NEW YORK — A countdown clock ticks down at the rear of the election headquarters of a man named Oedipus, a candidate for high political office who has built his campaign on restoring a divided city-state now unable to talk to itself. Oh, where can we be? Somewhere close to home?

The exit polling looks good as the candidate’s crew — wife Jocasta, daughter Antigone, sons, drivers, interlopers and campaign aides — prepare for a celebration. But there’s an 11th-hour issue, an October surprise, if you will. The candidate suddenly becomes interested in finding out the hidden secrets of his own identity and coming clean with the voters in his pending victory speech, even when those with greater insight tell him to stop before everything unravels.

“Truth,” as it says on the sweatshirt available

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