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Tomorrow Is Monday by Jacob A. Boyd

The idea for "Tomorrow Is Monday" grew out of my fascination with dementia care campuses, where the resident dementia sufferers are cared for with constant surveillance and benevolent deception, all within a seemingly normal setting. Life on the campuses is supposed to mimic "real" life, while built-in safety features keep the residents from leaving. Key to it all, the residents don't know they're being contained and managed. The campuses are built in such a way that the residents' own choices do most of the work.

That kind of care--making sure what is seemingly real never shows its "true face" so that the residents don't suffer from their condition--appeared to be the same kind of thinking behind that conspiracy theory darling, a secret master race of lizard people who are secretly managing humankind.

It was unsettling to think about. In many ways, dementia relieves people of a great deal of autonomy in the eyes of those who care for them. People suffering from dementia can't be trusted not to harm themselves, but caretakers use any tool available to make sure those who are suffering don't experience their loss of autonomy, even though it is being taken from them by their very caretakers (out of a sense of responsibility and kindness) and by the disease. This thought made me uncomfortable, especially because the most unsettling parts of it are motivated by kindness and a desire to alleviate disorientation and pain.

Because the most unsettling parts of it come from kindness, I didn't want to write a grotesque horror story--blood and guts and mind control. Instead, I wanted to see the master race of lizard people who are secretly controlling the world. I wanted to portray them as frail flesh, not all powerful. I wanted to show that they, too, weren't spared the tactics of kindness and care that they foist upon humankind. So I set the story in a dementia care campus for aging lizard people, and gave to the point of view character a resident to care for who has grown to love humans.