A long time ago there was a very old man. He lived his entire life without friends. The only reason why none of he didn’t have any friends, was because…. Since he was a young boy he’s always had milk with his cereal. The town leaders thought it was disrespectful to drink another animal’s milk which was first only intended to feed their young. Dan (the old man) thought (how could you ever eat cereal with no milk?) which little did he know many other towns people felt the same way. But every single one of them would never confess to drinking milk because penalties from the town were death.
Nobody wanted to be friends with Dan because he would always want to talk about how stupid the milk laws were. Nobody even wanted to be seen with him in fear of getting accused of going against the town government. He always had felt alone. How could he be the only one to break the milk law? He would think to himself at his small breakfast table. Dan would rarely talk to anyone but himself. But every once in a while when he would go to the store he would get to have an actual conversation with the cashier.
One day Dan was walking to the store when he noticed how odd the court house looked. Usually the old building would be as desolate as an abandon bus down by a river. But not today, today it had what looked like the entire town outside of it.
“Hey you’re Dan, Right?” said small elderly women who were approaching him.
It had been such a long time since he had talked to anyone it took him a minute to find his voice
“Umm may I ask who you are and why you’re asking?” Dan replied trying not to sound too rude, but you never could be too carful these days.
“I’m Ms. Jonas, and if you are Dan you had better be careful. Word has spread that John and Julie Martins have been caught with milk”
“What happened?”
“The town brought in a security task force to stop any and all milk trafficking”
Dan automatically felt his stomach knot.
“And more people have already been turned in, people are scared for their lives and don’t know what to do other then give up names……”
“There he is!” shouted Mrs. Tart (a young school teacher)
“YEAH THAT’S HIM” screamed the entire mob
Dan felt his body lockup in fear as his eyes flicked towards the mob.
“Oh god, no I don’t have milk I swear it!” A man was practically crying out as the mob called him a liar and mocked him, before pulling him inside the court house. This man would have to sit in jail for a minimum of two days before he would get his trial.

Dan awoke to some noise outside his bedroom window. He quickly got up and quickly tripped over all the bags he had packed before he had gone to bed. He recovered after standing on one foot and wedging the other through the gaps between his heavily packed bags shoving a narrow path for him to step through cautiously. He pushed his face against the double paned glass window to get a better look to the sides. The second his nose touched the glass he saw the outer pane of glass shatter, within a millisecond he felt the impact of glass fragments and the corner of something (he would later find out was a brick) crush the bridge of his nose.
Dan stumbled to the tub, stepping on and over everything that lay on the ground including broken glass. All he could feel was warm blood dripping down his face. He grabbed a towel still disoriented from the blow to his head and stepped into the shower. He watched as an ocean of blood swirling down the drain. Dan pressed the towel he had grabbed to his face as he sat on the floor of his shower.
Dan awoke to freezing water from the shower hitting his towel covered face. Dan knew the people wanted him gone. He knew if he didn’t leave town now he might not make it out alive.
Dan made it out alive and made a happier life for himself less than 500 miles away where milk was legal, Amsterdam.