For those of you coming in late, this is Chapter 02 of my novel, Percy’s War. You can read Chapter 01 here. ********************* The party was exactly as they expected it to be – an excuse to get drunk and listen to the conversation around them – always cheerful, always upbeat, but tinged with an …

Percy Shroff woke up and wiped a thin layer of perspiration off his face. The ceiling fan above was silent, the bathroom light just as lifeless. Load shedding. He stumbled in to wash. The sputtering tap yielded up its treasure of cold, hard water – despite the rationing, a few hours of uninterrupted water supply …