Escape
“Anasa!”
“Oh, hey Darling!, how goes it?”
“You’re never gonna believe this, but I have the cameras for this spot re-recording the last hour as if it’s new footage, which means that they won’t catch what we do and say for the next hour!”
“Asana…” I said in confusion, “That kind of joking isn’t funny…”
“It’s true though!” my wife beamed, “I figured out a way around the system!”
I was stunned into shocked silence, and I was also now conflicted about how to proceed…
The fact that we hadn’t already been corrected for talking in such ways about the system probably meant that Asana was indeed speaking the truth, but what was I to do?
I was now a criminal!
And my wife was an even worse criminal!
Now, I wouldn’t’ve been a criminal if I’d immediately ran over to a camera and alerted the system about my wife’s treachery, but now I was guilty of covering for her because I hadn’t acted swiftly.
This sort of crime would mean at least a month in jail if we were to get caught!, and I was now beginning to panic…
“Ummmm, honey, how could you do this to me? To us?…” I asked fearfully, “Do you want to put us in prison and ruin everything that we’ve built in our lives?!?”
“Don’t worry!” she said cheerfully, “They won’t know the difference, and now we can say all of the forbidden things that we’ve always wanted to say for an hour!”
“I don’t want to say forbidden things!” I scowled, “I just want to live my life normally, and I used to think that that was what you wanted to do too!”
“Well, of course you did!” she shot back, “Because I’ve almost always been monitored up until this moment!, and thus I’ve been unable to let you know about a lot of the things that I really want to say!”
“Fine!” I said in despair, “If I listen to all of your crazy-talk for an hour, will you promise to never pull this stunt again?”
“I’ll promise never to mess with a camera that’s recording you ever again unless you want me to.” she agreed; and I decided that that was probably as good as I was going to get, and so I said, “Deal. Now what forbidden things do you have to say?”
“First of all,” she began, “I hate the system! Like, really hate it.”
“Why?” I asked, “It keeps us safe.”
“It didn’t keep me safe from being sexually assaulted by one of the people who does maintenance on the cameras at my work!” she seethed, “And I can’t tell anybody because I’ll get accused of lying and being a troublemaker!”
“Wait?” I said in shock, “You got sexually assaulted? How did he do it without getting caught!?!”
“How are we having this conversation without getting caught?” she returned, “People who know how to get around the system can literally get away with murder while the rest of us will be penalized if we dare to speak out about it!”
“Well that’s not good…” I said, “Is there some way that we can cover up the right cameras to murder that maintenance guy who sexually assaulted you?”
“I don’t want revenge against him!” she wailed, “I just want to move somewhere where there aren’t any cameras and people have more freedom!
I just can’t do it with this system anymore!”
“Babe,” I said gently, “the system is everywhere. What are you talking about?”
“Ha!” she said with a gleam in her eye, “Except it’s not!
I’ve been messing with cameras and snooping around quite a lot ever since I figured out how to get around them, and there are places where electricity isn’t even allowed to be used at all!”
“No electricity?” I said in disbelief, “I can’t even imagine living without electricity!”
“Look, dear,” Asana said as she stared straight into my eyes, “I’m gonna be real upfront with you right now.
I am leaving this place.
I’ve already figured out how, and my odds of success are high.
The only question is, are you coming with me?”
“Can I think about it until our hour is almost up and then give you an answer?” I asked; and she nodded and said that that would be fine.
I thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought and thought, and then realized that I loved my wife and would be willing to die for her little scheme.
I’m not sure how much the fact that she had been sexually assaulted and hadn’t been able to talk about it had factored into my decision, but it wasn’t worth dwelling on that question.
I had made my decision.
“I hope that you know what you’re doing, Asana,” I finally said, “because I don’t really want to be killed or locked away for the rest of my life.”
“Don’t worry!, Anasa!, I’ve got it all figured out!” my wife beamed, “It’s us vs. the system now, and we’re gonna win!”
“Us vs. the system until we escape to your non-electric paradise, that is; right?” I said suspiciously, “You’re not going to drag me into trying to destroy the system once we’ve gotten away, are you?”
“I hadn’t even thought about that…” Asana said thoughtfully, “Which means that I’ll have to get back to you on it later.”
“Right…” I said nervously, “Just remember that there are an awful lot of people out there right now who wish that they’d had the good sense to quit while they were ahead…”
It wasn’t long before Asana did indeed get us away from the system, and I’m tempted to just skip over how she did it but I suppose that I should give you some details.
So, a few days after I had agreed to escape with her, we were enjoying a lovely breakfast.
It turned out that that was going to be the last meal that we’d share while still in the system’s grasp.
“They’re coming!” she said happily!, “They’re here to deliver the babies!
Oh… And the cameras around us are all re-recording the last hour right now…
Time to make our move!”
“Wait…” I said dubiously, “Please tell me that storks aren’t your escape plan…
I mean, I know that they’re strong enough to deliver babies, but we’re a lot heavier than babies are!”
“Trust me!, it’ll work!” she beamed; and I followed her out to where some storks were laying babies into some cribs.
“Quick!” she said, as she tossed me a piece of bread that had a bag tied to it, “We have to get them to grab the bread, which’ll mean that they’ll carry us along too!”
I sighed, but did as she requested; and both of us tossed the bread to the storks and got inside of our bags.
I felt very silly as I sat inside of my bag, and I looked around and saw that there were some open spots in the cloth bag that would be able to let plenty of air in.
“I don’t think that they’re going to take the bait!” I said, to which my dear sweet wife responded that, “They’re taking it now! Woohoo!…”
She was correct, and I suddenly felt myself being tugged into the air!…
As we flew along, I asked Asana if the storks might accidentally drop us so that we’d fall to our doom.
“I didn’t think of that!” she said uncertainly, “But I doubt that they would!… After all!, you never see dropped babies all over the place!”
“I hope that you’re right!” I said fearfully; and the two of us continued flying along for a very long time.
Too long, actually.
I mean, we should’ve packed food and water!, because I was starting to get really hungry and thirsty!
Eventually, though, we were set down; and the two of us scrambled out of the bags and ran over to a nearby pond in order to drink some water.
As I drank, I heard what sounded almost like laughter coming from the storks, but when I turned around to look at them they were looking very serious and the “laughing” sounds had stopped.
“Were y’all laughing at us?” I questioned; and one of the storks nodded and said, “Yes. You two are very funny!” and then all of the storks flew off! and left Asana and I behind.
After Asana finished drinking, she said, “Did one of those storks talk?!?” and I answered that one of them had indeed talked.
“Weird…” she mused. “But I suppose that it makes sense that they’d know our language, seeing as they deliver our babies to us.
So… That looks like a castle over there in the distance.
Wanna head over and check it out?”
“We may as well!” I agreed; and the two of us made our way towards the castle…
