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The Cost
March 4, 2012 in 299 Words, Child, Culture, Disability, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Health, Illness, Medicine, Politics, Science, Short stories, Society, Very Short Novels | by davidbdale | 10 comments
The Deputy Assistant has died for an analogy. Some will recall four years ago his boss, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, boldly revived the discredited effort to eradicate polio from the provinces west and south of the capital—bold because several children had been paralyzed by the vaccine given to protect them. Those precious souls with their bent frames were the statistical necessity of a cure for the world, but they were pathetic, and no matter what the Deputy Assistant said, their parents were impossible to answer. For several seasons after that, whole provinces of five-year-olds had closed their mouths against the disreputable sugar cube. An ambivalent man might have been daunted; instead, the Minister wept for an audience at the new sanitation plant, but warned that an excess of love for the stricken few unfortunates would cripple thousands of children. His Deputy was moved as well but understood the numbers better. Only one child would be stricken for every three million successfully dosed. “It is as if,” he told the Minister, and the comment has cost him his life, “to banish the scourge to oblivion, you sacrificed your three sons.” The details of how he fulfilled his accidental prophecy are appalling, and there is evidence he tried to sabotage it, but the clarity of the plan is as strict as a gem. In the capital today, the Deputy Assistant has eaten a phosphine tablet and died. The job is two-thirds done now, new cases are rare, and the Minister’s third son travels with him to the regions of greatest concern, where skepticism of the vaccine might nullify the nation’s triumph over disease. The boy stands straight and tall alongside his brothers in their chairs, and the locals decide for themselves the extent of the Minister’s nerve.
This work by davidbdale is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at davidbdale.wordpress.com.
Small News
December 23, 2010 in 299 Words, Culture, Fable, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Security, Short stories, Society, Stories, Technology, Very Short Novels, Writing | by davidbdale | 20 comments
I bought the newspaper out of pity before I boarded the local. It felt thin, and looked like nothing new. I swiped my card near the fare box and at the same time watched myself do so on a monitor showing me from behind, shot by the camera above the door. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mascot
October 2, 2010 in 299 Words, Culture, Danger, Death, Destiny, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, genocide, novels, Politics, Race, Refugee, Short stories, Stories, Survivor, Very Short Novels, Violence, War, writers, Writing | by davidbdale | 10 comments
I owe the Xuuxu my life but no gratitude. Once they flushed us from our valley and stood us naked, side by side in the long grass under the sickle moon, lowlands clansmen that the colonists favored Read the rest of this entry »
Tunnel of Love
August 25, 2010 in 299 Words, Destiny, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Love, Monologue, Relationships, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | by davidbdale | 28 comments
The water flows both ways through the tunnel of love, depending on which rusty lever I force! Like life, this tacky carnival ride with its soggy boats bobbing in a curving trough is not a circle but a figure-eight, or an eighty-eight, that doubles back and gives us second chances Read the rest of this entry »
Our Littler Town
August 15, 2010 in 299 Words, Culture, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, Justice, novels, Politics, Short stories, Society, Stories, Very Short Novels, writers, Writing | Tags: Equity, Fairness, Ownership, Property | by davidbdale | 14 comments
Although I could be fired for asking out loud, your city council have all been wondering if other towns are shrinking too, and if so, what’s being done to stop the trend or reverse it. Read the rest of this entry »
Shadow Brother
August 5, 2010 in 299 Words, Adoption, Childhood, Culture, Danger, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Fugitive, Immigrant, Literature, novels, Orphans, Parent, Refugee, Runaway, Short stories, Society, Very Short Novels, Violence, writers, Writing | by davidbdale | 25 comments
He’s not always easy to see. I can be talking to him in my room on a rainy afternoon with the radio playing and sharing a blueberry pie, and my dad will open the bedroom door and Deuce’ll be gone and it looks like I’m eating a pie by myself and talking to the radio. Read the rest of this entry »
First Will and Testament
July 15, 2010 in 299 Words, Adoption, Child, Childhood, Death, Destiny, Family, Fiction, Haunting, Health, Life, Love, Medicine, Nuclear Family, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Bequest, inheritance, medicine, will | by davidbdale | 27 comments
Some of my stuff I want to keep after I’m dead, but Ariel can pick out three things from my toy-box, not three of the same things, like not three ponies, or not even two insects, but a pony and an insect and a piece of furniture would be good, and she can ride my bike when she’s big enough. Read the rest of this entry »
Tan Lines
July 9, 2010 in 299 Words, Childhood, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Short stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Club, Dancer, Family, Guilt, Memory, Secret, Sex | by davidbdale | 8 comments
We boys had a club in the attic of Mitchell’s garage, the whole time I knew him and until he disappeared. We had handshakes and irrelevant passwords to guard against infiltration attempts that sadly never occurred. Read the rest of this entry »
Night Doctors
July 5, 2010 in 299 Words, Childhood, Culture, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Health, Medicine, Memory, novels, Politics, Race, Science, Short stories, Society, Stories, Survivor, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Abuse, Doctors, Experiments, Hope | by davidbdale | 12 comments
Before it grew too big to lift, the hospital could have moved to a better neighborhood or invested in its neighbors. Instead it pushed out handymen and cleaning ladies and street hawkers like my uncles Read the rest of this entry »
Neighbors Forever
May 2, 2010 in 299 Words, Childhood, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Love, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Adolescence, Neighbor, neighborhood | by davidbdale | 35 comments
Our shabby little houses look like conjoined twins inexpertly separated. Her family’s house got the worst of the porch, ours got the sagging gutters. Read the rest of this entry »
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