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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