Subtraction, Part 4

 This is the fourth part of my short story Subtraction. Enjoy!

 The Custodians at the security gates and checkpoints seemed especially ornery today, Stephen thought. In addition to showing them his credentials, he had to submit to a speech recognition test, and wait for clearance from the Director of Advocacy. Stephen stayed his impatience with the understanding that the Custodians implemented more stringent security protocols whenever dignitaries visited the Island, which was becoming more and more commonplace ever since then name of the Elizabeth Aikens-Drew started circulating as a possible replacement for Alexander Holbeck as the Secretary for Secular Affairs.

Stephen slid his chair back away from his desk as he turned on the computer. He sat down and opened the large drawer he used to store his personal belongings: his insulated lunch bag, his newspaper, and his journal. The computer chimed, and he typed in his user name and password, not remembering it as much as letting the muscles of his fingers react. Stephen remembered patterns, not facts. Facts were too fluid for him, to easily manipulated through the sophistry and artistic rhetoric. Statistics lied too—the questions which gave birth to such useless numbers were encoded with bias. No, Stephen looked at patterns of behavior. He looked at how people acted, the effects of those actions, and how people accepted culpability. Pragmatic—that’s how Stephen thought of himself. He cared little for people’s intentions or rationalizations. He cared only about effects and results.

Stephen flipped through the day’s agenda that waited for him on his desk: Orientation at 10 A.M.; one-on-one session with Mr. Yunus Samawal from 11 A.M. To 12 P.M.; all-staff meeting at 1 P.M; consultations from 2 P.M. until 5 P.M.

Yunus Samawal? The name caused his heart to flutter and a lump to congeal in his throat. It was a familiar sensation. Stephen recalled having had the same feeling in the fifth grade, when he saw Ms. DuPont for the first time. He remembered the same feeling when he asked Jenny Miller to the prom. It was the same feeling he had when he passed the bar exam, and on his first day at Apostle’s Island.

Stephen logged into the Guest Database and entered SAMAWAL into the last-name field. He drummed his fingers as the hour glass spun; he always drummed his fingers when he was nervous, and when he was nervous, Stephen grew impatient. Countless thoughts collided in his mind; his brow began to bleed with sweat.

The computer screen displayed the case history of Yunus Samawal. He opened the case file and retrieved the Tribunal’s report from the database:

Secular Tribunal of The United States
Holbeck v. Samawal
No. 9-1235 Argued 25 MARCH 2018—Decided 9 JUNE 2018

Under section 3(a) of the Secularization and Religious Preservation Act of 2015, all speech that threatens the Establishment Clause of the Federal Articles of Annulment may be subject to review by the Department of Religion. The Secretary of the Department, pursuant to section 11 of the Secularization and Religious Freedom Act of 2015 may refer individuals or organizations who pose a threat to the “established primacy of the religious order” to a hearing before a duly constitutes Tribunal. 7 F.C.E. Section 11p(c)

Stephen scrolled down the page.

Held that the ACCUSED is guilty of the following acts violated Secularization and Religious Preservation Act. This Tribunal finds that the ACCUSED questioned the primacy of religious doctrine over secular science, encouraged others to violate the Secularization and Religious Preservation Act, and failed to obtain the proper certifications from duly constituted authorities to publish….In addition, the ACCUSED has failed to demonstrate to this Tribunal sufficient contrition to warrant pardon….

Stephen opened the drawer where he placed his journal. His breath fled from his lungs, and he felt as though his head were suddenly wrapped in a hot towel. A surge of adrenaline course through his veins. Stephen started to take slow, deep breaths to ward off an impending assault of panic.