part three
this is the third part of novel-like contraption...
i also love flannigan's ball from the meanest of times...
and dropkick murphy's cover of ccr's fortunate son is amazing...
i also mess that song up with emerson lake and palmer's lucky man...
and i confuse both ccr and emerson lake and palmer with crosby stills nash and young, or just crosby stills and nash, or even just crosby and stills...
its not their music i confuse, its them...
anyway, third installment of novel...
the same plea applies as the other two posts...
i even put little conventient tags on them...
Section III: What is Necredmelacertiliatosis?
This is a question that is imperative to your survival in the world that is dawning now. What is it and how is (it can and it will) affect you? How can you fight to stop it?
Edmelacertiliatosis is what the government calls Lizard Disease. We have gone over this already and you have seen it at work over the news and possibly in your own homes. Depending on where you are, it could be going on right now all around you as you are reading thing. This diesease causes extreme swelling with excessive fluid in the body, causing swelling in the limbs, torso, face and finally in the internal organs, such as the kidney, lungs, heart and brain, causing them to eventually shut down, causing death. Because of the swelling of the body, the afflicted is highly effected by temperatures, creating a lethargy in colder climates like that found in lizards. Hence the name.
But you knew that already, or should have if you were paying attention to the world around you. Edmelacertiliatosis has been quarentined to the East Coast (see section II) and if you are out of the East Coast, you will never have to worry about it. What you will need to worry about is Necredmelacertiliatosis.
Lets look at the name and deconstruct it for a moment. Necr, from necro, having to do with death. -Edme, coming from edmea, which a name for the disease dropsy that also causes a great deal of swelling. And finally, showing the government created this disease and thought they were being cute, -lacertiliatosis, coming from the name Lacertilia, which is the suborder of lizards. So what it is is a mutation of the Lizard Disease, or New Jersey Dropsy, into a disease that carries its dead cells with it. So it still affects all the places of the body, getting into the fluids of the lymph and the blood. Any place that holds liquid in the human body will be infected. You are 80% water. You don’t stand a chance.
We called it a bacteria in Section II of this pamphlet, because that is what it technically is. The first was a mutated bacteria. This new mutation is one as well. To get deeper into the biology, the new mutated bacteria has two nuclei. The first one is living. The second one is dead. This necrotic pressence causes a slow break down of the cell from the inside that it tries to fight. It needs mitochondria to regulate, but that is the first organelle to go. So it must get fresh mitochondria, from other living creatures.
The higher functions of the brain are shut down. The brain can’t regenerate those cells and the more important systems for staying alive, such as the circulatory system and the respretory system get high priority then recognizing your loved ones and reading Nietzche or figuring out right and wrong. So they are the first to go. The infection, as that is what it is, will spread in a matter of days, resulting in a fever and finally going into a frenzy where the afflicted will tear into another living being in an attempt to consume their mitochondria and other cellular structures. How the government even came up with a disease that could do such a horrible and yet microscopic job is completely beyong the limits of the imagination of Project Anubis, but that is what it is and that is what it does.
This is obviously a much more horrible way to die than even Lizard Disease. And it is far worse for those who do not have the diesease. Lizard Disease didn’t effect the brain, so someone could simply go away from people to keep their disease from spreading. But since what we will call Zombie Disease (mind you, these are not the dead returning, they are individuals whose cells are breaking down and they are trying to survive) causes the afflicted to attack others, and the diease is transferable by saliva, once you are bitten you are either going to be ripped limb from limb, or you are going to die from the disease. Either death is not preferable. To make matters worse, those infected don’t care what the temperature is.
Once the first outbreak is reported on the West Coast (see Section II), you aren’t getting out. You should probably get weapons assembled now, and if you intend to stay, intend to be barracked. And always be stocked. Not until years have passed are you going to know that it is safe.
And remember there is always the risk of it getting out, the risk that their quarentines, no matter how well they worked on the East Coast might fail. This disease is more violent, and more animated. Lethargy is not produced. Who knows if simple barbed wire and closed ports and airports can stop its spread.
And also remember, this is a risk your government is willing to take.
Things were different in Colorado. Much differnent especcially now that she was living in a suburb that was created without an urban central. Elizabeth was from New York City, had lived there until her father called that day and told them to leave. Colorado was cleaner, but the people weren’t very nice. Most weren’t from Colorado either, but she was the only one in her class who was from the northern part of the East Coast, so she was the outsider.
“Be patient with them,” her mother said, tossing a salad. “They have probably lost people too and they had to leave their homes, just like you did. So just be patient. Give them time.” The worst thing that had happened since her brother left, after her mother got out of her room, was that she went on a health kick and wouldn’t let anything in the house that wasn’t organically grown. A lot of their food now came from their backyard.
“But Mom, you don’t understand. They don’t pick on anyone but me. They gang up on me because I’m not from Georgia or Florida or South Carolina.”
“Your telling me that there isn’t a single person in your class who isn’t from the North? There isn’t someone from Maine, or Massachussettes, or Pennsylvania there?”
“There is a kid from New Jersey but…”
“I told you.”
“Mom, let me finish. The kid is creepy. He is always going out to find abandoned buildings and other stuff like that. Ok, he isn’t creepy, but what he does is. He says that there are police departments that only hire people who worship the devil.”
“Honey, give him a break. His entire state was toxic long before the disease ever came. Just give these kids a chance. You’ll find friends.”
“I have friends. They all just go to another school. Is someone coming to dinner?”
“No, why?”
“You set three places.”
“Oh. I forgot your brother was gone, that’s all.”
She and her mother ate in silence, the silverware clinking against plates that only sound for the entire dinner. It was 7:30 and her mother had work at the coffee shop at 8:00. Elizabeth would be home alone until her mother came in at 2:00 and she couldn’t forget the creepy pamphlet or the even creepier guy who stopped her on the street. She was afraid to see them coming up to the house, ringing the door bell, asking if she wanted another copy. It had been a week since her brother had left, and she hadn’t seen another one since, but still.
Her mother got up and took her dishes to the sink. “Can you do the dishes, honey? I’ll see you tommorrow, ok? Make sure to finish your homework.”
“Mom, where am I supposed to go to college now that all the Ivy League schools are overrun by diseased homeless people?”
“I’m sure they moved the professors. Good night. Don’t forget the dishes.”
Elizabeth’s mother closed the door behind her. Two seconds later, Elizabeth got up and checked the door to make sure it was locked. She checked the back door, too. It was a nice house, she thought, amazingly cheap. It must be all the cost effective light bulbs they were using. Apparently they wouldn’t burn out for ten years. Since the thought of a black out terrified her, Elizabeth felt better that at least the lights wouldn’t die on her.
She sat down at the kitchen table to do her homework. She didn’t really care about algebra or chemistry, and it didn’t seem to matter now. She had wanted to try for Harvard or Yale or Princeton. But they didn’t really exist anymore. And it wasn’t the same, even if the professors were at the new schools, the age and prestige wasn’t. She had wanted to be a doctor, but the diseases were getting to be so disgusting. She figured she would go to college for foreign languages (even though the country was closing its borders and getting in or out was becoming increasingly difficult) and she would make her living translating books and working in the coffee shop down the street.
After half an hour working on her homework, there was on knock on her front door. The sound made her jump, her pencil flying out of her hand and bouncing on the table. It might be Matthew. Maybe he came home. Maybe there was a mistake in the conscription. Maybe his cute friend was with him. Elizabeth went to the door quickly, afraid he would leave thinking no one was home. She turned the door knob, then thought better of it. Checking the peep hole in the door, she saw no one standing there. She took a step back. Then slowly turned the door knob, and opened the door a crack. As she pulled it open, something fell at her feet. She jumped at the sound and the movement and then bent down to see what it was.
It was a pamphlet, with a picture of a man suffering from Lizard Disease, and the title The Government Against You: How to Prepare for the Coming of the End (A Brief History and Instructional Manual). Elizabeth threw it outside onto the road and slammed the door hard, locking it and checking it to make sure it was firm. She ran to the back door and made sure it was locked, but didn’t see anyone outside. Then she went back upstairs and called the police, trying to forget what Ronnie had said about the police force worshipping the devil on Thursday nights.
Seargent Henly found himself telling Johnny everything about what had happened. About the weird sounds he heard from the basement, about how he could never feel comfortable in the house and how he couldn’t even tell anyone about it, except Donna because she had experienced it all first. He told him that for the last week it had gotten worse and that he was sleeping with the lights on and making sure he was a least a little drunk before he even thought about going to sleep. He told him about how he had tried to do laundry, got creeped out and ended up calling Donna to see if she could tell him anything, even though he hated the idea of talking to her since she had cheated on him. He was surprised that she even talked to him. And he told Johnny about how he had heard the ghost say his name when he was doing laundry the second time, how he had run out of the house and stayed at the neighbors waiting for, of all people, Donna to come and sit with him while he finished doing the laundry.
“Maybe it is your consiounce. And hers. She created it because she was having an affair and her guilt followed her home and manifested. And now your guilt at believing you forced her into the affair and screaming at her and calling her a whore has manifested through the suggestion of an already existing haunting.”
“Or maybe my house is haunted by an evil entity.”
“Could be that too.”
“Look, um, I hate to do this, but I got a call from my people while I was in the bathroom before and they want me to go to Idaho before I go back to California. I know I said I could take you the whole way, and I’m really sorry to just leave you, but how about I give you a few dollars and drop you off at the next train station. I’ll buy lunch or dinner first before I let you go.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m relying on you, so whatever you need to do.”
“Ok. Thanks for understanding. We are in Iowa. We are still on 80.”
“Thanks.”
They spent the rest of the ride until they hit a train station in silence. Seargent Henly couldn’t wait until the guy was out of the car and he could be alone with his own thoughts. He hoped he would go to sleep at some point, it was night and they had been driving for a while, and he wouldn’t be able to find a train station until it was afternoon the next day. The trains didn’t run along the unused interstate highways, so you had to wait for a convient junction. Seargent Henly took another caffine pill and turned the radio up.
The trains eventually slid into a station in Washington state. The barracks were hidden within the trees and were buried so deep that if someone actually did come across them, they would not be able to find their way back to them a second time. You could follow the tracks, but eventually you would loose them after a tunnel when the line would go three ways. Somehow, you would never manage to make the right choice as to which way to go.
They would come into the barracks station, nothing more than a platform. Where they went after that was known only to the enginner, who would slid away quickly as soon as everyone was off. The passageners had already shuffled off, their duffle bags over their shoulders and their heads hung low. Their faces were solume from one angle, expressionless from another. Dull shadows moving against the night sky, only a dim light illuminating the station.
Whether someone was there directing them, or whether they just knew where to go, they would all end up in a long, low concrete building. None tried to escape. They could have. But somehow between the time they got on the train and they got off, their entire personality was rubbed away. Their hopes and their fears were scrubbed off of them and their memories became nothing more than a single typed sheet of paper containing their information. They were scrubbed and washed and purifed until they were clean as the light of the sun itself.
When they got into the concrete hall, they were put into lines according to the numbers stamped on their sheets of paper. They weren’t put with people from their town or their region. They were to form a comradery that was entirly based on the barracks. They stood in perfect formation, in total silence, the only sound the movement up to the desk and the ruffling of papers. Without a word, they were directed to their bunks, where they showered and then stood by their beds for inspection.
As they slept, a dull white noise came over the sound system. It lasted all night, and ended an hour after the sun came up. As soon as it stopped, every soldier’s eyes shot open.
The police officer sat at the kitchen table with Elizabeth. His arms rested ontop of her open algebra notebook and the fingers on his left hand tapped against the closed hard cover of her book. The clock said it was 9:34. He had been there for an hour and fifteen minutes. His face was deep in concentration as he reread over her statement.
“So you are saying that around 7:40 your mother left to go to work at the coffee shop down the street.”
“Yeah.”
“And after she left you did the dishes and then started to work on your algebra homework?”
“Yes.”
“Then, at around 8:00 your doorbell rang and you thought it might be your brother who has recently been conscripted. So you went over to the door, checked the peephole, saw no one, opened the door, and a pamphlet on how the government is spreading incurable diseases that had already been given to you by a man in a hygenic mask yesterday night was between the front door and the screen door. You then proceeded to throw the pamphlet into the middle of the road and call the police.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Ok, well first things first. The people in the hygenic masks are crazies that we probably imported from the metropolitain area. They have been going door to door handing out the pamphlets for months now.”
“But the guy gave me one last night and I threw it out in the coffee shop. Then when I was walking home, he came up to me and asked if I liked it. I told him I threw it away and he seemed annoyed. What if he is stalking me.”
“Look, they give those things to trees. The fact that you have two is hardly anything. Most people on these block have gotten at least tweleve between getting them in their door and getting them handed to them. This is hardly a big deal. Second, throwing anything, no matter how creepy you think it is, into the road is littering and I could give you a ticket for it, but I am not. Third, there is no conscription.”
“Yes there is. My brother got a letter and he got onto the train last night.”
“Honey, the train doesn’t run past five in the afternoon and there is no conscription. I work for the government. I know. Now please, don’t call the police again unless it is important. We really don’t have to run after crazy people handing out ridiculous information.”
The officer got up and Elizabeth followed him to the door. She felt her face going hot and now her cheeks were beginning to burn. The officer closed the door behind him. Elizabeth locked the door and waited until she heard the engine turn over and the officer drive away. Then she checked the lock about three times and went back to the table to do her homework. She had no intention of sleeping until her mother got home.
i also love flannigan's ball from the meanest of times...
and dropkick murphy's cover of ccr's fortunate son is amazing...
i also mess that song up with emerson lake and palmer's lucky man...
and i confuse both ccr and emerson lake and palmer with crosby stills nash and young, or just crosby stills and nash, or even just crosby and stills...
its not their music i confuse, its them...
anyway, third installment of novel...
the same plea applies as the other two posts...
i even put little conventient tags on them...
Section III: What is Necredmelacertiliatosis?
This is a question that is imperative to your survival in the world that is dawning now. What is it and how is (it can and it will) affect you? How can you fight to stop it?
Edmelacertiliatosis is what the government calls Lizard Disease. We have gone over this already and you have seen it at work over the news and possibly in your own homes. Depending on where you are, it could be going on right now all around you as you are reading thing. This diesease causes extreme swelling with excessive fluid in the body, causing swelling in the limbs, torso, face and finally in the internal organs, such as the kidney, lungs, heart and brain, causing them to eventually shut down, causing death. Because of the swelling of the body, the afflicted is highly effected by temperatures, creating a lethargy in colder climates like that found in lizards. Hence the name.
But you knew that already, or should have if you were paying attention to the world around you. Edmelacertiliatosis has been quarentined to the East Coast (see section II) and if you are out of the East Coast, you will never have to worry about it. What you will need to worry about is Necredmelacertiliatosis.
Lets look at the name and deconstruct it for a moment. Necr, from necro, having to do with death. -Edme, coming from edmea, which a name for the disease dropsy that also causes a great deal of swelling. And finally, showing the government created this disease and thought they were being cute, -lacertiliatosis, coming from the name Lacertilia, which is the suborder of lizards. So what it is is a mutation of the Lizard Disease, or New Jersey Dropsy, into a disease that carries its dead cells with it. So it still affects all the places of the body, getting into the fluids of the lymph and the blood. Any place that holds liquid in the human body will be infected. You are 80% water. You don’t stand a chance.
We called it a bacteria in Section II of this pamphlet, because that is what it technically is. The first was a mutated bacteria. This new mutation is one as well. To get deeper into the biology, the new mutated bacteria has two nuclei. The first one is living. The second one is dead. This necrotic pressence causes a slow break down of the cell from the inside that it tries to fight. It needs mitochondria to regulate, but that is the first organelle to go. So it must get fresh mitochondria, from other living creatures.
The higher functions of the brain are shut down. The brain can’t regenerate those cells and the more important systems for staying alive, such as the circulatory system and the respretory system get high priority then recognizing your loved ones and reading Nietzche or figuring out right and wrong. So they are the first to go. The infection, as that is what it is, will spread in a matter of days, resulting in a fever and finally going into a frenzy where the afflicted will tear into another living being in an attempt to consume their mitochondria and other cellular structures. How the government even came up with a disease that could do such a horrible and yet microscopic job is completely beyong the limits of the imagination of Project Anubis, but that is what it is and that is what it does.
This is obviously a much more horrible way to die than even Lizard Disease. And it is far worse for those who do not have the diesease. Lizard Disease didn’t effect the brain, so someone could simply go away from people to keep their disease from spreading. But since what we will call Zombie Disease (mind you, these are not the dead returning, they are individuals whose cells are breaking down and they are trying to survive) causes the afflicted to attack others, and the diease is transferable by saliva, once you are bitten you are either going to be ripped limb from limb, or you are going to die from the disease. Either death is not preferable. To make matters worse, those infected don’t care what the temperature is.
Once the first outbreak is reported on the West Coast (see Section II), you aren’t getting out. You should probably get weapons assembled now, and if you intend to stay, intend to be barracked. And always be stocked. Not until years have passed are you going to know that it is safe.
And remember there is always the risk of it getting out, the risk that their quarentines, no matter how well they worked on the East Coast might fail. This disease is more violent, and more animated. Lethargy is not produced. Who knows if simple barbed wire and closed ports and airports can stop its spread.
And also remember, this is a risk your government is willing to take.
Things were different in Colorado. Much differnent especcially now that she was living in a suburb that was created without an urban central. Elizabeth was from New York City, had lived there until her father called that day and told them to leave. Colorado was cleaner, but the people weren’t very nice. Most weren’t from Colorado either, but she was the only one in her class who was from the northern part of the East Coast, so she was the outsider.
“Be patient with them,” her mother said, tossing a salad. “They have probably lost people too and they had to leave their homes, just like you did. So just be patient. Give them time.” The worst thing that had happened since her brother left, after her mother got out of her room, was that she went on a health kick and wouldn’t let anything in the house that wasn’t organically grown. A lot of their food now came from their backyard.
“But Mom, you don’t understand. They don’t pick on anyone but me. They gang up on me because I’m not from Georgia or Florida or South Carolina.”
“Your telling me that there isn’t a single person in your class who isn’t from the North? There isn’t someone from Maine, or Massachussettes, or Pennsylvania there?”
“There is a kid from New Jersey but…”
“I told you.”
“Mom, let me finish. The kid is creepy. He is always going out to find abandoned buildings and other stuff like that. Ok, he isn’t creepy, but what he does is. He says that there are police departments that only hire people who worship the devil.”
“Honey, give him a break. His entire state was toxic long before the disease ever came. Just give these kids a chance. You’ll find friends.”
“I have friends. They all just go to another school. Is someone coming to dinner?”
“No, why?”
“You set three places.”
“Oh. I forgot your brother was gone, that’s all.”
She and her mother ate in silence, the silverware clinking against plates that only sound for the entire dinner. It was 7:30 and her mother had work at the coffee shop at 8:00. Elizabeth would be home alone until her mother came in at 2:00 and she couldn’t forget the creepy pamphlet or the even creepier guy who stopped her on the street. She was afraid to see them coming up to the house, ringing the door bell, asking if she wanted another copy. It had been a week since her brother had left, and she hadn’t seen another one since, but still.
Her mother got up and took her dishes to the sink. “Can you do the dishes, honey? I’ll see you tommorrow, ok? Make sure to finish your homework.”
“Mom, where am I supposed to go to college now that all the Ivy League schools are overrun by diseased homeless people?”
“I’m sure they moved the professors. Good night. Don’t forget the dishes.”
Elizabeth’s mother closed the door behind her. Two seconds later, Elizabeth got up and checked the door to make sure it was locked. She checked the back door, too. It was a nice house, she thought, amazingly cheap. It must be all the cost effective light bulbs they were using. Apparently they wouldn’t burn out for ten years. Since the thought of a black out terrified her, Elizabeth felt better that at least the lights wouldn’t die on her.
She sat down at the kitchen table to do her homework. She didn’t really care about algebra or chemistry, and it didn’t seem to matter now. She had wanted to try for Harvard or Yale or Princeton. But they didn’t really exist anymore. And it wasn’t the same, even if the professors were at the new schools, the age and prestige wasn’t. She had wanted to be a doctor, but the diseases were getting to be so disgusting. She figured she would go to college for foreign languages (even though the country was closing its borders and getting in or out was becoming increasingly difficult) and she would make her living translating books and working in the coffee shop down the street.
After half an hour working on her homework, there was on knock on her front door. The sound made her jump, her pencil flying out of her hand and bouncing on the table. It might be Matthew. Maybe he came home. Maybe there was a mistake in the conscription. Maybe his cute friend was with him. Elizabeth went to the door quickly, afraid he would leave thinking no one was home. She turned the door knob, then thought better of it. Checking the peep hole in the door, she saw no one standing there. She took a step back. Then slowly turned the door knob, and opened the door a crack. As she pulled it open, something fell at her feet. She jumped at the sound and the movement and then bent down to see what it was.
It was a pamphlet, with a picture of a man suffering from Lizard Disease, and the title The Government Against You: How to Prepare for the Coming of the End (A Brief History and Instructional Manual). Elizabeth threw it outside onto the road and slammed the door hard, locking it and checking it to make sure it was firm. She ran to the back door and made sure it was locked, but didn’t see anyone outside. Then she went back upstairs and called the police, trying to forget what Ronnie had said about the police force worshipping the devil on Thursday nights.
Seargent Henly found himself telling Johnny everything about what had happened. About the weird sounds he heard from the basement, about how he could never feel comfortable in the house and how he couldn’t even tell anyone about it, except Donna because she had experienced it all first. He told him that for the last week it had gotten worse and that he was sleeping with the lights on and making sure he was a least a little drunk before he even thought about going to sleep. He told him about how he had tried to do laundry, got creeped out and ended up calling Donna to see if she could tell him anything, even though he hated the idea of talking to her since she had cheated on him. He was surprised that she even talked to him. And he told Johnny about how he had heard the ghost say his name when he was doing laundry the second time, how he had run out of the house and stayed at the neighbors waiting for, of all people, Donna to come and sit with him while he finished doing the laundry.
“Maybe it is your consiounce. And hers. She created it because she was having an affair and her guilt followed her home and manifested. And now your guilt at believing you forced her into the affair and screaming at her and calling her a whore has manifested through the suggestion of an already existing haunting.”
“Or maybe my house is haunted by an evil entity.”
“Could be that too.”
“Look, um, I hate to do this, but I got a call from my people while I was in the bathroom before and they want me to go to Idaho before I go back to California. I know I said I could take you the whole way, and I’m really sorry to just leave you, but how about I give you a few dollars and drop you off at the next train station. I’ll buy lunch or dinner first before I let you go.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m relying on you, so whatever you need to do.”
“Ok. Thanks for understanding. We are in Iowa. We are still on 80.”
“Thanks.”
They spent the rest of the ride until they hit a train station in silence. Seargent Henly couldn’t wait until the guy was out of the car and he could be alone with his own thoughts. He hoped he would go to sleep at some point, it was night and they had been driving for a while, and he wouldn’t be able to find a train station until it was afternoon the next day. The trains didn’t run along the unused interstate highways, so you had to wait for a convient junction. Seargent Henly took another caffine pill and turned the radio up.
The trains eventually slid into a station in Washington state. The barracks were hidden within the trees and were buried so deep that if someone actually did come across them, they would not be able to find their way back to them a second time. You could follow the tracks, but eventually you would loose them after a tunnel when the line would go three ways. Somehow, you would never manage to make the right choice as to which way to go.
They would come into the barracks station, nothing more than a platform. Where they went after that was known only to the enginner, who would slid away quickly as soon as everyone was off. The passageners had already shuffled off, their duffle bags over their shoulders and their heads hung low. Their faces were solume from one angle, expressionless from another. Dull shadows moving against the night sky, only a dim light illuminating the station.
Whether someone was there directing them, or whether they just knew where to go, they would all end up in a long, low concrete building. None tried to escape. They could have. But somehow between the time they got on the train and they got off, their entire personality was rubbed away. Their hopes and their fears were scrubbed off of them and their memories became nothing more than a single typed sheet of paper containing their information. They were scrubbed and washed and purifed until they were clean as the light of the sun itself.
When they got into the concrete hall, they were put into lines according to the numbers stamped on their sheets of paper. They weren’t put with people from their town or their region. They were to form a comradery that was entirly based on the barracks. They stood in perfect formation, in total silence, the only sound the movement up to the desk and the ruffling of papers. Without a word, they were directed to their bunks, where they showered and then stood by their beds for inspection.
As they slept, a dull white noise came over the sound system. It lasted all night, and ended an hour after the sun came up. As soon as it stopped, every soldier’s eyes shot open.
The police officer sat at the kitchen table with Elizabeth. His arms rested ontop of her open algebra notebook and the fingers on his left hand tapped against the closed hard cover of her book. The clock said it was 9:34. He had been there for an hour and fifteen minutes. His face was deep in concentration as he reread over her statement.
“So you are saying that around 7:40 your mother left to go to work at the coffee shop down the street.”
“Yeah.”
“And after she left you did the dishes and then started to work on your algebra homework?”
“Yes.”
“Then, at around 8:00 your doorbell rang and you thought it might be your brother who has recently been conscripted. So you went over to the door, checked the peephole, saw no one, opened the door, and a pamphlet on how the government is spreading incurable diseases that had already been given to you by a man in a hygenic mask yesterday night was between the front door and the screen door. You then proceeded to throw the pamphlet into the middle of the road and call the police.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Ok, well first things first. The people in the hygenic masks are crazies that we probably imported from the metropolitain area. They have been going door to door handing out the pamphlets for months now.”
“But the guy gave me one last night and I threw it out in the coffee shop. Then when I was walking home, he came up to me and asked if I liked it. I told him I threw it away and he seemed annoyed. What if he is stalking me.”
“Look, they give those things to trees. The fact that you have two is hardly anything. Most people on these block have gotten at least tweleve between getting them in their door and getting them handed to them. This is hardly a big deal. Second, throwing anything, no matter how creepy you think it is, into the road is littering and I could give you a ticket for it, but I am not. Third, there is no conscription.”
“Yes there is. My brother got a letter and he got onto the train last night.”
“Honey, the train doesn’t run past five in the afternoon and there is no conscription. I work for the government. I know. Now please, don’t call the police again unless it is important. We really don’t have to run after crazy people handing out ridiculous information.”
The officer got up and Elizabeth followed him to the door. She felt her face going hot and now her cheeks were beginning to burn. The officer closed the door behind him. Elizabeth locked the door and waited until she heard the engine turn over and the officer drive away. Then she checked the lock about three times and went back to the table to do her homework. She had no intention of sleeping until her mother got home.