Gather The Weeds

At The Gate, a futuristic institution in Maryland, Michael wakes up to what he thinks would be a normal day as a deaf ward. His friends, Sam Rueda, a ward suffering from epilepsy, and Paul Flounder, a disabled ward, involve him in a minor alternation with the blockheads, wards with gray armbands showing their authority over other wards. The angelic Watchers arrive to put them all on report. Eager to cooperate, Michael resolves to follow the rules of the Gate, avoid trouble and to remain and calmly wait for the day of his own taking. Soon his frustrated desires, to have a girlfriend, freedom from terror of the blockheads and the Watchers, and to play hockey begin to take its toll.

The novel explores the Gate in the depth of Michael’s Poole mind, in silly riddles, messages on bathroom walls, and crude drawings only to discover the final health policy for the wards of the Gate, unwelcomed by the general population of a perfect hostile world.

This story is similiar to William Golding's'Lord of the Flies', a pitiless, brutal, remote world where the imperfects live as pariahs and aliens. One goodreads.com reviewer claims that it makes 'The Road' "seems like a happy little fairy tale with cute bunnies hopping among the daisies while sunbeams twinkle in the crystal air."