May Day Entry

Topsy Turvey
Maid Joy

The High Priest stepped up to the microphone.

"Everyone, please listen up. The Beltane ritual tonight is going to be a bit different. Normally as you know the females are the receptors and the males are the givers in the Great Rite, but this time we are going to reverse it. Tonight, the High Priestess is going to hold the Athame, and I'm going to hold the Chalice.

"Further, the decoration of the Phallus," there was some slight chuckling from the audience, "is also going to be reversed. The men will be going sunwise, and the women anti-sunwise. The steps are the same, but it is going to take some concentration to keep your mind on the parts.

"Other than that the ritual is exactly the same. Thank you."

Day One

    Desolate but breathtaking, that’s how Charlie Dawson always described the Alaskan tundra. After completing his residency in General Medicine, he had fled joyously back to the land of his youth. Others had twisted and fought like salmon at the end of a hook only to be slowly reeled back into the bosom of the state that had covered the huge loans incurred by eight or more years of study and training. For some reason, the State of Alaska expected them to practice in the “Land of the Midnight Sun” or immediately reimburse the state for its costs–with interest and stiff penalties.

I was wakened in the dark by the horrid wailing of the air-raid siren.

‘Here we go again,’ I thought, pulling on Greta’s baggy navy-blue knickers before traipsing out to the Anderson shelter in the corner of the back garden.

An authorized story, based on the characters and environment of A New Style of Education by Karen Page.