Their fight woke the neighbors as did the make-up sex fifteen minutes later. 

 Her innate sense of fair play had been trampled on and torn apart for four years now. 

Those Saturday-morning cartoons were just indoctrination to mass consumerism but at least it kept the kids quiet until Christmas rolled around. 

In the twilight everything took on a sinister aspect, she thought. 

Would we listen to the much needed message of peace and reconciliation? 

Hoodwinked by a carnival barking holy man and broken by the eternally passed offering plate they waited for the rapture that never came. 

The night ended in an empty bottle and a mouthful of dust.

 They called her a radical for suggesting we care for those who could not care for themselves. 

The rest of the world wondered when our insanity would finally end. 

"You can use all the superlatives you want but it still doesn't make you great," he told his boss while walking out the door for the last time. 

We were nostalgic for a time that never existed except on television where every problem was solved in less than thirty minutes (they had to make room for the commercials that sold us products they knew would kill us). 

 We'd become addicted to outrage. 

The days had fluttered past until her life suddenly shifted and the seconds began to creep along like they were years. 

 The slow-moving wheels of bureaucracy were designed to grind you down. 

 Why he bothered to set the house of cards—so easily knocked over—ablaze was anyone's guess.

Dark forces moved closer from the edges where they were once confined. 

 Seconds seemed to slip into hours when she was around. 

 They outlawed empathy and criminalized caring. 

We'd become the richest third-world country on the planet. 

They slowly stripped the truth, scrubbed the trut, shredded the tru, eviscerated the tr, whitewashed the t, until no one could see it anymore. 

Reality warped and cracked beyond recognition like a roadway after an earthquake. 

 We sat on the porch drinking and laughing (after what felt like an eternity). 

 The world finally exhaled. 

Bill's cult began as nothing more than a lark and a way to make a fast buck but now he was facing a coup, death threats, and an IRS audit. 

 We all knew they'd have to drag him out by his feet—and had looked forward to that day—because he was just that kind of a guy. 

Time stretched towards infinity and the nation waited with bated breath as the final ballots were counted. 

Watching the news she wondered if blood would boil and froth, run in the streets, or calm continue to prevail.  

They went to sleep that night wondering if they'd be waking to riots or worse. 

Where had the better angels of our nature flown off to when we needed them most? 

Their silver tongues unleashed chaos into the streets.