For the Good of Society

By Michael Hearing

A look at what lies ahead in the era of pandemics and distrust . . .

Are you being played? Maybe, maybe not. Just make sure that what you want for health and safety can't come back to bite you . . . as it did for this woman. She thought she was protecting her children. But the end result was a parent's worst nightmare.

Be prepared. Download "For the Good of Society" – a short story of approximately 3,000 words.

Prescient, prophetic, or just deranged? I'm not sure yet, but it happened to this woman – and it could happen to you.

Excerpts . . .

She had a family to consider, and she had done he right thing. I did it, she told herself, for the good of society.

Then she called out to her husband: "Honey, come in here and take a look at this."

The man put on his best bright face and strolled into the kitchen. He put his hand on his wife's shoulder and gave her a whisper of a kiss on top of her head. He had always loved the smell of her hair, but now – now, it smelled more like disinfectant and alcohol than the tropical scent he loved.

"What's up, babe?"

"Just look at these headlines. I did the right thing, didn't I?"

"Of course, you did. This virus is nothing to mess around with. Got an email from work this morning – 53 company-wide in the hospital and seven dead. We've gotta think about the greater good. We have to 'flatten the curve.'"

The woman smiled up at him. "Thanks, hon. I know you're right, but . . ."

. . .

Oh, sure, the woman had seen those sprawling enclosures sprouting up and expanding outside of town. They seemed to get bigger and higher at night like some kind of noxious fungal growths. But then she so seldom got out that it could have just been her imagination. Still, those tall fences topped with razor wire and the smokestacks belching smoke nonstop were a little troubling.

So she'd asked her husband about it. "Hon, do you know what they're building out there beyond the river?"

"Don't you look at Facebook? And everybody at work's been talking about it. Those are just, like, makeshift hospitals and research centers. You know, places to handle the overflow from hospitals and labs to work on the vaccine. Word is they'll have a vaccine ready for testing within a few weeks."

"Okay, but I've heard they have armed armed guards patrolling the perimeter, and nobody can get near those places."

"Well . . . yeah. It's pretty critical and sensitive work. Don't you want this to be over soon?"

That had mostly satisfied her.

. . .

In short order, two of the suited figures had returned, dragging old man Epstein between them. He was fighting, mostly kicking, and resisting the best he could at his age. He also kept looking over his shoulder and calling for his wife. Two more of the figures had followed with Mrs. Epstein between them. She hadn't resisted, just sobbed as they led her to the van, pulled back the sliding door, and hoisted her in. They had had a much harder job getting her husband in the other van.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Hearing
• Release date: Aug 2, 2020

Michael Hearing

Michael Hearing is a freelance writer/essayist/novelist living with his wife, dogs, cats, horses, and ferrets on a few acres with a small lake in northeastern Oklahoma. There, he tries to grow vegetables, catches quite a few fish, and does his writing.Having lived a fairly desultory life, Michael decided that it’s time for some order and method. So he is finishing up and publishing some books he’s had in the works for many years. But, still, he is likely to be all over the genre map. In most cases, though, he has lived what he writes about, and his works ring true.

Book preview

For the Good of Society

by

Michael Hearing

Spring Lake Books

Copyright 2020

Terms

All rights reserved. This book may not be used or reproduced in any manner—by any means or in any medium whatsoever—in part or in whole without written permission of the author (except, of course, small excerpts in reviews). Please respect intellectual-property rights and help authors protect what they've created.

Disclaimer

This is purely a work of fiction. The characters and situations presented here are nothing more than inventions of the author’s imagination. If anything in this story resembles real persons, places, or institutions, it is purely the result of coincidence.

For the Good of Society

She had just finished disinfecting all the handles and knobs and horizontal surfaces in her home. So the woman sat down at her kitchen table to