Church and State

Prologue

It was a busy day at the market, as per usual. Regular people were buzzing around running errands and picking up groceries on a Saturday morning. Sunday mornings used to be the day my mother and I finished up errands and grabbed a weeks' worth of groceries. But, Sunday's are now reserved. Ever since, January 14th, 2021, Sunday is an earmarked holy day for everyone in North America.

My family was never religious, we were far from religious. We always ignored those young, handsome men in dark grey suits that would knock on our door holding hundreds of pamphlets filled with information about some Catholic church in the area. We always avoided any religious ceremonies because that isn't what we believed in, and we would evade the Jehovah's witnesses just at the sight of them so they wouldn't push their religion on us. It's not that we didn't like religion, we respected it greatly. My mother just despised – since she was very young – the ignorance of people believing they can force something like beliefs on another human being, and some religions could be very pushy.

January 14th 2021 was supposed to a hugely celebrated day for all the citizens of North America, not a depressing day like it turned out to be.

I was 17 years old when the day arose. It was one of the biggest days of recent historical events besides Canada and the United States of America binding into one single mega country on October 17th 2019. Everyone was enthusiastic because it was the day Donald Trump would be forced to resign from his time in position and become banned from running for his second term of presidency. Being 17, I was more excited about the fact that my birth control pills wouldn't cost so damn much anymore.

My mother and I sat on the couch watching as Donald Trump told his famous 'Goodbye America' speech that everyone knows by heart. We giggled at his ridiculous wording and the constant blabbering about how he managed to make "North America great again" but clearly did not. My brother, Keagan, sat and joined us with his laughter. My mother and I laughed hard. Keagan's laugh always made us giggle more as it was slightly high pitched and he snorted ever so often. I remember that exact moment because that's when all our laughter came to a complete halt.

A younger woman with long, luscious bleach blonde hair approached the podium. She looked like she could have been in her late twenties. She wore a swift, light blue trench coat that complemented her figure well. My immediate thought was she looks nice. She tapped upon the microphone with tips of her index and middle finger. She made a blunt announcement, "Church and State have agreed to combine."

I don't remember much else that the pretty lady said because I was too distracted by the horrific look on my mother's face. It was a mixture of a multitude of expressions. Fear, shock, anger and suspicion, all into one singe facial appearance. I feared my mom for that moment in time, I didn't know whether she was going to explode or cry. For the record, she did neither. She became silent as she listened carefully to what the rest of the presenters had to say.

Another younger individual approached the podium. This time, a younger man with neatly trimmed, dark brown hair whom looked to be around his early thirties. He explained how this was the best decision for the safety of the citizens, "Church and state have combined to attempt to undo the actions of resigned president, Donald Trump. We, North America, want to erase all religious based racism at the root of it. During President Trump's term, racism towards certain religious groups have escalated greatly. Our solution is that we continue to have a democracy government system where all legal citizens of the North America can vote. A citizen over the age of 18 can vote for their political party of choice as well as their religion of choice. The process will remain the same. A dominant electoral party will be chosen, along with a dominant religion that everyone must convert to. Voting will take place at your local schools and recreational centres at 2:30pm and will close at 11pm tonight, thank you."