JESUS NATION SEX REBEL, mini-chapter 3

Previously, we met Adam White, who's waiting with a crowd of onlookers in Central Park for a terrorist to be burned at the stake, and Eve Trent, who's checking out her body in the bathroom mirror to see if she's still attractive to men. Now read on.

3. THE FLAMES OF HELL

Adam looked at the stage. Here was to take place an event not to be missed, for those fortunate enough to be invited or to live in New York. The media had been trumpeting the whole business for months.

“Flames of Hell to Consume Anti-Christ.”

“Taste of Hereafter for Ultimate Transgressor.”

“The Burning Moment Is Here.”

“Barbecue Terrorist’s Day of Reckoning Comes.”

An epochal event in American history. There was a novel statute on the books, freshly acknowledged by the Supreme Court, and a new act of utmost evil: A Crime Against God and His Nation, which carried a punishment beyond the merely capital.

Adam White touched his favorite gray scarf in a gesture he had, as if needing the feel of its woolliness to reassure his hand of its existence. He was ushered to his seat by a young man in a suit and tie. One thing that one could say for the Reformation: young people looked a whole lot neater than before.

Adam was not sure why he had taken up the invitation. He could’ve watched on TV or over the Internet, as the entire nation was encouraged to do.

In fact, more than encouraged: enjoined. A month ago, during Total Connectivity Week, all TV sets and computers had been equipped with video cameras. These tiny cameras took images of viewers – or their absence. The images were fed into the Total Awareness Database, and those Beloveds who were not in front of their TV or computer screens when a mandatory program was showing, would be immediately fingered. A visit from a Patriot Unit would follow under a suitable pretext – “We’re doing a survey, what did you think of last night’s program?” – and then the screws would be turned, often without the option of a fine.

As it said at the bottom of every TV and computer screen: “The eye of God is upon you.”

The cameras were an adaptation of the surveillance cameras that were on every street corner and in every building, every lobby, every station, every subway, every movie-house, every theater, every mall, every store, every conference room, every hotel room, every office where anybody worked. Once you left your home, a camera observed you. Total Awareness could summon up an edit of your entire life spent outside your home. The big debate was whether cameras should be installed inside people’s homes, now that they were attached to all TV sets and computers anyway. The kitchen and the living room were two suggestions, with the bathroom and the bedroom the two options that met with some resistance, especially in the blogworld. “Is the government going into the amateur porn business?” was one outraged objection.

The young usher came to Adam’s row and pointed at a seat in the middle. He looked at Adam with raw devotion. “I’ve read all your books, sir. They changed my life.”

Adam thanked him. He wondered if the young man would become a student of his. Another young mind he could set alight with his desire for revenge. The young had to be forged in the smithy of an appropriate and immense hatred. There were enemies out there, some far, some as close as a neighbor, everywhere, a constant threat. Terrorists. Adam reached the middle of the row, looked questioningly at the young usher, received his blessing, and sat down in his assigned seat, ready for the arrival of the fiend.