The Tomorrow No One Thought Of
August 10, 2026 Leave a comment
“Roy, some ivory tower guy will say that the gun violence problem of big cities like Central City is due to the inequality between the rich and poor and to housing and education and guns and blah blah blah. But the Good Book says that evil intentions come from inside and those include stupidity. Any copper worth his salt will tell you that big city gun violence is due to someone without a lifeline playing fast and loose with forever by doing unbelievably stupid and vile things within seconds.”
After another day working the mean streets of Central City and a half hour of listening to Desk Sargent Grasso Il filosofo di strada, I was on my way to have a dinner of pork chops with my best girl. But then Sarge stops me in the parking lot. He wants me to check on a domestic disturbance in my neighborhood. Neighbors are calling the station.
I get to the Lopez place, walk up the steps, and find the door open. I poke my head inside. That was a mistake.
I come around half-conscious and curled up on the floor. Something like a sledge hammer wacked the back of my head. I look up and see a woman holding a cast iron frying pan
“Sorry, señor . . . Winder. I thought you are my soon-to-be ex.”
She had taken the ID out of my coat pocket. Does she have my service weapon? I check. It’s in the holster. I check the back of my head. There is a lump the size of an Easter egg. But no blood.
“I feel soon-to-be ex.”
Someone walks in the door and steps over me.
“Who’s this?”
“It’s policía.”
“You hit policía?”
“I thought Manny come back.”
The man helps me to my feet. I bring the swirling room up with me. He tells the woman to get some ice.
“Sorry, señor, it was mistake. No feelings hurt, OK?”
“You’ll get a raincheck on that, pal.” My knees crumble.
The guy walks me to the sofa and I lay down. He places a bag of ice behind my head.
“Why are you here, señor? The man asks this with ‘r’s rolling.
“The neighbors. The neighbors called saying there was a disturbance going on here.”
“I see. Manny was here. Matty and Manny they don’t get along.”
“Who are you?” I ask trying to remain conscious.
“Eduardo. Matty call me and say Manny outside. She throw him out last night. She no want him here.”
“I wish he’d been here a half hour ago.”
Eduardo laughed. “Yeah, me too señor.”
I open my eyes and see the frying pan woman standing at the foot of the sofa. She is holding a pocket mirror up to her face and putting on red lipstick. She looked like one of those femme fatales in the el cine negro movies my father-in-law likes to watch when he visits – a dangerous combination of beauty and vice. Her large dark eyes would bring men to their knees. Those two wrecking balls would make sure of it.
She turns away from the mirror. “Are . . . you . . . OK . . . señor . . . Winder?” Her deep voice purred out each word.
“I need to call my wife. She must be worried.”
She gives me a once over and says, “Lucky girl.”
I didn’t ask what she meant. Eduardo didn’t like what she meant. He narrowed his eyes and stared back at her.
Not with me I tell her.
A small boy peeks out from behind her wide hips and then hides again.
“Te veo hombrecito. Hi. Holá.”
The boy peeks out again. This time with a toothless smile.
¿Cómo te llamas?
He comes out from behind the woman with a hold on her silky dress.
“Miguel.”
“Mucho gusto Miguel. ¿Cuántos años tienes?
The boy holds up four fingers.
“Ah, no tan poco.” The boy let go of the dress ready to grab it again.
Eduardo helps me to my feet. My head is throbbing like a vodka toast hangover after a Polish wedding. I ask for my ID back and tell Matty to get a protection order if she feels threatened by Manny. “You don’t want to go from the frying pan into the cooler.”
What I said doesn’t make any sense to me or to them. So I say “I don’t want to come back here unless I am forced to. ¿Entiendes? Adios Miguel.”
The boy bites his lower lip and tugs on the dress as he watches me go out the door. I step out into the oppressive August heat and feel my heartbeat in my head. I call Laci and tell her I’m on my way.
~~~
Three AM Saturday morning the phone rings. It’s Sarge.
“How did things pan out for you at the Lopez place?”
“Who told you?”
“Laci. She knew you wouldn’t say anything.”
“Yeah. She’s right. I’m not down for the count if that’s what you’re wondering. And I’m guessing this isn’t a welfare check at three in the morning.”
“I need you to go over to Baila Escena over on fifth street. There’s been a shooting. One dead. CSI are headed over there now. Get going. And watch where you stick your head, Roy. Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
I hung up wondering what spirit Il filosofo di strada was imbibing at 3 AM. Was it the spirit of Hemmingway or Donne or of port wine?
Before I head over to the Zona Roja part of the city, I stop at Nighthawk Diner for a black coffee to go. Max, the owner, hands me the coffee and tells me that there is a full moon tonight. Of course there is, I say.
Baila Escena is on a rundown backstreet along with a pawn shop, a loan shop, a tattoo parlor, a package liquor store, and a smoke shop – each with bars on the windows.
There are two neon signs on the front of Baila Escena. One says it’s a dance studio during the week and the other says it’s a nightclub at night.
I go inside. The place has the wet cardboard smell of stale beer. And it is dark even with the house lights on. The walls, the small tables, the chairs, the dee jay booth, and the bar – everything is black. The windows are painted black. The only relief from the colorless setting are the liqueur bottles behind the bar and a few posters.
Behind the bar there is a dia del los muertos poster. Male and female skeletons are dancing in colorful outfits. A poster by the tables has a lively couple doing what is called “rumba caliente.”
I walk up to the bar. On the floor are three yellow evidence markers next to 9mm casings. The dead guy is seated on a bar chair and slumped against the bar. He’d been shot three times in the back. On the bar in front of him is an almost empty bottle of Salvadores Anejo and a shot glass. Shots in back. Shots in front.
The CSI guy is taking photos. I ask him who the dead guy is.
“Manny Lopez. He and his wife Matilda own the joint.”
The names had an all too familiar and painful ring. I guess no man is an island.
A short mustachioed man with a Guayabera Shirt pops up from behind the bar.
“We call her Matty.”
The CSI guy points while taking pictures. “That’s the guy who called 9-1-1.”
The little man hadn’t popped up. Was four foot six was all he had to offer?
“Who are you?”
“Emilio Estrada Ramírez. I am barback.” The little man began wiping the counter and I tell him to stop.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing, señor. I was in back when I hear shots. I stay there and call 9-1-1.”
“Who else was working last night?”
“Milana. She is bartender.”
“What’s her last name?”
“Kharinova. She is Russian.”
“Anyone else?”
“The bouncer.”
“What’s his name?”
“Ron. I don’t know his other name.”
“Milana and Ron – were they around when this happened?”
“Everybody go home. They go home. We close at two.”
“So, Emilio, was it just you and Mr. Lopez?”
“Yes. Me and him. Manny alway have drink when close. I stay with him to he close.”
“Was Matty here?”
“Oh no. She leave with Eduardo . . . I say about five when dance class is close.”
“Was anything taken? Anything from the cash drawer?”
“No sir.”
There are no CCTV cameras inside or outside. I have nothing and no one showing me who entered and shot Manny. I need to question Milana Kharinova and Ron the bouncer. I bring Emilio to the station for his statement.
I found out from Emilio that Milana goes to MMAclass on Saturdays. “She wants to be UFC fighter.”
~~~
I track down Central City MMA Academy in an industrial park outside city limits.
The Academy is in an industrial use space with high ceilings and a loading dock. There are mats on the floor and on the walls. Kids, teens, and adults are going at each other, some wrestling, some Muay Thai Kickboxing, and some with Jiu Jitsu. I ask an instructor if Milana Kharinova is training today. He calls her over.
Milana looks to be about five eight and a flyweight. Her short chestnut brown hair, gray eyes, and sharp jaw line give her a sophisticated and confident look. That she is training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu told me that under her disarming beauty was a dynamo looking to take on all comers.
I take Milana outside and show her my ID. The first thing she says: “Is Miguel OK?”
“Miguel? Is he four years old?”
“Yes. Miguel is four. Have you seen him?”
“I saw Miguel over at the Lopez house. He’s OK. Was he supposed to be there?”
“Yes. Matty watch him so I can train.”
“Milana, I am here to ask about the shooting last night at Baila Escena. You’re the bartender, right?”
“Yes. Wait. There was a shooting? Last night?”
“Yes. Manny Lopez was murdered.”
“Oh my God! I say goodnight to Manny and go to Matty to pick up Miguel.”
“What time was that?”
“Last call at one-thirty. I leave at two.”
“Did you see anyone go in around closing time?”
“No. Everyone go out.”
“Were there any cars parked out front.”
“No. No cars. Just homeless people. I take taxi to Matty.”
I tell her that I am going to see Matty and check on Miguel. I tell her that I need her to come to the station to make a statement after her class.
~~~
I drive over to the Lopez place. I want to have a talk with the woman who didn’t want Manny around.
This time I ring the doorbell, stand back about four feet, and wait for her to answer.
“Well helloooo detective. May I help you?”
“I’m sure you could, but I’m married. Ms. Lopez, I need to ask you a few questions.”
“Come in.”
I walk in and notice Miguel watching cartoons. He turns to look at me and turns back to the TV. I walk over to him and pull something out of my coat pocket. It’s a box of licorice pastilles. I offer one to Miguel. He takes one, puts it in his mouth, begins to screw up his face, and then asks for another.
“What did you give him, detective?”
“Licorice.”
“Are you trying to take him from me?”
“I was just talking to his mother over at MMA class. Now, I want to talk to you about last night. Privately.”
We walk into the kitchen. I keep an eye on the frying pan.
“You talk to her about what? What about last night?” She had dropped the smooth sultry voice and began using sharp tones.
“Where were you last night Ms. Lopez?”
“I was here. With Miguel and Eduardo.”
“All evening?”
“Yes.”
“Manny was murdered about ten hours ago.”
“Oh. I see. Who knows what he’s been up to. What’s that got to do with me?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out. With your husband and business partner out of the picture, you get Baila Escena all to yourself. And the other day when you conked me on the head, you thought it was Manny that you were smacking with that frying pan over there. You don’t want him around. You have motive. And you don’t seem at all bothered by his death.”
“I don’t want him around, detective, but no that way.”
Eduardo walked into the kitchen wearing only pajama bottoms.
“Oh señor. You are back. How is your head?”
“My cabeza is fine. But things are not fine at Baila Escena.”
“What do you mean?”
“Manny Lopez was murdered last night.”
“¡Dios mío.”
“Let’s talk privately.” I bring Eduardo to another room and out of earshot from Matty.
“Where were you last night, Eduardo?”
“I was here. With Matty and Miguel.”
“The whole night?”
“Yes. The dance studio close at five. I leave with Matty and Miguel.”
“When did Manny arrive?”
“Manny he come in at four to ready the club.”
“You leave with Miguel?”
“Yes. Miguel come to the club with Milana the bartender.”
“What time does she start?”
“Five. She brings Miguel to the club and we take him home with us. When Milana leave club at two she come pick him up.”
“This is Saturday. Miguel is here with you and Matty this morning.”
“Matty and I watch him in the dance studio when Milana goes to class on Tuesday and Saturday here.
“Is Milana in class right now?”
“Yes señor.”
“What is Matty’s relationship with Miguel?”
“She loves him very much. She wants to adopt him. She say she can’t have children.”
“I need you to come to the station right now and make a full statement. I’ll get Matty’s statement later today. I don’t want to leave Miguel alone.”
I didn’t want Matty and Eduardo alone together. I needed to find a hole big enough in someone’s story to crawl through and find the killer.
Before I go, I offer Miguel another pastille. He takes it and says thank you.
¿Estás bien, Miguel?
“Yes, sir.”
Miguel spoke with a raspy throat. His nose was running and his eyes were bloodshot. He’d been rubbing them.
“Cats bother you?” I point to the three cats that had the run of the place.
“Yes, sir. I like dogs better.”
“I like dogs, too. I’ll talk to your mother about the cats. I’ll check on you again, Miguel.”
Miguel smiled and rubbed his eyes.
~~~
At the station I walk in with Eduardo. Detective Smoltz is waiting in the hallway.
“Need any help with that hot tamale Matty, Roy?”
Eduardo lunges at Smoltz and unloads a punch to his jaw. Smoltz tries to return the blow, but I put myself in between him and Eduardo. The Sarge walks up. “You will not press charges, Smoltz. Go back to work.”
I interview Eduardo and he repeats the same things he tells me at the house. Then I ask “Eduardo, what is your relationship with Ms. Lopez?
“We teach dancing together.”
“And what else?”
“What else?”
“You were in pajama bottoms this morning. Is Matty divorcing Manny?”
“She want to but business is problem. She love dance studio but need club business to pay bills. They business together but no live together now.”
“Why does Matty want to divorce Manny?
“Matty say Manny cheat on her. But I do not think it was true.”
“Why?”
“Manny a good man. He help people. He help Milana. I tell Matty Manny good but it no matter.”
“So why are you taking a good man’s place?”
Eduardo didn’t answer.
“Did you kill Manny to have Matty and the business to yourself?”
“No señor.
“Would Ms. Lopez be crazy enough to have someone kill Manny?”
“No señor. She can be crazy in her blood but the boy make her less crazy.”
I finish the interview and have an officer take Eduardo home and bring Matty to the station.
If those two had anything to do with Manny’s death, they would alibi each other. I needed more to go on.
~~~
Milana arrives at the station. I bring her to Interview Room 1.
“Milana, I saw Miguel this morning. He is allergic to cats. He’s having a hard time breathing. Matty has three cats.”
“I find better place.”
“Milana, how many nights do you work at Baila Escena”
“Six nights.”
“You said you left Baila Escena at two last night?
“Yes. At two. Everyone leave.”
“You saw no one come in?”
“No.”
“Did you ever see Manny cheat on Matty?”
“No. I never saw him cheat. He talk to women every night but I never see him do anything else.”
“Has he ever come on to you?”
“No. He knows what I can do to him if he did.”
“Do you know anyone who wanted to kill Manny?”
“No.”
“What do you know about Eduardo?”
“Eduardo is a friend. Maybe father.”
“Miguel’s father?”
“Maybe. Maybe father Jasper my MMA instructor. I see him when Eduardo stop with me. Eduardo is afraid of Ron.”
“Ron? Is he the bouncer at Baila Escena?
She nodded her head.
“What’s Ron’s last name?”
“Laverty.”
“What’s the story? Why is Eduardo afraid of Ron.”
“Ron watch me all the time. Ron is big man. That why Eduardo is afraid of him.”
“Why does Ron watch you?”
“I meet Ron online what they call mail-order service. In Russia I live with someone but he drink a lot and hurt me. I want to be MMA fighter. Take care of myself. But he says no.
“Ron pay for me to come to America. He want to marry me. I come to America with my friend Daria. I come stay with him. He talk to Manny get bar job for me. He keep eye on me. But I no want to marry him. He drink a lot and get mean. I stay maybe two week with him. No more. Manny help me get apartment.
“I meet Eduardo at club. He nice to me help me with rent but Ron scare him. I meet Jasper at MMA class. He nice to me. Give me free classes. Then I with child. Manny help me when baby come.
“Is Ron the father?”
“Ron think maybe is father but Ron say he had snip job. You know snip job?”
“Yes, I know.”
“Is the guy in Russia the father?”
“Maxim? I don’t know. He rape me and I leave.”
At this point, there are at least four paternal lines of inquiry into a dead man with no say in the matter, a mother and a boy who don’t know who the father is, and a tomorrow no one thought of.
“Does Matty know that you and Eduardo were together?”
“No. We careful.”
“Does Eduardo think Miguel is his son?”
“I think yes.”
“Does Matty know Miguel could be Eduardo’s son by you?
“I don’t know what Eduardo say to Matty.”
“Here’s what I heard you say, Milana: you come to America to get away from a drinking and abusive guy who raped you. You stay with Ron, who paid your way to America, maybe two weeks because he drinks and is mean to you. He got you a job at Baila Escena maybe to keep an eye on you.
“Your boss Manny gets you an apartment. You hook up with dance studio Eduardo who helps pay the rent. But Eduardo is afraid of Ron and leaves you. Then you hook up with Jasper who gives you free MMA classes. You find out that you are pregnant. All in less than a month. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“And now, after four years, there are four men who think that Miguel may be their son: a Russian, one who shoots blanks, and two who help you in exchange for God knows what.
“Detective, men use me and I use them.”
“I am not here to judge you, Milana. I am working for the dead man. And the boy.”
There is a scuffle and shouting in the hallway. Orbits colliding? I get up to see.
~~~
Five officers are having trouble restraining two guys. One of the guys is huge. He had to be six foot five and two-hundred-fifty pounds. The other is a scrappy looking guy with dirty blond hair, mustache and goatee.
One of the officers says, “These two were going at it outside the Lopez house.”
“Who’s the big lug?”
“Ron Laverty.”
“The other guy?”
“Maxim Chernykh. He shot some guy named Eduardo.”
“Is Eduardo OK?”
“He took a bullet to the gut. He’s in ER right now.”
“Was a guy named Jasper there?”
Both handcuffed guys growled, “Who’s Jasper?”
“No. No Jasper, Roy.”
“Was the boy in any danger?”
“Not that we could see. He stayed behind his mother.”
“Put the big lug in holding and put the shooter into Interview Room 2. Is the gun 9mm?”
One of the officers said it was.
“Before you send the gun to ballistics have it fingerprinted and check the serial number.”
“One other thing, Roy.” Sarge walked up to show me the two Russian passports found on Chernykh. One was for Maxim Chernykh and the other for Mikhail Chernykh. The boy’s picture looked like a cut-and-paste job.
“Sarge, send this one to Immigration. It looks fake.”
I return to Interview Room 1. I tell Milana that a guy named Maxim Chernykh was picked up outside the Lopez place. I tell her that he was threatening Ron with a gun and shot Eduardo.
Milana jumped out of the chair ready to fight. She looked at the door and back at me.
“Miguel . . . is Miguel . . .?
“Miguel is safe. You’re safe here, Milana. Ron is in holding and Mr. Chernykh is waiting for me to interview him. Please sit down.”
~~~
Before I talk to the Russian, I go to holding to interview Ron.
“Ron, what were you doing at the Lopez place?
“I followed Milana this morning. I wanted to see where she goes with Miguel. If he is my son, I have a right to see him. I pay fifteen thousand dollars for Milana to come here. Fifteen thousand dollars! And she stays away from me. She keeps the boy from me. I try not to be difficult but difficult people try my patience.”
“What happened over there?”
“I’m in my car and see this guy go to the door. He looks like the homeless guy I blocked from the club last night. I wonder what he is doing here.
“He starts yelling “I vant ze boy come out now!” A man opens the door and tells him to go away but the nutcase pulls a gun out and starts waving it around. So, I get out of the car and start yelling for him to back off. The guy points the gun at me and I tell him I’ll break his neck. The guy is in a hurry to get the boy. He turns the gun back on the man at the door and shoots him. I rush the nutcase and take him down and hold him for the police.”
“Ron, the situation could have been a lot worse if you hadn’t been there. You protected Miguel and saved lives. Now it’s time for hard words and hard choices. You need to go your own way and leave Milana and the boy alone. From what Milana tells me, Miguel is not your son. And she left you because in the short time she’s known you, she thinks of you as no different than the same drinking mean guy she left in Russia who is the nutcase you took down today. But you showed me better than that today.”
“I know I’m a big galoot. I paid big money not to be lonely and I’m still lonely.”
“I’m no Dr. Phil, Ron, or a Sargent Grasso, but maybe find a focus outside yourself.”
~~~
I walk into Interview Room 2. Chernykh is pacing with clenched fists.
“Sit down Mr. Chernykh.”
He scraps the chair back, sits down, throws both arms on the table, leans in, and scowls at me with an open mouth and wolfish green eyes.
“Mr. Chernykh why were you are the Lopez house?”
“Mikhail.”
“Mikhail?”
“Milana call him Miguel to hide him from me. But I find out from Daria.”
“Milana’s friend?
“She is my friend, too. I send her money.”
“You came to America because you believe four-year-old Miguel is your son because four years ago you raped Milana and she left Russia with Daria?”
“Detektiv, you tupoy? You do not know how vomen are?”
“You’re not as smart as you think, yobik.”
“Oh, yes. I get Mikhail take him to home to Russia. Daria come, too.”
“You shot Eduardo. Why?”
“He tupoy problema.”
“The gun. How did you get it?”
“Daria has friends.”
“I hope Eduardo makes it. You better hope so too, Mr. Chernykh. There are several charges pending including assault with a gun, attempted kidnapping and passport fraud. No Russia for you, pal. No Daria. No Mikhail. Yesli ti dyéystvooyesh’ kak doorák, ti boodyesh’ traktovat’sya tak.”
~~~
I return to Milana with a bottle of water.
“I talked to Ron. He followed you to the Lopez house this morning. He saw Miguel go in there and he saw Chernykh trying to take the boy from Eduardo. Chernykh shot Eduardo and Ron took him down and held until police arrived. Ron saved Miguel from being kidnapped.
“He isn’t happy, Milana, that he paid for you to come to America and that you and the boy stay away from him. I told him that Miguel is not his son and to let you and Miguel be.
“I talked to Chernykh and found out that Daria is not your friend. She’s been helping Chernykh so he can take Mikhail back to Russia. She told Chernykh where to find Mikhail. Chernykh said Daria was going with him.”
Milana’s face turned fierce. “I tell her everything. I tell her I leave Ron. I tell her I have baby. I tell her that Manny help me get apartment and help me with baby. Maxim kill a good man because good man help me and Miguel.”
“Chernykh shot another good man because Eduardo wouldn’t let him get near Mikhail. Ballistics is looking at the gun Maxim used on Eduardo. If it matches the gun used on Manny, he will be charged with first degree murder. And, if Daria is involved in Mikhail’s attempted kidnapping, in supplying a gun for Manny’s murder, and in passport forgery I will bring her down.
“There are several charges pending against Chernykh including assault with a gun, attempted kidnapping and passport fraud. I told him that if he was going to be an idiot he would be treated like an idiot. He will be locked up for a long time.”
Before I send Milana on her way, I tell her to find a place for Miguel that has no cats. I give her my card and tell her to call me when she finds it. I’ll come and check on Miguel. Milana’s been to the mat several times and not for Jiu Jitsu. I hope the boy comes out on top.
It’s been a long day. I head toward the parking lot hoping Sarge doesn’t see me. But he does.
“Roy, I’ve been aware for many decades that most murderers are morons. Aristotle said that actions are consistent with character.”
I tell him that Mrs. Sarge called. I tell him she has some pasta e fagioli and a bottle of chianti waiting for a character like him at home. I tell him I’m going home to Laci, and to some Pozole that my father-in-law made, and to watch Ninón Sevilla in Víctimas del Pecado with him. I pop a licorice pastille in my mouth and walk out the door.
~~
©J.A. Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2026, All Rights Reserved
Cindy Wity 
The Fowler’s Snare Chronicles
November 3, 2024 Leave a comment
There is no way back but there is a way through.
The day that brothers Bryce and Blake returned to campus after a fencing tournament they were immediately escorted to the IU auditorium where the first session of the Ex Novo Institute in Basic Life Process had already started. It seemed to them that the whole student body was in attendance. They stood at the back of the balcony with the others who came in late.
Up front, a large screen projected a woman’s face. Her owlish eyes darted back and forth behind the circular frames of her glasses. The small, and yet imposing woman, had cropped black hair and was dressed in something like a military uniform. She was speaking from a podium off to the left of the screen.
“There will no longer be any recognition of the past. Clear your mind of all that came before. You are students of today. Your mindset is today. Your thoughts are today’s thoughts. When you complete the Basic Life Process course, you will become stewards of the New Way Forward and not of the dug-up past.”
Bryce and Blake gave each other a puzzled look.
“You will no longer be weighed down with the obligations of tradition and faith. Tradition and faith brought you guilt and prejudice and racism and greed and violence. You are to rid yourself of such baggage. Your motivations and direction will come from Central Screen. Central Screen will be your personal Event Horizon.”
A logo appeared on the large screen. Beneath the words “Central Screen” was what looked like graph paper curved into a cone pointing down. At the edge of the taper was “Event Horizon”. The cone’s tip was labeled “Singularity.”
“You will be given a new set of values from Central Screen. All that is good will come from Central Screen. There is no such thing as a morality that stands outside human society. Morality is subordinated to the General Will as shown on Central Screen.
“You will no longer have to worry about what is good and the right thing to. You won’t need religion. The Central Screen software will make particular ethical perceptions clearer by demonstrating how they exemplify more general rules based in scientific certainty. The software will provide a systematic accounting of reality that our intuitive moral perceptions and judgements can only hint at.”
When the first session had concluded, a student approached the speaker, Director Argans. She scanned the student’s face with her CenSoid App. “Yes, Alistair?”
“Director Argans, I am currently in the humanities doctoral program here at IU. My doctoral thesis is on Dante, Botticelli, and the Florentine Renaissance. I rushed back from Italy for this required course. Am I to understand, what you’re saying is, that the independent study of the humanities, the study of all languages and literatures, the arts, history, and philosophy is no more? Everything is to be found on Central Screen?
“Alistair, as you will learn on Day Three, anything that holds a bellicose inspiration from the past is a danger to the organization of peace. You will learn what unites us as world citizens. You want to live free from oppressive and pugnacious attachments to the past, don’t you Alistair? To see what can be, unburdened by what has been.
“It was pope Francis, Alistair, who said “a conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that.” He also said that it was a “suicidal attitude because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.
“And, wasn’t it Rousseau who said that people in their natural state are basically good. But this natural innocence, however, is corrupted by the evils of society? We are in the process of creating a new society using simple rational principles provided through Central Screen.”
“Well, Miss Argans, I never thought of art as bellicose or of being in a dogmatic box.”
“Alistair, you will after session three. Humanities stirs the emotions and emotions cloud reason. You will be given a new set of “realistic” or “rational” values to work with. In our workshops you will learn a new way forward with Central Screen AI. What will it profit you, Alistair, if you gained that doctorate and lose yourself with a suicidal attitude in the process?”
Another student broke in and Alistair wasn’t able to ask another question. He walked away stunned by what he had heard.
~~~~
“That was ten years ago this month.”
Comet got up from his chair and looked out the attic window of the Victorian house on Jefferson St. in Martinsville, Indiana. Seeing no threat, he sat back down and faced Scribe who was typing.
“That Ex Novo session was ten years ago this month. Make sure to note the dates in this chronicle. And listen, sis,” Comet emphasized, “no real names go into this eyewitness account. If these chronicles get into the wrong hands we’d be done for and so would mother and father and Grace downstairs. We are recording the diabolical acts of the Save Democracy party as Comet and Scribe. Let’s call this next chronicle Surface.”
“Surface?” asked Scribe.
“The Save Democracy party wants nothing to do with the past. Many in our world read and study history to know how to proceed. Practical wisdom is case based. But the Party studies the future, rewrites the past and proceeds with abstract theoretical reasoning or surface knowledge.
The party leadership operates like a ship’s captain heading out to sea and who ignores the traditional knowledge passed down through generations used by navigators to read the stars, winds, and currents.
“The Save Democracy party leadership ignores the guidance of the vast ocean underneath and the vast night sky above, the enduring connection to the space and time we all travel in. It ignores charts and says “I know my way around. I know where I want to go. I know the way forward just by looking at the surface” and “I know how to use a rudder.”
“The ship will move and be tossed about because the ocean surface is never still. Wind-driven waves and currents will steer the boat this way and that. It may take on water and go all Titanic. If not, it will end up lost at sea without a way back to port. Scribe, we have escaped. But most have been forced into steerage aboard the Surface ship of fools!”
“Got it, said Scribe. “I think.” She inserted another sheet of paper into the typewriter. “Did you finish what happened during that first Ex Novo Institute?”
“Ah, no. After the first session I came up and questioned Miss Argans about my law classes and finishing them up. She told me the same thing she said to the guy in front of me. When I left her, I noticed that I was being followed. I went to the second session – we all had to. It was the same lecture as the day before: tear it all down and start over. That time many of the students were clapping. Maybe out of fear or maybe because the words resonated with what they had been taught over the years.
“During the third session I saw the same people who had been following me. They were removing people from the auditorium. I snuck out. I went into hiding. We’ve been hiding ever since.”
Comet got up and took another look out the attic window. He remembered the day he saw the Rooms for Rent sign in the front yard. The widow Grace was happy to have them around to help keep things up and to keep her company. She also needed the money. The socialist economy had created hyperinflation. She let them rent two rooms.
Comet and Scribe arrived together. Their parents, who didn’t want either of them to grow up in the Save Democracy system, thought it best if they stayed out of sight together.
The house was a good location for Comet, a former astronomy student at IU. He spent many nights at IU’s Goethe Link Observatory just eleven miles north of Martinsville. He felt safe there in the middle of the night.
~~~~~
The street was quiet. What Comet thought unsettling was the Save Democracy party headquarters in the Morgan County Courthouse a few blocks away and the massive 5G tower standing next to it monitoring all digital communications and transactions.
“So, you were going to tell me what happened before all this Ex Novo business.” Scribe put another sheet of paper in the portable Smith-Corona typewriter.
Seeing no threat on the street Comet began pacing to give his account. “Let’s call this next chronicle The Surface Comes to Power.” Scribe began typing.
“Four years before the first Ex Novo days, a November election was held. But the man elected was not allowed into the White House. The Save Democracy party and a few others in the House of Representatives passed a resolution saying that the man was an “insurrectionist” and therefore disqualified under Section 3 of 14th Amendment “insurrection” clause. With Secret Service agents counting the electoral votes, together they refused to certify the election on January 6, 2025.
“The Counting and Certification of Electoral Votes in Washington, DC, had been designated a National Special Security Event by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The military received an amended directive allowing for their direct involvement in civilian law enforcement operations under emergency conditions, including situations where there is an imminent threat. The military was used by the Save Democracy to facilitate a coup, a coup set in motion four years before on January sixth. An “insurrection” setup scenario had been initiated by the Save Democracy party in concert with the FBI, “deep state” actors, and later with a show trial.
“Right after the election, the twenty-fifth amendment was used to depose the current feeble-minded president. He was replaced by a puppet, the feeble-minded Vice president. The elected Vice President was given an office but no access to the White House or policy.
“The Save Democracy party, over time, having taken control of both the house and senate with the votes of non-citizens, absentee votes counted after the election, and massive voter fraud, then removed the conservative members of the Supreme court with expulsions based on made-up ethics violations.
“The court was then reconstituted to hold fifteen members of the Save Democracy party. All challenges to the constitutionality of such sweeping changes failed because the plaintiffs were told they had no standing. No subsequent challenges were brought before the court after the Save Democracy party Speaker of the House tore up the U.S. Constitution during a State of the Union speech.
“It was then declared that the electoral college would be abolished and all future elections would have the oversight of the new Elections Council.
“Using the military “under emergency conditions” to keep the peace, Save Democracy members were quickly installed throughout state and local governments and the courts where there hadn’t been support for the Save Democracy party. The newly installed were given a mandate to defend One People, One Equality, One Equity, the motto of the Save Democracy party. The ensuing reign of terror went well beyond the atrocities of the French Revolution.”
Scribe stopped typing. “French Revolution? I don’t know what that is. Will the readers know?”
Comet sat down and faced her. “You were only six years old when the Save Democracy party took over the country. The party didn’t want anyone to learn history as it would expose them and their ways. You weren’t given a chance to learn history. I’ll explain the French Revolution later. You are an autodidact. You’ve learned a lot on your own already. I better go on. Have you got everything so far?”
“Yeah, go a little slower. I’m not used to typing on this thing” Scribe added another sheet of paper to the typewriter.
“OK. The Save Democracy party members immediately enacted permanent martial law. The Party media said that martial law had been imposed because of the civil unrest due to “perverse and macabre” political foes – those who didn’t accept what had happened to their country. Martial law allowed the Save Democracy party members to keep in check “extremist elements”, to control the drug trade for profit, and to exploit terrorism for its own ends.
“The operation of new penal codes was entrusted, not to legal authorities, but to local oversight committees. They hunted down those thought to be a threat to the community. Anyone could be accused of being disloyal to the Save Democracy party even based on hearsay. Anyone – father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, and child – could be imprisoned, tortured or executed for allegedly being critical of the Save Democracy party. Many were arrested on fabricated charges just to keep people living in fear of the local Save Democracy party.
“A favorite form of torture in many towns was the “Underneath pit.” An arrestee was thrown into a ten-foot-deep hole in the ground. The hole was exposed to the elements. The width of the pit was barely bigger than the person thrown in. He or she would not be able to bend or change their position. The hole was the prisoner’s latrine. After many days the person would become a sliver of flesh with only the feeling of anger keeping them alive. These tortures are still going on today.
“With the new power they had been given, local Save Democracy party members kept up the perpetual and brutal oppression of citizens. They loved to dehumanize. For them it was a game. They found new ways of doing so and posted them on Central Screen. Limitless coercion and terror were essential to the Save Democracy party’s New Way Forward.
“Random terror was meant to convey the constant and unyielding force of the Party’s control over humanity. It emphasized a future devoid of freedom and individuality. The end product was to create mindless and unfeeling oxen for the party.
“Out of fear of being sent home and losing benefits – a threat made on Party media – fifteen million illegal migrants voted for Party candidates every election.
“Once the Save Democracy party had full control, it was decided that vast numbers of the population had to be culled, as the welfare system, hospitals, schools, and prisons were overwhelmed. Some in the party just wanted to lower the population numbers out of climate concerns. So, a gain-of-function virus was released from a bioweapons lab in California. Millions of people suffered and died from the higher levels of spike protein in the One Health self-amplifying mRNA vaccine.
“The Committee of Public Singularity was established out of fear of a viral outbreak of past knowledge. The Committee created the Ex Novo-Institute in Basic Life Process to deal with the Underneath, a mindset that had been banned as extremist.
“The idea behind the institute was to make a clean sweep of human nature. At the compulsory meetings people were told that the Save Democracy party was building from scratch a new ideal society on the concepts of humanitarianism, social science, and collectivism using Central Screen programming. The analog past was to be replaced with a digital future controlled by Central Screen AI.
“What I learned during the Ex Novo sessions was that voiding the past and human attachments were required by the New Way Forward. Old thoughts, old habits, old culture, and old customs had to be destroyed. No one was to experience any connection with family, friends, children or about anything, past or present. They were to die to all that. All of life was to come from the Party’s Central Screen. All of life was to come from the Surface.”
~~~~
“You staying with me, Scribe?”
“Yeah. This stuff you’re telling me is nasty. I don’t like thinking about it.” Scribe shivered.
“Yeah, it is. That’s why we are making a record of it. People need to know what happened. Right now, the Save Democracy party is erasing anything connected to the past. Let’s keep going.”
Once again, Comet got up and looked out the window. The neighborhood was quiet.
During the first days at the house, Grace talked about Martinsville. The first settlers, she said, arrived in Morgan County in 1822. Large numbers of Quakers migrated here from the south because of their opposition to slavery.
She also said Martinsville was nicknamed the City of Mineral Water. Oil workers discovered the foul-smelling mineral water while drilling. Mineral water was thought to have healing properties. It was used in the Martinsville Sanitarium which operated as a health resort until about 1957. But now, she said, the Sanitarium was being used by the Party for optogenetic experiments on citizens.
That’s what her last renters, neuroscience students, told her. The Party is controlling subjects with the presence of light to alter cell behavior with regard to reward, motivation, fear, and sensory processing.
Seeing nothing on the street that concerned him, Comet continued dictating while pacing.
“In tandem with the Ex Novo-Institute, there was an even more invasive program: ReCognify Conditioning. The Save Democracy party, along with the social programmers of the World Economic Forum, claimed that human nature is no different to that of a programmable machine.
“Transhumanist scientists began implanting vast numbers of the population with synthetic memories using brain chips to create a new ideal human. The ReCognify program had been initially tested on criminals. According to one unauthorized release of Party documents, customized AI-generated content converted visual information into codes delivered directly to the brain and stored in DNA and RNA, forever altering the subject.
“Prisoners were implanted with synthetic memories of their crimes – but from the perspective of their victim or victims. The embedded artificial memories prompted reactions like remorse, empathy, and understanding.
“The ReCognify program then began to be used on the general population to wipe away past memories and to make people docile and pliable to the Party’s party authority. The Ex Novo Institute was the means to bring in those subjects the Party thought would be troublemakers. But not everyone would submit to ReCognify and the “forced forgetting” process.”
“Hold it,” said Scribe. “The ink is beginning to wear thin. I need another ribbon. I wonder if . . .”
“We’ll ask Grace if she has more,” Comet said. “C’mon. We need a break.”
~~~~
“We know that the son of God has come and given us understanding so that we know the truth. And we are in the truth, in his son Jesus the Messiah. This is the true God; this is the life of the age to come.”
Father Denny stopped reciting 1 John from memory when the barn door creaked opened. Everyone drew quiet. Bryce and Blake and their wives appeared at the door. Father Denny waved them in. The couples greeted him and six others of the Underneath community.
The group met to support each other in a barn on a southern Indiana farm. They had been living on the farm, hiding from the Save Democracy for the past ten years. The refuge was Father Denny’s idea.
Anglican priest Father Mason Denny, a gaunt bewhiskered marathoner, left his Indy parish and moved to the sweeping 80-acre working farm to help his friend Tom and his wife Sally. The Binghams were in their seventies and working the farm had become too much for them. They had no idea what happened to their children. They hoped the Save Democracy party hadn’t taken them.
Seeing the possibilities and after much prayer, Father Denny knew that he had to create a refuge to help those of the Underneath escape the “fowler’s snare,” as he called the Save Democracy party’s operations. A portion of the farm land was already being used as a short-term RV campsite. Using all of his retirement funds, he converted the campsite into a mobile home park and began rescuing students.
When the Ex Novo Institute staff began pulling students out of the audience for the ReCognify program, Father Denny brought several students to the farm. The students knew Father Denny and trusted him. He had been a chaplain on campus, providing spiritual services in the Beck chapel on the IU campus. This was before the Save Democracy party banned all such meetings as subversive.
The rescued students lived in the mobile homes and worked the farm. From their organic garden they harvested green onions, Italian greens, tomatoes, asparagus, spinach, strawberries, green beans, heirloom tomatoes, summer squash, blackberries, melons, and herbs. From the field, they gathered sweet corn.
They grew an array of flowers – zinnias, gladiolus, dahlias, and sunflowers – and tended goats, rabbits, and chickens.
Every Saturday they held a farmer’s market to sell produce, goat cheese, pastured eggs, and pies and to barter with locals for butter, flour, meat, and diesel fuel.
Father Denny found a way to sustain the Underneath, a mindset that had been banned. But it had come at a personal cost.
~~~~
Comet and Scribe sat at the farmhouse kitchen table with Tom, Sally, Father Denny, and Skippy, Tom and Sally’s three-legged Airedale.
Comet and Scribe had recently found their way to the refuge. Grace, the woman they were staying with, gave them directions to the farm after local Party authorities came around one day looking for them. One of her neighbors, who had received a ReCognify implant, had given them away.
Comet asked Scribe to read the transcript of what Grace related about her husband.
“Bill was a mechanic in a manufacturing company. He told me that every day in the lunch room there were news reports on the TV saying that inflation was transitory and that the economy was doing great and that wages rose again for the fourteenth quarter in the row. Bill began posting his pay stubs on his tool box to show that it wasn’t true. His foreman came along and told him to take it down or face dismissal. Bill didn’t take it down and he was dismissed. The Party wouldn’t allow him to work again.”
Comet described how he and Scribe were recording what took place the last fifteen years. He explained his use of “Surface” to describe the operation of the Save Democracy party.” Father Denny agreed with his analogy.
Comet and Scribe were eager to hear Father Denny’s story. They said they would record the story and use false names and places.
“Scribe, you don’t have to keep lugging that portable typewriter around.” Tom offered. “We can hide it under a floorboard in the other room. No one will find it there.”
Scribe nodded and smiled in relief.
“Are we ready Scribe?” Father Denny asked.
“Ready, sir,” Scribe replied. Father Denny began.
“During my twentieth year as rector of an Indy church, I lost my wife Ellen to the effects of the mandated vaccine. Despite my protestations and my own refusal to take the mRNA vaccine, she thought it a Christian thing to do to obey the authorities, especially as the Party had mandated “No vaccine. No church gathering.”
“After Ellen’s passing, I came to realize that the authorities had more in mind than a vaccine mandate. I was faced with a choice.
“You see. Churches not obeying Save Democracy party directives were closed. The churches with what I call “cultural Christians” – those that obeyed mandates and focused on . . .” he paused and looked over at Comet, “. . . Surface issues pushed by Central Screen Apps, issues such as social justice, equity, race, gender, sexuality, and creation care – remained open.
The Party knew that the fate of its project of atheistic secularization was tied to the religious feelings people had. The Party saw that it couldn’t convert the religious with ideology. But it could use religion to further its ideology and fill the void of absence of spirituality.
“I saw that the spiritual way of life was to be replaced with the Surface way of life. Religious symbols were to be replaced with secular symbols. The church and the gospel were being replaced with Assemblies of the General Will and the “well done” of social credit scores. The Party worked to fill the ideological and spiritual absence of religion.
“As a way to reorient churches, ministers were forced to sign a social contract acknowledging that Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains and that all people should unite with the General Will of the people to bring about the common good of the New Way Forward.
“The General Will, as dictated by the Central Screen app, meant the total subordination of citizens. All rights, all property and all religion would be subject to the General Will. Freedom would be associated with obedience. As such, the General Will directive provided Party members a defense for oppressing and destroying those who did not obey including those of the Underneath.
“The deeper-than-surface Christianity that I call the “Underneath” was an ideological, political and spiritual problem for the Save Democracy party. The “error correction” of “the science” didn’t work on the Underneath. Its underlying history, tradition, and transcendent gospel had to be rooted out and destroyed.
“The Save Democracy party understood that those like myself and those here on the farm and elsewhere – disciples of Jesus – are not directed by Central Screen. We are directed by the Lord of heaven and earth. We don’t compromise and hold back a reserve of ourselves to maintain the status quo and avoid trouble. We speak to the fiction and lies around us and that has brought suffering.
“The cultural Christians of Central Screen desire the good feelings of social justice activism but none of the adversity attached to proclaiming the gospel message. They portray themselves as being and doing right with social justice standards. Jesus quoted Isaiah to the Pharisees and legal experts when a dispute arose about a manmade imperative:
‘These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God’s command
and taking up the latest fads.’
“Compromised, they live within the lie. They perpetuate and legitimize the ideological fiction of the Party. They become oppressed and the oppressor, persecuting critics of Central Screen activism.
“The party also knew that it couldn’t convert those of the Underneath with what they called the “Reformation” – the ideological work of scientific atheism through the Ex Novo Institute. They saw those of the Underneath as tenacious holdouts.
“Ex Novo programming was meant to show that The General Will is the purpose of life. Faith in The General Will was to become an inner conviction. Then, they assumed, all illusions about heaven and the afterlife and the kingdom of God fade away and disappear. The Surface was to be one’s spiritual refuge.
“When the vestry came to me one day and said “we need to show pronoun hospitality” I told them that I would retire. I could see that many in the congregation did not believe the lies of Central Screen, but they felt, as Vaclav Havel wrote in his essay The Power of the Powerless, that they must behave as though they did, or they must at least tolerate them in silence, or get along well with those who did.
“Havel went on to say that “They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system.”
“Seeing this mindset in the congregation, I told the vestry I would leave and go on the road and see the country. I ended up here on Tom and Sally’s farm in southern Indiana. I expected my son to join me here at the farm when he returned from his doctoral research trip to Italy. But that didn’t happen.
“I lost contact with him son after he returned to the states. I was frantic and looked for him all over campus. Those I asked said that the last time they saw Alistair was at the end of the first session of the Ex Novo Institute. They said he was asking questions.”
“I was there. I was behind him in line,” Comet jumped in.
Father Denny felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. “I know Alistair. I knew that he would question things and exercise his point of view. But I also knew that the Save Democracy party accepted no challengers. So, I imagine the worst and pray for his safe return.”
Father Denny sighed heavily. “That was ten years ago and I haven’t heard a word about my son since.”
~~~~
The rescue from the third Ex Novo Institute session that December day happened quickly. The students were not able to inform their families. Telling them their whereabouts would put their families at serious risk. When the students didn’t sign in for the next Ex Novo Institute session, their families would be contacted and would be forced to take Truth Test Serum to tell the Party’s enforcement squad where they were. Having no knowledge of where the students were, they would be released. Father Denny later found a way to tell them that “they were safe and not to worry.”
Refugees Erin and Joseph were fourth-year neuroscience students. Jeremy studied computer science. Quinn had been a biotechnology major and worked part time at the Ray Bradbury Center at the IU Indy campus. Steven and Melanie were pre-med students.
Bryce was working on a Masters in epidemiology when he met Bryn, who was studying Environmental Health. Blake was working on his master’s degree in Business Analytics when he met Alice who was studying Business Admin Medicine. Father Mason Denny married the two couples in a ceremony held on the farm.
Mobile homes housed the former students. Each couple had a mobile home. Erin, Quinn, and Melanie shared a mobile home, as did Joseph, Jeremy and Steven. Father Mason Denny had a room in the farmhouse. Comet and Scribe had rooms in the farmhouse.
The members of the Underneath brought with them as many books as they could when they escaped Ex Novo and ReCognify. Father Denny brought his library to the farm. No other books would be available.
The Save Democracy party had dictated that books and education created inequality and unhappiness and were therefore banned. Libraries no longer contained books. Libraries were converted into ReCognify centers. The outside world had been cut off from knowledge that wasn’t Central Screen provided.
There were no electronics – phones, computers, TVs, radios, GPS devices – and no Central Screen app on the farm grounds. This was done to secure the location. Father Denny told the group that “The farm isn’t off the grid. We are hiding in the open and keep a low profile.”
Isolated from their families, members of the Underneath farm refuge supported each other. Weekdays were filled with farm work. At night the group ate together and then gathered in the barn or at the fire pit behind a thicket. They read texts out loud and recited memorized scripture. Each had committed entire Scripture texts to memory.
Father Denny had told them that “memorization is a means to internalize information of sacred nature, a transmutation of the metaphysical into flesh and blood and marrow.” It was also, he said, a means to create a memory palace – a mental sanctuary of information tied to farm scenes so that they can recall what was memorized. This, he said, would sustain them if captured by the Party.
On Sundays, the farm’s Underneath community came together for a liturgical service. They sang, prayed, and recited scripture. Father Denny administered to the group and administered the Eucharist.
Comet and Scribe set all this down under the heading “Rescue, Refuge, and New Reality.”
~~~~
The nights of the Underneath community were filled with readings and recitations, music and drama.
One night, Alice read Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. Over several nights, Father Denny read Vaclav Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless. Other nights he read Father Brown stories. Over several nights, Jeremy read Robinson Caruso and Comet read Treasure Island. Quinn recited the poem ‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold.
Alister talked about his trip to Italy, and about the Italian Renaissance, Dante, and Botticelli.
Sally played the piano, Melanie played the flute, Jeremy the guitar, and Father Denny played some of his Big Band LPs for dancing.
One night they acted out Hamlet. Bryce and Blake played Hamlet and Laertes and fenced during the last Act. The brothers had, at one time, been in the U.S. Olympic fencing team.
One fire-pit night Alice quipped that women make the best archeologists because they are good at digging up the past. And Bryn said the smarted person in the Bible was Abraham: “He knew a Lot.”
One night they came together to listen to Quinn read Fahrenheit 451.
When Quinn finished reading the first chapter, Jeremy said “Read the part again, the part where fire chief Captain Beatty explains to Montag about how books had lost their value.”
Quinn turned back a few pages and read.
“Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally ’bright’, did most of the reciting and answering while others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn’t it this bright boy you selected for beatings and torture after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?’
“Wow!” Said Jeremy. “That’s what the Party was pushing during Ex Novo. Exactly that!”
Father Denny added, “Polish poet Czesław Miłosz once said that “In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.””
Comet and Scribe took notes.
~~~~
Comet brought his refractor telescope with him to the farm. One late night the group headed outside to explore the night sky. The area around the farm had little light pollution, so the evening sky sparkled with illumination.
The moon was full that night and the entire earth-facing surface was clear to see. Comet pointed the telescope at the lunar surface. Everyone took a turn viewing.
Scribe, waiting her turn, caught sight of something coming from the road. The moonlight-etched figure walked and weaved toward them like one of the disoriented ReCognits. The figure stumbled down, got up and tried to wave but fell down again and stayed down.
The group moved closer. Bryce turned the man over and lifted the soiled hair from his face.
“It’s Alister! he shouted. “Help me get him up.”
~~~~
Alister opened one eye and saw his father sitting in a chair. He was asleep.
“Dad,” Alister whispered.
Father Denny jolted up from the chair. “I just had a dream that you came home.”
“I had the same dream,” Alister replied. “I guess we’re on the same wavelength.”
Father Denny felt Alister’s head. “You have a fever. Here, drink this water.” He propped up Alister and helped him drink. “How do you feel?”
“I feel weak. I have a headache and a stiff neck. I ache all over.”
“Can you talk about what happened?’
“Maybe later today.” With that Alister closed his eyes and fell asleep.
That evening Sally came downstairs and told father Denny that Alister was awake and his fever was down. Father Denny, Tom, Comet and Scribe went up to see Alister. He was sitting up in bed with Skippy on his lap. He smiled when they entered the room
Father Denny, seeing that Alister’s face was no longer pale, put the back of his hand on his forehead. “You’ve cooled down, thank God.”
“I’m ready to tell you what happened.” Alister took a long drink of water. The four took their place around the bed.
“After that first Ex Novo Institute session, I went up to Director Argans to ask about continuing my doctoral program. I won’t go into all she said right now, but I left with the understanding that the Party had put the kibosh on everything pertaining to cultural memory and intellectual diversity. Everything was to be the General Will of the people.
“When I left the auditorium, I went to my room and packed. I was going to come here. But then two Save Democracy party goons came in and took me to their headquarters on campus. There, over many days I was subjected to constant Central Screen videos. I was deprived of food and sleep. People I knew came in and tried to coax me into signing my allegiance to the Party. I wouldn’t.
“They must have seen that they needed to break me even more so I was placed in solitary confinement. They put a sign above the cell. It read “The Divine Comedy.”
“I don’t know how long I was in there. What sustained me was my faith in God and what I had learned.
“Sometime, after a lifetime in that cell, I was brought outside. The fresh air in my lungs revived me. But then they dropped me into a deep hole in the ground. They said that if I wanted to be part of the Underneath that I would be put underneath.
“The hole was so tight that I could not move side to side or up and down. And it was so deep that I could not climb out. I was left there, day and night, in all kinds of weather and with bugs. I was in there maybe twenty days. Then one night I felt a rope on my face. I looked up and saw no one.
“I pulled on the rope and it was secure. I tried to climb it but I was too weak. But then a voice said “Hold on.” So, I did.
“I was pulled out to the surface and onto the ground. When I looked, there was no one around. No one.”
The group looked at each other.
“I found my way here.”
~~~~
When Alister had fully regained his strength, the Underneath community held a Eucharistic service in thanksgiving for his rescue and homecoming.
The first reading, Jeremiah 51:45-48, was read by Bryce:
“Get out of this place while you can,
this place torched by God’s raging anger.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t ever give up
when the rumors pour in hot and heavy.
One year it’s this, the next year it’s that—
rumors of violence, rumors of war.
Trust me, the time is coming
when I’ll put the no-gods of Babylon in their place.
I’ll show up the whole country as a sickening fraud,
with dead bodies strewn all over the place.
Heaven and earth, angels and people,
will throw a victory party over Babylon
When the avenging armies from the north
descend on her.” God’s Decree!”
Alister read from Psalm 124: 6-8:
“Oh, blessed be God!
He didn’t go off and leave us.
He didn’t abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.
We’ve flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we’re free as a bird in flight.
God’s strong name is our help,
the same God who made heaven and earth.”
Blake read the epistle, 2 Corinthians 6:16-18:
“Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.
Father Denny read the gospel, Luke 21:11-19:
“Jesus went on, “Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Huge earthquakes will occur in various places. There will be famines. You’ll think at times that the very sky is falling.
“But before any of this happens, they’ll arrest you, hunt you down, and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.
“You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul—even the hairs of your head!—is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it—that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.””
Using the Jeremiah text, Father Denny spoke on “Come out of her, my people! The world, Babylon, would have you come out as its own creation but we have come out as sons and daughters of the Father.”
He then read Revelation 18:4-5:
“Get out, my people, as fast as you can,
so you don’t get mixed up in her sins,
so you don’t get caught in her doom.
Her sins stink to high Heaven;
God has remembered every evil she’s done.
Give her back what she’s given,
double what she’s doubled in her works,
double the recipe in the cup she mixed;
Bring her flaunting and wild ways
to torment and tears.
Because she gloated, “I’m queen over all,
and no widow, never a tear on my face,”
In one day, disasters will crush her—
death, heartbreak, and famine—
Then she’ll be burned by fire, because God,
the Strong God who judges her,
has had enough.
The Eucharistic Feast followed.
~~~~
On the following Saturday, at 9 AM, two tables were set up along the roadside. They were covered with fresh produce, flowers, eggs, goat cheese, and a cooler with rabbit and chicken meat. Local people began to come along and exchange goods.
Bryce thought that everything was going well that beautiful August morning. But then he noticed something and whispered to Blake, “Don’t look. I think that’s Director Argans getting out of that car on the right. She has white pointy hair now.”
Blake, conversing with customers, saw her approach the table. When the farm stand customers saw a uniform, they got in their cars and drove off.
“Where is your sign?” It was Director Argans.
“I’m sorry ma’am. What sign?” Blake looked puzzled.
“The “People of The General Will Unite” sign!” She crossed her arms and waited for an answer.
“Ma’am, here is our sign.” Blake grabbed the grease board from the table, erased “THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT,” and wrote something on it. He read it out loud: “We are compliant and obedient and there is no need to worry about us.”
Director Argans looked it over, huffed, and then her black eye brows shot up above the frames of her round glasses and her jaw dropped. She was looking between Bryce and Blake. Alister had come up to the table. Director Argens grabbed an apple from the basket on the table and headed back to her car.
Bryce breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over at Blake and said “Good one! She doesn’t know who we are compliant and obedient to.” And together, they said “There is no need to worry about us!”
~~~~
Comet and Scribe created a circular letter to send to other Underneath communities in hiding.
It began . . . “These chronicles have been written with eyewitness accounts so that you may know the history and extent of evil in the land. There are many other evil acts of the “Save Democracy” party which are not recorded here.
“These Fowler’s Snare chronicles have been written so that you may share in our faithful witness:
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.”
©Lena Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2024, All Rights Reserved
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Filed under 2024 Current Events, 2024 Election, Christianity, Short Story, short story, social commentary Tagged with apocalypse, Bible, Christianity, faith, FICTION, Indiana, Short Story, tyranny, writing