Peaceful Quiet Lives
Forbidden lovers fall foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War — Part 1, Chapter 1
Part I: Chapter One
The morality inspectors are late.
I glance at my watch. 7:37am. They were supposed to be here seven minutes ago. Typically a morality inspection of a premises the size of my apartment takes a good twenty minutes, not allowing for nervous small talk, or, if you know the inspectors well, salacious tales of impounded illegal political materials, banned books, films, drugs, alcohol, pornography, and so forth.
Morality inspectors are usually punctual to a fault, but if they don’t turn up soon, I’ll have to re-book my bi-annual inspection, or I’ll end up missing the train and be late for work.
I peer at the cloudy skies above the city. My apartment lies within a tall grey high-rise building, on the ninth floor, and I have a good view to the south. The streets are already busy, filled with rushing commuters getting on buses, entering metro stations, or driving their vehicles. The crowds are bad enough as it is in the morning, but they’ll be even worse if I end up leaving later due to tardy morality inspectors.
