Warrior

Why don't you have a seat, Jack?
This won't take long
Neither one of us has much to say
Do we?

You want a drink?
I can pour you a drink
Scotch and soda, right?

I know what you drink
God knows you haven't changed

Oh Jack...

I didn't know what I was going to say to you
When you came over here tonight
And then it came to me
All of a sudden

A story from when I was a kid
About a Great Warrior
And a Teacher

You up for a little story, Jack?

I promise it'll be quick
And it has a happy ending

So once upon a time
This Great Warrior
Decides he's getting too old to, you know
Be a warrior
And so he settles down somewhere
Somewhere in a clearing
You know, in the woods or something

And one day he's hanging clothes on a line
Because even warriors have to do laundry
And a boy comes stumbling out of the forest
Dirty, and wild-eyed
Looking like he's just been through Hell

The Warrior takes the Boy in
He lives alone, he's lonely, you know
And he cleans the boy up
Feeds him
And then decides that he'd like having a son
And so he tells the kid to stick around

The boy's only seven or eight
Not very old
So he doesn't have the words to describe
What happened to him in the forest
But the Great Warrior can tell
It's created something in him
Something that could prove useful later on

He starts training the boy
Not because he really wants to, but just--
For lack of anything better to do
Not much happens in a clearing in the woods
You know what I mean, Jack?

The boy picks up the training pretty quick
Pretty soon he can hold his own with the Great Warrior
One day, the boy even beats him
Throws his teacher down on the ground
And stands over him--smiling
Happy to have made his Teacher proud

And that's when the Warrior has to make a decision

Because, as I understand it
There are two ways a story like that can continue

The Boy can become the successor
--Or the rival of his master

Which means either he has to continue being encouraged
Nurtured, and trained

Or he has to be destroyed

You see, Jack, it's a question of legacy

We all have the power to teach someone
How to go further
Than we ourselves can go

We have the power to take what's in us
And give it to someone else
Thereby allowing them to overtake us

That is--if we want to

But you see, that requires embracing
Our own mortality

It means we have to accept
That one day we will be fogotten
And the one we have taught
Will be remembered
Until somebody overtakes them

Or...we stop them

Right in their tracks

And we die one day
Taking everything we know with us
Ensuring we will be remembered
As the last of a line
As someone who was special
Because they knew things
Nobody else knew

And yes, maybe it's selfish
But nobody thinks of it that way
Because deep down
We all understand selfishness
We all understand and respect
Self-preservation

So the Great Warrior is lying there on the ground
Looking up at the Boy who has the potential
To surpass him
And he has to decide
What comes next

Then it happens

He decides

But that's where the story ends, Jack

That's why it's a happy ending

Because you never have to hear
Whether he killed the kid
Or if the kid grew up and killed him instead

You never have to know
And that's nice, isn't it?

I mean, when you consider the alternative?

You sure you don't want that drink, Jack?

You look thirsty

Sitting there--you look parched

Well, if you don't want a drink
Then I guess there's no point in delaying it any longer

Why don't you get down on the ground
And I'll stand over you
And you can decide
What it is
You want to do