by J. M. Clark
Sirus stood and walked back over to the clock with his hands in his pockets, returning to the darkness as he leaned against the wall. The wallpaper there was printed with the image of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. That was stuff from a different world though.
“Andre, all Satan wanted to do was give the humans knowledge about the world, the true world. And because he did just that, the God of this religion threw a tantrum and cursed everyone to hell. Sure, he cleaned it up with Jesus, but still, ya know? Why do you believe God was so angered that Satan gave the humans the power of knowledge? Since when is knowledge a terrible thing? It’s, not right?”
Sirus began tapping on the clock’s glass in rhythm with the tick-tocks. He was not smiling, but made sure not to look too serious either. Indifference was the perfectly structured emotion on his face, shrouded in the darkness of this part of the office.
Andre cleared his throat and straightened up in his seat. Here it was. Now was the time he would show Sirus that he had been listening to the story and not the sound of that ancient clock in the corner.
“I think that the God of the Old World was angry at Satan because he told the humans something he did not want them to know. I see no other reason why.”
Sirus grinned and began a slow clap. Slow at first, then faster, until it was a full applause. “Goooood boy, Andre. You have been listening! I ask you now, why would he not want them to have the knowledge? It’s a good thing, correct?”
Andre appeared to become more upbeat. He seemed to forget who he was speaking to. Sirus’s left eye twitched—he was not a man to got cocky with. “Because he was a cruel God, and selfish. He clearly wanted to keep certain things to himself and only give the humans the info he deemed necessary for their happiness. That shouldn’t be his decision to make though.”
“NO!” Sirus screamed. “You are wrong, sir. As asinine as this entire religion and story is, the bottom line of the issue is that the humans were tricked into finding out things that would eventually lead to thousands of years of suffering. Both in the book, and in real life, through holy wars like the crusades, and witch hunts like the Inquisition. The basic idea of information existing does not mean that the knowledge is beneficial to everyone. In this case, it was not.”
Sirus walked back to the desk and sat down once more. The happy grin was long gone. “Which brings me to the reason I wanted to speak to you. I’ve been alerted by one of the Palace-born individuals that you have been talking to some of them about different things that you remember from the very little time that you spent outside before coming here. No matter how small and trivial you may believe them to be, you do understand it could create a setting in which that information disrupts the fundamental morality and individuality we are cultivating here. Furthermore, you had the brain of a child at the time, so your memories are not up to par. You are not the man to be giving historical lessons to Palace-born individuals.”
Andre’s mouth fell open, his eyes darting from side to side. Sirus could see the machine in his eyes that was his brain working, trying to come up with an excuse. He had nothing though. He sat there in pure terror, unable to verbalize any of the thoughts in his mind.
“You have been told many times to forget about the Old World. That talk doesn’t belong in these walls. You see, in many ways, you are like Satan, moving around and sneakily whispering things into the ears of the innocent.” Sirus squinted one eye at Andre and cocked his head to the side. “You wouldn’t be trying to start some kind of mutiny, would you?”
Andre got up out of his seat so fast it all but fell over. He caught the chair and steadied it back into place. “Sirus, that was not my intention! I appreciate everything the Order is doing for all of us, and I’ve only tried to be as helpful as I can be. You have to believe me.”
Sirus raised a hand, and the young man halted his rambling.
“No need to explain, my friend. As I said, it’s not a huge deal and of no consequence, because you are being promoted.” Sirus raised both eyebrows and offered a wide smile, showing all of his beautiful white teeth. Just like that, he was able to morph his somber face into the mug of Andre’s best buddy. He could see how his rapidly changing moods confused Andre, and toying with the kid made him giddy inside. It wasn’t every day that Sirus got a chance to talk face to face with Palace members, so when he did…he relished it.
“Wait a minute,” Andre began. “Are you saying that I’ve been chosen to go into the Greater Understanding Program?” He took his time sitting down again. “I thought I was in trouble, Sirus. Are you being serious right now?”
“I’m serious as a heart attack, young fellow. I was joshing ya about the Satan comparison, but that is serious business. You know that you can’t just say whatever comes to your mind here. Do not let that occur again, do you understand?”
Andre nodded, still looking unsure.
“Well, great. That’s all I needed to hear. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.” Sirus rose from the chair and leaned across the desk to extend his hand and shake Andre’s. “Congratulations. You have amazing references from all of the teachers on your floor, and your peers seem to love you. I’ll also have you know that you are one of the younger members to get into the Greater Understanding Program. The time you have spent here has been amazing, and this Palace is all the better for your hard work and commitment to gaining knowledge about the Old World and the new.”
The young man couldn’t seem to erase his look of half excitement, half bewilderment off his face. “Thank you so much, Sirus, and thanks to all of the teachers and the Order. I don’t know what to say other than thank you. I had no idea I was even being considered.”
Tears began to fall from Andre’s eyes, his hands grabbing the top of his head in that oh my god, I can’t believe this gesture.
“Trust me, you earned this, young man. Not everyone is accepted into the Greater Understanding Program, so we are sure to pick carefully. This is no gift to you, Andre. You deserve this.” Sirus clasped both hands together in front of himself and gave a slight bow.
Wiping tears from his eyes, Andre thanked him again and walked toward the door, sniffing and clearing his throat the whole way.
“Teacher Simon is outside of this room with your belongings and a protective suit for you. He will fill you in on what you will need to know. Off you go, Andre, before I decide that we can’t part with you, and I have you stay for another twenty years.” Sirus smiled and nodded his head toward the door. Andre left the office on the nineteenth floor with Teacher Simon, and Sirus watched them head down the corridor, making their exit from the secret area of the Palace.
Old Habits Die Hard
Chapter Seventeen
Jacob
Jacob stood in a grand elevator, slowly moving down to the fourth floor with a portion of his ME class. The other half were taking a different elevator down. He stared up at the weight limit panel on the elevator, because that’s what people did when they got in an elevator with more than four or five people—and there were about thirteen people on this one right now.
Teacher Luke was taking them down to the child center to check up on the children from the survey area. No one was allowed inside of the center; there was to be no contact from anyone but the watchers until age ten. Jacob couldn’t possibly count the amount of times he’d been there to watch the kids grow up, but it was one of the more interesting morning enrichments in the Palace.
He enjoyed the lectures and things, but you could only listen to how much you sucked in your past life before it all started to sound like mumbling nonsense. No matter how different they tried to make the subjects or how many different teachers they got to oversee them, it all ended up being a repeat of the same topics and ideas. Like church in the Old World, you could only talk about the same Bible before it got old. Well, to anyone with a brain at least, he thought. The teachers and the Order meant well; they only wanted what was best for those who survived, and much had been given in the way of keeping everyone alive.
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br /> He thought about how he’d watched Mary and a bunch of the other Palace members grow into adults from this very survey room as he stepped off the elevator and into a long hallway.
Moving to the right to let everyone else get out into the hallway from the elevator, Jacob noticed that Trevor wasn’t present for today’s morning enrichment. Child center visits weren’t something he missed. Trevor said seeing the children made him think of his children, and that gave him some happiness. He was a troubled soul if there ever was one. Must be something important if he didn’t show up for this today.
To get to the actual survey room, they had to walk all the way down a long hallway and through a security door, which could only be opened with keycards that the teachers kept clipped to their belts or waistbands. Then around a few corners, until they came to the stairs that led down to the big white room with clear glass walls that served as windows. They were two-way mirrors, like the kind in police stations.
Essentially, the child center surrounded the survey area, so regardless of which way Jacob looked, he could see the children playing and taking part in activities all around him. The children only saw a big square-shaped structure made with mirrors for them to see themselves and each other as they played.
Once arriving in the observation room, Teacher Luke got everyone in a circle so that they could all have portions of the child center to study.
“Okay guys, great to be back down here with you to check out the future of this planet and see how they are maturing,” Teacher Luke said, standing in the middle of the group.
“A few of you are just moving up to this level, so I’ll give some need-to-know information on what’s going on here. Feel free to move around and survey. Please don’t tap on the windows, we don’t want to disrupt them. We are here to watch, that is all.”
The rule was to move around clockwise, but only when the person to your right was done watching. Though the teachers didn’t care if you just moved around freely; the room was big enough to support that. And many Palace members had favorite activities they liked to watch the children engage in, like games, reading, climbing—different things like that.
Teacher Luke continued on, repeating the same things that Jacob had been hearing over and over throughout his time in the Palace, so he ignored the speech and watched the children instead.
Jacob leaned against one wall/window and viewed a little boy pushing another child. The aggressor was a redheaded chubby little bastard, and he had just shoved a small Hispanic-looking child to the ground. There were no teachers to be found in the area; they wouldn’t intervene anyway.
Jacob thought it would be interesting to see how that situation played out, so he continued to watch. The best way to check the validity of the Palace ideas about human nature was to watch the children. They always did what came naturally to them, and what was natural for humankind was to hurt each other for their own satisfaction. It was all Jacob had ever seen on the outside world—and inside the Palace.
The big kid stood up over the small one and nudged him with his foot in the stomach—not a kick, but close to it. He snickered at him and looked around to see if anyone was watching. Knowing he was doing something wrong, he pretended to help the other child up. But when the smaller kid went to grab his hand, the bully pulled it back and laughed even harder, then walked away.
The most telling thing in the incident was how sneaky the fat kid was. He knew exactly what he was doing, knew that it would be looked down upon, so before he became the number one dickhead, he made sure none of the watchers were observing. Jacob thought to himself, Ain’t that the truth of it all right there? People did what they thought they could get away with when no one was watching. In this microcosm, the small run-in with two children gave a good look into the psyche of man as a whole.
Jacob wasn’t shocked to see this type of behavior. For the most part, there were lots of good things going on in the child center. But from time to time, he would see the children become violent with each other for little to no reason at all.
The teachers explained this was because the kids didn’t have relations exercises to help them blow off steam, or defuse, and it would need to come out in some way. A small amount of violence would be permitted for the sake of them learning to deal with their emotions as well as cause and effect. Cause and effect were on the menu today, and the fat ginger kid was about to get an adult-sized helping.
Like a natural reaction, the smaller child made it to his feet, still clutching his stomach. He looked over and spotted a toy truck about the size of a football from a nearby toy box. He grabbed the toy and went running for the redhead, who at this point was so high on his own self-satisfaction that he didn’t hear the pitter-patter of shoes behind him.
The small Hispanic kid stretched his arm back as far as it could possibly go, and that little arm fired back out with violent speed, leaving the toy truck falling from the sky in his small hand like a comet aimed at the other child’s skull. The force of the strike was so hard that one of the wheels on the toy truck went spinning toward another group of children.
Jacob never budged, and neither did the other kids who were watching. He’d been down here many times and had seen similar things. He knew that in no time the watchers would magically show up to stop things from going too far. But what was too far here in the child center?
The blow knocked the fat kid out cold, and his lifeless body fell to the rainbow-colored carpet as if his limbs were made of spaghetti. Blood poured from his already red hair as he lay there on the floor, alone. No one came to his aid. There was no need for that though, because the smaller child dropped the truck and walked over to a watcher on the other side of the room. He grabbed her hand and mouthed something to her.
They walked together over to the body of the other child. The watcher, who was gorgeous (they all were), got down on one knee and said something to the Hispanic kid. He smiled, picked up the truck, and skipped over to another group of children to continue playing, as if nothing at all had happened. The female watcher woke the bleeding child up, whispered something to him, and then walked him into a bathroom.
Jacob looked around to see if anyone else had noticed the ordeal, but there was no one in this particular section of the room but him and one other guy. He noticed it was Dwight, a guy who had always weirded him out. The dude was nice enough, very polite and quiet. But there was just something about him that was odd, and he’d always been that way.
Jacob remembered that Dwight was just a small kid when they all got to the Palace. He was given his own pod and had a few wild outbursts in the following years and spent a lot of time being evaluated for odd behavior and screaming fits. There had been nothing like that in recent years though. When there was free time to socialize, go to Palace events, listen to appropriate music (nothing violent or with cursing), or just shoot the shit in the auditorium and watch old movies...he was never present. Nothing wrong with staying to yourself, Jacob could appreciate that. He was often the same way. But Dwight was different. Trevor always called him a fruit; he hated the guy.
Is the guy hard right now? Jacob wondered as he watched Dwight in the opposite corner with his hand in his pocket. He seemed to be touching himself through his jeans. Partly because Jacob was disgusted, and partly due to pure boredom, he decided to walk closer to Dwight to verify the creepiness, hoping that he was wrong.
Dwight noticed Jacob getting closer and turned his body to the right, like he was trying to hide something. He then readjusted his pants from the back.
“Did you just see that fight with those kids?” Jacob tried to make conversation with Dwight, hoping that he wouldn’t feel accused of anything. While waiting for a reply, he tried to circle around the man. He was too late though. The weirdo had clearly seen him coming. But Jacob knew what he saw.
“Yeah, yeah man, I saw it. Kid kinda got what was coming to him, huh?” A nervous grin appeared on Dwight’s face, small yellow teeth showing through his thin dry lips. He had a
big nose with a high bridge. It reminded Jacob of that actor with the long, slim nose from that movie about the piano.
Dwight had stringy blond hair, which gave the impression that he didn’t seem to keep up with daily showers. He must not have gotten the memo that they were a requirement. He had big brown eyes, very bright, with a hidden intelligence behind them. He looked at Jacob then back to the kids, disregarding him as unimportant.
“I don’t know about that, man, but you seemed to be moving weird over here. Are you okay? Should I get Teacher Luke to check you out if you aren’t feeling well?” Jacob nodded at the teacher and then looked Dwight up and down.
“Naw man, I’m good actually. I don’t know what you think you saw, maybe my legs got tired from standing or something.” Dwight looked away from the child center and glanced at Jacob once more, noticeably annoyed. “Thanks for asking though, Jacob.”
Dwight walked away, moving closer to a different group of Palace members who were watching a game of kickball between groups of children on the other side of the survey room. “He is so damn weird.”
Jacob remembered a time a little over five years ago, when Dwight and another guy almost came to blows in a Palace celebration for humanity’s fifteen years of survival. Dwight had said something to the other guy (who later ended up getting the Greater Understanding promotion) that really pissed him off. Dwight had to be rushed to the infirmary to treat his broken nose. Jacob remembered because the fight was the talk of the town for months. That type of stuff didn’t occur often here.
Jacob went back to the spot where he’d watched the kids fight; it seemed to be reasonably quiet in that area of the room. Seeing the children play made him think about the times when he was a kid, running around with friends, climbing trees, and going down to the creek to catch frogs and other creepy-crawlies. Weekend sleepovers, Little League baseball games in the summer, and football games in the fall. These children here would never know the happiness of being a kid before the world went away.
