Francine returns from the library, and finds her room looks differently. She sets down the bag with the books she checked out from the library, and looks at a stack of books she had left by the computer. They seem to be in a different order from how she left them. "Wasn't 1996 by Gloria Naylor on top when I left?" she asks herself.
Now It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis is on top of the stack. "Something seems different," Francine thinks, "Like someone's been in my room since I left."
She looks around. Nothing appears to be missing, but something seems off. Things seem to be moved around slightly from when she left, but she can't say for sure. The room almost looks cleaner than it was this morning. She takes a closer look at her bookcase, and notices it's not as dusty as usual. "Did someone come in and tidy up my room?" Francine wonders.
She goes downstairs and knocks on Donald's door, "Donald, are you home?"
No one answers. "That's weird," Francine thinks, "He almost never leaves the house, but he wasn't here when I left either."
She hears a car pull in the driveway. "Masani must be getting home from work," Francine thinks. She goes and opens the back door.
"Hey, girl!" Masani says, coming in.
"Hi, Masani! How was work?"
"Well, you know there's a reason they have to pay people to do it, but it's done for the day at least," Masani says, entering the kitchen.
"Hey, by any chance, did you come home earlier today?"
"No, why?"
"Oh, nothing, I just think I'm starting to become paranoid and senile. I got a vibe like someone had been in my room, and some of the stuff seems to be moved around, but maybe I moved it and just don't remember. In any case, it seems cleaner than before."
"Well, Sweetie, I'm not in the habit of wandering into your room anyway, and I certainly am not going to volunteer for more housecleaning than the share I have to do. Was Donald in there fixing something?"
"No, and in any case he usually tells me beforehand if he has to come in."
"Well, he is very polite. Is he home?"
"No, as far as I can tell, he hasn't been here all day."
"Now that's weird. He almost never leaves the house. I saw him this morning. He was going somewhere but I figured he'd be back by now. I hope he's all right."
"I'm sure he's fine, and I'm sure nobody was in my room. One can't help but be paranoid a bit though when the government can legally enter your property and search it without ever telling you."
"That Patriot Act nonsense? Sneak and peek?"
"Well that and all the worse stuff since. Basically the government's been trying to make legal all the illegal spying stuff that they've always done, and under Dick's martial law it's only gotten worse. They used to have a court for FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, where the FBI or whoever would have to get a search warrant approved in order to continue spying on foreigners in the country--they could start spying without approval of course--and in the thirty years or so the court was around, they approved like 20,000 warrants and rejected like 5, but the government still thought that was too much of a hassle so Dick used martial law to get rid of it. Now they spy on whomever they want, foreigners or citizens. I'm pretty sure every Internet and phone use is tracked or recorded by the National Security Agency or some other bloated bureaucracy in the name of 'homeland security'. The telecommunications companies always accommodate the government in spying on their customers so the companies can get preferential treatment from the government when they need it to block competition or just screw consumers over some other way in order to make more money. And of course they all just claim they only do this stuff to look out for criminals and terrorists."
"Yeah, but who's watching the government? Dick and his crew are the biggest criminals of all I think."
"Well that's why they want to write the laws so they can make their crimes legal. You need a law to make a crime so if the criminal rewrites the law it isn't a crime anymore."
"Well, everything looks all right in here," Masani says, looking around the kitchen, "But I'll check my room."
"I'm probably just being paranoid. I hope that's all it is, and I hope Donald's all right."
"Well," Masani says, looking at the sink full of dirty dishes, "I hope the next time someone breaks in, they do the dishes."
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.
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