Everyone tries to escape when their spirits broken, one can even be driven to acts of desperation. Like the time when No.23 tied himself to the trunk of a tree, threw himself off the top of a cliff so he did, tied to this trunk of a tree. He said the tied would carry him out to sea, and then he’d be picked up by a passing boat……….there wasn’t a funeral, you need a body!
No.6 was given an electro pass, it synchronises with the alarm system and lets you through, it does that right enough. And then, if you can fly a helicopter you can use it to escape! Well it’s like the jet boat they have here, and M.S. Polotska, it has a built-in remote control system!
You see there are three ways out of the Village, by road, well as it happens all roads lead back to the Village! By air, if you happen to be the helicopter pilot, Cobb, a plant here in the Village, of No. 2. By sea, you can either swim for it, carve yourself a boat out of a tree trunk. Build yourself a sea-going raft, or simply tie two rubber lilos together and simply paddle off in the hope of attracting the attention of a passing boat or ship. Overland into the open countryside, but beyond that are the mountains, over or through is the only way, and I’ve never known anyone attempt escape that way. Even No.6 rejected going over the mountains.
So you see there are only so many ways of escape from the Village, but I’ve known those to gather together and try to tunnel their way out. Or to hide in a dustbin in order to be collected and thrown out with the rubbish! No.38 went about the Village collecting the inner cardboard tube from toilet rolls, hundreds and hundreds he collected, and then sheets, and bought all the potatoes from the General store. No. 2 knew all the time what No.38 was up to. He was building a guilder in the Bell Tower! The inner cardboard tubes made the frame of the guilder, the sheets would make the covering of the frame, stiffened with starch from the boiled potatoes. Oh yes, and then there were the industrial strength elastic bands, they formed the catapult which would launch the guilder. It was only at the point of No.38 actually attempting to launch the guilder that No.2 put a stop to it. He said that he didn’t want No.38 killing himself, and only let he build the guilder in the first place so that he had something to do. That broke No.38’s gallant heart, one day he climbed to the top of the Bell Tower and threw himself off……..there was no water at the foot of the Bell Tower to break his fall!
You see No.6, he wants what we all want ultimately, to escape, and that goes for No.2, I herd him admit as much the Madam Professor. And to think that she and her husband the Professor came to the Village willingly, they must have been desperate! I mean to say the Professor is a teacher, he teaches. If that’s the case, and if he’s such a great teacher, why did he have to come to the Village to do it, answer me that if you can. And Madam Professor, she all arty. I mean to say, have you ever been to one of her art seminars? What’s that chap doping over there? He’s tearing up a book, creation comes out of the ashes of destruction, I mean what’s that got to do with art? And that woman, she’s standing on her head! But oh no, to Madam Professor she’s creating a new perspective! And that chap sat there….he’s asleep, yes I bet he is. Tired himself out thinking in broad concepts all day! And don’t give me any of that still life painting, or seascapes for that matter. And I can think of a better subjects than No.2 to paint, or model in clay, some people have no imagination! I was talking to that Nadia, you know Number Eight, cor I wouldn’t mind twelve hours in a crate with her! Oops! That’s sexist talk, I forgot. Mind you she did ask if I would paint her in the nude. I said I’d have to keep me socks on. Nadia asked me why, I said well I’ll need somewhere to keep me paint brushes! Do you get it, keep me socks on so I……..oh well please yourselves. But at least I’ve retained a sense of humour, which is more then most can say here!
Carnival they said, they’ll be music, dancing, happiness by order! Well I didn’t see much happiness, did you see the bland expression on everyone’s face at the Carnival? The dancing wasn’t up to much either, although there was music. If you ask me the Carnival was a put-up job. Well they didn’t fool me! Here do you know what, I had my breakfast brought to me on a tray that morning of the Carnival. Some bird, my personal maid actually, brought it to my cottage wearing a fancy dress costume, looked like King Arthur’s misses she did. And do you know what, my breakfast, it was stone cold! I blamed that guy driving the tractor, a bit too slow for my liking. If the girl had walked, she’d have got here twice as quick as riding on the trailer of that truck, and what’s more my breakfast wouldn’t have been cold!
Anyway were was I? Oh yeah, escape, what I’ve learned is this, if you don’t escape in time, you grow too old for escape that’s what. Well that’s what No.14 told me. He’s an ex-Count or something. And that’s another thing, how the devil can anyone be an ex-Count, did he resign or what?
Yes escape. Well it’s not everyone who is skilled enough to build a sea-going raft, let alone felling enough trees in the first place. And what about carving the hull of a boat out of the trunk of a tree, using a tarpaulin to complete the hull. And then what about navigation. I wouldn’t know how to navigate, not even if I knew where to was sailing from and to where I was sailing! I couldn’t build a home-made compass to save my life I couldn’t. No, what you need are reliable men! Men who are skilled in a number of different skills. And don’t make the same mistake as that Number 6 fella. Let others take responsibility, that way there’s no comeback. What I mean is, if Number 6 hadn’t taken overall charge of that little adventure, but let everyone take responsibility, then the Rook couldn’t have made the mistake he did, in thinking that Number 6 was one of “them!”
Anyway life here in the Village is what you make it. Me, I’m perfectly happy. {bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep” Just a minute that the phone. “Number Two here……….No sir, everything’s fine. Assistance? No sir I can manage…….No sir, just as you ordered……….well thank you sir.” Possibly the greatest experiment in human history and he treats it like. Well I wouldn’t like to say what he treats it like. All I know is life here in the Village is what you make it. But right now, just at this moment, I want what most of us want ultimately….to escape!
Be seeing you
