Imagine a world where past and current presidents sail a dying Gulf of Mexico on shrimp boats named after heavy metal hair bands in search of ever elusive seafood, all while warding off other shrimp boat pirates. Or if that isn’t your fancy, perhaps a future where a sequence of Trump’s descendants run the country with authority unchecked, and the result is the destruction of social security, degradation of the ozone, and nursing homes under the guard of men with rifles. These are the kinds of worlds that Neil Smith and Danny Gardner have created in an anthology of conspiracy theory stories surrounding Barack Obama, “The Obama Inheritance”.

The anthology itself was published through Three Rooms Press after both Smith and Gardner were contacted by fellow author, Gary Philips who had the idea for the novel. Philips also edited the novel.

“The theme was to write 15 stories of conspiracies and falsehoods that a lot of people in politics had about Obama while he was president,” Smith said on his story in the anthology, “I Will Haunt You”. “We didn’t really follow the rules that were set out for us.”

Smith took inspiration from “Moby Dick” while writing his own conspiracy and wanted his characters to come across the last great pocket of fish in an oil-ridden sea where all international trade is banned.

“I immediately wanted to do something on climate change, and how everybody thought it was a hoax,” Smith said.

In “I Will Haunt You”, gigantic oil rigs dot the ocean, slowly bleeding oil into the ocean. Smith did find a way to smuggle Trump into the story in way that made him seem like a mythological creature to the other presidents in this story as they sail the Slayer.

“Danny Gardner’s story “My Brother’s Keeper” flashes forward to a time when America has endured the rule by several Trumps”, writes Kirkus Reviews. “The country’s environmental policies have forced millions into space, children are forced to attend Trump Academy, and undocumented immigrants are punished with death.”

The main character in Gardner’s story is in search of Chicago, or at least what’s left of it, as he seeks to prove that at one point in time there was a black president there.

“I wanted people to be able to recognize the body of the country, but at the same time be able to say hey maybe your arm shouldn’t be moving that way,” says Gardner, describing the state of the world in his story.

The characters in his story are beyond the point of “get the doctor” to “get the gun” as they survive meekly in a world where social security has been destroyed. Gardner himself makes an appearance in the story as old, gruff character known as Pop Pop, grandfather to the main character and relic of a forgotten world.

“I poked fun at the notion of hope and change as mantras, but yet not really actionable concepts.” Gardner said.

Gardner focused on the balance of things in the world. When you have descendants of former slaves running the White House, there must be a counter balance. In “Brother’s Keeper”, that comes in the form of a boorish billionaire who has animosity for the family that just left the White House. In Gardner’s universe, the scale has stopped working, the pendulum has stopped swinging, and a line of Trumps have gone completely unchecked.

The book is available for purchase online on Amazon, and at major bookstores.