Chapter 13
Appreciation!
No.2
donned his dressing gown, left the comfort of his room and walked along the
corridor to the bathroom carrying a towel and his wash bag. He was quiet,
almost subdued as he closed the bathroom door behind him. Disrobing he ran
himself a shower. Plugging in his electric razor he found himself looking at
the self he had become in the mirror.
“Where is that…. “I’m not a number”
person?” he heard a voice ask.
Its true he is not the man he once
was, rebellious, a reactionary, and disharmonious. If today was Appreciation
Day the word on that monument would be assimilate! It’s true, he had
assimilated into the village, and has that to thank for the man he has become.
Why had he so easily and so readily accepted being promoted to the position of
Number 2? The plan, what was it, to lean more about the Village, its inner most
workings and eventually to bring the system down from within? You did have a
plan didn’t you? Perhaps it was to make changes then, to make a better, a descent
Village for people to live in. You did have a plan didn’t you? If you did it
was thrown out of the window, for you relish your new position, and that makes
you no better than any of your predecessors. What is it about? They did it to you now it’s their turn to suffer? But its not they who are suffering, you’re
not punishing them for what they did to you. You are No.2, you are Village, and
there’s no getting away from it because it’s in you. You breathe it in each and
every day. Where is this, “I am not a number I am a free man,” I do not see
him, for that man no longer exists!
The
black global chair rose up through the floor behind the grey curved desk;
sitting in the chair No.2 had a thoughtful expression on his face. The pair of
steel doors opened and his assistant No.21, dressed immaculately as always,
walked smartly down the ramp, the steel doors closing behind him. He approached
the desk and looked at his superior.
“If you knew me Twenty-one would you
like me?”
21 gave his superior a quizzical look
“That’s a bit deep for a Thursday.”
“Would you?”
“You’re not here to be liked sir.”
“Then why am I here?”
“You are Number Two.”
“I must be more than…than a mere
number.”
“The people like you……”
111
“Do they, do they?”
“….they appreciate you for who you
are sir.”
“My name, what’s my name?”
No.21 looked blankly at his superior.
“Does this place, this Village absorb
us so much that it takes our being so much that we are no longer the people we
used to be, taking away our humanity?”
This was not like No.2 at all to be
talking this way.
“You seem troubled this morning
Number Two.”
“I have doubts Twenty-one.”
“Doubts sir?”
“What’s more I am not the man I was.”
“We all change, the job changes us.”
“But that’s not all; I have lost
something in the process of becoming Two.”
“And what is it that you have lost
sir?”
“I have lost….my self!”
The pair of steel doors opened and the
diminutive figure of the butler pushed the breakfast trolley down the ramp and
across the floor. He busied himself setting out the breakfast things on the
desk. There was a plate covered by a silver plated dish cover which he picked up
uncovering a plate of flapjacks.
“Do I like flapjacks?” No.2 asked
leaning forward in his chair.
The butler looked blankly at his
master.
“Take it away and bring me bacon and eggs”
No.2 ordered “but leave the tea.”
The butler replaced the dish cover,
bowed and took it away.
No.2, rising out of his chair, picked
up the silver plate teapot and poured out two cups of tea, adding milk and
sugar to one, and looked for the lemon for his own tea
“Anything wrong sir?”
“There’s no lemon.”
“I’m sorry sir?”
“I like my tea with lemon!”
A few minutes later the pair of steel
doors opened and the butler returned with No.2’s bacon and eggs.
“You forgot……..”
The butler set the plate of eggs and
bacon on the desk, and dropped a slice of lemon into the cup of tea. He bowed,
turned, and left the office pushing the breakfast trolley as he went.
“A funny little chap” No.21 said “he
never forgets anything he remembers!”
No.2 sat eating his breakfast while
No.21 drank his tea.
Later that morning the grey ‘L’ shaped
telephone on the desk began to bleep, No.249 a bald-headed man, wearing
tortoise shell spectacles, grey roll neck jersey and white coat picked it up.
112
“Head of psychiatrics…….. you want to know
about Number Two well technically he’s no longer Number Two of course, and hasn’t
been for some time now, but he’s still with us, on the psychiatric ward……..oh I
see…… the current Number Two, how do you mean he’s not quite
himself?.......well none of us are who we once were………doubting himself, I would
say that’s normal, after all who amongst us has never done that. I prescribe
work, there’s nothing like it, it can be a cure for most ills. Who is this
speaking?”
The telephone went dead.
No.21 put down the telephone and
stepped away from the kiosk.
“Good afternoon everyone, good
afternoon, and congratulations on yet another day” began the cheery female
announcer, her voice coming out through the Village public address speakers “the
weather forecast is that the recent fine spell of weather is set to continue, The
Tally Ho is now on sale, as is ice cream, the flavour of the day is chocolate.
Here is an announcement. Your citizens
council officially proclaims Tuesday of next week, as our annual Appreciation
Day, the day when we pay due honour to the brave and noble man who governs us
so wisely. The proceedings will be opened by an address from Number Two
himself, and concluded by a new unveiling of the Appreciation monument. Enjoy
the day….be seeing you.”
“What does she mean by congratulating
us on yet another day do you suppose?” No.91 asked.
“It means you have survived the
night, they generally come for you in the night. You haven’t been here long,
you’ll learn” No.61 told him..
“Who’s that?” 91 asked watching a man
hurrying across the Piazza.
“That’s Number Twenty-one, he’s Number
Two’s assistant, and they do say he’s an ambitious man.”
“Do you always sit here?”
“I mostly sit here, there comes a
time when there’s little else to do.”
“One could try to escape!”
The old man looked at the young man and
put a finger to his lips “You ought not to say such things.”
“Why not?”
61 glanced about him “You never know
who might be listening, besides there’s no way out of this place, do you think
no-one has never tried?”
“Then there’s nothing left to hope
for” 91 said.
“Abandon all hope ye who enter here!”
“That’s a sad outlook.”
“This place has many ways of breaking
a man, both in body and in spirit. Unless you were once a prisoner and now find
yourself in charge of the asylum!”
“You mean to say Number Two was once
a prisoner here, then why hasn’t he opened the door and let the inmates out?”
91 asked in astonishment.
113
“He tried that once before” the old man
said.
“Before?”
“This is actually his second term in
office, his first didn’t last all that long. His idea was to be elected as a
new Number Two, he thought he could then organise a mass breakout” the old man
explained.
“So what happened?”
“No-one took any notice of him!”
“What’s this Appreciation Day about?”
“It takes place once a year, mind you
whatever has Number two done for us?”
The
pair of steel doors slid opened and No.21 paused at the open door. Behind the
desk the black global chair was turned away, he hurried down the ramp, across
the floor and turned the chair around to find it empty! Reaching for the yellow
telephone he put a call through to the control room.
“Supervisor.”
“Supervisor I want you to put out a
general call for Number Two.”
“Who is this?”
“Number Twenty-one, I’m in the Green
Dome and there’s no sign of Two, and I’m worried about him!”
The supervisor hung up then pressing
the chrome button on the yellow telephone “Calling Number Two, calling Number
Two, Number Two please report to the Green Dome. I repeat, Number Two please report
to the Green Dome as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile No.21 stood at the desk
pressing buttons on the control panel bringing up various locations around the
Village on the wall screen. The café, Piazza the Village green, bandstand, the
Old People’s Home, swimming pool, and the outlook on top of the cliff.
Number 2 stood on the outlook looking
out across the estuary. He had heard the announcement, hearing the words of the
supervisor, but he didn’t feel like reporting to the Green Dome. After all
there was no-one to report to, because he was here remembering. And there he
was looking below, down on the beach.
“You’re waiting for someone Mister
Tuxedo?” a voice behind him asks “or expecting someone?”
He turns to see No.2 wearing a skimpy
pantomime costume “Peter Pan?”
“So it seems.”
“With his shadow” he says mockingly.
“You’re being hostile again” says the
imp-like figure “What are you looking for?”
“A light.”
“A star.”
“A boat.”
“An insect.”
“A plane.”
114
“A flying fish.”
“Somebody who belongs to my world” he
tells her.”
“This is your world, I am your world.” Peter Pan tells him
“If you insist on living a dream, you may be taken for mad.”
“I like my dream” he replied.
He took a step up and stood on the
very edge of the outlook.
“Number Two?” a voice asked.
“Twenty-one is that you?”
“Yes sir, you’re not, not thinking of
jumping?”
“If I did, do you think I would wake
up?”
“I don’t understand sir.”
“This, the Village, this is my dream,
but now I wish to wake up from it.”
“Step down sir, and we can talk about
it” he said in calm and soothing way.
“Is death the ultimate escape do you
think?”
“I believe it to be oblivion. Step
down sir, why should you desire to throw yourself into a black pit of
darkness?”
No.2 turned round “I do not desire
it, I just want out!”
“Once the way in has been found there
is no way out sir.”
“Death is an escape, Cobb, Number
Seventy-three they both found the way out through a hospital window.”
“Quite a depressing thought don’t you
think?”
“I’ve been thinking, remembering”
No.2 said “my head is full of remembrances, experiences since my abduction
here.”
“There’s no profit in looking back
sir. You have progressed” 21 told him.
“Have I Twenty-one, have I, progressed
to what exactly?”
“The Village needs you Two, the Village
is in you, you are village” 21 said
with confidence “and where would any of us be without you?”
No.2 stepped down and away from the
edge of the lookout.
“I suppose there’s work to do!”
“Yes sir, I am reliably informed that
work is the cure for most ills” 21 informed his superior.
“Can I tell you something in
confidence Twenty-one?”
“Yes sir, anything you tell me
remains with me.”
“But perhaps someone else is
watching, listening?”
“I don’t think so sir” 21 said.
A white gloved hand reached out for a
button and the monitor screen turned black.
“You know what?”
“No what?”
“They used to use what they were pleased
to call interim Numbers. Do you know why they used so called interim Number Twos?”
“I have heard it said, that by using
a different number of Number Two’s it prevents any relation build up between
prisoner and warder.”
115
No.2 shook his head “That’s a fallacy, the
truth of the matter is no-one could stand the job for more than five minutes!”
“You could always resign!” 21 suggested.
No.2 looked at his assistant, the
merest of smiles crossed his lips, in his mind it was as though he had been
thrown a hand grenade. He laughed, and together they walked back to the Green
Dome.
“Good afternoon everyone, good
afternoon” the cheery female announcer began “I am pleased to announce that
Number 2, who has not been feeling quite himself today, is now back amongst
us.”
As numbers 2 and 21 walked through an
archway, the road was lined by pedestrians who stood applauding No.2 as he
passed by. He smiled, and gestured towards the appreciative citizens. As the
two men climbed the steps up to the Green Dome, No.2 paused, turned and looked
down on the road as the citizens went on their way, as though nothing had just
taken place!
“You know Twenty-one that’s what I
like about this place, the administrative ability to manipulate the community
and its citizens.”
“Really sir?”
“That and the fact that you can
always find someone here that’s worse off than yourself!”
At the hospital in the Aversion Therapy
room No.51 having been secured in a chair, with electrodes secured to his head
was forced to watch a series of images on a screen. He became very agitated
when faced with various images of the white membranic mass of the Village
Guardian, and the longer he was faced with such images the more agitated he
became. In another room, a number of patients sat on the floor in their pyjamas
undergoing group therapy counteracting neurosis. Each patient wore an eye
shield, and head phones which cut off all external influences, but not so Jack
and Jill who went up the hill. The first few bars of the nursery rhyme tune
played over and over as though on a tape loop filling the patient’s ears,
keeping them calm and relaxing their anxiety. The Village is a place where
people turn up, either of their own volition, or having been abducted and made
prisoner, while others are born of the Village, knowing nothing else in their
lives but the Italianate Village-next-the-sea. And yet it is better to be born
of natural birth than a medically created clone! It was a tall, almost
infantile man, who was being helped along a corridor to an examination room by
two medical orderlies. He had white tape attached to his bald head, and he wore
a totally blank expression on his face, almost as though there was no-one at
home! The infantile man was sat in a chair in front of a basin filled with
water. There was a clear Perspex screen splashed by a jet of water that had a
white ball balanced upon it. Upon the face of the clone was a broad smile, he
seemed to be enjoying himself uttering complete infantile gibberish as the ball
rose and fell upon the jet of water. The clone undergoing speech therapy, in
other words learning to make the first noises before one learns to talk, and
with the appropriate programming he’ll be fine
to take up his place in society. The only question is, who is the a clone of, and why?
116
As for No.2, work did appear to be the remedy as he threw himself into his administrative details in order to keep the memories he suffered at bay. Committee meetings, maintaining both the security of the citizens as well as the fabric of the Village so that he could not afford himself any spare time. When once upon a time he advocated spare time, less work and more play, “Leisure is our right!”
The pair of steel doors closed behind No.21
as he entered the chamber. No.2 looked up from the file he had been reading and
sat back in his chair.
“I presume you have your Appreciation
Day speech ready.” 21 said helping himself to coffee from the silver plate
coffee pot.
“I suppose I have to attend this
event.”
“Well Appreciation Day cannot go ahead without
you, after all it is held in your honour, and of course you will have to wear
the Great Seal of Office.”
Another memory suddenly impinged upon
his mind one of treachery, and attempted assassination.
“Are you alright Number Two?”
“Yes, I thought for a moment. I
remember a previous Appreciation Day ceremony, one in which I had to intervene,
otherwise the people would have suffered.”
“So the rumours were right, you did
care, back then!”
“I’m against any injustice!” No.2
told him.
“Strange talk for a Chairman of the Village,
and yet they prevail even under your watch! I shall leave you to get on with
writing your speech.”
“No need, I’ll wing it” No.2 told him.
“You mean you’ll make it up as you go
along.”
“I’ve done it before.”
No.21 turned and walked towards the
ramp “I’ll be seeing you later on.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have things to do, making sure the
Great Seal of Office has been polished for one thing.”
“You’re not planning anything are you
Twenty-one?”
“Planning anything sir?” 21 said with
a puzzled look on his face “what would I be planning?”
“An elaborate plot for my demise for
example!”
“No sir, when the day comes and they
want rid of you; I imagine there’ll be no elaborate plot, no messing about of
any kind, they’ll simply put you up against a wall and shoot you!” No.21
explained.
No.2 found 21’s words almost
reassuring “You know that for a fact?”
117
“For a fact?” 21 allowed himself a gentle
smile “no, I don’t know it for a fact.”
“Then Appreciation Day isn’t the last day
of my time in office?”
“It has been decided, at an
administrative level, that the day of the interim Number Two is at an end. Lets
be honest not all of them were ever quite up to the mark when it came to you. That’s
why you are in the position you are now, one of permanence!”
No.21 turned, walked up the ramp the
pair of steel doors closing behind him.
Tart it up as much as you like, call
him what you like, Chairman of the Village, Chief Administrator. A prisoner is
still a prisoner no matter his position within the community of the Village.
In the workshop the works foreman had just
taken delivery of a large block of stone. A stone mason was then put to work.
“Don’t you think this is a waste of
my time?” the stone mason said.
The foreman stood with a clipboard
under his arm, watching as the stone mason chipped away at the stone with a
chisel “after all it’s not as though we don’t already have a number of these redundant
stone monoliths in store. Each year I’m forced to create an Appreciation Day
monument. And what happens after the great day? I’ll tell you what happens, its
taken away and put in store!”
“You want me to go into the store and wheel out a monument that’s been
used before?” the foreman suggested.
“It would save time, I mean I do have
other things to do you know, I’m not exactly idle, and what difference would it
make? It wouldn’t make any difference if we wheeled out the same one each year,
just change the word that’s all.”
“The word, do you know what the word
is for this year’s Appreciation Day ceremony?”
“Yes, the same as I do every year,
and every year you ask me.”
“And every year you don’t tell me!”
“That’s because I was told not to
tell anyone” the stone mason said chipping away at the stone to reveal a corner.
“Well I’ll leave you to it” the
foreman said.
“I’ll tell you one thing” the stone
mason said pausing in his work.
“What’s that?” the foreman asked.
“The ceremony won’t be the same this
year.”
“Why?”
“There being only one Number Two!”
the stone mason said returning to his work.
118
No comments:
Post a Comment