6
Danny

Danny Reed grumbled as he read the President's reform list on page A 12 of The Daily Dose that morning over his cup of coffee. When he read through the education and literacy goals for what had to be the fifth time, he thought he managed to finally figure out what it was that had been making him uncomfortable about the whole section – there were hints and foreshadowing the led him to believe something terrible would come from the situation.

"Diana! Diana c'mere and read this right quick!" he hollered back towards the back of the small house the married couple lived in.

"What now, Danny?" she yelled back in an aggravated tone, "I'm fixin' to do a clothes wash!" she explained as she stomped down the hallway and into the dirty kitchen where Danny was sitting, feet up on the table, with the paper spread open in front of him. "What? I'm here now, ain't I?" she demanded with her chubby hands on her chubby hips. Danny flung his finger into the paper so hard that it nearly made a hole where he was pointing. She walked over and read the section of the paper he was pointing at.

"What?" Diana said not knowing what was so important about it.

"Don' chu see it?" he said, "Are you dumb or somethin'?" he questioned disregarding the fact that it had taken him almost an hour to see "it" himself.

"See what, Danny?" she whined not liking to feel dumb.

"Right there, where it says 'bout the testing," he said. Diana read it over a few more times.

"So what? It's just a test Danny. Makin' sure we can read and stuff. President jus' wants to make sure the country's jus' as smart as Japan and them," she said. Danny shook his head.

"You don't see it, you don't even see it," he said still shaking his head, "She ain't gonna make me take no test. I ain't gonna take it," he said.

"But Danny, she's gonna make that how you get your national ID and you gotta have that to do anything! Without your national ID number you won' even be able to buy a pack of gum at the store without gettin' arrested after a certain day," she said.

"I ain't takin' no test and ain't no body gonna make me," he said continuing to shake his head knowing inside that something was not right but afraid to say anything to anyone, since even his wife Diana, who he knew was one of the smartest people on the planet did not see it in the paper like he did.