protocol

The prompt is called “Great Minds Think” and it’s the brainstorm of fellow bloggers Sarah and Rohini. The two of them alternate weeks. This week’s challenge is to write a story inspired by the featured sentence. Use it as your opening line, your central premise, or simply the spark that ignites your imagination. The featured sentence is:

“Please tell me you didn’t open the blue envelope.”

Marilyn had spent ten quiet years on the envelope-sorting line, her hands moving in a steady rhythm that felt almost like breathing. Red, green, yellow, white — each color slid through her fingers and into its proper bin. There was only one overarching rule and it was simple: never open an envelope, not even out of idle curiosity. But there was one exception, spoken in hushed tones during training: if a blue envelope ever appeared, she was to absolutely not open it. No one explained why.

For a decade, she never saw any blue envelopes. Then, on an ordinary Thursday morning, a flash of blue broke the monotony. It was small, slightly heavier than the others, and cold to the touch. Marilyn froze, while the conveyor belt kept humming beneath her hands. She should have placed it aside, followed protocol, pretended it was just another oddity in a long line of oddities.

Instead, her curiosity, normally quiet and patient, but persistent, couldn’t be denied.

Marilyn slipped the blue envelope into her pocket and waited until break. In the dim corner of the break room, she peeled the flap open. Inside was a single sheet of paper, densely typed, stamped with symbols she didn’t recognize. The first line read: “If you are reading this, the breach has already begun.”

Before she could read further, a piercing alarm erupted through the building. Red lights flashed. Doors clanged shut. Footsteps thundered down the hallway.

Her supervisor skidded into the room, face pale, eyes wide with something beyond anger. It was more like genuine fear.

“Please tell me you didn’t open the blue envelope.”

Marilyn held the paper in trembling fingers. She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to.

The supervisor exhaled sharply, as if bracing for impact. “Then we don’t have much time.”

Images conjured using ChatGPT.

This morning, breaking with the tradition of flying the flag at the White House at half-staff upon the death of a sitting U.S. Senator through the senator’s burial, Donald Trump ordered that the flag flying over the White House be raised to full staff.

This did not go over well, particularly with veterans. American Legion National Commander Denise Rohan wrote a letter to Trump earlier today in which she said, “The American Legion urges the White House to follow long-established protocol following the death of prominent government officials.”

Rohan’s letter continued, “On the behalf of The American Legion’s two million wartime veterans, I strongly urge you to make an appropriate presidential proclamation noting Senator McCain’s death and legacy of service to our nation, and that our nation’s flag be half-staffed through his internment.”

A few hours later, Donald Trump released a statement saying, “Despite our differences on policy and politics, I respect Senator John McCain’s service to our country and, in his honor, have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the United States at half-staff until the day of his interment.”

Hmm. The wording of Trump’s statement is eerily similar to that of Denise Rohan’s letter, isn’t it.

It took significant pressure from a group representing U.S. veterans and even members of his own party in Congress to get Trump to do the right and decent thing. And yet some recent polls have shown Trump to have 90% approval rating among Republicans.

Seriously, Republicans?