Shadow Flutter

The Only One, by Caola Dibble The Only Ones is billed as a near future, post-pandemic science fiction novel.  But there is nothing post-pandemic about it.  Millions are dying and continue dying of diseases, great and small, and no one is more susceptible to these diseases than children.  This is a world in which orphans abound, streets and buildings are regularly sprayed with industrial strength antiseptics, and people are hosed down with anti-pathogen solutions as they move zone to zone.  Government institutions shatter or fray.  Cities and suburbs retain some form of order, while rural areas are lawless.   But not everyone is susceptible to the diseases.  There are those called “hardys,” mostly women, who are immune to some or many of the diseases.  In a world where children are dying at an alarming rate, there is a demand for children; and where there is a demand, a supply follows.  Black market cloners pop up around the world, and females resistant to disease are highly p

You all know what I’m talking about.  You’ve all stepped in it.  You find it on your lawn or on the sidewalk and often on popular walking and biking trails.  That’s right, dog poop, the scourge of city and suburban living.  HOA’s raise fees to strategically place on grounds dog poop bags and dog poop receptacles.  But many dog owners refuse to use them, preferring instead to leave their pet’s gift where it lies for others to admire.  And who can blame them.  Who want’s to stick his hand in a plastic bag and reach down and dispose of poop with only a sliver of plastic separating hand and poop.  All of this drives HOA management mad.  So now one HOA is striking back.  Beginning immediately the management of one Chicago apartment complex is requiring their residents to take cheek swabs — no, not that cheek — of their dogs.  Management will set up a DNA database, and whenever an offending poop is found on the grounds a sample will be taken — wonder who has that job? — and matched agai