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Helen Joy lives in a plastic bubble in a world frozen by the fear of viruses. When her brother brings home a strange friend, the bubble may pop.The Sentry Defense System keeps out germs that would threaten Helen Joy's family, but it also keeps out the California breeze and anything new or exciting. So does her biodress, a specially-designed defensive outfit. But with talk of free-air freaks and her brother acting increasingly erratic, she takes some comfort in the familiar protection...
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Helen Joy lives in a plastic bubble in a world frozen by the fear of viruses. When her brother brings home a strange friend, the bubble may pop.The Sentry Defense System keeps out germs that would threaten Helen Joy's family, but it also keeps out the California breeze and anything new or exciting. So does her biodress, a specially-designed defensive outfit. But with talk of free-air freaks and her brother acting increasingly erratic, she takes some comfort in the familiar protection her isolation technology affords her. This short Alternative History novella explores a timeline that diverges from our own at a key historical moment in 1955 when the world stood on the brink of defeating polio. The moment is real-a 1955 event known as The Cutter Incident-and the story explores a possible outcome of that event: a society built on extreme social distancing in a world without vaccines.