Banishment

Ralph saw the boat waiting for him and wanted to cry. He was walking away from the only home he had ever known in his life.

The town of Kellenah occupied a small island off the coast of South Carolina. It was the only place in America that practiced democracy in the same style that the ancient Greeks had. That included banishment.

The townspeople had just voted Ralph off the island. He expected that his family at least would have come with him, but they decided to stay. They were unwilling to give up their membership at the country club.

Death

Death. That was all his card said.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

He knew the machine was perverse, playing with a person's fate in the most ironic ways possible. Academics and the intellectually insecure called it the Sophocles, because only the ancient Greeks could match the machine for its macabre sense of humor.

But Death?

Was he supposed to die from fear. Was the machine getting philosophical? Should he avoid anyone in a Grim Reaper costume for the rest of his life?

All in all, Bill could think of better ways to have spent that twenty dollars.