Mother Knows Best: Off-Kilter Tales, #3

By Michael Robertson

Accept. Comply. Report.

 

Three simple words that form the contract between Mother and the citizens of Blade Springs.

 

Stick to the contract and Mother provides.

 

She feeds her citizens, houses them, and gives them jobs.

 

She delivers a highly-curated twenty-four hour entertainment cycle to every citizens' personal screen, generated from the implants at their temples.

 

She reads their tells: A twitch of discomfort. A swelling of love. The slight wince of sorrow. She responds with the content they need. Regulates them with a bespoke narrative.

 

Accept, comply, report, and you'll never feel misaligned again.

 

Trust in Mother.

 

Mother knows when you need to laugh.

 

When you need to cry. 

 

When you need to feel loved.

 

Accept Mother knows best and you'll never want for anything again.

 

But Renner does want. And no matter how Mother tries, she can't fill the hole inside him.

 

He knows what it means to be a citizen of Blade Springs. Understands the consequences of breaking the three-word contract. In his head, he can accept, comply, and report.

 

It's his heart that's the problem …

 

Mother Knows Best: Off-Kilter Tales Book Three is a sci-fi short story that looks at screen addiction, societal manipulation, and disconnection in a technology-centric world.

 

This book also contains a bonus short story - The Marshmallow Test.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Robertson
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223343080

Book preview

Mother Knows Best

MOTHER KNOWS BEST

OFF-KILTER TALES BOOK THREE

OFF-KILTER TALES

MICHAEL ROBERTSON

CONTENTS

Edited and Cover by …

Reader Group

Mother Knows Best

The Marshmallow Test

About the Author

Also by Michael Robertson

EDITED AND COVER BY …

To contact Michael, please email:

[e-mail]

Edited by:

Pauline Nolet - http://www.paulinenolet.com

Cover design by The Cover Collection - http://www.thecovercollection.com/

Michael Robertson

© 2024 Michael Robertson

Mother Knows Best & The Marshmallow Test (Off-Kilter Tales Book 3) is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, situations, and all dialogue are entirely a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously and are not in any way representative of real people, places or things.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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MOTHER KNOWS BEST

Renner, along with the forty million other souls in Blade Springs, was at war with his city. A war for his focus. For his time. For his attention. A war, that if they were patient, hope told him they might just win.

He did his best to be a good citizen. He stuck to the rules. Accept. Comply. Report. He’d seen what happened to those who stepped out of line. Incarceration. One hundred percent opacity. A living hell. A deterrent more than strong enough to remind him of his place. But it wasn’t all bad. At least, that was what they all said. It’s not so bad. Mother had made them a promise, and she’d stuck to her part of the bargain. If they worked hard … behaved … followed the rules … if they did that, she’d provide everything they needed. A warm bed at night. Running water. Enough food on which to survive. It tasted like shit, but it had the required nutrients to prolong their existence. Renner swallowed. It did little to relieve the synthetic cod-liver-oil taste, which lay along his tongue in perpetuity. But Mother had delivered. She’d given them a basic standard of living. She’d improved their lot. In some ways at least.

Mother also provided all the entertainment he could consume. She delivered content to stimulate bored minds like a torturer delivered a waterboarding to quench a slight thirst.

Renner had taken a break. One of a permitted three in any twenty-four-hour period. Each lasted only ten minutes, and he only ever took them when he