Interrogation

I never thought anything like this could ever happen to me. A number of emotions flowed through my person: fear, anger, shock… to mention a few. But that experience changed my view of the world for the rest of my days. I was told not to give any personal details for my own protection. However, I was encouraged to tell the events as accurately as possible. Some of them might seem unbelievable to you, my dear reader, but I do not intend to persuade or influence anyone in any way. Use your own judgment, and feel free to discard anything you choose.

My story began on a chilly day as I was impatiently striding across a park. I had finished work, and I was anxious to get home. I could envisage myself slumping in my leather settee with a coffee and an exciting novel. Still in the park, I could smell the wet grass, and hear the rustling of dry leaves when the cool wind gusted. I could perceive the athletic silhouette of a middle-aged man jogging on the other side of the park with a steady pace, I could hear his footsteps dwindling as he disappeared behind the thick logs of oak trees. There was no other soul I could see, and in spite of having crossed this park innumerable times, this eerie solitude made me feel uneasy. The wind gusted again, and then, there was an incomprehensible blast of air that frightened the hell out of me.

Next thing I can recall is that oval white room in a dimmed yellowish light. There were no light bulbs or spotlights, and I wondered where the light came from. There were no doors or windows, so I wondered how I had got in. No furniture, no television, no radio, however I felt physically comfortable, and I could not discern why. I did feel scared though, very scared. I didn’t know where I was, or how I had got there, and that oval room seemed eerily bizarre. I had never seen anything similar in my life, hadn’t even imagined it.

Suddenly, the lights brightened up to the point that the room became excessively intense in brightness, but it did not bother my eyes at any time. And a voice, which seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, uttered: “Do not be afraid, you will not be harmed in any way.”
I felt a bit more at ease as I knew I was not going to be hurt, but I was still slightly scared.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Right now, we just want you to know that all we want is to speak to you, then you will be returned safely to where you were picked up.”
“You mean: abducted!” I snapped.
“Please, forgive us if we have caused you any distress, but you will be returned unharmed to the same place and time, where and when you were picked up.”
“The same time, the same day?”
“Yes.”
Now I was beginning to get puzzled. If they could return me to that park at the same time when they snatched me, it meant this being I was talking to, was from a different world or dimension. Either that or he was telling me a pack of lies. But the fact that there was light without light bulbs, sound without speakers, curved walls without a door, and a claim that they could control time, seemed to me extraordinarily odd.
“So you are telling me you can control time?” I inquired.
“To an extent,” he replied.
“Where do you come from?”
“From far away. Now, it is important we continue with the monitoring.”
“What monitoring,” I said furiously.
“You are being monitored,” he replied calmly.
“But what if I don’t want to be monitored? And who gives you the right to abduct me and monitor me?”
“We are very sorry to have caused you any distress, but this is the only way we could have done it.” He replied very peacefully.

I was still slightly scared, but I was becoming increasingly agitated. These beings, whoever they were, were studying me without my consent. They were using their higher technology to monitor me against my will. And I was not willing to tolerate such a thing.

“I want out of here,” I shouted angrily.

“That will not be possible at this moment, but we’ll let you go very soon. Please, be patient and calm down.”

I was becoming more and more angry. Why should I be denied of my freedom? Why should I be stopped if it was my choice to walk out?

“As I said, I want out of here and I don’t want to be monitored. Nobody has asked me for my consent to be monitored, and if I were asked, my answer would be a clear no. So can I please leave now?”

“We are extremely sorry, but we cannot do that at this moment.”

Anger was building up like a balloon being blown up just about to burst. I don’t know if I was so angry because my freedom was being thwarted, or because I was scared, or because my animal instinct was telling me: fight or flight. But I do know that my reaction was irrational and inappropriate.

“Let me the hell out of here,” I shouted at the top of my voice.

There was no reply, and that yellowish light dimmed to the way it was before. So I walked to the wall to try and find a way out, fumbling around unsuccessfully. I shouted helplessly several times with the hope one of these beings gave me a sign, but nothing happened and I eventually decided to sit down. I gradually began to relax and feel less agitated, as I was observing the glossy walls that surrounded me in that soft yellowish light spreading evenly all over the room. Then I began to reflect on what had happened and ponder what the best course of action would be: “these aliens abduct me with the sole purpose of studying me, I become enraged, and they choose to ignore me. Maybe, if I cooperate a little they can tell me about themselves, which would certainly be wonderfully interesting, but next time I definitely need to be more sensible and friendly. And I know there will be a next time, otherwise they would have returned me to that park by now. Besides, they seem very peaceful. But how long am I going to remain here? When are they going to contact me again?”

After having waited for about half an hour, the light brightened again, and that voice that seemed to come from everywhere, as if there were a hundred invisible speakers scattered all over the room, spoke: “have you calmed down?”

I felt as if I were in a mental institution, and the psychiatric nurses were giving me time to myself to ease my anxieties. I felt as if they knew the human mind, its reactions and the way it processed information and emotions.

“Yes, I have calmed down. If you want to speak to me, that’s fine. But remember I’m here against my will.”

“You are a computer programmer, is that right?”

“So you have been spying on me! Yes, that’s correct.”

“Would you say there is a good atmosphere at your place of work?”

I wondered why the heck they wanted to know this, but I chose to answer the question: “yes, there is. But not all the time.”

“When would you say there is a bad atmosphere?”

“Maybe when my work colleagues don’t pull their weight, and maybe when backstabbing takes place.”

“How do you feel when these occurrences take place?”

“Sometimes a bit frustrated, sometimes angry.”

“When you feel like this, how do you react?”

“I guess sometimes I ignore the situation, and some other times, if it’s out of order, I need to do something about it.”

“Could you explain what you mean by doing something about it?”

“Yes. Sometimes, you cannot tolerate certain things in life or people would take advantage of you.”

“Would you say that at times you seek revenge?”

“Not all the time, but sometimes you have to.”

“Would you admit there is malice in the human mind?”

“I guess sometimes you need a bit of that to survive in an imperfect world.”

“And who makes this world imperfect?”

Now I realized what these beings were trying to do. They were trying to corner me with these questions with the mere purpose of leading me to a final conclusion. A negative conclusion in which all humans were bad. So I replied: “you tell me. Who makes this world an imperfect world?”

“This might not be what you want to hear, but the world is a beautiful place filled with malice, selfishness, greed, and revenge.”

“So you have come from so far away to insult the human race?” I asked with a grin.

“No, we have come to ascertain the reality of the world, and among our findings are the shocking facts of how your savage and underdeveloped minds function.”

“Have you not ascertained anything positive about us humans? Is everything completely negative?” I enquired sarcastically.

“I never said that. There are many positive aspects about humans, but in spite of this fact, the world is in chaos, and it’s caused by the negative aspects.”

“So, you are trying to tell me that the world is in chaos due to our savage and underdeveloped minds, and you have not pondered for a second all the progress we have achieved in our recent history.”

“We have detailed information about your progress. Some of the greatest inventions were accomplished during a war or for a war, in other words, to be more efficient at killing.”

I was beginning to get a bit irritated with all this negativity. I have always understood that this world was not a perfect place, but there were many good things as well. Then I enquired ironically: “ok, could you give me a good example of a great invention for the progress of human kind that has been invented during a war or for a war?”

“Yes. The Internet. It was used by military forces to communicate better during a war, resulting in an improved efficiency at killing.”

I was actually shocked to hear this. The Internet is actually one of the biggest inventions ever. As a computer programmer myself, I can definitely say it has revolutionized the world in many ways. So this being had a point, but he was irritating me more and more, as he was only focusing on the negative side, and suddenly I decided I wanted to end this conversation. So I added in a slightly elevated tone of voice: “I can see you only want to focus on the negative side of the human race, disregarding completely all the progress, prosperity, art, the tremendous scientific advances, just to mention a few things. If you really believe the world is such a bad place, why don’t you go to back to your planet, and let us go on with our lives our way, because as far as I’m concerned the human race, no matter how shameful you might think of it, is definitely doing well.”

Then there was silence for a short while, until I decided to break it: “are you annoyed because I asked you to go back to your planet? I really didn’t mean it.”

“No,” this being said. “We never get annoyed. We cannot understand some human feelings such as anger, hatred, sadness, etc. We believe we are endowed with different feelings humans would not understand. We don’t appreciate art, or practice sports, or watch movies, however, we have different ways of enjoying life. And we were not trying to be negative, we just have a different point of view: what you regard as positive, we regard as normal; and what you believe it’s negative, for us it’s unacceptable.”

“Please, go on. You got my attention now.” I interrupted genuinely interested.

“There are some facts we would have never imagined until we started monitoring this planet.”

“Could you give me any examples?” I enquired.

“Yes. Humans have destroyed a huge amount of the earth’s natural resources; they kill other species for pleasure, you call it hunting; over 1.6 million people die every year through violence, and for every person who dies many others are injured, this also translates into a tremendous burden for national economies; nearly 100 million people have died in two major wars during the 20th century, wars or battles have always existed in the history of humankind; 60 million people perish annually due to starvation. Today, one billion people are chronically starving or malnourished, but one country alone throws away 100 billion tons of food every year, and the world’s military budget is estimated in $950 billion. There is enough food grown in the planet to provide everyone with 3,500 calories a day, that’s more than enough for the average person. Yet, 30,000 children die every day through starvation, that’s one child every three seconds, or one Tsunami disaster every week. We have nothing more to say to you, have a good life.”

Then I was returned to that park. I could feel the cool breeze, and smell the wet grass. But I was in shock. I didn’t want to go home now, so I just strolled around the park for a while reflecting on all that dreadful information this being had just given me. I will never forget his words when he said that one child died every three seconds. That was far too much information for me to fathom, and I will need some time to assimilate it.

But maybe I need be a bit more proactive, and if at least I could save one child, if I could just save one, I really believe, my dear readers, that I would be a happier human.


THE END


Dedicated to Mariana, a human devoid of malice.