Children of the Wrong Time

Michael Holmes and Nora Savins stepped into the ornate atrium of the Department of Vital Privileges and looked up at the life-size marble statue of the Founding Father, a smiling young man who held in his hand an ancient movie script rolled into a scroll.

“Keanu Reeves,” Michael said reverentially, “with his quote from Parenthood: You need a license to drive, you need a license to fish, you need a license to own a dog, but they will let any moron be a parent.” And under the inscription he read the First Law of the Republic: “Never Again Any Moron.”