Gray – Final Part

 

(We have reached the final part of this short story. July is the 7^th month, so I have divided the story into 7 parts. It was based on a dream I had at the end of June. I hope you have enjoyed it. Feedback appreciated. 😊)

The cell phone message alarm went off and he checked to see who it was from at that time of the night or dawn depending on how you look at it. Although anxiety was making his heart skip a beat, he had to wait for his 4 am coffee break to check.

‘Hello, I am sorry for sending you a message at this hour. Please forgive me. I hope you can meet me for coffee during your morning break at 8 am at the hotel breakfast room. I would love to chat with you. I find you extremely interesting’.

He couldn´t believe his eyes. He wished he could ask someone to pinch him. The journalist wanted to have coffee with him. Him. Mr. Nobody. Mr. Ugly. Mr. Doorman. He was thrilled and he wouldn´t miss this opportunity for the world. Good thing he was off at 8, so it wasn´t just a break.

Meanwhile, the young woman who could see colors again, decided to wear a blue outfit to match her eyes. She snuck in the hotel through the garage so that the doorman would not see her. A few minutes before 8 am, she was sipping coffee in the breakfast room. Her nerves were rattling. Quietly she prayed for her plan to work out. She saw a good-looking man come in her direction about 10 minutes passed the hour when she had just looked up from her watch. Was it the doorman or did she get herself into rough waters?

“Good morning, miss! I was thrilled when I saw your invite for coffee”.

“Good morning. I am relieved that you accepted spending this time with me. I am not one to usually send out these invitations, but whenever you spoke to me, your voice kept ringing in my mind”.

He looked down and blushed. She observed him and out of that beneath that hideous uniform there was handsome man. He had broad shoulders, green eyes, a rough beard and dark hair, she realized that her heart was skipping a beat. What was she getting herself into? She was not one to believe in love at first sight. This was going to throw her off track. She was doomed. Or maybe not? If he had feelings for her too, it could just be the perfect scheme.

They sat there for hours chatting, laughing, eating, drinking, just enjoying each other’s company right up until the moment he let slip that her blue outfit really brought out the blue in her eyes.

“You can see colors?” She was quite a good actor and wished that someone from the academy were there to award her. This plot was turning our better than she had imagined.

“Um…um…” he was a loss for words. How did he end up making such a horrible mistake that could cost him his life? How was he going to take it back? “Is there anywhere more private that we can go? Don´t take this in a terrible way. I do find you extremely attractive and I can also feel your vibes, however, it´s just that what I am about to reveal might be heard by the wrong ears”.

A decision needed to be made. They could go up to her hotel room, but that could be a trap. Who knows what might have happened there since yesterday? A brilliant idea popped into her mind.

“Perhaps we can go to another hotel nearby and book a room. Would you be ok with that?”

He consented and off they went. Since he knew the city better than she did, he directed the taxi driver. She kept her eye out to see whether they were being followed. Meanwhile all these feelings, emotions and thoughts were springing in her heart and mind. She did have feelings for him. She had never felt this way towards anyone before meeting him. Her secret was still safe and she didn´t believe that he had a hunch. Maybe she could just get him to undo the hypnotic spell and not even tell him the truth at least for now. No matter what happened in that room, she was going to make the best of it. The thought that she had fallen into a trap was completely dismissed.

Arriving in the room, the attraction was too strong. They made love more than once as if the world would end in the next couple of hours. While cuddling, he whispered in her ear. The words sounded like harps being played by angels.

“I think I am spellbound for your beauty. Love at first sight, I can risk saying. Yes, I can see colors. I can also help you see colors if you wish”. She smiled as he spoke these magical words. She felt the same way as he did. “But the price to pay is high. It would mean leaving the country. We´d have to escape the government”.

She turned to look into his eyes. No malice there. His words were true and came from the heart. Deep down inside, she truly believed that she could get him to make everyone see colors again.

“Why the government?”

“First, are you willing to spend the rest of your days together with me in another country?”

She didn´t need to think to much about the answer to that question. She had been in other relationships but had never felt this way. Or did any of her previous relationships make her feel the way she was feeling at this very moment.

“My answer is yes, on one condition”.

He frowned. Why did she need to add a condition? Was he making a good choice here? Was this a trap he was getting himself into? No, this was true. The government in charge were not as bright as everyone had them painted out to be and in shades of gray. Pun, intended.

“What is your condition?”

“I would like to ask you to make everyone else in the country see colors again, even the governmental officials, including the president”.

“Oh, no! He can see colors. Just him and me. You see I am an unsuccessful hypnotist. When the president approached me, I owed a lot of money. His proposal seemed harmless, and the amount of money was fabulous”.

She listened attentively. Her brain was trying to come up with a way to make him come up with a plan how he would make everyone see colors again.

“The president had me record my hypnosis and it is played on all types of media, just before a movie comes on or a program. That´s why I became a doorman. It wasn´t because I needed to, you see, by working nights I was not tempted to turn on the tv or radio and then during the day I would need to sleep. It was a way of not falling into the trap”.

“But what did you do for entertainment?”

“I read. There is nothing better than reading, is there?”

They laughed. As a journalist and writer, she wanted her material to be read.

“I have a plan”, he said as he sat up in bed. “But we need to act quickly”.

She listened attentively.

“I will make another recording inverting the trick so that people can see color again, call the networks and tell them that as of now they needed to play this new recording”.

“Ok, so that would make people go back to seeing colors. But how do we know that the president will not demand that the old recording be played again once we are gone”.

“Good question. The next step would be to call the president to tell him the system had been hacked and there were people who started to see colors again. He will be outraged and demand that the old recordings be destroyed and replaced with the new one. However, it should play for a week and then this new recording must be destroyed also to avoid future problems. It will also give up time to escape. Everyone will be so thrilled in seeing colors again that the news will take some time before it reaches the president himself”.

They put their plan into action. It worked out as planned. As they were getting on their flight to paradise, the president was calling the hypnotist. “I am afraid that I can´t come to the phone right now. Close your eyes and leave a message after I tell you to open them, and you hear the beep”. The president did just that.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Now, slowly open your eyes”.

There was no beep. The president´s monster like cry could be heard miles away.

~The End~

 

Written: During the month of July 2021

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Gray- Part 6

 

(Almost done 😊)

Waiting for the elevator her brain was popping like popcorn. She had found out who the hypnotist was, consequently, her main objective was to see if he would be on her side in stopping the cruel president and bringing back color. Now she was aware that the hypnotist, president, and she were the only ones who could see colors.

The short hair wig and thick glasses changed her appearance a bit, however, she needed more. Luckily, she had taken a course on artistic makeup therefore she was able to change the size of her nose and the shape of her lips. After a couple of hours, she looked at herself in the mirror and was proud of the stranger she had created. Hopefully that meant that the president and his men would also not be able to recognize her. She did need the doorman to recognize her, though. She decided to leave the hotel and move into a flat close by, however, to throw off the president´s men, she did not check out. She would pay the bill after she had solved the problem. Money was not an issue. Living this way, in a depressive state, was far worse than spending her life savings.

The building was rundown, but she didn't care because in the back of her mind she knew she wouldn't be staying there for long. It had a bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom, a phone, and internet so, she was pretty much set. She had equipped herself with the necessary tools to put her plans into action which were pretty much a prepaid phone and a new computer. Having left the old ones in the hotel room just in case the government decided to track her down. It would give her some time before her new location was found. However, she didn´t believe that this government was as smart as the previous one. The people who had been placed into office along with the president were inexperienced, not to say dumb.

To succeed in her plans with the hypnotist, she had previously exchanged numbers with him and told him that she'd be texting him in the near future to grab some coffee. When she did that, he blushed and seemed very grateful to have been approached by such a gorgeous woman. It was noticeable that he was not popular among women. It saddened her that she had to use her beauty as a resource to get what she wanted, but then again it was for the greater good, an exception could be made this time. A good thing was that the doorman did not recognize her as she left to the flat. He had an odd look on his face, as he stared at her business card. It wasn´t creepy in any way, but it seemed more like day-dreamish look. A look that told a romantic story - shy doorman meets up with a dazzling reporter for coffee, love at first sight and wedding bells ringing in a distance - that was the kind of look.

Not wasting time, she first put away the groceries she had bought, then opened her notebook, and started brainstorming her ideas.  It all had to be clearly planned, she couldn´t afford to make a mistake. Even though she was sure that the president´s IQ was low, one should not defy what the heart wants. That man wanted her to be his and she was certain he would do everything in his power to get just that. She also knew that her profile had been studied, therefore, being a person who kept her word, she would need to meet up with him once again. She also started to outline the article she was going to write so that the president would be thrown off track and believe that what they had talked about was genuine. If they didn´t meet in person pronto, he would at least get a cordial email from her. She immediately started writing. Read it over a couple of times and pressed send.

As she was lying in bed, she was thinking about the process of hypnotism. Trying to figure out how it is done, she wondered how this porter had hypnotized the entire country. According to Dr. Internet Search, “hypnosis is defined as the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction”. She read on and on about the subject until finally she fell asleep.

Tossing and turning all night, in and out of dreams, waking up to drink water and going to the bathroom, sleep had disappeared. It didn´t look like she´d be getting any more shut eye that night. She went back to wondering how the doorman had altered everyone´s state of consciousness, except his and the president´s. Once again, the question of where she had heard the voice popped in her mind. She was tempted to turn on the tv but she didn´t have one in that flat. Maybe she could watch a movie on the internet, they always helped her sleep when facing a challenging issue. She wrote in the search engine: a boring movie.  She couldn´t believe her eyes- the doorman. She screamed. Instantly, she turned off her computer.

That´s it! She shouted as if there were someone in the room waiting for her to explain what was going on in her brilliant mind. She continued speaking out loud as if she were chatting with her best friend although there was no one else in the room with her. However, it was to make sure that she was listening, paying close attention to the ideas being spat out. The hypnosis session was recorded and played on all media. She even recalled that it was played on loudspeakers at the subway stations, lucky for her she had driven a rental to this flat. She had to find a way to keep her from listening to it again. TV, radio, subway, bus terminals, internet streaming all of which she needed to avoid. Maybe she could use ear plugs, those made from silicone used when swimming. But where was she going to get a pair in the middle of the night?

Deep down inside she knew that time was ticking like a bomb, she needed to act now. Sooner or later, she would run into a place where the recording would be played. Her heart was overflowing with joy being able to see all the colors and this she wasn´t willing to lose again. She looked around the room wide-eyed and noticed all the different colors. The bedspread was red, sheets black, walls yellow, floors green; rather poorly decorated. But of course, the decorator only saw shades of gray, she quickly remembered. Anyhow, it was bursting with colors which brought happiness to her heart.

She got her cell phone and decided to write the doorman a message inviting him out for coffee as soon as possible- tomorrow at breakfast.

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Gray- Part 5

 

(Read the preivous parts :-) )

“Let´s have our dessert outside on the terrace and you can tell me all about your wonderful ideas to keep me in office”.

“I believe that if people knew exactly how to remove colors from the world it would bring them a lot of benefit”.

“Tell me more”.

The servant came in with dessert. It was her favorite-condensed milk pudding. It is slowly baked in the oven in bain marie. She would always order it if she wasn´t on a diet. It was apparent that he knew everything about her.

“Thank you. This is my favorite pudding”. She looked at the president. “You already knew that, didn´t you?”

“There are a lot of things that I already know. Now, please continue with your ideas”.

“They are quite simple, as a matter of fact, there have been many rumors about you and if you simply tell the people the truth, they will learn to trust you more”.

“It’s funny you should say that, because every time I say something it is the truth”.

“What if people knew why the colors have disappeared? Or whether they could think that you were being transparent. All those false rumors would vanish”.

“You do realize that in a few years people won't even remember that there were colors. It is much easier to rule people who are depressed who can't tell the difference between a glass of red wine and white wine. Depression makes people weak and fragile. It takes up too much energy to fight against the government. Removing colors helps me control the country. It is something really simple and it doesn´t take a genius to know that”.

As he was speaking, he walked over to where she was seated and handed her a glass of wine. He sat down on the couch so close to her that it made her cringe. She knew that if she wanted him to tell her the process of getting rid of color, she had to seduce him for he was a chauvinistic pig and the language he understood was sex. She had been reluctant to using these sexist methods but now she was sure that it would only be this way that she would succeed with this atrocious creature. There was a war going on in her mind between what she needed to do and what she didn't want to do. She could never understand how this man had been married twice and his second wife was much younger than she was. Nothing against the age difference. His ways were just so obvious, but she knew for a fact that if she discovered how to bring color back, people would rebel overthrowing this president. Disgust had to be put aside.

“I would love to know the process off removing color” she said as her trembling hand touched his left cheek.

It had been such a long time that someone he was attracted to had made a warm and loving gesture that it took him off balance and he opened up like the dead clam. He held her hand tight, opened his mouth and spilled the beans. This was much easier than she had imagined. Goes to show you how tricky one´s brain can be.

“The process is quite simple. Hypnosis. That voice you heard in the foyer is a hypnotist. and whenever he counts backwards you either see color or you don't. Now, this is between you and me”. He leaned over to kiss her and without thinking she pushed him away.

“I'm afraid that I can't betray your wife this way. If you were to leave her for me, we could think about a relationship. but for the time being, this is as far as I can go”. Once again, she gently touched his left cheek.

He had fallen. He was under a spell- her spell. There was something mystical about her, something in her eyes from which he could not repel. He did not get angry. He just started thinking about how he could have her as his own.

“If you excuse me Sir, I had a lovely evening, but I should get home and start working on your campaign”.

“I thought that you had feelings for me just like I do towards you”.

Now that she noticed that all he needed was some attention and affection, she had him in the palm of her hand. However, she also knew that if she rejected him, he could become a raging bull. He had let down his tough-guy guard. He was at a loss for words. He felt helpless. The same time that he wanted to seize her, he wanted to hurt her.

“I am true to my character. I cannot do this to you or your wife or your children. I am not a home wrecker.  You for one will not leave her specially now since a family structure is important for your reelection”.

He just sat there as she got up and started making her way out. He didn't budge. He didn't move one inch. Fear was shading her like a dark storm cloud. She couldn't read him. she didn't know if he was going to attack her or just let her go. Could she have been mistaken? Did he have a heart after all? Were all those allegations lies?

All of a sudden, he looked at her as if his eyes we're ripping her insides and said in a terrifying frightening tone “You will be mine!”.

Surprisingly she was able to run out of there without having to go through the hypnosis session. Once she was outside in the garden, she was able to see the green trees, the dark blue sky, the gigantic orange full moon and all the beautiful colors she had started to forget. How beautiful everything looked, even at night lit up by the glorious moon. She was baffled that the president did not send anyone after her. He's simply let her go. There had been so much red tape to get into the home and now he didn´t even set the doors out on her. Something was fishy. She wasn't going to take the presidential car back to the hotel, as a result she decided to walk. It wasn't very far, and the fresh air would help rearrange the thoughts and ideas that overloaded her brain. Her next steps would be to find a new location to stay at, change into the disguise she had previously packed up and finally find the hypnotist and convince him to undo what he had done. Where had she heard that voice?

When she arrived at the hotel, the usher opened the door for her and greeted her with a cheerful “Good evening, miss”. She froze. That voice. She couldn´t believe it. Fate was on her side. She just needed to confirm her hypothesis.

“Good evening, could you please help me? I seem to have forgotten my room number”.

“Certainly, miss. I remember all the guest´s room numbers. Yours is 246”.

Bingo. She recognized the voice. He was the hypnotist. Why hadn´t it dawned on her before? She went up to her room and started to recall the events of that evening. Out of the blue, she remembered the usher greeting her when she had left to go to the president´s house. He clearly said that her red outfit was lovely. Before going there, she had been hypnotized, therefore, the colors had been removed from her memory. She wouldn´t have made the connection that he could see that she was wearing a red outfit. She didn´t even know that she was wearing red. But now that she was back to normal, all the pieces to the puzzle were falling into place. She needed to figure out a way how he could help her.

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Gray – Part 4

 

(Make sure you read the previous parts 😊)

 

“Good evening young lady! The minister was right when he said you were a sight for sore eyes”.

A shiver ran up her spine when he spoke. His voice was creepy, squeaky, and reached a high tone whenever he was contradicted. He was horrendously dressed wearing a beige suit in addition to a yellow shirt with a green tie. Beige suits in the corporate world used to represent that the person did not have courage or was not bold, usually dark colored suits conveyed a good work ethic - used to because nowadays everything was gray. She wanted to vomit as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He was known to throwing out these kinds of sexist comments, but she took a deep breath and prepared her initial address.

“Why, thank you Sir that is incredibly kind of you. I'm very delighted to be here and grateful that you are taking some time to listen to my ideas which I think will benefit your future campaigns”.

“The minister filled me in a little bit about what your targets are, but the night is young, let's enjoy it. I would like you to follow me to the dining room where I have asked my servants to prepare a nice meal and we can talk about it over a glass of wine or two or three”. He let out a mischievous laugh.

Oh, how she wished she had her cell phone to record all these comments. Honestly, she wanted to get up and run as far away as she could – perhaps to the nearest country. It was still a mystery to her, how people still believed that he was a good leader even though it had been proved that he was a sexist and treated women in an uncanny way. It was a true mind boggler. Some of her closest friends ( she was trying not to be so close any longer) were included in this survey of these believers and followers.

“Oh, you didn't have to go to all that trouble. I don't want to take up a lot of your time”.

“No trouble whatsoever. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas. As a matter of fact, I do need help with my future campaigns. Rumor has it that I have not been so popular lately”.

Rumor? It was more like facts. Although the newspapers were not up front with everything this person standing before her had done, there were still some true reporters out there who were able to publish everything in the underground news. There had to be an underground news so that people could rise and fight for their rights- so much was at loss. This creature standing before her not only maltreated women, stole money from the public system, assassinated education and abolished freedom of speech but also had people murdered. The time was now. something had to be done. He could not be reelected. These almost four years had already been a treacherous long time. The saying goes: time flies when you're having fun, and unfortunately this was not the case. These almost four years have stretched so much that it has felt like this was his second time in the presidential office. She couldn´t take it to any further extent.

“I hope you like shrimp and caviar”.

“I’m sad to say that I'm allergic to seafood, but that isn't a problem. I can keep you company while you have your dinner. I would be delighted”.

“No trouble whatsoever! In a jiffy the cook will come up with something to your liking. What can he make for you?”

“I would like a salad please”.

He called the servant over and had him ask the chef to whip up a salad for the guest who ate no seafood whatsoever. She started to worry because she didn't want to eat or drink anything just to be safe. She didn´t trust the president. He could easily have instructed his staff to drug her. However, she would have to eat and drink now after all of this. It would be extremely discourteous of her if she didn´t and it could make the president suspicious. Definitely, she didn’t want to upset him.

“Just out of curiosity, are you behind in filling out your personal information with the Federal Police? The reason I'm asking is because it didn't mention allergies to seafood however, it does mention your allergies to tomatoes, gluten and lactose”.

Ever since he had won office, everyone in the country had to fill out a ten-page form with all sorts of information. Allergies, family, earnings, and so on. This was done on a semester basis. Those who were illiterate, had to go to the Federal Police Department in their city to do so.

She panicked, “I have received the notification to fill it out but never got round to it. I have been so involved in this project that I would love to share with you. As soon as I get home, I promise to upgrade it”.

“I can see that you are anxious to tell me. Go ahead, please”.

He crossed his hands in a praying position and placed them under his chin holding it up. Meanwhile, the help started serving the wine. White, red, rose, or green. Wine had different hues, each one had a particular taste, in the gray world, this fact had slipped her mind. Was color connected to memory? This was a question for a later reflection. She chose green.

“Sir, I believe that it would benefit the society to write an article about the vanishing technique of the colors”.

“Why would I reveal my ideas and techniques?”

“Hear me out, please. In this article we can make people believe that to live in a gray world is easier. There is no fuss about how to coordinate clothes, there is equality in society because everyone would look the same. Additionally, it is great for the economy”.

“Great for the economy? How so?”

She knew that talking about how he could make more money would help in her plan.

“People are suffering from depression due to the lack of color. This makes them go to the doctor more. More diseases, more medication, more consultations, and more pharmaceutical creations. All in all, this means more money”.

“I'm starting to like your point of view. but I do not understand how revealing the technique to remove the colors is going to help by campaign. You see I live in color, while the rest of the country doesn't”.

“You mean that you and I can see color at this moment, but your servants cannot?”

“Precisely”.

“So, it must be connected to the counting and that voice. I was under the impression that it had to do with this building”.

“All in due time. Let's eat our meal and then depending on how the dessert goes, I might let the cat out of the bag”. The wicked laugh again.

This wasn´t going to be an effortless task. He was as hard as a tortoise shell to penetrate. But she had a high IQ, compared to him, and her thought-machine was trying to focus on the meal, small talk, in addition to the events adding up to this moment. Furthermore, she started to worry about what exactly he meant by ‘how dessert goes”. Once again, a shiver ran up her spine and it was hard to keep her food down. Similarly, she wondered how the servant knew which wine was green. All the bottles looked the same. Maybe it was written on the label. She wanted to ask but pondered whether they knew that the two of them could see colors or they were just trained that way. Perhaps, the one serving the wine had discovered the trick to seeing colors.

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Gray- Part 3

 

(Read parts 1 and 2 before you read this one 😊)

The room she was waiting in was one hue of gray. It seemed like the floor, the walls and the ceiling were painted the same color and had a smooth texture to it.  While she was feeling the wall to her left, the floor split into two, as if it were a flap, and a chair was raised. A clear, loud familiar voice told her to sit on the chair and wait for further instructions. What was she getting herself into? It was a point of no return. Despite her inner panic, she did as was requested.

Her mind went back to when she had woken up that one morning and as soon as she opened her eyes, all colors were gone. She remembered that she had gone to a party at the editing company to celebrate the new titles for that semester. The company used to throw these parties to celebrate those writers whose ideas had been accepted by the government and it was always a grand bash. She remembered getting home late, falling asleep watching tv and waking up the next day, poof, no colors. It had felt like so long ago, as a consequence she was having a hard time remembering what colors looked like. It didn´t make any sense to say that the sky was blue because nowadays it was either a light shade of gray or a darker one. She knew which fruit was which due to shape and texture, as a matter of fact, that wasn´t hard at all for anyone who was an observer. Bananas used to be yellow, pears a light green and so on. But how about roses? How did people know which one was which? How about color coordination of clothing? How did she know if she was wearing a matching outfit? She just didn´t. Nobody did. This bothered her deeply because she worried about the future generations and how much they were missing out on. If you think about it, they won´t be missing out on much since they never had it. They say that when you lose one of your senses, the others become stronger. Here it wasn´t a sense that had been lost, but just colors. Just colors? Her brain was on a run and to her relief, her thoughts were interrupted.

“You are going to close your eyes and I will count from ten to one. After this slowly open them and try to avoid closing them again”. She couldn´t place a finger on where she had heard that voice before. It wasn´t the president, nor the minister not even the butler, nonetheless she had heard it and she was sure about it. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Now, slowly open your eyes”. She did just that. Slowly she opened her eyes and she couldn´t believe what she saw. Color.

The first thing she looked at was herself. She had on a red pantsuit and red shoes, at least her clothes were matching her shoes. The whole room was white. She wanted so badly to close her eyes again to see if it were true or it would go away, but she remembered what the voice had said. The sight pained her eyes. She was a strong woman and made believe that it did not ache her at all. It felt as if she had been in a pitch-dark cave and then all of a sudden out in the sun. She was tempted to smile, colors brought happiness to the mind. Her head started to fill up with questions. She wanted to write them down to help her figure things out. Was this only here at the president´s house? Was he the one controlling the whole situation? How was it done? Is there a connection between the voice and the counting? But she had nothing to write on.

“Please, stand and walk into the next room. Take a seat and your Highness will be with you shortly”.

Your highness? She wanted to burst out laughing. He wasn´t the king of the country, he was just the president whom, at this point, she was not certain whether he had been elected fairly and democratically anyway. Ok but that was a whole different story. One story at a time. Today she was going to focus on colors.

The wall in front of her opened and led to a fantastically elegant colorful room. It seemed to be a library. So many books all organized according to color. On one shelf the books in blue covers, on another red covers, on another green covers, even purple ones (she had forgotten how passionate she felt about the color purple) and so on. So many shelves. So beautiful to look at. The fact that most of those books had been removed from the country did not affect her. She had read many of them and she knew that the government had destroyed millions of books prior to the disappearance of the colors. This had bothered her for many years until she and a group of writers had decided that they would retell the stories they had read even though they could not write about those topics, especially stories about the past to whoever wanted to hear these stories. Nonetheless, it was done in secret meeting places and if found, the storyteller would simply vanish. (Once again, a whole different story- focus). Marveled by all those colors, she decided that she would sit in a multicolored armchair. It was quite comfortable.

As she looked at the colors, she tried her very best to memorize them so she would be able to describe them to her friends and family as soon as she left this place. That is, if she left this place alive. Focus was a must now. Breathe. Stay focused. Remember the plan. Use your charm. Her self-talk was working.

The mahogany door between two gigantic  bookshelves opened and in he walked standing tall- the president. She wanted to throw up. How she despised this man!

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Gray - Part 2

 

(Read part 1 before you read this part 😊)

That same afternoon her phone rang, and it was the minister of ideas saying that he had her answer and that he would be waiting for her in the coffee shop of the hotel she was staying at. She did not feel comfortable that he knew which hotel she was staying at and that he wanted to meet there. Deep down inside she knew he was a shrewd man and that perhaps she would pay a high price for the information. Nevertheless, she also knew that he was a married man and two could play some tricks. She decided that she would record the conversation without his knowing and that depending on the proposition she could use it on her behalf in the future.

Dressed in a beautiful pantsuit, she waited in the coffee shop. She had to set up her recorder in a proper place. He arrived on time for the meeting. She started to sweat nervously. “Good afternoon, miss. You look splendid”. “Thank you” she answered as she shook his hand. He held it a bit longer than she would have liked and although she wanted to pull it away, she did not. “I hope you have good news for me, Minister”.

“My yes, straight to the point, then. The president would like to meet with you himself to explain the process of how the grayness works. He believes a well written article will help him become reelected next year. He said he would be free this evening”. She nodded gracefully as he spoke. “He asks you to come alone and be discreet”. Her heart froze. It sounded like she was heading for a trap. “Nine o´clock in his office. A driver will be sent to pick you up at 8:45 and he will show you to the office if that is ok with you”.

She agreed. Her mind rushed as she thought of what she could do to make sure that some one knew what was happening to her and where she would be. If she just called her best friend and left the phone on, she would be alright. However, phone waves were blocked off at the president´s office so no one could listen to his conversations, so that idea was out. She decided to send her best friend a message from a pay phone.

Firstly, she would need to explain her plans a bit. Since she was a list person, she sat down and started to write one. There were pros and cons. The biggest con being that she could get herself killed since no one would know were she was. But on second thought, if she managed to send this out to someone, one day her bones would be found. She decided to go one with her plans anyway. You only live once and there has to be something left behind for life to not have been lived in pain.

The clock read 8:30, she just needed to touch up on her makeup before heading for the door to wait for the car. She decided to wear a formal pantsuit to make it look like business and not a social affair. Before leaving she decided to send her best friend a code message. She needed to write and message that only her best friend would understand and only her best friend knew what the journal really meant and where it could be found. She wrote: If you do not hear from me within the next few days, there is something for you in my journal. I am sure that you will like it.

 

The beautiful long black car was at her doorstep precisely at 8:45. All of a sudden, she realized that she had not given the minister her address. She had switched hotels since the meeting with the attendant from the Ministry. For sure she was being traced. Only then did it also dawn on her that the man who always attended her was the Minister himself, no wonder people stared at her every time she went to the Ministry of Ideas. She was a step from panicking. She had to keep cool otherwise the whole plan would blow up in her face. She smiled and greeted the drive who was holding the door to the back seat open, but he only nodded in recognition to her greeting- not a word was pronounced. As soon as she sat down, she started to practice her breathing so as not to panic. She tried to open the window for a breath of fresh air, as fresh as it could get due to the fact of the heavy pollution nowadays, but the windows were locked. The drive was keeping a close eye on her and started the AC. She continued her breathing techniques and tried to keep calm and enjoy the ride.

Precisely at 9 pm the car stopped in the car park of the president´s home. She thought she´d be going to his office. It was a huge mansion. It belonged to the president himself. It wasn´t the house that every president lived in while in office. She could only see a small part of it for it was huge, elegantly built and quite inviting to the eyes.

The drive opened the car door for her and held out his hand to help her got out of the car easily, like a true gentleman. She thanked him but he just nodded as an answer. Perhaps he had been instructed to hear, see, and say nothing to those who he had to drive around; well, she really thought he was excellent at his job.  

She stood at the doorway for a few seconds and took a deep breath. Here we go, she said to herself in her mind. You can do this. Just stick to the plan, she repeated several times in her mind as if it were a magic spell that would help protect her in this situation. At the same moment, the negative self-talk started shouting: What were you thinking? You can get killed. Kick off those heals and run. Run without turning back. Another deep breath to shake those thoughts off.

“This way miss” said the butler who opened the dark gray front door. The mansion as a lighter shade of gray. She tried to move but she seemed to be glued to the ground. She had to command her legs to walk. Slowly and steadily, she managed.

“Please allow me to take your jacket and purse. You may wait here and soon you will be let into the main living area. This procedure will take a few minutes so that your eyes may acclimate”.  

Acclimate to what? What was about to happen to her? Maybe they were going to inject something in her eyes that when she left her mind would be wiped clear. She wanted to question the butler, but she took a deep breath, just nodded, and agreed to what was to come. At this point she was grateful that she had been taking those Yoga classes.

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Gray - Part 1

 

Everything was gray - the sky, the trees, the buildings, and the people. Nothing was as it used to be. Rumors mentioned that the disgraceful government had found a way to do that either by coming up with a gadget that would cover up and/or remove the color from objects and people. After all, depressed people are easier to govern.

Leaving the house was not a big deal because not only could you not see colors outside, but you could not see them inside either. As a result, some people believed that something had been added to the water and the more you drank it the more the colors turned into gray. It was not all one shade of gray, there were many shades, but it still did not help. The human spirit seemed depressed, and people just walked around like zombies until their time ended. More and more people started to forget what the world seemed like with colors.

That morning she left the house with an objective, she was going to find out a way to make a difference. She was set out to break the barrier that made everything gray. The young girl could not stand to see how much everybody was suffering although some people went on about their lives as if nothing had changed. However, one thing had changed nobody smiled. To her this was torture because she was a smiley person. However, each day she noticed that she was losing her smile. For her, the smile came for the inside out and not the other way around. It was something that contaminated others. When you smile at someone, it is very hard for the person not to smile back at you. Nonetheless, these days, more and more people could not force themselves to smile back. This upset her deeply.

She got on the train that would take her to the airport. She wanted to go to the government headquarters and ask a couple of questions. Since she was a well-known writer, it would be easy to get into the building. For the past three years whenever you wanted to write something new, you had to go and communicate it to the ministry of ideas that the president had founded along with so many useless others. (Just a note here. When we talk about the president of a country, the P should be capitalized. But in this story a small case P will be used to show disapproval).

The ministry of ideas was an ugly building filled with manuscripts and rows of desks with people who would read them and decide whether those ideas could be published. It went all the way from a simple newspaper article to a grand novel; no idea would be published, put out or communicated without having gone through this process. If you were in a hurry, it was best to do it in person, otherwise it would sit there waiting for someone to examine it. You can already guess that news reports were always coming out late; except if it was an announcement from the president himself. When you picked up a paper to read or a program to watch it was old news.

She had a wonderful idea of writing about how everything was splendidly gray. Through her eyes she wanted to make people appreciate what the government had brilliantly done and for this she needed to investigate what had happened, therefore report the facts and not something that came from people's imagination.

Every time she went there, she was always greeted by the same man who would listen to her ideas with a puckish look on his face. In the back of her mind, she always imagined that this man had a crush on her because no matter who she asked to speak to, it was always he who had the time and listened to her attentively. Perhaps luck was on her side because if he were interested in her, she would use this to her advantage.

He was always very cordial, but unlike the rest of the people who never smiled, he did. Although she wanted to, she couldn't it was as if her body were being controlled by this power. “Good morning miss” his head forward. “Good morning, thank you so much for having me here this morning. I have a great idea that I would like to write about and I am positive that the president would be very pleased and earn recognition from it”. “Come to my office” he opened the door and let her in “Please, make yourself comfortable”, he said as he held the chair for her to sit down.

The office is not even worth describing because there was a gray sofa, a gray desk, a couple of gray chairs and to be honest everything looked like the same shade of gray. He stood out a bit because his suit was in a darker shade. “Can I get you anything to drink?” “Just a glass of water, please” then she thought of the water conspiracy so she changed her mind and asked for coffee that way whatever was in the water could have been modified by the hot water coffee was prepared in. “Coffee, please”.

His secretary brought in some coffee and by the shade of her hair which was a lighter shade of grey the writer knew that she was a blonde, very much like her hair as far as she could remember.

“So, miss, what can I do to help you today”? he cordially asked.

She needed to put her ideas out to make him believe that she really thought that the idea of removing color from everything, and everyone was a great move for the government and very beneficial to the people.

“I thought of incorporating this idea of turning everything into gray in my next novel and there are so many treachery ideas of how the government is doing this. However, I would like to tell the truth and I think it would benefit the government”. As the words left her mouth. Her heart was telling her that she had failed.

“I would have to run this by the president before I can give you an answer because it does involve his approval. After all it is a secret and if people found out about it, they might want to change things”.

“I totally understand but imagine how much publicity he would get, and people would appreciate it more.  I'll be in town for a few days do you think that you will have an answer before I leave?” she kept her fingers crossed.

“Certainly, if you just allow me to have a number where you can be reached, I'll get in touch with you the latest by tomorrow afternoon perhaps we could meet for a drink”.

She did not want to meet with him for a drink but felt that it would be her duty to do so. She agreed to it and before leaving told him that she was looking forward to his call.

Back in her hotel room she started to write down what she had noticed in these past three years since the color had been removed from everything and everyone. She was having a tough time herself describing the colors and how these colors made her feel, trying to empower her article so that she could have more allies in destroying whatever was allowing this to happen- mainly the president. Gray has so many shades. It promotes social equality. Her stomach was turning as she was writing, but it had to be convincing enough for the president to allow her to see how it was done.

Written: June 20, 2021 ( there are several parts)

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