Fast Forward

Chapter 2

Calvin was quickly moved into a dark room and shoved into a chair. The men, or rather, thought Calvin, the robots chained his ankle to a chain lead into the floor. He wouldn’t be able to leave. The two robots left. He was alone.

He was sitting at a table with a chair across from him. The room’s walls were brown with no other doors or windows or mirrors. He looked for cameras and didn’t see any. In fact, there wasn’t anything in the room and yet he could see easily enough. The light wasn’t coming from the ceiling. Wait. He wasn’t sure. The room seemed to be evenly lit from every direction. How odd.

“Hello?”, he said to no one in particular. “Can anyone hear me? I’m chained in this room and I don’t know why”.

He listened for a moment and heard nothing. So he started to talk to himself. The sound of his voice calmed him. It was the only that sounded normal and it reminded him of times when he was home. What is this place? “Hello!”, he shouted. “CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?!”, he screamed.

He was silent and listened. It was difficult because now he could hear his heart and breathing, but he thought he could hear something. He stopped breathing and try to listen between his heart beats. Yes! Somebody was coming.

He waited to tried to calm himself. He didn’t know why but he didn’t want his captors to know that he was afraid. The door opened. Someone walked in. Calvin turned his head not knowing what to expect. But it was just a woman. She was dressed plainly in light blue robes. She held a small handheld device similar to the one he had seen earlier in the hospital room.

“Have you been to a Scan Master?”, she asked.

“I have no idea what a Scan Master is”, he replied honestly.

The room glowed green for a moment. Calvin looked around seeing no evidence of the source of the light or the source of the change of light.

“Where are you from?”, she asked.

“I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas”, Calvin replied.

The room glowed green for a brief moment again. “Why does the light change color?”, he asked.

She raised an eyebrow and then asked, “You’ve never heard of a Cleansing Room?”.

“A what?”, he asked shaking his head no.

The room glowed green again.

“The Patient Aid had indicated that you told here that you were”, she stooped for a moment to look at her hand held device and then shook her head, “’driving’ on ‘1604’ when you had an accident?”.

“Yes, that is what I told her and that is what happened”, he replied.

The room glowed green for a moment.

She looked at him for a moment saying nothing. Then she stood up folding her arms, “I’m not sure what to make of this”, she said.

“Make of what?”, he asked.

“You shouldn’t be here”, she said. “As near as I can tell, you should be dead”.

“I agree”, Calvin replied. “I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t breath and then I fell over and woke up here”.

The room glowed green but Calvin didn’t notice it this time. He was getting use to it.

“What you are saying is true from your point of view but from our point of view something else happened”, she said.

“Really? What?”, Calvin asked.

She moved to the side of the room and gestured to the back of the room. The entire wall in the back suddenly showed what looked like a run down restaurant. Several people were eating soup, bread, and something that looked like coffee. Someone sat down a plate in the back of the room and then walked away. Suddenly someone appeared in the chair. The video zoomed in and Calvin could see that it was himself sitting in the chair. But he was just sitting there looking straight ahead as if he was in a trance. Someone walked by and asked him something. The image of Calvin suddenly fell backwards. A small crowd swarmed around him. Someone walked off with the food that was on the table.

The woman walked back to the table. “You were found there and was brought here. That’s what we know about you so far.”

“How can that be me?”, Calvin asked. “I’ve never been there”.

“I believe you she said because there are a few other things we were able to find out about you. The Patient Aid found out that you don’t have one of these”, she said pointing to the back wall again.

There was an image of a skull with an implant. “You don’t have that”, she said.

“What is that?”, Calvin asked.

“It’s an Equalizer”, she said. “As of 2065 it’s been the law to have each child in the United States implanted with an Equalizer. It was found that the best way to level the playing field for everyone was by insuring that those of us with less ability would be give more and those of us with more ability would have less. It also insures that thoughts are not improper and that right thinking is in place.”

Calvin didn’t know what to say to this but what he had seen so far started to make sense. “So everyone is equal here”, Calvin asked.

“Equal in every way possible for as many people as possible”, she said.

“Why did the Patient Aid call me a Conservative?”, he asked.

“Because Conservatives remove their Equalizer’s”, she replied, “and they do things that are similar to your observed behavior. You were wearing”, she paused for a moment, “…blue jeans”.

“Blue jeans?”.

“Blue jeans come from a time period in which individuals competed against one another daily. The individual was seen as being more important than the group. In our time, blue jeans are seen as a symbol of Conservatism. Conservatism is a disease that we’ve done away except for a few that still resist us. We now have peace now and everyone has what they need.”

“I am out of place here,” Calvin said, “but I’ve never been a Conservative. I voted for President Obama twice”, he said.

“President Obama may have been liberal in your time but he’s seen as mainly Conservative by today’s standards”, she said.

“So”, Calvin asked clearing his throat, “what year is this”.

“2115”, she said.