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

These restrictions hadn’t really affected the magazine Michael worked for. Theirs was a family lifestyle magazine with articles about local business people, local industry, local and state-wide vacation destinations, restaurant reviews, and entertainment articles. They had removed their Lonely Hearts section from the classifieds and had to keep an eye on the content included in advertisements, but no greater changes than those.


“Hi Michael. How was your weekend?” Maxie was the receptionist and always the first person Michael saw in the morning and, except on Wednesdays, the day before the magazine went to press, the last person he saw in the evening.


Chapter 5