Into the Light

First chapter of a book

Chapter 1

He knew.

Daniel knew that Scott was different. He could see it in his eyes; that man did not belong.

Daniel liked to think he was a fine man. He was quiet and reserved, he worked hard and cared for his family. He had a decent job and did what he could to always follow the rules.  Scott was very different, however. He was voluble, liked to make friends, and an intellectual who never stopped reading. He was a free spirit and didn’t conform to society’s expectations. Scott, simply, was trouble.

Daniel had grown up with his parents and siblings. His father was a coal miner and his mother was a maid for a well off family downtown. Growing up, he spent a lot of time with his sisters and brother.

In this world, there was no school. No toddler attended head start, no teenager spent their days trudging through the halls of a high school, no young men or women wasted their time and money in a university. People only knew what their parents taught them and what they learned from their own experiences.

Long ago, the world had been so consumed by the idea of school that the grades themselves mattered more than the learning that was supposed to be taking place. People were imprisoned by the system until the New Leaders teamed up to put an end to those foolish ways.

The world began changing quite drastically. The schools were shut down first, then the government took a more demanding role in the people’s lives. The reasoning was that the last time the people were able to control the government, it had led to the Bad Times, so the New Leaders decided to give all the power to the government they were creating. In the Modern World, as the New Leaders liked to call their society, friends and extended family didn’t matter very much. Children only stayed with their parents until they decided to marry and start a family of their own. Then only the person’s spouse and, eventually, children mattered. The New Leaders thought the connections between people and the obligations they feel toward one another were the reason the world became so evil. If one was only loyal to their spouse and government, there was less room for error in their ways.

Daniel had never lived in the Bad Times. The change happened before he’d been born, even before his parents were. Really the only reason he knew of the Bad Times at all was from the horror stories his mother told him which she had heard from her mother. He had never met any of his grandparents, not on his mother or father’s side of the family, so all he had were stories.

It may seem strange to anyone reading this, but that’s the way the Modern World works. In fact, Daniel hadn’t seen his parents in 20 years. He’d married Katherine when he was just 17, and they’d had children right away. As the New Leaders always taught, once one is married and becomes a parent, their own parents don’t exist for them anymore. In a sense, one cannot both be and have parents at the same time.

His wife, Katherine, was a nice girl though. She had short blonde hair and beautiful chocolate colored eyes. She was fairly short in height, as she only came up to Daniel’s shoulder when they stood together. It was expected for people in the Modern World to be reserved, but Katherine was almost too shy; she even had trouble talking to Daniel about some things and they’d been married for 20 years. That didn’t stop Daniel from loving her with all his heart though.

He truly loved her and the life they had together. Neither of them were very intelligent people, but that was okay. They had each other and their children, and that was enough.

Their oldest son had gotten married two years ago and they hadn’t heard from him since. Daniel still saw him around occasionally, but they never spoke to one another. It was improper to even acknowledge a child once he’d moved out and gotten married. Once, though, Daniel thought he saw the young man smile at him in passing, but even that was forbidden and considered a rebellious act.

It’s strange, Daniel thought, how the world once was so connected and intertwined. He thought it all sounded a bit extreme. How could one expect to raise his children when he, himself, was attending a place called “college” and taking orders from his own parents? It seemed quite backwards to a simple man like Daniel. People would pay for an education in a fancy institution where they’d spend all day and lose time with their children who they should have been educating. It was a fatally flawed system indeed.

But none of that particularly mattered to Daniel. He had seven children left to raise and a wife to take care of. Pondering the mistakes of the past didn’t do him any good as it only took his attention away from what mattered most to him. There was only one thing that could divert his attention like that: Scott.

Reviews

[alanwgraham]

You have done a good job of inventing and describing this new society. It is so difficult to be consistent with all the detail. A few years ago I wrote about a stone age society and I had to imagine myself back and invent how their clan may have worked. Your new society with echo's of 1984 is a huge change from our present one. The revolution must have been very traumatic and you haven't said much about how the new order is imposed. Is it good to see someone tackling something like this.
Well done.
Regards,
Alan