Sheryl knew she needed a way out. Since The Crash, her entire life had fallen apart. She should have left New York after 911-but she was just too attached to her job and the people she worked with. It was all just too hard to believe. First most of Los Angeles had been turned into a rather large crater. Then the refugees had streamed into New York. It was obvious that LA simply wasn't going to be rebuilt anytime soon-and much of what was left of the US entertainment business was New York based. New York had experienced a boom of sorts--even after many of the H-1b workers had been expelled after the Gulf War disaster. Sheryl had known things were getting strange though when the media had gotten terribly religious in orientation. Still she had her job. Her boss, Gerald, was so wonderful-not that she had gotten to see him all that much--and occasional quickie at the office was most of what he had gotten. The rare and occaisional "real dates" were special to her. He'd made her feel good. Now, the fact that she'd started off wanting a family-and that just wasn't going to happen on a secretary's salary in New York gnawed at her-but somehow, Gerald was able to make those worries go away.
That all died with Gerald after The Crash. It was still hard for her be believe that in one day, most of what she had taken for granted had simply evaporated. What had been the United States, was now a patchwork of countries she had never heard of-with strange alliances that defied her belief system. The idea that Muslim insurgents would storm Wall Street-with Confederate air support still struck her as completely bizarre. She still couldn't believe that these Muslim insurgents had executed Gerald for 'usury'--and that she had been required to watch his beheading.
Since then, life had gotten rather drab and dreary. Gone were her days in restaurants and theater. Her life consisted now of the kind of housework she most despised-surrounded by other women in a "dormitory". News was scarce and mostly came from "The Ministers" that came to teach their particular brand of Islam. She had to admit though that most of them _were_ rather nice looking young men. What was strange to her was that none of were feminine approaches got much in the way of response from any of 'The Ministers'.
