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

Maxie backed away, her eyes glistening with the prospect of tears.


“I…I…I’ll leave you to it then,” she said, backing out of the room.


Michael sighed, exasperated. He’d deal with the hurt feelings tomorrow. By then they would have both slept on it. Things always seemed better by the light of a new day. Apparently.


By 8:30 he had finished. He could do no more until the photographs he was waiting on were sent through, and the movie reviews. At least the advertising had been sorted. That was his biggest nightmare. Not the regular ads, but the one-off or seasonal ads.


Chapter 6