Fractured

I looked at my home at the dead of night, wishing I was still there enjoying the family life. Family, no such thing anymore with society pitting family members against family members.

“The government fooled all and it is such a shame,” I muttered.

It is an abandoned house I sit in by the front window, looking at the place I once lived in. Laughter. Cried. I yelled in frustration the final days.

“How did it happen so quickly?” I thought. “We were all together, but now society is fractured.”

I should have seen it as it started little by little. People accepting as everyone’s lifestyles were split into categories.

“We want to be inclusive of everyone,” we heard constantly.

It made sense at the start. So many did not have the joys of others. The scale seemed to balance out, but it quickly changed. It started to tilt the other way so the ones once enjoying were now living in misery.

“That is what they get,” many spoke out.

“Why should the innocent be punished,” I would tell myself. “Instead of being compassionate like they say they are complete fools.”

“Don’t say that so loud,” family and friends would say. “Just accept it.”

I would now cower in fear as my freedoms eroded away. One by one I lost my friends as they were lockstep with what poured forth from the ones in charge.

“I don’t want to lose my job,” my friend Joe told me a year ago.

“It’s not that bad,” my friend Christine said.

“Quit bucking the system,” my brother, Luke, demanded of me. “You are going to get our family in trouble.”

“Why do you want to follow this corrupt system?” I asked my brother. “A bunch of hypocrites who like to spout out their compassion to all, except the ones they disagree with. We are now the enemy.”

“Quit being ridiculous,” he told me, and left my presence.

As I now sit looking at my home for months ago, I knew my brother agreed with me. So many agreed with me, but didn’t want to do anything about it. Will they learn the errors of their ways? Some might but so many will not, and they will fall. I had a bad feeling that the storm was rapidly approaching.

It didn’t take long for rules to be implemented, which required people to comply with or lose many privileges we once enjoyed.

“Why are you okay with them taking our rights away?” I asked my parents a month before I departed. “The two of you should understand most of what is happening.”

“Life is still well for us,” my mother replied.

“It’s not that bad,” my father replied.

“I can’t believe how ignorant you all are.”

“You watch your mouth!” my father cried out.

My mother just shook her head. I believe she was more on my side, but didn’t want to speak up. Like so many others out there. Never speak up.

It was when the government wanted to put a chip into everyone that I had enough. I went out and protested with a group about this nonsense. It started out as a request, but quickly changed to a requirement. A large percentage, like sheep, took the chip right away. If you didn’t, then you wouldn’t be able to do a thing. You could no longer buy anything and go to many locations.

“Don’t you realize how easy it’s now to get around?” my brother asked a week before the family split. “Just get it done and all will be good.”

“Get it done and sell my soul to the devil.”

“Quit being so stubborn and ignorant.”

“Sorry I don’t want to be on the dark side.”

“You watch too much TV,” my brother said with a frown and walked away.

It was the next day that the neighbors across the street disappeared in the middle of the night. The house that I lived in at this moment.

“Do you see what happens when you do not get the chip?” my father asked in irritation.

“For our sake, get it done,” my mother pleaded.

“Sorry. I can’t sell my soul.”

“Not only will you get yourself in trouble, but get us in trouble by allowing you to stay here,” my father said.

“Should I leave?” I asked.

Neither one of them replied.

“Let me hook up with people like me,” I told them.

I did exactly that. I went to the few to see if I could stay with them. If not, I asked for options. I also found out that some took the chip or mysteriously disappear.

“What has this country become?” I thought.

“I know of a librarian that is taking people in,” one of my good friends, Ralph, told me. “Go to this location after hours and you can stay there for a while.”

“Thank you for the info,” I told him.

I went to my home for the last time and told them I was moving on. I even offered them to come with us and we would remove the chip. They declined.

“Get out of my face, you fool,” my brother told me. “Get out before I report you.”

“You would help lead me to the guillotine?”

“Just get out.”

I left them and went to the librarian. She had a hidden room that I could stay in for a bit. She told me there were others like me gathering, and it was growing and growing.

“You might be killed, but will still have your freedom,” the librarian told me.

Now, here I am staring at the home I lived in all my life. The many joys have ended. I doubt it will ever return. To me, this country has entered a very dark chapter. It’s not the first time civilization has traveled this road, and it has recovered. Will it be the same this time around?

“I hope so,” I said as I stood up to leave. “I pray so.”