C4 antho - Chamber Four

On Castles ~179~
People would vote against it, or stick flame-throwers
down the chimney.
* * * *
I decide to go to Iraq and rescue Wesley.
Accomplishing such a feat will give me direction while simultaneously
saving Wesley from all but certain dismemberment.
I decide this is something I should have decided a long
time ago. This decision makes me feel bold and unselfish for
once in my life.
Why not, I think? Why don’t people just go over to a war
unannounced and take away their loved ones en-masse?
What is stopping them? I can see it now. Cameras following
my every move through the war-torn countryside. The President
wishing me luck from a verdant fairway in Palm
Springs. I would find Wesley and we would steal away into
the night. This would be followed by a week of hiking
through the wilderness during which we would eat trout and
drink chartreuse for sustenance. We would dream of Switzerland
and talk about Cicero. Hot buttered rum and coked up
countesses awaiting us on the winter slopes of Zermatt.
The other thing that could happen is that we could die.
* * * *
The first leg of my trip is to Morocco via Paris. I do not
like Paris, but I admire the airport bar. I drink down three
French ales while pretending to watch soccer. The game is
confusing, but the beer is good. Once in Morocco I find a
hotel thrown together with white mud and whopping teak
ceiling fans that chop at the north African heat in vain. I