Self-Review – Blue Card

A Review of Blue Card

It’s time to look at Blue Card, another story where the government is a tyranny.

I wrote this story during the first or second quarter of 2018.

Background

Since for many people, it’s necessary to carry a kind of identity card, this idea sprang up relatively naturally and easily.

And now, given the current presidential administration, it could become a reality for even more people, heh. Not a pleasant thought, not one bit.

Plot for Blue Card

A blue identity card left in the street, a bit of litter, mars the otherwise ‘perfect’ world of a child of a couple who are members of an unnamed fascist party.

As the only deviation and ‘defect’ in her life, the girl fixates on this imperfection and obsesses over it until her curiosity gets the better of her.

Characters in Blue Card

The characters are the narrator, an unnamed girl in a distant, dystopian future, and the people of her society.

Memorable Quotes

There is a blue card in the street. It’s dirty and a bit folded. The writing is hard to decipher. The wrinkles in it make the printing hard to make out. But it’s there all right.

I stepped over it the first time I saw it, trying not to get my new shoes wet and dirty because it was right near a puddle. I was going to school for the first day of the autumn-winter term and I wanted to look my very best. That’s because we’re party members – or at least my parents are. And that means we need to set a good example. It would never do for me to look dirty.

The second time I saw it, it was a few weeks later. The puddles had frozen and it had been trapped in one of them, and that’s why it was obscured. There was a slight thaw and one corner of it was visible, peeking out of the side of the frozen puddle, as if it were a crocus.

Again, I avoided it; this time, I sidestepped it.

The winter came and went. The spring term began.

When the weather got warmer in earnest, I walked a different route so I did not see it. I walked through the town, showing off my clean coat and polished shoes, my fresh-scrubbed face and my two perfectly symmetrical braids. I knew I was being looked at. And I knew I was making a good example. Someone has to, after all.

Rating

The story has a T rating. There are a lot of not too pleasant things that go on in this one. You have been warned.

Takeaways from Blue Card

I had thought that this story was on Wattpad, but it turns out that it isn’t!

Although I believe I did make the rounds of querying it for a while there.

With a little expansion, I think this could become a rather good story. It’s a bit like The Resurrection of Ditte in a lot of ways. And, perhaps, the POV character will get a chance for atonement just like Edith does in Ditte.

Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.