Read Online Childless: A Novel by James Dobson, Kurt Bruner - Free Book Online

productive young straining under the economic burden of an aging population. The past decade had brought a net decline in the number of households for the first time in the nation’s history. Fewer households led to empty, unsellable homes. Lower property values led to lower consumer confidence, further reducing spending on goods and services. The resulting decline in corporate profits dried up most of the business capital necessary to invest in growth or innovation. Dominos fell in a predictable sequence. They would continue to fall.
    Even shrinking the social safety net, while inevitable, hadn’t helped. Some said the cuts might have deepened the crisis because business leaders had followed the government’s lead. Nearly every sector of the economy took a hit, with the notable exception of the senior-care industry. That’s why millions of former engineers, architects, manufacturers, sales managers, retailers, builders, and journalists found themselves giving baths and fixing diabetic meals for a living. The old still had access to the cash they hadn’t spent raising kids.
    Julia considered herself lucky. She had never had more work. One assignment after the next flowed to her independent writing business, most of them lucrative feature stories for a variety of online journals.
    Maria was feeling the pinch more than her sister. But at least she had work. Only five employees at her salon remained full-time. A dozen others had had to leave without severance or accept a downgrade to part-time status.
    “Dark zones,” Julia whispered.
    Maria strained to hear. “What’s that?”
    “Oh, something Troy mentioned the other day. He said we have so many dark zones in this economy that it makes the bright spots stand out more.”
    “Bright spots? Remind me.”
    “Kevin’s proposal for stimulating the economy. Find pockets of growth to copy their patterns. You know, bright needles in an otherwise dismal haystack.”
    “Oh yeah. I thought that proposal got killed.”
    “Not killed. Just ignored. Senator Franklin’s austerity committee set it aside when the crisis hit. But Troy and Kevin seem to think there may be a window to resurrect the idea, especially since Franklin needs something positive to offset his slash-and-burn reputation. People won’t support a presidential candidate whose chief accomplishment has been further pummeling a battered economy with one draconian cut after the next.”
    Maria appeared uninterested in matters so far removed from her own world.
    “Anyway,” Julia added quickly, “Troy suggested I should write stories on both.”
    “Both what?”
    “Both dark zones and bright spots. You know, sections of the country in decline contrasted with those on the rise.”
    “Are any on the rise?”
    “Troy says there are,” Julia explained. “He thinks I should publish a series of features that would show how current policies touch everyday life. But I can’t imagine who would pay me for the stories, and my plate is pretty full right now with the column and paid assignments like the series I owe Bing Media.”
    Julia shifted her concentration while easing the car onto the interstate, allowing Maria to steer the conversation to more pressing matters.
    “I got an interesting message this week.”
    Julia recognized the lilt in her sister’s voice. “Did you?”
    “A guy. He seems interesting. Kind of mysterious.”
    “How’d you meet?”
    “The usual.”
    “Not another one of your secret admirers! I thought you swore off—”
    “I said I was taking a break, not that I’d sworn off exploring possibilities.”
    Julia stared straight ahead while motioning for Maria to spill the juicy details.
    “He says we knew each other in high school.”
    “They all say that.”
    “Stop it.”
    “Sorry,” Julia said sincerely. “I just worry about you, Sis. There are a lot of nutcases out there. And the sane ones could be driven nuts by the images you post. You need to be careful.”
    “I will be