every time margaret brindage looked out her window, she saw something new and horrifying, so she turned on her television set for reassurance, because on the television nothing ever changed.
how different it had been when she was a child, when life was boring and one did the same things every day, and the television - and the movies - provided excitement and respite from the boredom.
right now, below her window, a motley group of indescribable people were chanting -
death to……!
margaret could not make out the name of the person … or group … or oountry… or whatever… that the motley group of indescribable people were assigning death to.
she debated opening the window so that she could better understand the shouting.
but the shouters might see the open window and decide to throw things through it.
she had seen a report of something of the sort when she still had a laptop computer that streamed the news from all over the world 24 hours a day.
now her only link to the world was a television set with a single channel - the nostalgia channel.
on which she was allowed six hours of programming a day - down from eight hours just a few weeks ago,
she was tempted to turn the set on now and use an hour or so of precious programming, and drown out, to some extent, the crowd’s chanting.
but she tried to force herself to wait until her meal delivery time, so that she could watch a show and eat her daily rations at the same time, which she had always enjoyed doing.
and if she were really strong willed, she would wait until 1700 hours, when her favorite show - the seventh queen - was on.
just the there was a light tapping on her door.
oh no, margaret thought in a panic, it is day six!
how had she forgotten!
as if in response to her agitation, the shouting outside grew louder, and she could make out the words…
death to………….. !!!
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