heard of Mishima? Big Jap in the ’60s? They made a movie about him.” Clyde had not. Jay tapped the book. “He didn’t just read this, he
studied it. Committed it to memory almost. He trained.” Jay made a hard fist. “Tough fucker. Came to believe—and he was right, by the way—that his government was overextending its power, that its reach went beyond what was for the good of the people. This always happens, Clyde, always happens.” Jay shook his head, almost sadly, Clyde thought. “A government might form for all the right reasons. Escape from tyranny. Practice a different religion.” He shrugged. “But you give them fuckers too much power and ’fore you know it they no longer actin in the interest of the people. They acting in their own interest, period. You ever read the Declaration of Independence?” Clyde was sure he had in school at some point but he was damned if he could recall a single word of it. “When in the course of human events,” Jay began, “if the government becomes destructive of its original purpose after a long train of abuses et cetera et cetera, and it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bonds that connect them, it’s not only their right, it’s their
duty, to throw off that government and provide new guards for our future security.” Jay nodded. “Good shit. That’s what Mishima tried to do in Japan.” He fished more cigarettes from his pack.
Clyde could smell the pit they passed. He flicked his cigarette into it and took another one of Jay’s.
“Revolution,” Jay said, smoke hovering in front of his mouth before trailing past his ears. “Overthrow the government.”
“Did he?” Clyde said.
