Curfew!

   Each night the good citizens of The Village are locked in their cells cottages, and rooms. A few minutes before curfew {it might be the same for every prisoner} a maid makes Number 6 his nightly bedtime night cap of hot chocolate. This is of course drugged, a sedative providing Number 6 with a good nights sleep, and at the same time providing security for The Village. However Number 6 doesn’t drink his nightcap, so it’s no wonder he cannot sleep! He paces up and down the floor of the study, clicking his fingers, wondering that to do, probably feeling like a caged animal. He tries the door to his cottage, it’s locked of course. Oh well, perhaps best to go to bed, oh he can’t, the cat’s lying on it, obviously Number 6 is a cat lover. So instead he takes to his recliner. The moment he lays back, the overhead light comes on, and off, what’s more there’s a seductive female voice encouraging him to go to sleep.
    “Sleep, sleep, sleep……….that’s it…sleep softly until tomorrow’…... Lovely gentle sleep, and a lovely tomorrow.”
   But that’s enough for Number 6, he jumps up off the recliner and into the study where he throws back the curtains of the French door. He turns the door handle to find the door unlocked, and flings it open. And climbing over the balcony he disappears into the night.
   If security is a primary objective, then why leave the French door unlocked? Was it an oversight on the part of someone, or might there be another reason? That it was part of some deliberate efficiency test set by Number 2, not to test Number 6, but to test their own efficiency, those of the Observers, and that of the Guardian. After all that’s what Number 2 told the Observer-Number 240 when she reported she couldn’t find Number 6.
    "Don't worry my dear” Number 2 told her “it will test our efficiency." 

Be seeing you