I looked across my left shoulder and up, as he was still standing, even though there was an empty stool positioned
directly front of him. “How do you mean?” I asked.
“The media didn’t show the American people how bad the damage from that storm was. I’m telling you—it was, and
still is, total devastation. I mean, mile after mile of nothing, and for hundreds of miles in all directions. No people, no
homes, no trees; everything is gone. The ones who are left are still waiting for money from the government so they
can get out of trailers and rebuild or move on or do something. It’s unbelievable. I was down there getting my boat
fixed when it all happened, so I had to hang around and stay with my boat, so I’m telling you it was unbelievable—and
still is.”
“I know what you’re talking about.” I said. “Just the other night, I
was watching a home movie on the weather channel. This old
man filmed Katrina’s three-foot tidal surge as it came roiling
toward his house from the Gulf of Mexico. He recorded the whole
thing with his video camera as the water kept rushing into and
past his home. You could see a huge wave and then the water
rise past the second floor of his home. He survived by escaping
to his rooftop. The next day, by luck, he was rescued by a Coast
Guard helicopter. I thought that wave looked as big and bad as
the ones in the films I had seen of the tsunami wave that struck
Sumatra.”
Johnny couldn’t wait to speak. “That’s exactly right. That’s the
point. It was as bad as the tsunami, but people up here and in
the rest of the country never got to see how bad it truly was
. I mean total and absolute devastation. Dead bodies all over the place, dead animals, people wandering around in
a daze for weeks. It stunk; it was horrible.”
And then he switched back to Iraq. “Same shit as what’s happening over in Iraq. It’s such bullshit. Eighteen-year-old
kids getting lied to, shot at, and blown up. They come home like zombies, and all for what? My nephew was given
four days of voluntary postwar counseling at a veterans’ hospital. What a joke. Two years out on daily patrols in
total chaos in a world turned upside down, and they give him four days to fit back into society before they cut him
loose.”
“It’s all based on a big lie, and now they can’t stop it,” I said.
Johnny lifted his beer and finished off the bottle. He seemed as drained as it was, and he finally sat down on the
stool and took a load off his feet. Like Annie, he seemed to have had a great deal of pent-up thoughts in his head,
and the Liar’s Saloon was the place to get them all out. When his personal storm of emotions had subsided, a
calmness set in, and then everything became all right again, just as it had after Annie’s outburst.