Hanna 12

The Ultimate Crime

Jake sat alone in his cell, looking over the wall separating Aratheria from the neighboring town. There were trees swinging in the wind and leaves falling onto the grass, which itself had spots of brown. Buildings were colored deep browns and pale yellows, all of which ended at the wall. People on that side seemed so different from Aratheria. He could hear the children screaming and laughing, without a care in the world. What he wouldn't give to be on the other side of that wall.

Jake heard the bells tolling, and turned back to look over the city he had once lived and worked in. People were beginning to head out to the streets, walking towards work. The children were with their sponsors, preparing for another day at school. They all reminded Jake of ants marching, a single task in mind, and all working together to help everyone else live. Nobody seemed to notice or care that they were missing a fellow person, another ant. He was just a single ant that had the misfortune of being squashed by humanity.

He heard footsteps behind him. They were soft at first, and blended together, but as they got closer, Jake could hear the distinct steps. Unlike the footsteps of the guard that brought him his food, these footsteps, even while muffled, were heavier and slower than he recognized.

The door swung open as Jake turned around, and sure enough, four officials stood in front of Jake.

"We need you to come with us," one of the officials in the middle said, but Jake remained where he was. The children in the neighboring city continued to play and enjoy their life. He turned back to watch the children a little longer.

"Now."

Jake turned to find four guns pointed towards him, fingers pressed over the triggers. What did it matter, though? Even bullets couldn't make him move from his spot.

"What'll you do if I don't? I'll be dead soon anyways." No sooner had he said this than he heard the shots fire. Three of the shots missed him and hit the wall of glass behind him, shattering it into a million pieces. The fourth bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance and sending him through the open window. The last person he saw as he fell was Eve.

Jake had known her for as long as he could remember. She was the only girl in school with him with red hair, which she kept back with a standard-issued headband. She was also the only girl he had ever known that wore the slacks every day, rather than any of the skirts. She was also the fastest person to ever move on from school to work, or so Jake assumed. After all, she had never retaken a test, and before Jake had realized it, she stopped coming to school. It was clear to Jake she was an individual, different from everyone else around them.

Well, as different as anyone could be, at any rate.

It wasn’t as if free will didn’t exist, after all. People were free to choose what they wore from the government-issued wardrobe. Everyone was allowed to keep their hair at any length they chose, so long as they wore headbands if it grew past their shoulders. People were even allowed to choose how many children they housed, which then allowed them to choose a larger apartment that was closer to the offices. People even chose their own work assignment, and were allowed to change their assignment as often as they wanted. Every time a person did change his work, he would have to start school all over again.

And yet, even with all this free will, everyone was basically the same as everybody else. Which is what made Eve stand out so much. Unlike most people, she managed the obstacles. She was not a clone that everybody else had become.

Jake didn’t feel he was nearly as individualized as Eve. Like most of the males around him, he kept his hair short, wore a standard suit every day, and just looked rather average compared to everyone else around. Average, just like everyone liked to be. The only thing that would set him apart from the man standing next to him were the glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. Rectangular with wire frames. He could only remember one or two other people ever wearing glasses, and even those were the same as his.

It was simplicity at its finest, or so everyone said. Jake wouldn’t know what the society was finer than, since he had never had any place to compare it to. He had spent his entire life here, living on the same street he had originally been housed on during the time he spent at school.

While in school, Jake had been the only child his sponsors housed, which meant he lived on the fifth and top story of the apartment, and the apartment building was on the fifth block of the ten-block street. He remembered how far he felt he had to walk as a child. There were five buildings to a block, and five blocks to school. He sometimes wondered why his sponsors couldn’t just sponsor another child or two, so he wouldn’t have to walk as far, nor would his sponsors.

One day long ago, he had complained about this to Sue, one of his sponsors. That question earned him a quick, “Shush!” and a slap across the face from her. “Stop complaining, before somebody hears you!”

No complaining. No criticism. No emotions at all. That was the way simplicity was achieved, and with simplicity came productivity. And with productivity being the goal of any society, any disruption would be detrimental to the society as a whole.

Jake thought all of this as he lay in bed, waiting for the first set of bells to chime, telling him and the others south of Tenth Housing Road it was time to get up and start the day. Since Jake had moved on from school and started working, he had moved out of his sponsors’ apartment and into a one-bedroom apartment of his own. As he didn’t have a cosponsor to live with or any children, he kept to himself. The downside, of course, was that he was now ten blocks away from the school, the divider between the housing buildings and the work buildings.

Suddenly, those five blocks he had to walk as a child did not seem quite as long.

But there was a difference from his school days and now. Now, only Jake was responsible for his thoughts and actions, as well as his emotions. More specifically, the repression of those emotions. If any show of emotion as a child resulted in a slap and a scolding, the consequences as an adult would be tenfold. Or so he was tested on in school.

The bells on the building rang: two high-pitched chimes, to signal the start of the day, followed by one low toll to signal which blocks the bells were referring to.

Jake sat up and got out of bed, heading directly to the shower. After his daily morning routine, he walked over to the closet and pulled out an ash-gray suit, a white shirt, and a tie. The same outfit he wears every day.

Simplicity at its finest.

He moved on to the kitchen and prepared the breakfast he ate every morning, as did every other person: a bowl of oatmeal, a banana, and a glass of water. It fit with the simplicity of life.

And the monotony, Jake thought. He wondered if anyone else thought the same thing. Of course, he would never dare ask. That could be considered complaining, which was strictly prohibited.

A bell tolled in the apartment, this time with three high rings and a low chime. It was time to leave for work and school. Jake went into his home office to grab his suitcase and left the apartment. He met Eve on the stairwell.

“Good morning, Jake.”

“Good morning. How is your day so far?” Jake fell into the rhythm of their daily conversation easily. If he were to break the rhythm, Eve would call him on it. And she was the last person he wanted to tell him he had done something wrong. In front of her, he would do everything perfectly, whatever he could.

“Everything is normal, thank you for asking,” she replied. “And how is your day?”

“It is well, thank you.”

These were some of the best minutes of Jake’s day. It was when he was allowed to be alone with Eve, the person he felt closest to in all of Aratheria. Perhaps part of the intrigue was the risk behind it.

People were allowed to talk, of course, as long as no suspicion was raised. Having this conversation day after day didn’t mean anything, since nothing had happened to either one of them yet. But Jake could remember, when they were much younger, there were two girls in school who had come late, since they had been talking outside. Jake hadn’t though much of it at the time, but they had been removed from school early that day. Jake couldn’t remember ever seeing them again.

Jake and Eve had reached the bottom of the stairs at this point, and began walking the ten blocks towards the school. The apartment buildings were all nearly identical from the outside. They were made out of concrete and built five stories tall, with every floor having room for six people total. Each person was given a private bedroom, bathroom, and office in the apartment, and then there was a common kitchen in each individual apartment. The apartment would house either units, which consisted of two sponsors and however many children they desired to house, or individual people, like Jake and Eve.

Behind the apartment buildings was a tall concrete building, built twenty stories high. It was the government building, where they could watch everybody from above. Behind that building was a wall, enclosing Aratheria in. Few people knew what existed on the other side of the wall, and even less people cared. It was just there.

On the other side of the apartment buildings was the school. The school took up an entire row of city blocks, which meant there were six buildings for the children, one building on each block. Every child was required to go to school every day while the adults worked. These children were tested on everything, from basic arithmetic to the laws of Aratheria. The child would be allowed to retake a test however many times it took, and once the child passed all five hundred tests, he would no longer be considered a child. The next day, he would be assigned his own apartment and start working.

The school was the divider between the apartments and the business district. The business buildings looked very similar to the apartment buildings, each one being five stories tall and made out of concrete, and there were five buildings to a block. What distinguished the business buildings from the apartment buildings was the increased number of windows, all evenly placed around each floor. There was nothing frivolous about anything. It was simple.

When they reached the business district, Eve turned and left Jake to continue on his way. Jake walked another two blocks before reaching his building. The day of work had begun.

Jake had the job of an analyst, which had to be one of the most basic jobs around. He typed data into a computer, logging how productive everyone else had been. He needed to keep track of how many words had been written on how many documents that were read by how many people. The only analysis he ever had to do was determine if there were any discrepancies, such as more documents being created than read, or if any one person suddenly started lagging. That almost never happened, though, since the society was such a well-oiled machine. The only time he ever had to report a discrepancy was when there was a new worker still learning his job.

Jake had only recently moved on from school and started working, but he had been there long enough to know he disliked his job. First of all, just like everything else in his life, it was the same thing day in and day out. Worse than that, though, was the fact that he never knew what he was really reporting on. What were these documents that were being written? Who was reading them? The only part he liked was that it gave him time to think, which was really the only thing keeping him from changing jobs. It’s what made him choose to be an analyst in the first place, even though the job was one of the least popular choices.

Jake hit a lull in his analysis and began to think, as he always did. The next day was the day to decide if he wanted to sponsor any children, as the children would be arriving in a few days. He had previously not been too keen on the idea of housing any children, but now he was reconsidering. It’s not like they were all that much work. He’d have to prepare the food for them and walk them to and from school. It was simple enough, he assumed. Besides, this way he’d have a better choice of apartments to live in. The only hurdle in this plan would be to find a woman to sponsor with him.

His mind immediately jumped to Eve. What other woman would be as good a sponsor as her? There was something special about Eve that he would not be able to find in anyone else. And if he was going to live with someone, he figured, it might as well be somebody that he could get along with. Perhaps they would finally be able to talk about more than whether the day was considered “normal” or not.

As he went back to the computer to continue the analysis, he made up his mind. The next morning, he would ask her to cosponsor with him. They would move to a nicer apartment, and he’d be able to see her every day and every evening.

Once his mind had been made up, there was no turning back. The rest of the day floated by without him comprehending what was happening around him. He figured people must have come by with stacks of paper for him, for the pile of papers on his desk had grown by the end of the day. But when the final bells rang and it was time to walk back to his apartment, the walk seemed shorter than usual. Jake couldn’t feel the concrete walkway beneath him, nor could he remember seeing anybody around him.

For the first time in his life, Jake had something to look forward to. Even if Eve rejected his invitation to sponsor a child or two with him, there was no harm in asking. And in his life of monotony and similarity, this would be a change, something different.

He had learned a few things in school about emotion, mostly to learn what he was and was not allowed to do and feel. He was allowed to feel determined and productive, which are what people were actually encouraged to feel. Explicitly prohibited were happiness and sadness, excitement and fear, and hate and love. Anything that could potentially decrease productivity was to be repressed immediately. They had been tested on descriptions of these emotions in school, so he had learned what each of them represented, at least in theory. Having never been allowed to feel them, he could not truly understand what each emotion truly meant, but he remembered the study sheet that he had to memorize.

Happy: pleased or glad over a person or object, or to be favored by fortune.

Sad: Opposite of happy; to be affected by grief.

Excitement: stimulated to activity, severe happiness.

Fear: concern or anxiety.

Hate: to dislike intensely, detest.

Love: Opposite of hate; attachment or affection to someone or something.

Having never known what grief or anxiety was, it was difficult to comprehend some emotions on paper. Others he felt he understood perfectly. He disliked his job, so he figured he had to know hate. If he knew hate, though, did that mean he understood love? That was the one emotion that was rarely even talked about. It was an unspoken social contract to never love another person or thing. Nothing could be worse. But why?

Jake woke up the next morning to the morning bells, two high and a low. After his morning routine, he returned to the closet to pick out his clothes. A standard ash gray suit sat on the rack, waiting for him to choose. Jake pulled it out of the closet, stared at it, and put it back. Somewhere in the back, he had a different suit, one that he had never worn before. After a little searching, he finally found it-a navy blue suit and matching tie. With no reason other than wanting a change, he decided to wear this suit instead of his usual gray suit. Pleased with the difference a little color made, he headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Pulling out the oatmeal to cook, he left it on the table with no desire to eat it. Instead, he pulled out bread and butter. Spreading the butter on the bread, he ate it instead. This breakfast was rather plain and didn’t have much taste, but was exactly what he needed.

The second bell rang, and Jake left his apartment to meet Eve. He had planned everything he would say ahead of time, but when he met up with her, every word left his brain in a moment.

“Good morning, Jake.”

“Good morning. How is your day so far?”

“It is normal, thank you for asking. And how is your day?”

“It is well, thank you.”

When they reached the street, Jake had such a hard time holding back that he was nearly bursting.

“Eve, may I ask you something?”

“You may,” she replied, cocking her head slightly.

“Well, today is the day to decide if you want to sponsor a child, and I was thinking that I might want to, I mean, it wouldn’t be all that much work, and it would mean a better apartment closer to work, and the only thing that is stopping me is that I need somebody else to cosponsor with me, and I was just wondering if you were considering sponsoring a child and needed somebody else to cosponsor with you." Jake eventually had to stop to catch his breath, and Eve took this moment to speak.

"It is good for you to think about sponsoring a child, but why are you telling me this?"

"I can't really think of anybody else I might want to sponsor with me."

"There is a list you could have added your name to, you know. They would have matched you up with another female to sponsor a child with you."

Jake sighed. A simple yes or no would have been nice. "I know there's a list," he began, "but I don't think I want to live with somebody I don't know."

She stopped, raised her eyebrows at him and widened her eyes. "What do you mean? Everyone knows each other here."

"Do we really? How many people do you talk with every day?" he questioned her, sure that he would get his point across.

"Does it matter if we talk to somebody or not? The fact is, everybody is basically the same. If you talk to me, you might as well talk to every person here. I do not understand why you are asking me to cosponsor with you." She started walking towards work again, while Jake stood motionless on the concrete.

"Eve, I'm going to sound crazy, but I think I've grown attached to you. My favorite part of the day is hearing you say 'Good morning' to me, and to respond in kind. You are not like all other women, and I think you know that. We have a connection, Eve. And I think...I think I'm in love with you," he said quietly, almost to himself.

Eve turned around suddenly. "What?!"

He gained a little confidence in his voice, and spoke up so she could clearly understand. “I said, I think I’m in love with you.” The few people still making their way to work stopped to stare at him, but he couldn't even notice them. To him, there was exactly one set of eyes staring at him.

His heart started pounding like a hammer, not quite knowing what would happen next. Would she yell at him? Would she say she loved him back? Or would she do nothing at all? It was at once exhilarating and yet immensely terrifying. It had the aura of a circumstance that presented choice. It was a novel, shocking difference, a difference that he wished was more present in both of their lives. This moment would either confirm or reject his belief that the two of them were unique. Everything in his life from this moment on would depend on her answer.

“That’s too bad.” Eve turned around again and headed on to work, her pace quicker than normal. Whether it was to get away from Jake or so she wouldn’t seem to be unproductive, Jake didn’t know, but it hurt all the same. Everyone else mimicked Eve and continued on their way, and Jake was left alone on the eerily quiet street, staring at where Eve had stood just moments before.

After standing there, unable to move, Jake managed to find his footing and continue the walk to work. There was not far to go; yet it felt like he would never reach his work building. Every step echoed the last three words she had said. That’s too bad. That’s too bad. That’s too bad. The concrete work buildings up ahead seemed to taunt him with how alike they all were. They reminded him of how different he had become from everyone around him. Had he always been different, because he had this curiosity building up inside of him? Or had he become different, because he let that curiosity overwhelm him?

He had finally reached his building and stared up at it before heading in. He turned around and glanced at the government building behind him, wondering just how much they had seen or cared about. As he reached for the door handle, he wondered how he would ever pretend that this was just a normal day, when it so clearly wasn't?

He would never know the answer.

Jake awoke to the throbbing in his head accompanied by a searing headache. As he sat up, his vision was blurred from the pain, and he reached up to make sure his glasses were still on his face.

Once his vision began to clear, he found himself in a cramped room, sitting at a table across from two men in olive green uniforms. They were speaking to each other in hushed voices.

One of the men looked over to find Jake conscious, and he stood up and swaggered over to Jake.

“Finally awake, are we?” he sneered. “About time. What, were you dreaming about something happy?”

“What…how long have I been out?” Jake mumbled.

“No matter,” the second man responded, still sitting across from him. “Do you know who we are?”

“I can only assume that you’re government officials, given the uniforms and the questions.”

“Well, Bill, it seems we have a smart guy here. Might make this process go a bit faster,” the first official reckoned in the same snotty voice as before. “So tell me, Jake, if you’re so smart, why do you think you’re here instead of at work?”

I really don’t know, since I’m not quite sure where ‘here’ is,” Jake replied cautiously.

“Never mind what I just said, Bill, he’s much more of a wise guy.”

Bill finally stood up. “That’s enough, Mike. So, Jake, you want to know where you are?” Without waiting for a response, Bill continued. “You are in the government building, where you will probably be spending the rest of your time in Aratheria.”

“Way to spoil the surprise,” Mike snapped before rounding on Jake again. “Now tell us, Jake, what were you doing last?”

“I was about to start my day at work.”

“Before that, genius,” Mike growled before Bill shushed him.

“Jake,” Bill tried, “do you remember what you did this morning? Anything different than your usual routine?”

Jake knew what they were referring to, but refused to admit it right away. The longer he extended this talk, the longer he knew nothing would happen to him. What lay beyond him was a mystery, one he was not ready to leave the room to face.

“I was talking to Eve, as I do every morning.”

“Anything unusual about that conversation?” Bill pressed forward.

Mike interrupted before Jake had a chance to answer. “How often have you talked about sponsoring children before today?”

“Never.”

Mike leaned close to Jake’s face, and Jake could feel Mike’s breath crawling on his skin. “What did you say to Eve?”

Jake resigned himself to admitting what he knew he was interrogated for. “I told her I love her.”

Mike and Bill glanced at each other, and all three of them were silent for a minute. Finally, Bill spoke.

“Jake, do you remember learning about the rules of Aratheria in school? Do you remember what the most important rule is? It’s to keep control of your emotions. Don’t show them. That’s rather simple, don't you think?”

Jake nodded.

“No emotions, Jake!” Mike cried. “The single most important rule in society! Emotions cause a lower productivity level, and everybody is worse off. Do you think what you said only affected you and Eve? It didn’t. Think of all those people on the street that stopped to listen to you two! They were all late to work. What about all the people who depend on the late people to do their work? Now those people are unproductive. It’s a big chain reaction, all caused by your selfish little outburst.”

Mike had become red-faced from speaking so fast, but quickly calmed down after Bill glared at him. Jake, however, became fired up after Mike finished and stood up. “Look, what do you want me to say? That I’m sorry? I’ll never do it again? Is that what you want to hear?”

“It’s too late for that, “Bill calmly said. “You see, we need to keep everyone in line, and the only way we can do that is to make an example out of the people that break the rues. That said, I think we’re done here.”

Bill opened the door and brought a guard in. “Tom, please take Jake upstairs now, we’re finished here.”

Tom escorted Jake out of the room and took him upstairs. From how long they were walking up, Jake estimated they were about ten stories up when he and the guard reached his holding cell. Tom opened the door, shoved Jake inside none too kindly, and slammed the door shut behind him.

Jake looked around the room, and found it to be very similar to how he felt inside. The two sidewalls were made entirely of concrete, as well as the wall with the door. There was a small bench attached to one wall, and a toilet and sink on the other wall with a small partition between them, the sink being closer to the door. The pipes under the sink dripped every so often, causing a small puddle on the floor and a musty odor to fill the room. The cell was longer than it was wide, enough to make Jake feel that the walls were closing in on him. The fourth wall was unlike the others, and seemed to only be there to taunt him. The entire wall was made out of glass, so he could overlook not only Aratheria, but over the wall separating them from the neighboring town.

Looking out the window, he could see some of his old school teachers talking to in black habits. Nuns, he vaguely remembered learning in school. About ten small children, not yet able to walk, sat in small carriages. Some were sleeping, but a few were awake and crying. The schoolteachers shook hands with the women in the habits, and started walking with the children back towards the wall. These must be the children new to Aratheria, waiting for adults to sponsor them. Perhaps Eve would become one of those sponsors.

For three days, he sat in that tiny cell, watching the people head to and from work, keeping an eye out for Eve, never quite seeing her. Whenever everyone was at work, he would shift his focus to the people on the other side of the wall. Even from way up high, he could hear the children laughing and playing with each other. The adults seemed happy. He could even occasionally see a woman hugging a child, or a man and woman kissing.

On the fourth day in his cell, he watched the people around him as usual. The children on the other side of the wall laughed and ran about on their way to school, and the adults left for work with smiles on their faces.

On this side of the wall, the bell rang as normal, with three high rings and a low chime. He turned his attention to the people leaving the apartments on their way to work. Nobody noticed or cared that one of their own was gone, because he had never truly been one of them.

He heard footsteps behind him, causing him to turn around on the spot, staying close to the window. They were not the footsteps of the guard bringing him his breakfast. These footsteps were heavier, and there were more of them. The door to his cell opened, and there stood four government officials.

“We need you to come with us,” Mike said, but Jake remained where he was. He could still hear the children in the neighboring city. He turned around again to watch them for a little longer.

“Now.”

Jake turned back, and found four guns pointing straight at him. It didn’t matter, though. They didn’t threaten him. As far as Jake was concerned, he had died the day he and Eve had talked.

“What’ll you do if I don’t? I’ll be dead soon anyways.” No sooner had the sentence ended than the triggers were pulled on all four guns. Three shots missed and hit the window behind him, shattering it. The last bullet hit Jake square in the shoulder, knocking him back through the space the window had stood half a moment earlier.

The world slowed around him as he fell the ten stories. He knew he would not survive the impact with the ground, nor would he want to. He craned his neck to look towards Aratheria and all the people heading to work. He spotted Eve, with her long, red hair pulled back by the headband, walking in unison with everyone around her.

She was wearing a black pencil skirt.