The Button

By Ellen Allen

A global catastrophe… an airborne disease… a small group of survivors… a new set of rules.

For the fledgling community which emerges after worldwide disaster, self-sufficiency is vital, but daily life is a grind. Particularly for First Borns, who are forced to stay at home, forced to tend house and forced to press a button every 90 minutes. No exceptions.

But for one girl, it's time to say no.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098314224

Book preview

© 2020 Ellen Allen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-09-831422-4

Contents

7:13 a.m.

Just over 10.5 hours to go

The smell of Pig jolts me from my sleep as a deep acrid stench of wee fills my nose. Pig is kneading his trotters on the sheets at the end of my bed–up, down, up, down–like a ghoulish version of an obese and putrid house cat, begging for food. I know it must be nearly seven thirty; I can feel the hour prowling towards me, smothering my skin, much like bacteria suffocates a decaying plant.

We both look at each other. I don’t know how he got into my room but I realise that he’s going to make a difficult day way more complicated; a morning I’ve been waiting for since Day One. I carefully lower my feet to the floor, probing the floorboards to avoid the piglet dollops of poo that I’m sure will be underfoot. I feel scratchy and my nerves are pulsing through my body in occasional shocks, belonging more to night terrors than the free flowing breeze of first light.

I scratch the top of his head, and he nuzzles for more. Pig and I have something in common. We were both reared for a single purpose; Pig for family food, and me for domestic slave. Because ever since I was one-year-old–at the same time as Mum was encouraging me to crawl, to speak, to eat solid food–she was also training me to push a button, the same button, every 90 minutes. Without exception. Eight times. Every. Single. Day. That’s nearly 6,000 days.

The Button sits in the living room, turning a bright, flashy-flashy red, ten minutes before I’m required to press it and wailing up to a crescendo of unbearable noise the closer I get to being 10 minutes late. We have just one photograph in our house, protected in dark cloth in a hand-carved wooden box in the lounge taken Post Button, on my first birthday, with a polaroid camera when we still had film and batteries. I am sitting on the floor next to it with a squishy, cotton bear that, before the dust descended, smelt like old milk.

I look around the room, trying to find something reassuring to calm the expectancy sitting in my belly like a tumour about to be expunged. I look for something to make me feel calm. But there’s nothing here. Nothing that I’ll miss. I have to trail back into the past quite a ways before I can find a little happy. I rub a small chip on the bedhead. It’s an identical match for the dent on my forehead, from a kamikaze jump, age four. My bogey collection, age five, is still stuck to the bottom balustrade. And my name is forever carved onto one of the underneath struts.

But these days the action is reversed; it’s the

Reviews for The Button

[Terrell · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I’m confused. I feel like i helped you build a cliff and hung myself from it. Did you even finish the idea? Our food up just start writing and ran out of steam?

[griffith-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was an interesting story. I would have liked to known the consequences (if any) of not pushing the button. While there were quite a few questions that I would have liked answered, it didn't detract from the story. The author created a world that I wouldn't want to experience. It seemed that all the characters were destined to live a tedious life with no changes or improvement. The ending was left open ended so you could imagine what happened to them either good or bad. Received this for free in exchange for an honest review.

[urbanaudreye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I know this was a novella, but boy was it a quick read! Once again, Ellen Allen has fashioned an un-put-downable tale. I was mildly disappointed by the abrupt ending. I would enjoy reading more in this storyline.*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[nellbailey-95274 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I received a free copy of this book via LT's member giveaway. My apologies to Ellen Allen, but this novella needs significant work. I like the idea of a story taking place within a single day, and I was interested in the premise, but it was not executed well. No explanations are given for any questions that the story poses. The concept here is that first born children are required to push a button every 90 minutes. The details are unclear—it is mentioned that they work in shifts, with one person taking the day shift and one taking the night shift, but the buttons reside inside the family home and our unnamed narrator's "night shift" pusher is a girl she has never really met. How can someone take over your shift at the button in your own home for over a decade and you have never gotten to speak with them? Obviously, the main question of the story is this: why are they pushing the button? This is not explored. From the ending, it seems like Allen may have wanted the story to be more like an allegory for teenage rebellion and the refusal to cooperate in a workforce that has no love for its workers... which would have worked, if the underlying mystery of the button was actually solved. I have 100 more questions after finishing the novella than I did before I started it. This story should be fleshed out and expanded upon, with MUCH more detail. As is, it has to be a 1 star for me.

[jc1974-868802 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received an arc copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. All views are my own. The blurb of this story describes how the world in which we know it has been impacted by a global catastrophe. Survivors have retreated to live back in the countryside and away from cities. Part of the lives of everyone now is dependent on a button being pressed every 90 minutes by the eldest child. I chose to read this book as I found this premise intriguing. I found myself fully immersed in this story. However, one of my main concerns with this was how wordy the writing is. The narrator, we learn, is a nameless girl who has almost been a prisoner in her own house since birth due to the button pressing ritual. The story does mention she has some education but I just found the language used not in fitting with the character’s situation. The writing is heavily laden with extended sentences and is often over formal. It just doesn’t seem to fit with a girl who is practically housebound. The author has done well in creating a very dark and depressing tone where you feel sympathy for the main character. However, I found the ending very abrupt and sudden to the point where I was repeatedly tapping on my kindle for the next page only to find I was at the end.This story is just that, a short story, whereas there are far too many loose ends that haven’t been resolved. What is the dirt in the air? Who is the woman who visits the girl? Why does the button need to be pressed so frequently? As a reader, I was left disappointed by these unanswered questions. This would make an excellent book as there is too much crammed into it as the short story it is.