Hazards of Time Travel

Suddenly (#litres_trial_promo)

The Denial (#litres_trial_promo)

The Wall (#litres_trial_promo)

The Museum of Natural History (#litres_trial_promo)

Shelter (#litres_trial_promo)

The Sacrifice (#litres_trial_promo)

Adoration (#litres_trial_promo)

The Searchers (#litres_trial_promo)

The Test (#litres_trial_promo)

The Exam (#litres_trial_promo)

The Failing Grade (#litres_trial_promo)

Wolfman My Love: Selected Memories (#litres_trial_promo)

Sane (#litres_trial_promo)

The Lonely Girl I (#litres_trial_promo)

The Lonely Girl II (#litres_trial_promo)

April (#litres_trial_promo)

“Terminated” (#litres_trial_promo)

Elopement (#litres_trial_promo)

The Bat (#litres_trial_promo)

III: Wainscotia Falls

Saved (#litres_trial_promo)

The Miracle (#litres_trial_promo)

Grief (#litres_trial_promo)

Visitors (#litres_trial_promo)

“Uncle” (#litres_trial_promo)

Heron Creek Farm (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Novels by Joyce Carol Oates (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

They would not have come for me, naïvely I drew their attention to me. Willingly I dared what I should not have dared.

Of my own free will misjudging. Or rather, not judging—not thinking. In vanity and stupidity and now I am lost.

Sometimes on my knees in a posture of prayer I am able to break through the “censor barrier”—to remember …

But my brain hurts so! It is a terrible effort like struggling against the gravity of Jupiter.

My Exile-status forbids me to speak to anyone here of my sentence or of my life before Exile and so I am doubly lonely.

Though rarely alone in this strange place I am very lonely and am not sure that I can persevere.

My sentence is “only” four years. It might have been “life.”

Or, it might have been Deletion.

On my knees each night straining to remember, to recall my old, lost self, I try to be grateful, my sentence was not Deletion.

And I try to be grateful, no one in my family was arrested as a collaborator/facilitator of Treason, with me.

I (#u998e552d-0946-54c2-b5fe-8c122388e004)

THE INSTRUCTIONS (#ulink_366ec64b-e71b-52aa-a8c2-99300aba6a42)

1 In the Restricted Zone, the Exiled Individual (EI) is allowed a ten-mile radius of movement the epicenter of which is the official residence of the EI. This residence can be changed only by appeal to the Homeland Security Exile Disciplinary Bureau (HSEDB).

2 The EI is forbidden to question, challenge, or disobey in any way any local Restricted Zone authority. The EI is forbidden to identify himself/herself except as established by HSEDB. The EI is forbidden to provide “future knowledge” in the Restricted Zone and to search for or in any way seek out “relatives.”

3 The EI will be issued a new and non-negotiable name and an appropriate “birth certificate.”

4 The EI is forbidden to enter into any “intimate” or “confidential” relationship with any other individual. The EI is forbidden to procreate.

5 The EI will be identified as “adopted” by “adoptive parents” who are “deceased.” The EI will be identified as having no other family. This information will be the EI’s official record in his/her Restricted Zone.

6 The EI will be monitored at any and all times during his/her exile. It is understood that HSEDB can revoke the term of Exile and Sentencing at any time.

7 Violations of any of these instructions will insure that the EI will be immediately Deleted.

DELETION (#ulink_990e8e2e-5ba9-5911-8ff6-e356e244dc37)