Passports and Visas: No Travel Beyond Anticlockwise
Identity documents such as passports and visas are critically important at times of social unrest and disorder.
I saw Tia again yesterday evening. The internet storm had finally calmed down after two weeks. The government, fearing, widespread riots, had released additional food supplies and the general anger against foreigners had receded.
She came round to Infinity just after six o’clock. It’s the only time we get to see each other really, between six and eight in the evening. She lives close by but has to leave at ten to eight sharp to ensure that she’s back home before the eight o’clock curfew kicks in. I start my night shift at ten o’clock.
Tia works six days a week in the Globopolis Central Post Office. We usually see each other during the day on Sundays as well because the Post Office is closed then. No respite for me though. I work seven nights a week.
I’ve got a room in the basement of Infinity where I sleep during the day after work. It’s not much of a place to live – no windows and pretty damp. But it’s free and that’s important when you’re strapped for cash. Clancy’s got a room too. We only get half the living wage because they calculate the room as the other half. Anyway, beggars can’t be choosers as they say.
When Tia comes to see me she usually brings sandwiches and we spend a couple of hours eating and chatting in Esperanto about work and our lives in Anticlockwise. Sometimes we make love.
Yesterday though we didn’t eat and we didn’t make love. I knew there was something wrong as soon as she arrived. She sat down on the bed, her fists clenched, with an angry look in her eyes. `Today’s the day,’ she whispered, `today’s the day.’
I listened in silence as she informed me of the latest government decision that had just been relayed to the post office workers: all 
existing passports and visas were immediately null and void; nobody in future would be allowed to travel abroad; from today nobody would be given permission to travel anywhere inside Anticlockwise without authorised internal visas; new identity cards would be issued to all citizens of the Anticlockwise Empire; only in the most exceptional circumstances would Anticlocks be permitted to travel beyond the Anticlockwise frontier – in reality, this meant that only a very few special passports would be issued to the government elite. For us it meant that we would not be travelling beyond Globopolis.
I’ll never forget the way Tia looked at me when she blurted out: `And that’s not the worse. All deviants are to be electronically tagged. That’s you Solitanu.’ she’d sobbed. `You’re on the Deviants List. It’s never been published but I’ve been told by one of my friends in the Post Office Security Section that you and Clancy are both on it.’
I could see that she was frightened when she added: `And that will be me too because they know that I’m your girlfriend. And I have black hair. So they’re bound to have me in their sights.’
We spent the next few hours hugging each other and whispering about ways in which we could escape from Anticlockwise. But in our hearts we knew that it was futile. There was now no escape possible. All exits had been blocked. Our fate had been sealed on 23 June. The doors of the lunatic asylum were closed forever. We’d got exactly what we’d asked for and voted ourselves into purgatory. We’d chosen Anticlockwise over Safronika.
Zeb Solitanu sketch by Jill
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