Wretched by Offer Reish (best free ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📖

them think they can do whatever they want. We're going to win in the end!' He would think to himself and smile absentmindedly. He was often ridiculed for this eerie behavior, but he didn't care. Once Mrs. Jones, his homeroom teacher who liked him more than she did all the other kids in class (he never understood why it was so), saw him doing this she called him for one of their little one-on-one chats that they liked to have every now and then. She sat next to him on a small chair that the kids usually sat on and not on her special teacher's chair that she used during class.

"Why were you smiling when the other kids had the open masks on?" She wondered with a little smile, slowly and in an especially high-pitched tone. She was always extremely pleasant when she spoke with him, and he knew it was because of his condition but didn't really understand the reason for it.

"Because I know that in the end justice will prevail!" Leonardo exclaimed with the same smug smile on his face that he had when the other kids had been making fun of him. This wasn't a phrase he'd heard Jessica use but something he'd come up with himself.

"You mean you like-"

"The Existents!"

"But you know they've hurt many people. Don't you think The people are more helpful? And more realistic? A lot of people think they're really great."

"I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against." It was at least the third time he'd repeated this phrase, and each time he did it with more conviction than in the previous one. It was strange that he was much more convinced in the appropriateness and worth of this phrase than in the meaning of its key word- justice. Leonardo knew that whatever he said would eventually get to his mother's ears (Mrs. Jones and Hailey were on terrific terms, and Hailey was updated frequently on Leonardo's condition in class) and that she wouldn't like to hear him say this, but there was no way he could stop it from coming out. The conversation broke off here but didn't finish until later that day, when Hailey warned her son against continuing to alienate (she didn't hesitate to use this word, which he was completely familiar with) himself from the others. She never referred directly to his support of The Existents, but by now he already knew she didn't like them.

"Maybe we should get an open mask", she suggested with feigned casualty.

"No! I will never wear that abomination!" Leonardo clamored, and he scurried over to the chess board, scowling at the black king and almost carrying out the urge that took over him to smash it on the ground.

Next Hailey made a call to Dr. Linda Alberts. Dr. Alberts specialized in the clinical aspects of autistic disorders in children, and had been treating Leonardo for the past three years. She was also on great terms with Hailey and was always ready to consult and advise even outside designated therapy sessions (which Leonardo rarely attended). It was an evening hour, later than the time Hailey normally felt comfortable calling Dr. Alberts, but she was currently in a state of panic or at least of urgency, and she couldn't wait. The provisional diagnosis she received on the phone encouraged her in a way. It was nothing Hailey hadn't encountered before in her work, but hearing it from a specialized third party was greatly reassuring.

It was a common reaction among children who sensed that they didn't fit in with their environment- more so among children with emotional disorders such as Asperger Syndrome, but not exclusive to them- to embrace their isolation by attaching to some heretic opinion or position. This gave them the comfort of belonging to some group somewhere while 'justifying' their isolation from those around them, which was the group they were 'supposed' to belong to. In Leonardo's case (Dr. Alberts offered this as a possible cause for his behavior, but Hailey clutched to it at once and determined that it had to be the reason for his adamancy), professing his support of The Existents while everyone else around him opposed them spared him the need to ingratiate himself with others. It made him feel special, not rejected, and belong to a group of people that accepted him unconditionally- The Existents would surely appreciate any support they could get in those dire times, and he knew it. It might not be an easy task releasing him from this fixation, Dr. Alberts clarified, but to Hailey it was a great relief, a far preferable possibility than to have a child at home who sincerely believed in The Existents' extreme cause. Then, as a token of her apology to him, she bought her own black mask and paraded it around the house to the sound of Leonardo's pure, elated, incredibly childish laugh that rolled around the walls of the apartment like a ball rolls downhill, seeming like it could go on forever and filling the apartment with such joy that even 462 had a moment of levity before sinking back into its usual bleak solitude.

To The Peopole's cause came the aid (which they weren't much in need of in light of their tremendous popularity- almost consensus- among the people) of an unexpected nature: the court of justice. The city's prosecution had accused John Samskin, a 40-year-old man of 'expiring with his bare hands' (in other words, beating to death) the Wretch that had been serving the household- Samskin, his wife and their two children. The law stipulated that intentionally bringing about the immediate expiration of Wretches without cause was an offense punishable by up to three years in prison (whereas if the Wretch stayed alive for a day or more after the beating, it wasn't considered an offense). The motive behind this stipulation wasn't to protect Wretches but the belief that someone who is without reason violent toward a Wretch may one day turn his violence against a fellow person. However, the Judge in a ruling that won him great acclaim from both the public and the press, decided in favor of the defendant for two alternative reasons. First, Samskin had made it clear that his being violent toward the Wretch was uncommon, and in this particular occasion was the result of unbearable anger that had been building up inside him at work. Instead of taking it out on his employees or on his family, he'd taken it out on the Wretch; therefore the beating wasn't without reason. Second, the Judge questioned the assumption that violence toward a servant Wretch was in any way translatable to future violence against people. Wretches are property, and 'violence against property' was actually not at all violence per se but vandalism. Vandalism against private property- Wretches were the property of the Industry- wasn't a criminal offence and the public prosecutor had no business bringing it to court. There was no room, the Judge stated, to make any correlation between vandalism against Wretches and violence against people. On the contrary- the defendant had beaten the Wretch in order to avoid any possibility of being violent to the people around him. Mr. Samskin was cleared to the great satisfaction of everyone really- even the prosecutor seemed to bear her defeat with stoicism rarely witnessed in a courtroom. The Industry, which the Judge stated was at liberty to demand reparations from Mr. Samskin for the value of the expired Wretch, didn't do so. Not only was the production price of a Wretch lower than ten minutes' legal consulting, but the Industry gladly acquiesced to The People's request to join ranks and do what was best for the people of the city. Mr. Samskin was lionized as a symbol of common sense, well-ordered priorities and non-violence. In return for the loss of the servant and in reward for his patience and forbearance, he was given not one but two servants to replace the one that had expired.

Soon The People were sufficiently structured and enjoyed such great support, both financially and emotionally, from the people that they began to address every new claim made by the deteriorating Existents. More often than not, addressing simply meant refuting their truthfulness.

'They are withheld any kind of education beyond the scope of what is necessary for their designated service so they don't understand and unite against the injustice they are subjected to, and will not one day revolt and demand their freedom', The Extremists claimed.

'Wretches are inferior beings, to educate them would be a senseless waste of time. They neither want it nor need it. They are provided high-quality training at the expense of the Industry and should be grateful for it. Freedom? Wretches need the guidance of the Industry to fulfill their missions. Serving the people is their ultimate freedom', ran The People's rebuttal. This was corroborated by the Industry's most reputable trainers.

'They are castrated at birth so they are easier to handle. It is as painful to them as it would be to any person', alleged The Extremists.

'Castration is beneficial for the Wretches' health. It is done quickly and efficiently, and anyway they aren't humans, they can hardly feel pain at all', The People negated uncompromisingly. To support this stand The People set up a live interview with none other than Dr. Joshua Styles, the family's amiable next door neighbor on primetime television. It was a hit.

'Wretches involved in food production are actually tortured so they produce a hormone that softens their flesh, and then are killed and sold as food products.'

'Eating Wretches is very healthy and critical for the healthy development of your children', said a well known doctor that following this statement started spending a lot of time in the company of the Industry's Sand Blowers.

'Industry does everything in its power to avoid people connecting with Wretches and understanding their misery. Servants are transported into the city in early morning and leave after night fall; Industry tenaciously holds onto its ownership of them; they are intentionally made ugly, stinky and awkward; and even the fur around their eyes which used to be thin, is thickened so we can barely see their eyes. That's also why the walls of the Camps are so thick and tall. If the isolation is broken, the Industry will fall.'

'Industry does everything in its power to protect the people from the Wretches and spare them from having to go through the discomfort of caring for them. Their fur is thickened to protect their eyes from the sun.'

'Wretches that are no longer functional are gassed to death and buried in the ground.'

'When they finish their service they are so tired that they want to rest forever and a proper burial'. And so on.

Somehow in these ping-pong games The People always won. Winning meant to sway the people's opinion in one's direction, and the people's opinion always favored The People.

To be seen with a black mask on in public had become an act of social suicide.

Five

5

 

There was only one strike delivered by The Existents- a secret weapon that had been saved for desperate times- which a factual contradiction by The People wasn't sufficient to bury. It was a stealthy operation conducted by The Existents, in which