#119

• Number 6 sat down behind a small table and began to rummage through a drawer. In a few minutes he found what he was looking for. His search ended when he found the small blank book he had purchased from a store in downtown London. It had been three weeks since he liberated himself from the village.

  He opened the book and looked at the blank creamy white pages. he wondered what he was going to write and why. Was he writing it for the future or for the past? Was he writing it so he would believe what he had gone through in the past months was true? Or could it have been he was writing just because it was therapeutic?

  He began to think about all of the times that Number 2 had tried to get him to crack. At this moment he wondered if the village officials were still watching him; still scrutinizing his every move. He assumed they weren't but there was no way to know for sure.

  He remembered when he walked into his home for the first time after leaving the village, the door opened the same way, right? Was it still possible he was in the village?

  He sat and reflected for some time, staring at that blank book lying on the table. He thought, "If I am still in the Village, if I didn't get out they will just read it and I'll never know. Does it really matter what I am going to write in this book?" When he reached the end of his thoughts, he decided to write after all. He did not write a date just his thoughts which were summed up into a few sentences. "I was told when I was younger to be an individual. I grew up thinking this way. Then I arrived at the Village. In this village I was taught to be like everyone else; to blend in as it were. I never cracked, I never abandoned the ideals I was taught when I was a younger man. I still believe I am an individual regardless of where I am located. My personality will not be changed by others. As I sit here and begin to tell of my time spent in the village, something I said a long time ago to Number 2 just came to my mind, "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.' and I still firmly believe that. I suppose you could say this book will represent a chronicle of the Village seen through the eyes of an individual."

  As Number 6 continues to write, we see Number 2 sitting in his chair welcoming a new Number to the village. "Welcome Number 874, I hope you enjoy your stay in the Village. No one has ever escaped." As Number 874 leaves the room Number 2 mutters under his breath, "No one but Six"

   

  (c) Sara Clarson 1999

  ---

  Story Index

  ---

  If you are interested in submitting material for this page please send it by e-mail - including a title - to lawrence@carol.net. Publication depends on merit and interest value.

  ---