Hemlock

Hemlock

I submerged the plant gently into the lukewarm water and gaped in awe with the light coming through the translucent leaves, for it was probably the last embodiment of beauty that I would ever see. Aside on the table lay its root. I grabbed it and begun to chew. Five minutes were enough for an infusion, one could presume, so I drank it up. I wondered if I were to experience the symptoms that Sōkrátēs described and was waiting for something to happen when a whispered Why reverberated in my mind. Why then:

Enough was enough. I couldn’t bear what the world had become anymore.

It had all started twenty years ago when they set the operation into motion. Despite what the government argued the purpose of it was to turn everyone into well programmed beings, all equal with no original ideas and no thoughts of their own.

First they eliminated all social benefits increasing general vulnerability. Then they advertised what was supposedly the best paid job with less working hours. But little did these people know that they were going to pay with their individuality.

I saw it happen to my next door neighbour. She was a lively girl with aspirations and dreams. Now she’s a listless automaton shuffling along the corridors.

Not long after taking the job she made known that every day before lunch everybody would go to a room to do this so-called passive gymnastics. A harmless device shaped like a helmet was placed above their heads for a whole hour. She also gave out that these sessions were relieving her mind. All her fears and anxieties were fading away. She had no longer thoughts of rebellion. No cravings, no longings. No feelings whatsoever, I would say. Everyone was gradually becoming this way and things started getting out of hand. What was supposed to be something to make people stupidly happy and blindly obedient turn out to be a complete state of stagnation. People contributed less and less and apathy was spreading rapidly, this culminating in people not producing nor procreating. It was a barren land full of empty wombs.

Then it was the constant deaths, for the unresponsiveness was so serious that people starved due to it. The few of us that escaped this slaying of the soul grew weary and lonely. Eventually it became unbearable. Many started taking their lives.

I reckoned Hemlock was a fine choice. I myself also “Refused to recognize the gods recognized by the state”, the gods of nothingness and nihility.

Nereide Ribeiro

Nº 30807