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My book, based on a true story and my real experience is about a special class for gifted savants aged 11 set up in Ottawa during the build-up to Nuclear stand-off to provide special education so as to lay the foundation of a future elite to manage Canada after the anticipated holocaust caused either by Russia or the U.S. When the Armageddon starts they were to be moved to the Diefenbunker located five miles from the school. But this plan is tentative based on the evaluation of the success of the class and on the outcome of an upcoming election.

Admission to the class was based on the crude IQ testing of the period which itself was evolved from German war practice to rapidly select officer candidates for the SS at the war's end. The Class in Ottawa are all tested frequently and those who fall below the 'sigma 2' category are purged.

The class is managed by two psychiatrists using experimental pedagogue including three tiered reading groups, visiting lecturers, sensory deprivation in the teaching of mathematics, mystery visits in the class bus etc.

A naturalist poet visits the class. The designer of The Avro Arrow comes, the Director of the UFO monitoring station just outside of the city, a mechanic who fixes McCormack cars and the agriculturist who has developed high yield 'Bytown wheat'.

Two classmates, Tim and Dorothy, fall in Love. This is how the book begins. They are turning 12. They walk to school together talking of love and the world. They talk of their families. Tim is poor. Dorothy's parents work in the national research center. The two are attacked by French-Canadian thugs. They watch the seasons. They share lunches. The river floods.

The chidren's best friend, Marcus Barcus, the son of a Lithuanian defector, an atomic scientist, disappears. They search for him throughout the city and surrounding countryside. Another classmate disappears. This is reported as a suicide attempt. Several classmates reach puberty. There are clandestine drinking parties. The search goes on.

There is a spy scare involving Tim's father who is a low ranking soldier. Several strange weather phenomena take place. American television begins. Lester Pearson talks of Peace-Keeping. The Queen visits (perhaps to discuss relocation of the Commonwealth in case of war). Tim is in a choir that sings for her at a reception. He looks at her boobs. Others in the choir are in a Nazi inspired street gang. The Americans talk of preventative annexation. News emerges of Canadian war crimes in Holland. It then disappears.

Canadians are accused of being not nice and bad brokers by American Senators. Sun fish fill the Ottawa river. The By0-Town canal built as a strategic defence against the U.S. is gentrified. There are rumors of a second Bunker and another class. The second bunker is said to be preventative and meant to be sealed until after half-life passes.

Tim and Dot run away for a day. They go to an area near Smith's Falls where 'Bottomless Lake' is.

A meeting of parents is held who vote to discontinue the class so their kids can have normal lives. Those voting against dissolution are the parents of Aspergers kids. Before the class ends the National Film Board makes three films about it for show on television. Only one is shown. It is called 'The Special Ones' and is about pioneering techniques for education of the gifted. The second is of a mock UN assembly of tiny kids with squeaky voices talking of the world representing places like China and Ghana. It is called 'The Present World'. The third is a series of interviews. With Tim, with Dorothy, With Marcus and with others. It is called The Future. No-one knows when the one was done with Marcus. These are archived but unavailable for release to researchers.

There is an epilogue on 'What they are doing now'. But it only mentions Brenda, Francis, Gordon, both Johns and Billy. Some readers may recognize these people who are presently prominent in Politics, Science, Info-Tech business and the arts. Some of their present activities in their present circles are outlined briefly.

There are to be reoccurring images of rocketry (with firecrackers, vinegar and soda, wiring and radio waves). There will be references to primitive rock, especially songs about dreams, and to Lithuanian folk wisdom. There will be discussions on mathematical theory, history, literature and medicine carried on by Tim and Dorothy. The title is 'Tim and Dorothy'

What do you think?