127

127

Each day, when I wake up, the pale light from the ceiling fills my eyes. I lay in bed and stare at the white ceiling for several minutes before sitting up. I glance around the room, and it also looks the same as it does every morning. It's empty, except for the bed, a nightstand and a table with two chairs on the far end of the room. That's for when the lady in the white coat visits and we have our talks. She brings me games or sometimes reads me books. I really like it when she visits. She smiles a lot, and that makes me smile.
On the far right of the room, there's a large window, but the room on the other side is darkened. But even though it's dark, I know there's people on the other side. People I never see, but only hear. I've been in this place for a long time. I'm not even sure how old I am. But I'm small. I don't have a name. Everyone here just calls me 127. I don't really know why they call me that, but I don't really mind it.

I climb out of bed, and on the nightstand is a new pair of clothes. A white shirt that is a little too big for me and a pair of white pants with a drawstring. I put on the pants first and then the shirt, my raven hair becoming tousled in the struggle to get it on. After getting dressed, the speakers standing by the window crackle, "Good morning, 127. I trust you slept well?" I turn to face the window, fixing my shirt, "Yes, I did."
This is how every morning starts. They always tell me good morning and ask about how I slept, and then tell what will be happening today. Usually then, the woman in white comes in with my morning meal and plays a game or reads to me before I start the tests. I walked up to the window and looked in, even though I can never see anything, "Am I going to be read to again today? I really like this story, and I'd like to hear the end of it." The man on the other side was silent, and then spoke again, "I'm sorry, but there won't be any time for that. We're a little behind schedule with today's tests, so we have to skip the morning meal and the story."

I shrink back from the window. I feel a new presence behind there. An older man..a scary man. I nod, "Okay.." The speakers crackle again, "Are you ready to begin the tests?" I nod again. "Good. We'll start immediately." I hear the sound of someone entering the code to the door by the window, and it clicks and slowly opens and the woman in white steps through. She smiles warmly at me, holding a metal box to her chest in one hand. She walks in and approaches me, "Good morning, 127. Shall we get started?"
Together, we walk to the table and sit down. I look at her from across the table, "So..why can't we finish the story today?" She set the metal box on the table and opened it up, "Well, it's like they said. We're just a little behind schedule for the tests today. But I promise that we'll finish it after today's tests." She begins to take things out of the box: A deck of cards which she lays face down in front of her, some sheets of paper, and a pencil. She slides the sheets of paper and pencil over to me and brings the cards over to her.

"Okay," she says. "I'm going to hold up a card. The symbol on the front of the card will be facing me, and I want you to concentrate on the card and draw what symbol you think is on the card. Can you do that?" Her kind tone faded, and she suddenly seemed very tense. I nodded slowly, and that seemed to mildly relieve her. "Good," she smiled. She picked up the first card and brought the first sheet in front of me and readied the pencil. She looked at me, and then at the card, "Okay...go."
I concentrate on the card, staring deeply into the plain red back of it. I keep staring until the vague shape of an image enters into my mind, and I begin drawing, the image becoming clearer in my own mind as I do so. I finish the drawing and show it to the woman. It's a half circle with with a dot underneath it. She studies the drawing, and then looks at the card. She turns the card in her hand so I can see, and the image on the card is of a square with a line through it's axis. I slowly set the paper down on the table. She picks up on a new card, "It's alright. Not everyone gets it on the first try. We'll just try again, okay?"

I nod and grab another sheet of paper and ready the pencil again. She holds up the new card and I concentrate on it. When I have the image in my mind, I begin drawing again. This time I draw a segmented spiral, that goes all the way from the edges of the paper to the center. I hold it up for her to see and she flips the card for me to see. Again, my drawing doesn't match the card. She doesn't smile, but she acts reassuringly, "It's alright. We'll just keep going."
We go through nearly half of the cards, and none of my drawings match. She sets the card down slowly, and her head turns towards the window. She nods her head in affirmation and turns to me, "Sorry, I'll be just a minute." She gets up from the chair and leaves the room. After the door closes, I hear another one open and then click shut. Even though the microphone isn't on, I hear three muffled voices from behind the window. The two men and the woman. The men are hard to hear, but I can hear the woman screaming things. "No! No! You can't. She still has potential, I know it!" The voice of the scary man says something to her, and her voice goes meek. I don't know what she says, but she's stopped screaming things. She enters the room once more, and she smiles at me, "Hey.." There is something different about her. Her eyes are red, and she keeps bringing her hand to them.

She walks back to the table and sits back down. She taps her fingers on the table, "They..they want to send you somewhere else. They think the tests we do here don't match your skill level. So we're going to send you somewhere better." I simply look at her, "But..what about the story? We'll get to finish that first, right? Before I leave?" She is silent for a moment, and she brings her hand to her eye again, "...We won't. I'm sorry. But don't worry. The woman at this new place knows the story, too. She'll tell you the end of it when you get there."
I smile at this, "That's good. But..I'd prefer to hear it from you. I like the way you tell it." She smiles and nods, "I know you do.." She stands up, "Come on. We have to get you ready to go." I stand up and walk over to her, and she holds my hand tight and we walk to the door. Even though I'm sad to leave, I'm excited to see what's beyond the door. She opens the door, and we walk into a bright white hall. Before me, there are two men. One is about the same age as the woman, and the other is much older with very gray hair. The older man speaks to me, and I recognize his voice as that of the scary man, "Are you ready to go?" I nod silently, not looking at him. I can feel him smile at me, but it feels fake, "Good. Let's get going."

The two men walk ahead of us, and I walk behind them with the woman, still holding her hand tightly. The hall looks a lot like my room. The walls are pure white, and the lights above are pale and the hall is empty. I don't even see other people. As we walk by other rooms, I see other rooms like mine. Some are empty, some have other kids, some have multiple kids. Each one has a darkened window like mine on the far wall. We come to a giant door at the end of the hall, and the scary man swipes a card through a metal box next to it and the door slides open.

The first thing I see in the room is a flat table and a tray next that with strange things I've never seen before on it. We all approach the table, and the younger man turns to me. "We need to give you some vaccinations before you leave," he says. "Just to make sure you don't get sick when you leave. That's all." I nod at him softly, "Okay." He pats the table with his hand, "I'll just need you to hop up and lay down. Okay?"
I walk over to the table. As I do, the younger man nods to the scary man. The scary man walks over to the woman and she puts his hands on her shoulders and gently begins to push her back to the door. As I sit on the table and begin to lay down, I see her trying to get out of his grasp and screaming, her eyes getting redder than they were before. I keep my head turned, watching her, as I lay there. The scary man gets her into the hall and closes the door. I can still hear her screaming and pounding on the door. The scary man turns and nods to the younger man.

The younger man stands over me. I look up at him, "What's wrong with her?" He takes something off of the tray next to the table. It has a thick plastic end, and a pointed metal tip and he holds it between his thumb and forefingers, "She's just a little sad to see you go. That's all." I look up to the ceiling, "I'm..a little sad to leave, too. But I'm sure I'll see her again." He smiles down at me, "I'm sure you will."
He slowly brings the object to my arm, and I feel a pinch as he pokes it into me. I wince, but for just a moment, and relax. He pushes a part on the end in, and I feel something go into my arm. He takes the object out, and my eyes begin to feel heavy. I feel..sleepy. It feels nice. I feel calm. I look around at the two men above me, and they have no expressions on their faces. I still hear the woman pounding the door, but it's starting to go quiet. She sounds so far away. I feel I should be afraid, but I'm not. After all..when I wake up, I'll be somewhere new. I might even be able to meet some of the other kids and make some friends. But..I really can't wait to hear how that story ends.