repeat cycle sworn not to relent. While each states' National Guardsmen remained on the homefront for the preservation of community, home, and family; active military and reserve military were to fill a quota for overseas incidents... including peace-keeping where necessary. Enlistees to those entities signed on with full intent of departure from close access to family. While they were prompted to complete documents that assigned caretaker rights for their children and property to someone else in their absence while away performing military obligations, they preplanned the extent of their enlistment contract with that stipulation in mind. Weekend Warrior or National Guards on the other hand did not originally plan to need an assigned guardian for anything more than injury or death during performance of military obligation at home in the United States.

Persons agreeing to be guardians to another's child or children were not given a specific set of requirements before signing. and most are family members if not a spouse. A spouse, unless a step-parent or an estranged parent to the minor children, does not require guardianship papers. This being the situation, the child left behind has to conform to a new set of parental rules despite any frequent calls by soldier mom or soldier dad. It is hoped that such a child would conform easily and without struggle. The absence of a parent can cause a child under temporary guardianship to display behaviors not normally of their personality, rather simply because they miss mom or dad. It is a natural progression of family relations. A child prefers to be with his own. That preference sometimes pushes the limits of juvenile persuasion to the point that a phone call may not resolve a behavior problem of offspring thousands of miles from the voice of authority. The longer the break between mom or dad's presence, the harsher the child's behavior becomes. If that child is corrected outside of the guardian's control for even a simple misdemeanor, it would take more than a guardian or sudden appearance (if possible) by the missing parent. Like any family with children, the actual family authority carries more weight than a temporary stand-in. Under a guardian's rule, a child could be lost to negative behaviors. Not only the child loses or is lost down a negative path, but the guardian loses his own tranquility. The parent stands to lose it all, from family solace ... to military career, depending on his or her response to a turbulent situation on the family home front.

summary of the short story copyrighted in IDES of CIRCE' (TXu001661151 / 2008-06-11)

BENEFICIARIES - short story/one man act/stage play

Set: Small U-shaped kitchen, telephone on the wall near short eating bar with assorted books, note board and three kitchen stools. Open to stage view one or two plates (saucers) and cup on the counter/sink. Wall clock on the wall at center of sink area. Fairly slim physically fit woman about age 25, stands in kitchen side of room smoking a cigarette impatiently waiting for a phone call...

She speaks, "I have no idea what I'm gonna do..." Paces over to the refrigerator then speaks "...last-minute changes just seem to be the way of life!" She raises her voice with each realization stated. (speaks again) "Changes, sudden moves and promises!" She opens door and removes flavored coffee cream from the refrigerator and pours coffee from the pot on the counter near the dish pile before continuing, "We didn't have to wonder where or who was gonna keep a kid!" She storms back across the room and picks up the phone to dial, processing numbers carelessly and rapidly. A voice on the other end answers, "Hello." The woman dashes the cigarette out on the closes thing... (a planter)... near the books on the counter, then speaks, "Hey... good to catch you home... We gotta move out in a few days, how about you? Did you get called to go?" The voice on the other end of the phone line (a woman) sings a message... "I'm busy at the moment but you can call back... OR HEY... You can leave a message in thirty seconds flat! When you hear the little beep tone, tell me what tis... and I'll..." The woman's face goes to a frown, she hangs up the phone violently and plods back across the kitchen to the sink front. her shoulders haunched high and head hanging as low as possible. She speaks, "I have got to figure out what's going on! ...I know," She crosses the room back to the phone and dials again. A voice answers, (only the woman's voice is audible) "Hello, that's good... Look can you do me a favor? I gotta get outta here soon and it's kinda sudden. Can you help me out? ...let the kids come by? ...No I'm not sure how long... Oh, yeah, I know you have your hands full... And yeah, I remember what I said when I was headed out last time; but this is an emergency (frustration enters her voice) Look - I can't get their father. You know he signed to take the kids if I had to leave suddenly, BUT he just got married and me and her don't get along, and the kids... well you know they're mine... and not hers. You know what I mean? I wouldn't ask except, well... you're my brother... RIGHT? My BIG BROTHER and just about all I got other than mom... And you know she can't... Her situation don't allow for anything. Yeah... Yeah... Yes (raises her voice) I know... sure they could stay home alone with your a day or two... They're old enough to. I need the favor, come on. Okay then (she sighs)... if their father can't or won't, okay? She hangs her head and continues, "Thanks... I'll call back."

She hangs up the phone and quickly dials the other number again (lighting a cigarette) ...a voice answers on the other end, "Hi." She throws back a quick response... "hello" and begins, "...hey I'm glad I caught you, I just called - didn't leave a message but my number's on the recorder... I got to get up outta here in a few days. What about you? Are you all packing too? - Yes... I know you're in a different group now... I know... Yes, I am... I came down here the Same as I signed in... COMM, a COMM UNIT! I still ain't started school, haven't had time but that don't matter right now. James won't watch the kids... His own kids! I signed up saying I had help for that and he's busy! ...making him a glamorous life... Getting remarried, romancing and all! I'm the one running around trying to put the kids in a safe place and feed them! I'm the one (she begins to cry, takes quick puffs on the cigarette and puts it out) I'm the one with my neck on the line - lost my factory job... Full time up in this shit! ... And he don't want to watch his children now that I gotta go defend his ass and her's way off in bumfuuncto! What am I supposed to do? I had to feed the children - I'm their mother (her hands are flying in wild gestures from a mix of agony and frustration) she pauses... sighs and continues, "...James is sitting down here in Florida... A PARADISE ENVIRONMENT... Acting like he's never had a woman and getting all the benefit of already having kids and HER to collect his retirement money from IF something happens to us! ... and he won't even WATCH the kids. (she cries out uncontrollably) "What am I ... What are we supposed to do?! They take the roof from over our heads... Pump our bellies up with sperm and shit... Leave us on the side of the road with the bundle that results and won't... don't even think about looking back to help! They don't have to! (she calms her voice a little)... "Hey buddy" ...She swallows hard, "...I got a chance to get away... A man told me I don't have to... I don't have to struggle this way," (her voice breaks and she cries again) "I don't know how to... Are you shipping out too? ...to Kuwait? What about your kids? I know... They're a little older but you got two... just like me... Is Frank, is their father, gonna help? (voice on the other end responds inaudible) Woman continues, "...oh" (she sighs and gets angry again) "What!?... leave em with your mother!?"... That MUTHU...! Muthu fuckuh!!! They all muthu fuckus... Just like the rest of em... Just like the rest..." (She sobs. Then continues) "...Oh, he's remarried too? Damn... they just fuck us over don't they? (she sobs heavily and sags against the wall listening to the voice on the other end of the line... She slides to the floor below the counter and sobs with phone to her ear then speaks, "It's gonna be okay buddy. What about your head? ... did they ever look into your injury - they wouldn't send you off to war with a fresh head fracture would they? ...they would be these muthu fuckus... (She laughs uncontrollably in a heap on the floor before taking a deep breath and sighing. She sits up, tucks her knees up to her chest in a seated fetal position then speaks, "...my father sold my car that I bought with the money from basic training and AIT... while I was in Panama. Did I tell you? (She swallows hard) then continues "he sold my car while I was down there with them people chasing Noriega's ass! I'm out here... could be dy-ing ... What the fuck do they care? Even my focking father focks me!! I still own money on that thing!... Ain't ever got to getting no house... Ain't got no car now... Hey... Guess what... He told me it was cuz he "got married." He got married to some girl my age down here ... some girl on public aid and sold my car to make room for her ass. I'm doing the job at Frito's... I'm a good mother... I worked my ass off... I deserve time for myself. What am I supposed to do? James tells me he might watch his kids if I get sent to Kuwait or Iraq. He just sitting here in Florida... (she pauses with her mouth hanging open) Then, "...what is that? I gotta go girl... I can't talk right now (she cries)... I need to get off the phone. Let me know if you gotta go and when or where you gonna be - you said your aunt is gotta mobilize too? I didn't think they would hit an Air Force Officer! - she got almost thirty years now, don't she? You told me? She got almost thirty years in the military and the fuckuhs sending her to war now? What do they expect outta us? She was blessed to hell to not have children... blessed to hell not to have born a little fuckuh" (pauses... she hears the door open in the distance away from her) "I gotta go Sulli? You gonna be there?... on campus? Your aunt just don't know she didn't get focked as hard as they're fockin us. We can't turn no where. This is too hard. I'll call you back if I leave before you call - take care and tell your kids I said hello, miss you buddy. Gotta go. This man is gonna want to fock me... I mean want me to butt up to him. (she begins crying again) ...it don't stop." (she hangs up the phone)

the light fades

end