## The Little Ease or The Men In Black
by Donna Lee

### This information is Copyright of the author
and can not be placed else where.
Author's Request

> He collapsed into the chair next to the open window and muttered, "What have I done?" The men had just left. Two of them; wearing stereotypical tan trench coats, with black suits and ties, and white shirts: The Men In Black.

> One was tall, and one was shorter. Both dark white men. The tall man had a snazzy haircut and intesely piercing black eyes. The shorter one looked like a comedian, except their message wasn't at all funny. Neither one smiled. At all.

> When the men knocked on his family's apartment door, the tall man identified himself and his partner as being from the State Department in Washington, D.C. A cold sweat broke out on Russ's forehead as he let them in. He didn't know what they wanted, but he knew it couldn't be good.

> "Your sister's causing the U.S. Government a bit of trouble," the tall one said coming right to the point. "We know that you and your mother have been involved in some illegal activities, like your mother pretending to be her married boyfriend's wife to have a hysterectomy using his health insurance from his job so she wouldn't have to pay for the operation," the man continued. Russ stared dumbfounded at his interlocutor, asking himself if this wasn't America, where things like this don't happen.

> "If you all don't want to go to jail, or worse," the tall man threatened ominously, you'll go along with our plan and NEVER, as long as you live, EVER, breathe a word about this to your sister, Donna. It would only incriminate you, anyway. She'll KNOW, of course, as who wouldn't, but she'll never be able to prove anything. Russ swallowed hard, but just nodded his agreement. What could he do? It was either him and his whole family, his mother (!), or that troublemaker sister of his.

> Russ made one last plea, "But before too long, she'll probably kill herself. No one can stand having the whole world or most of it against her for long. The whole world would be like a concentration camp to her." "Exactly," said the tall one. "Or more like a mental little ease; there won't be anywhere, not even, especially not, in her own head, where she can be comfortable. Everywhere she goes, everyone around her will know every thought she has and will make round-about snide comments about her life. The radio, the tv, bus ads, just everything and everyone. She won't have a single friend, lover, or family member that she can trust. That will stop her from changing any status quo; most of all, her own!

> Russ, having agreed to the plot, slumped in the chair after they'd left, and steeled himself because he knew that the life he'd planned for his own siseter would be his life, too.

> #### THE END

> Received 11-24-2003