Every Second Friday

 

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Chapter 1

The radio suddenly stopped, falling into silence, and Sean looked up from his dinner. Everyone around the table, his father and mother, their lodger Mr Stuart, and Aunt Daisy, did the same. Everyone stopped eating and stared at the radio.

“They’re going to announcie The Choosing,” Aunt Daisy said.

“Everybody knows that!” Sean’s father snapped.

Sean stared at it intensely at the radio, it was six o’clock on the second Friday of the month.

The radio hissed out white noise, that strange and uncomfortable noise, that prelude to the announcement. hated this moment; he just wanted it to be all over.

The Choosing had been in place for six years now, every since the first drought that ravaged the world. They were told that The Choosing was what God’s requirement them to end the drought, and the first one the drought had broken in a thunder storm that brought the rain they needed. But the relief was short. A few months later they were dropped into another drought.

Six years later The Choosing was still in place and the droughts were getting longer and more severe. They hadn’t had rain for nearly six months now and everything seemed to be rationed. A few people questioned The Choosing but they were quickly silenced when the name Professor Blackwell. She had been a vocal critic of The Choosing until her own son was chosen.

Every second Friday of the month The Choosing would be announced. A young man, aged between fourteen and nineteen, would be randomly chosen by one of the country’s few working computers and then announced on the radio. Two days later he would be executed, sacrificed to God to end the drought. All the church leaders and the government said it was what God’s will, and so few people disagreed.

At seventeen, Sean was two years short of being safe, of twenty when he could no longer be chosen. Whenever the white noise interrupted their radio, he would be seized with terror.

The white noise suddenly stopped and a deep voice announced:

“Sean Richardson, Sean Richardson...”

“That’s me!” Sean shouted.

“Afraid you’ve been chosen,” Aunt Daisy said.

“No! No!” He shouted back.

“I’m afraid it’s the law son,” his father said.

“It’s a mistake!” He shouted.

“Actually the computer doesn’t make...” Mr Stuart began to say.

“Shut up! You’re safe, you’re old!” Sean screamed at him, the panic now pounding in his head.

“Now Sean, calm down,” his father said.

“It’s not fair! I’m going to die!” Sean shouted at them.

“I knew I should have had a daughter,” his mother muttered.

“I hate you all!” He screamed at them before jumping up from the table and running out of the room.

He didn’t run far, throwing himself into the downstairs toilet and locking the door behind himself. He then vomited into the toilet, throwing up the little of his dinner that he eaten, before collapsing on the toilet floor as he sobbed uncontrollably.

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