The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross Read Free Book Online

said, “that the point of the lottery was to end all the unfair exemptions, like being in college or graduate school or being a father, though I’ve always privately thought that fatherhood ought to be allowed as an exemption provided the father stayed home all day with the little one. From what I hear, he’d enlist so fast they wouldn’t have to bother with a draft.”
    “Not a bad idea at that,” Reed said. “Well, the lottery,like so many cures, is worse than the disease, only in different ways. Disease, in fact, is the operative word. Almost seventy percent of the men are found to be 4F at their first physical, and thirty percent of the rest are let off on physical grounds the next time around.”
    “They all have flat feet, you mean?”
    “Or just about anything else you can name, including braces on their teeth or hair that has to be shampooed every day.”
    “Tell me another.”
    “With pleasure. The army considerately publishes a guide to what it considers physical fitness, and anyone can buy it from the Government Printing Office. The country is now full of draft counseling agencies, as they call themselves, though not as full as New York is, and each of them has a well-thumbed copy. Anyway, the induction centers are so understaffed that they have to rely on the word of the would-be-draftee’s doctor, and most doctors are sympathetic to the poor kids. The army in its proud old days didn’t want anyone who was very ugly, wet his bed, acted queer or was, or bit his nails. Now they’re no doubt rueing the day, but the simple fact is almost everyone around New York manages to get off for
something
.
    “If,” Reed went on, filling his wine glass and Kate’s, “they don’t get a physical exemption, they can claim to be a conscientious objector. There are various ways of diddling around with one’s status, gambling on one’s lottery number, or, if all else fails, simply failing to show up for induction.”
    “Don’t they find you and put you in jail?”
    “In theory. In practice, after the hideously understaffedSelective Service unit has written around to make sure the guy actually did get the letter, a year has passed, and then they simply can’t follow up all the cases. Not one man in the city has so far been indicted for delinquency, as a matter of fact.
And
if the worst should happen and the guy who failed to show up for induction was found, tried, and convicted, he would end up serving considerably less than a year in one of the better prisons. He would have to serve with the army in Vietnam for two years.”
    “Has it always been like that, with only innocents like me remembering everyone but cowards and operators marching off to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before? My mind does seem to run to hymns lately, the effect of the Theban no doubt. All the guys I knew …”
    “That, my love, was a war the country was behind. There have always been operators who got out of active service and there always will be, but, though I haven’t looked into the history of the thing, I have the impression that this situation developed because of the great unpopularity of this war, which is even more unpopular in New York than elsewhere, as our Vice President keeps telling us. And don’t think I’ve covered all the ways of not getting drafted, because I’ve hardly begun.”
    “In that case, what is the problem with Jack? Can’t he have braces put on his teeth? Anyway, he’s got asthma; he told us so.”
    “But he is young and full of principles for which he is willing to suffer, always so embarrassing an attitude, though I
think
I have persuaded him to suffer at Harvard. The point is, if he registers as a C.O., which iswhat he wants to do, he will be involved in litigation, which is long, expensive, and unlikely to be paid for by his rich papa, though according to Jack’s lights that is the only honorable course to follow. The question must ultimately be faced, I think, as to whether a