The Village

   Is the same for everyone. Prisoner or warder alike, the facilities of The Village are for everyone. The Health and Welfare, the credit card system. Everyone is free to enjoy themselves, the amenities and whatever entertainment is laid on for the citizen’s enjoyment. I’ve seen them, lounging about in deckchairs, or on the beach sunbathing. Playing beach ball, or chess, attending the regular Brass band concerts. There are painting competitions, art seminars, the facilities of the Recreation Hall for arts and craft exhibitions, folk music concerts, and of entertainment and mime. Mind you hardly anyone uses the swimming pool. Well it’s made from stone and concrete, the water’s freezing! And yet there is a price to pay for some. Take Number 9, she was assigned to Cobb, Cobb supposedly died, then Number 9 was assigned to Number 6. She didn’t look as though she liked it very much, but then she was only a pawn in the game. I think it was worse for the Observer Number 240. She got to know Number 34 quite well, the only thing is he didn’t know her. And that’s the sad thing about observers of life, they should never get involved. Number 240 can never become involved, allow herself to become close to someone. Because one day she might find herself having to be his observer!
    Number 8 didn’t fair too well either. She was hypnotised into thinking that she was in love with Number 6, and he with her. They had her emotions tied into the alarm system, and I bet this isn’t the first time she had been used. Remember she had often helped others with their escape plans, but none of them ever succeeded, and we know why. What happened to Number 8 is not known, but it’s possible that like some of Number 6’s reliable men, she was not put back on the chessboard!
    Then there are people like Roland Walter Dutton, the only place he seemed to know in The Village was the hospital! Possibly he was taken to the hospital after he had given them all the information he had. Because the doctor-Number 40 did not believe him he carried out a number of experiments on Dutton in order to get the rest of the information out of him even though there was none. Poor old Dutton, released from hospital for 72 hours so that he could reconsider in the peaceful atmosphere of The Village! How can Dutton enjoy the facilities of The Village knowing that soon he will cease to exist?! And that poor wretch that had undergone the so called Instant Social Conversion, a better name for it being a leucotomy, to isolate the aggressive frontal lobes of the brain. To make nothing of all those Village citizens who undergo therapy treatment everyday. The Village may be for everyone, but it’s the treatment that makes the difference.

Be seeing you