A New Arrival!

    There's a new arrival in the village this morning. I observed him as he woke up in what he thought to be his own home, but is really a home from home. He left his cottage, and went out and about in the village. He took a taxi ride "local service only." He tried to make a telephone call, but seeing as he doesn't have a number, he couldn't make the call! He even paid a visit to the General Emporium, the shopkeeper asked his customer what he could do for him. The Prisoner asked for a map, it didn't seem to matter if it was colour or black and white, as both showed exactly the same thing! The Prisoner did ask for a map of a larger area, but the shopkeeper informed that there was no need for any other maps.

   Later in his cottage the Prisoner received a telephone call from No.2 "Come and have breakfast, Number Two, the Green Dome." What follows is the interview which took place between the new arrival and Number Two, as told to me by the Butler.

    No.2: “Ah do come in, do come in. Sit down.”

   {A chair suddenly rises up though a hole in the floor}

    The Prisoner: “I'm comfortable as I am.”

    “I suppose you're wondering what you are doing here.”

    “It had crossed my mind. What's it all about?”

   {A pair of steel doors open and the Butler pushes a tea trolley down the ramp as a small round topped table appears through another hole in the floor. Upon which he sets out the breakfast things}

    “Tea?”

    “Green tea, with orange and lotus flower.”

    {The Butler shoots the Prisoner a quizzical look}

    “What's it all about?”

    “I don't think you realise what a valuable property you've become.”

    {The Butler departs pushing the tea trolley before him}

    “Who brought me here?”

    “I know how you feel, believe me, they have taken quite a liberty.”

    “Who are they?”

    “You know you're now the closest person we have to the Prisoner known as Number Six.”

    “Number what?”

    “Six, it didn’t mention you’re being hard of hearing in your file.”

    “I am not a number, I am a person!”

    “Yes, we've been through all that before. It's our Prize Prisoner Number Six."
    "What's the matter with him?"
    "He's died and beaten us all!”

    “What's that got to do with me?”

    “You know what it has to do with you, that's why you've been brought here. You're our new Number Six.”

    “Don't come the old acid with me. Your Tally Ho newspaper has just made your Number Six the village citizen of the week!”

    “You know you really do bear a remarkable resemblance, you really do.”

   “To whom?”

    “Number Six. That's why you've been brought here.”

    “You can't keep me here, I'm leaving.”

    “That's sprightly, very sprightly.”

    “I know you.”

    “Who am I?”

    “You are an enemy!”

    “You are on edge. I've never known you so strung up. I was only saying to Susan.....”

    “Susan died a year ago, and name is not Curtis you know.”

    “Oh you’re good, you’ve even read his file!”

    “You'll get nothing from me.”

    “Sooner or later you'll co-operate, sooner or later you'll want to.”

    “I know you. I know the village. I know what to try and what not to. I'm going to escape and come back!”

    “Come back?!”

    “Escape, comeback, wipe this place off the face of the Earth. Obliterate it, and you with it!”

    “You see, you're brilliant at it. Not only do you look like No.6, sound like Number Six, but now you're using his exact same words. Admittedly not in the same place, but that will soon come, the longer you stay here.”

    “You're telling me that I'm supposed to impersonate this Number Six?”

    “No, you are Number Six. Or the closest we now have to the Prisoner Number Six.

    “Look, you know who I am, I know who I am........”

    “You know your hair isn't quite right, but my girls will soon put that right You know I think we have a challenge!”

Image from the Department of Visual Records

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