Sit-in At The Alamo

By William F. Wu

DESCRIPTION:
Jimmy Mok lives in a futuristic facility limited to his powered wheelchair. Watching his daily television show reruns Jimmy’s days continue to be filled with enjoyment and excitement. Living at the Golden Day Sunset Home can become a hostile place however. Soon Jimmy must choose the fate of his future between the assault on the Alamo or the resident led attack on Jimmy’s own home front.

EXCERPT:
Jimmy sat in his wheelchair in the main hallway, looking around. Every time he turned his head, the tail on his coonskin cap tickled his back. He liked that.
He shifted Ol' Betsy on his lap. Everybody had gone their separate ways for the moment. He wasn't sure what to do.

"Here, Jimmy," said Pauline, walking out of a room down the hall. She was a short, brisk woman with curly gray hair. "Have you seen this?" She handed him a flyer from a stack she was carrying. "We just had these printed up in the main office."

"Mm?" Jimmy accepted it, but he didn't feel up to reading the fine print.

"Oh. Here, I'll show you." She leaned over his chair, pointing to the paragraphs. "These are the demands we're going to make from Fleming. No more orderlies; they're to be replaced by nurses without prod rings. More flexibility in choosing our activities and changing our minds about them. We set our own visitation and curfew hours and we end the segregation of the men's and women's wings."

Jimmy nodded. He liked that part about the prod rings.

"Dinner time," said Barbie, coming down the hall with a big smile. She wore one of the cafeteria staff aprons over her own dress. "You know, Pauline, those demands sound awfully familiar."

"I noticed that," said Pauline. "I think we made a lot of these demands for the dormitories in Ann Arbor once a long time ago."

"You were in Ann Arbor?" Barbie brushed a strand of white hair from her eyes with a dainty little finger. "I was in Berkeley for People's Park. We must be about the same age."

"I guess so." Pauline looked back at her with an amused smile.

"Woodstock," Jimmy muttered, on impulse.

"What?" Pauline turned in surprise. "Were you at Woodstock?"

"No," said Jimmy, trying to remember. "My roommate was. I had to work in the fish market all summer."

"Oh."

"Come on down to dinner," said Barbie. "Tell everybody you see, if they haven't heard."

"Hey," said a guy named Greg something, coming out of the art room down the hall. He was a tall, stooped man carrying a big piece of posterboard. "Remember this?" He held it up.

Jimmy squinted at it. It was a freshly stenciled red painting of a clenched fist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EuroMark eBooks
• Release date: Jul 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310563706

William F. Wu

William F. Wu was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He grew up in the Kansas City area and has lived in Michigan, California, and Florida in addition to traveling to forty-two of the U.S. states and many other countries. His science fiction and fantasy often have ethnic and racial themes, but much of his work also has ethnic characters dealing with universal issues. Early in his career, he attended the Clarion Writers Workshop and the Milford Writers Workshop. He has a doctoral degree in American Culture. Wu is a six-time finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. He has also been a finalist for Canada’s Aurora Award and the Sidewise Award for best alternate world story.