Page 8 - Silent Violence

believers are not tolerated. "I'm sorry," the agency
representative had said. "They won't accept your
form. You've got to believe in God. Let's put
Protestant, shall we?"

The official spoke loudly into the boy's last case.
He turned it for the boy to close. The bottle of
contact lens fluid was the only thing he had put
aside. A guard or soldier the official had apparently
summoned appeared and took the bottle. The
youth was about to protest but shook his head
instead.

When Mike and I reached the counter, I was
shocked to see the official standing on a carnage
of printed material, all flesh and eyes. I realised
that some of the eyes were not eyes but nipples.
Booby Babs and sexy Sadi shone heroically
through the trodden mosaic. All manner of
offensive pictures had been ripped from
magazines, newspapers and books. Revelations as
mild as a soaring slip of leg or a plunging
décolletage were considered improper. A girl in
lingerie was scandalous and there were few
contemporary magazines without one.

The official went through everything, right down
to impassively rifling through my smalls. My supply

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