Michael is thirty-nine and gay. Like his little niece, Kim, who has a learning disability, he is considered a non-citizen under the draconian Normalcy Laws. Kim’s parents quietly arrange to flee to New Zealand, where the Normalcy Laws haven’t been implemented. As Michael has a good job and has been careful to hide his homosexuality, he doesn’t consider going with them. Instead, he remains behind and goes about his business as normal until one morning when he is confronted by two Black Guards. Hooded, Michael is taken to what he assumes is the Department of Law. Once people are taken there, they never see the light of day again. Elimination is the only punishment in the New World Order. There he is interrogated by The Man, a handsome officer of the Black Guards. In a desperately hopeless situation, is there any hope of surviving elimination? No one ever has in the past, but Michael discovers something about The Man that hints at his situation not being as bleak as it appears. Can he dare to hope there is a way out? Or is he so delusional that his fantasies of freedom have clouded his judgment? Under the oppressive Normalcy Laws, nothing is certain.

Forbidden

He padded out to the kitchen and scoured the contents of the fridge, though nothing appealed to him. Coffee, he decided, would only exacerbate his restlessness. Whiskey. There was some in the pantry. He splashed some into a glass and took a sip. Yes, that was what he needed—something to calm his nerves and induce drowsiness.


Standing at the sliding glass door he stared up at the night sky and briefly pondered the immensity of the cosmos. All those stars, twinkling and sparkling like jewels. And all those unseen galaxies, with planets and suns. All those possibilities. In that context, the hidden elite’s quest for complete domination and power through the rigid normalcy laws seemed petty. Almost pathetic. Big fish in a very small puddle of muddy water.


He swallowed another mouthful of whiskey and turned away from the door. A shape in the darkness at the other side of the kitchen startled him.


“What are you doing up?” It was Rebecca. “What are you doing in the dark?”


Chapter 4