The Settlements: The Talmidge Affair

Today Lyssa Talmidge is happy. She loves her job and after having worked very hard indeed to get promoted to head of research, she isn’t ready to abandon her work just yet. Along with an amazing job, she has a great husband, beautiful home and continues to enjoy the pleasure of her ex-fiancé; truly Lyssa has it all. In a few days time, however, Lyssa will turn 35 and change is on the horizon. She knew this day was coming, as all Citizens do, but she honestly thought she would be ready for it when it finally did arrive. After mulling it over, Lyssa has come to the realisation that being forced down a life path the Government mandated is an archaic and oppressive consequence of Citizenship. As wife of a government official, Lyssa knows that even contemplating the issue is punishable by death. But how can Lyssa let all that she has built be destroyed by an outmoded and outdated doctrine? She knows she must make an impossible decision: accept her fate as a Citizen and therefore leave her life as she knows it or cast off all that is comfortable to strive for freedom; one choice is a life sentence, the other a possible death sentence. And with only a few days left before her birthday, Lyssa’s time is running out...