They said it couldn't happen here.
But it did.
And now I need to get out. Not just me, but my entire family. This would not be an easy feat, but it had to be done. They were cracking down even harder now, and it would only be a matter of a short time when they would take us all.
It hadn't been easy to survive this long. I had been know for my editorials and writings, critical of the administrations that had led to this. Others who had not had been as publicly assertive as I could blend back in. Not me. I, along with several other well-known progressives, had to publicly recant, or face prison, even execution.
You may think of me as a coward for backing down. That's all right. I think that, too. We always think of how courageous we'll be, only to melt when it's yourself or your family on the line.
So I behaved. It hurt. My head ached, my blood pressure rose, my stomach was now the proud possessor of an ulcer. Yet, I swallowed it all so my family could go on.
Benjamin managed to graduate from public schools just before they were destroyed and replaced with "Christian Academies." Unfortunately, only so-called Christian Universities were left for him to go to, and despite our urgings, he could not stay silent.
I feared for him, and the arrests were increasing again. They created something called "Redemption Camps," where you were brainwashed into conformity, or you were never seen again. When the underground warned us that they were putting Benjamin on the camp list, I knew I had to risk everything to get us out of there.
And that is why we were in Covington, waiting for the border agent to evaluate our paperwork. "Could you tell me again, Mr. Easlick, why you want to visit the Great Lakes Union?" Well, I'm not sure that I did. Ideally, it was going to be way station onto a journey to Pacifica. The Great Lakes Union had their own problems and were only marginally better than the Kingdom. But I wasn't going to tell him that.
"My brother is very sick, and I want to see him before he passes," I replied, teary-eyed. Mike Easlick wasn't really sick - a sympathetic doctor had forged a letter to us. And my last name wasn't Easlick. The underground provided us with fake documents. This might not have been the best plan, but it was the best we could come up within the short time we had.
"And you will only be there three days? Is that correct?"
"Yes. Just three days, and then we'll be back."
The border guard stared blankly. I don't know whether he believed us or not. "Do you pledge your complete and utter loyalty to the Kingdom?"
Benjamin and I both nodded vigorously and answered, "Yes!" My wife, Alison, didn't respond. Women weren't supposed to respond anymore.
"Do you pledge your devotion and loyalty to President Pence, Vise President Graham, and the entire government, under God, for which they stand?" I can't believe that Billy would be pleased with what Franklin had done, but that is where the lit fuse went.
We both stood straight up and shouted together, "We do!"
The border guard leaped up, and shot his right arm straight out, bending his hand up into the air. "Thy Kingdom come!"
We returned the salute. "Thy will be done!"
At that moment, another official broke in. By his uniform, I could tell he wasn't a border guard, but a high-level officer in the Kingdom Guard. "Well, if it isn't T. M. Strait and his seditionist family!"
"N-no," I pleaded desperately. "I'm Robert Easlick, just looking to visit my dying brother."
The officer laughed, booming laughter that thundered across the room. "How backward do you think we are? You don't think we have facial recognition software? And we couldn't follow your ridiculous trail or your terrible disguises?"
I fell silent, my heart beating wildly, and my ulcer perforating.
"Take them all to the Berea Redemption Camp. They should enjoy that," he said, then after a brief dramatic pause, "for a while."
We were too late. We warned, but not enough. We fought, but we gave in too soon.
Maybe it was just baked into the divisions this country has always had, and nothing could heal it or bring us together.
Thy Kingdom comes.
And I don't know if we could have stopped it.
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