The Watch – Part 241:

(Tom’s perspective)

I was laying in the same room as I was before, but the bed couldn’t be more uncomfortable. It was just a slab of wood, and I was tied to it. My arms were above my head and my feet were separated at the other end, slowly losing feeling as the rope dug into my ankles. Things were attached to my head and wires were protruding from them, leading to a computer screen that was showing nothing but static. A man was standing beside it, holding a clipboard, analysing what data he has, without acknowledging that I was even there.

That intense dream left me covered in sweat, my heart beat racing and I was out of breath. I am scared. I don’t know what is going on. I thought that I wasn’t in a dream, but then I found myself in a dream, a horrible, disturbing, soul shaking dream that is still burned in my mind’s eye. All I can see in front of me is the bodies of my three best friends laying on the floor.

‘Welcome, Tom,’ Dr Amanda’s voice said, her voice sounding colder and tougher than her dream counterpart. I snapped my head to where she was standing.

‘What did you do to me?’ I demanded, my throat stinging.

‘We did what was necessary. We didn’t know who you were, so we took the necessary measures to make you give us any bits of information we wanted. Your uncomfortableness is merely a side-effect to your treatment, but we had to do what we had to do, I’m afraid to say,’ she explained, blankly.

‘Have I been in a dream all this time?’ I asked. She looked me in the eyes. I wanted to look away, but I forced to look back. Her eyes were deep, cold, dark, and told me that she would do anything to get what she wants. She didn’t answer my question. Instead, she said with her soft, cold voice that sent shivers down my spine.

‘We didn’t get all of what I want. Your body is immune to our chemicals, and the more we gave you to make them defeat your immune system, the more if fort back and it created, from what we saw on the monitor, a hellish nightmare.’

You will pay for this.

‘Yes, your friend, Sebastian,’ how does she know that name? I never mentioned that name during our interviews in the dream, ‘is coming to get you. And from what you’ve told us, we had better not stand in his way.’ You got that right. You won’t know what hit you by the time he’s finished with you. ‘Tell me,’ she continued, ‘if he is as powerful as you think he is, then why hasn’t he come and got you sooner?’

‘Don’t you dare play mind games with me, I know what you are doing.’ I tried to break free from my bonds, but they were tied so tightly, all I succeeded in doing was giving myself a very painful cramp in my arm and leg. I winched as my muscles fought to contract. When they eventually settled down, my heart beat was now so much faster. I feel so much weaker.

‘We have so many questions to ask you,’ she said, ‘we just have to find another way to make you tell us the answers.’

‘Do what you want to me, I won’t tell you anything.’

‘Yes, knowing that we are going to try will make your mental defences that much stronger, but, you know that if you don’t know that you are being affected by something, you’ll tell us anything, if you think it will help you get out of here sooner.’

And that was all that she said before she nodded to the man holding the clipboard who put it to one side and walked over to me. He untied the bonds. But he wasn’t untying my bonds. He was only releasing my hands from the board. They were still tied together via a thick piece of rope. I could still attack them. But I am too weak.

That is what they knew. That is why they are confident about releasing the bonds: I am simply too weak to do anything. I nearly fell to my knees, but I stayed firm. I was not going to show Dr Amanda that I was not going to go down easily. I looked her in the eye as I struggled to remain upright, but never falling all the way. If she was reacting in any way, she wasn’t showing it. Instead, she just looked back and watched as I was being dragged out of the room, and probably, to a cell where I would remain for an unknown amount of time before being called back and experimented on once more.

‘One more thing, Tom,’ Dr Amanda said to my back, ‘when we first injected you with the chemicals, you had a hard time breathing.’

That can only mean one thing. From the very beginning, from the moment that I woke up in the alleyway, I was dreaming, being held here, experimented on… No, that doesn’t make any sense. I know that was real. I know that was a dream. It was just too real, even for a realistic-feeling dream. But, was it the chemicals playing havoc with my body? Was talking to Alex fake. Was it all meaningless? Did all her encouragement mean nothing? It must have.

No, I refuse to let her play games with my mind. I know what was real and what wasn’t. But this feels real. I know this is real because I am feeling pain and I am weak. Was I feeling before? I was feeling many emotions, so many emotions in fact that I can’t believe that it wasn’t real. Even for a dream, that was just too real. It was real

…?

My head was dangling as I was dragged from the room to the cell, so I didn’t notice where I was being taken, but the floor did look familiar. At least I am in the same building as my dream-counterpart. I heard the sound of heavy metal being slid across, and then I was pushed forward. I lost my balance and went headfirst on to the floor. The door was shut; I was locked in.

I forced myself into a much better position, but I remained sitting on the floor, too weak to move. I was breathing heavily still.

That’s when I heard soft whimpering in the dark room. I lifted my head as far as I could. I wanted to call out, but no voice came.

‘Help,’ the voice said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: Moulin Rouge (2001)

WARNING SPOILERS

This iconic film musical is set around a nightclub come theatre, with the world renowned symbol of the windmill in 1899/1900. It starts when it is 1900 and we see the film’s story starting in 1899. This is very well done as a flashback.

The film captures the artistic temperament, like the diva type bickering between the female dancers/performers.

It is clever how they incorporate song lyrics as the script, it really works, proving this is indeed a musical whether there is music or not, or if the actors are singing or not as well.

The soundtrack is well done and modern for the era. It fits if a little busy and sometimes full on.

Some of the camera work is a bit blurry, but because of the quickness of the scene changes, I don’t think this can be helped and it also adds to the smoothness in the flow of the film.

The film gets a bit silly during the poetry reading, but quickly becomes beautiful, with Christian (Ewan McGregor) sings Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ to Satine (Nicole Kidman)

There are some scenes that are so quick and busy, you have to really watch carefully to keep up with what is going on.

The film has a dark side with Satine being ill and also cannot be seen with Christian by The Duke (Richard Roxburgh). The Deeds of the Moulin Rouge is at stake.

In this film there is a strange mix of unlikely characters singing what can be seen as out of character songs, like when Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) sings the Madonna song ‘Like a Virgin’, but it works for what the film is trying to get across in the storyline.

When the film takes a dramatic turn, with the music, the effect is brilliant. Satine learns the truth, it is sad to see, but it is in keeping with the situation in the film.

At one point I thought ‘surely The Duke must now have seen enough to accept Satine loves Christian’, but no this is not the case, however, the show still went on as planned, with a slight diversion. The curtain falls and Christian soon learns, he must go on without Satine, with so much to give in the form of the story about love.

If you get a chance to go to Paris, you can visit the Moulin Rouge it is situated in the Montmartre, (which is mentioned in the film) in the north of the city. It is on the corner of the Boulevard de Clichy and Rue Lepic. One way you can get to it is using the Metro on Line 2 and getting off at Blanche. Walking up the steps at the exit, you can’t miss it. The Moulin Rouge.

Jerry's Journal: Helping mum

When mum was getting ready for bed, Jerry wanted to help make sure the bed was ready. 

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Film of the Week: Black Panther

There was a lot of excitement building during the weeks leading up to the release of Black Panther, but instead of the film being crushed under the pressure of a lot of hype, it lives up to expectations and wins over critics and fans alike.

The character was first introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) wasn’t out of place and helped move the story along. During his first solo movie, after the events of Civil War, we see Black Panther becoming king of Wakanda. Whilst we’ve already seen him under the alias of Black Panther, this solo film is still technically an origin story, as he needs to attend the ceremony to officially make him recognised as Black Panther.

There are a few moments that are replications of previous Marvel movies, including the main antagonist having a version of the same suit as the main character, and where it appears he’s dead after a big fight, but isn’t. However, even those points would normally be associated with the negative side of a film, Black Panther’s uniqueness outshines any negativity this film has. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film.

The car chase sequence was incredibly entertaining, mainly due to the original spin it inputted. It’s still a car chasing another car, but with other elements involved, including Shuri (Letitla Wright) driving the car from Wakanda via a holographic simulation system, increasing the enjoyment factor that much more.

With every Marvel movie, there are plenty of laughs. Thor: Ragnarok had the most and best laughs of all the films. Of course with each film there’s a different tone, but I had wondered if it was going to be difficult to follow up on the laughs with Black Panther without ruining the film. I was delighted that they followed up with a highly funny moment. One particular moment had me, and everyone else laughing in my cinema seat for a good couple of minutes’ afterward. That one moment easily makes Black Panther stand out from the crowd with its laughs, and is on par with what was the funniest movie of the entire series – Thor Ragnarok.

There has been no confirmation whether there will be a sequel. Most characters in the series, mainly the main ones, have a three film story arc. It would be nice and interesting to see where they take Black Panther next, and what enemies will be popping up and how they test him. At the moment, Marvel’s focus is purely on Infinity War, so I don’t expect any news about Black Panther for a good while, maybe even a few years’ down the line. However, with Marvel’s trust still incredibly high, if they decide to do a sequel, I am confident is saying it will be just as good as the first, if not, better.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 240:

(Tom’s perspective)

I backed out of the room, the image of what I just saw still burned on my retinas. I’ve lost all sense of direction. Which way did I come from?

I turn around and see a sliver of light in front of me. My only option is to follow the light. And that is exactly what I did. I walk instead of run because I don’t want to shake my stomach about too much.

A figure. Human-like. Running from left to right. I stop in my tracks, studying the end of the corridor, waiting, expecting it to happen again. I don’t want to call out just in case it comes after me, but if I don’t call out, then I could be missing an opportunity to have someone lead me out of here. It doesn’t pass by again. By now, they or it would be long gone. All I can do now is continue forward.

Reaching the end of the corridor, it’s bathed in glorious light. Once again, I can see where I’m going, even though it might as well be dark considering I still don’t have a clue where I need to go to reach the exit. Left or right? Does it matter? No.

Left.

This corridor is a lot longer than all the others before it, but still as horrific. I forced myself not to focus on the details and walk forward as fast as I can without breaking into a run: My stomach still needs to settle.

I see something in front of me. A heap of something. Oh, I really hope it isn’t what my brain is telling me it is. But, the closer I got to it, more right my brain became. Four bodies piled on top of one another, stretching from one end of the corridor to another. The only way to continue is to step over the top of them. I forced myself further forwards. The incredibly potent smell painted my nostrils, causing me to gag. With as much mind power I could muster, I forced myself not to hurl. I want to turn back, but where else is there to go except all the way back. No, I’ve come this far, I will not turn back.

The closer I got, the stronger the smell and the scene became. All four bodies were drenched in blood, and was twisted into unnatural positions, as if someone had deliberately put them there. Two were face down, and two were staring upwards. Their cold, dead eyes staring up at me as I reached over the top with my foot, trying with all my might not to lose balance as I searched for the ground on the other side. Finally, my foot hit solid ground, and I was stable. All I had to do now was push myself forward, lifting up my other leg and over, and then I would be able to continue, never looking back.

1, 2, 3, lift. Swinging my foot up and over, I was about to make it. But then, soul-shaking screaming echoed throughout the corridor, making me jump, nearly losing my balance, but I stayed firm and I was able to complete the crossover and soon I was standing on the other side. Then the deafening scream boomed all along the corridor once more. I turned a full circle as I searched for who it was, and it shook me right to the core when I discovered that it was one of the people, a woman, who laying face up on the floor. She was laying there, dead, but she was screaming. I couldn’t take it anymore. That was the final straw.

I turned back around and I ran. I ran as fast as I could, without looking back, without looking where I was going, without caring where I was going to end up. I had to get away from that place.

I came to a natural stop in some room. It was large, round, and full of many, many monitors. Some of them were on and showing various different versions of graphs, and other such data that I just couldn’t wrap my head around now. But, on some of them, were a series of letters.

D-R-E-A-M-I-N-G.

YOU ARE DREAMING.

Of course I am.

‘Hey, Tom,’ a familiar voice said behind me, making me jump again. I turned around. Alex was standing in the doorway. She was smiling. Was she here to rescue me?

‘I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see you,’ I said.

But then it went south very quickly. In one solid movement, she lifted up a blunt blade which sat firmly in her hand, brought it to her neck and… I closed my eyes.

‘I love you, Tom,’ she said, demonically, still smiling. I opened them ever so slightly and saw her fell on the floor, limp.

‘What’s wrong,’ Sebastian said. His wrists were slit, ‘are you scared that I won’t rescue you. Oh, dear, isn’t that a problem,’ and he too fell to the floor. I don’t want to watch this.

Amy’s laughter echoed throughout the room. If the message says that I am dreaming, then this isn’t real.

‘You keep telling yourself that,’ Amy chuckled fiendishly. ‘You keep telling yourself that,’ and then she picked up the same knife Alex used and slowly moved it to her eyes. I turned my back, unable to run due to fear draining all my energy. This is disturbing. This is sick. Why am I dreaming this? What the hell is happening to me? I want answers and I want them now.

‘He’s fighting it. We can’t keep him under for long,’ the man’s voice said.

‘We must, we haven’t gotten all the answers yet,’ Dr Amanda’s voice ordered.

What’s happening? Please, I don’t want to stay here any longer. I want to get out of here. Please, somebody, anybody, Sebastian, come and take me from here. Please.

And then I opened my eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 239:

(Tom’s perspective)

The walls were dripping with thick red blood. A shockwave of intense power soared through my body, tightening up my muscles, making me rigid, unable to move. What’s happening? A strong acidic smell forced its way up my nose, making me gag. I didn’t have to ask where that was coming from as the floor below me flooded with a mixture of vomit and blood. I had to get out of here.

I stood up and prepared myself to shout the place down until someone came to let me out, but there was no need: The door was unlocked and swinging precariously on its hinges. I didn’t stop to ask questions, I dived out of the cell. The lingering smell of the cell’s floor continued to force its way up my nose. Surely, the further I step away, the clearer the air would become.

I felt sick, dizzy with shock. But before I could start asking questions, the back of my foot collided with something soft. Once again, my body froze. My heart was beating rapidly, I was out of breath from being so scared, but I forced myself to look at what I had hit. I don’t know why I did, but I did, and I instantly regretted it. There, laying on the floor, his body contorted in an unnatural manner; a stranger, covered in blood, the shocked expression still etched on his face. Whatever had killed him, he was able to see it. I don’t know what’s worse. Not seeing what kills you or seeing what kills you.

Something must have broken out of its cell, but how come I didn’t notice anything. Did my headache render me completely unconscious to the world? I thought I had my eyes shut for only a few minutes. I guess not.

I looked ahead and saw the door leading to the many corridors that I had walked down earlier was open. If I can get out of here, I might be able to run away.

‘He’s having an allergic reaction to the chemicals.’

What was that? Who said that? It was a man’s voice. Maybe they’ll be able to help me. Why haven’t they noticed what’s going on here. My curiosity to find out the answers is being knocked off its podium and is being replaced with the sensation of just-wanting-to-run. I don’t care about what’s going on, I just want to get out of here.

I dived through the door. The corridor was no better than the room I was just in. The walls were covered with blood. Parallel lines ran right the way down from one end to the other, as if something dragged its claws all along the walls. Whatever caused this is at the other end somewhere. Is this the only way out? I don’t know. I don’t even know where the exit is. All I know of this place is the corridors I walked down when I woke up so many hours ago. I have to risk it. I have no other choice.

I ran as fast as my shaking legs would carry me to the other end. I came to a T-junction. Do I go right or do I go left? I have no idea and I have a feeling that no matter where I go, I’m going to meet whatever did this. I just have to pick.

Right.

I turned on the spot and ran down the right hand corridor. Another T-junction. All the lights are out, plunging me and the rest of this place in absolute darkness. Do I turn back? I think that’s the best option. I don’t like the look of the odds of what’s in front of me. I spun a 180 and ran back to the first T-junction and carried onwards, down the left side.

Yet another T-junction. The lights are flickering, but they aren’t completely off. It may not be the best, but it’s better than no light at all. When I turned to the right, I saw something on the wall. Massive capital letters written in blood. The flickering lights made it harder to focus, but when I read the word, it shook me so much more than anything else has done before.

YOU.

I don’t want to question it. I just want to get out of here. Whatever has done this obviously wants to send someone a message and I will not stay to figure it out.

‘Is there any way to stabilise him?’ A woman’s voice. I recognise that voice. That’s the voice of Dr Amanda. What’s going on here?

I ran down the corridor opposite to the writing, figuring that’s the best place to go. The flickering lights played havoc on my sense of depth and direction. Was I getting any closer to the end or not? But my legs carried me forward, not caring, just wanting to reach the end and leave this place once and for all.

Then I came to the end. No, I came to a room. The lights were off. There was no way I was going in there. I had better keep moving forward. But then the lights turned on, for a fraction of a second, but the scene that I was presented to me turned that second into minutes.

Bodies everywhere. A woman sitting in the chair opposite me: Dr Amanda, her head was tilt back and her arms were dangling beside the chair. A man laying against the table leg, his head was split in two, bits of blood and brain dripping on the floor. The smell was atrocious. I turned my head away, only to be confronted with two more bodies. One was laying against the wall, his head forcing his body forward. He had no arms, and his legs were cut to shreds. Beside the man was another woman, she had no legs, and her arms were cut to shreds.

And when I looked up, I saw another word.

ARE.

Then the light went out, and I was once again standing in complete darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

Mum's Monday: A Week in Paris by Rachel Hore

This book starts off as an ordinary story, only to become strange, when Fay, as a school pupil, in her reaction to the bell ringing in the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Next it suddenly changes direction with Fay’s mother Kitty in a hospital back in England, continuing to suffer from a breakdown. This maybe the result of keeping information from Fay about her past as well as losing her husband, Fay’s father during the war.

Fay is an adult now and is going back to Paris to play in an orchestra, Kitty has a change of heart and tells Fay where she can find something that will help with Fay finding out what Kitty is trying to hide, or keep to herself. Although it isn’t easy to admit things, Fay has a right to know something if it is for her benefit. I wanted to read on, to find if it was, or not.

If Fay learning the truth, makes Kitty feel better and aids her recovery, it can only be a good thing, however, it depends on what Fay finds out and how it will affect in the long run.

Flash back chapters gives in depth views of Kitty’s time in Paris. Chapter 8, although a bit long, the chapter seems rushed and the character Serge Ramond, in this chapter just appears only to disappear and only to reappear at the end, the story of this character becomes clearer near the end of the book, but to start with there seems no reason for this character to be in the book. Again this kept me reading this book to find out more.

In this chapter 8 Kitty’s life has moved on, so fast, I know sometimes in reality, life for some people does move on at a fast pace, but this chapter could’ve been split in 2 and would still work.

This book is well written, describing Fay’s reactions to situations that are trigging memories from her unknown past. She is, also beginning to have more faith in Adam, which is nice to see him being very supportive, written in a realistic way, and not over the top.

In chapter 11 the writing is so well done to portray the realistic emotion of the past. It is good to see Nathalie has doubts about telling Fay her back-ground story, but when Fay’s mother Kitty hasn’t, it is unfortunately left up to Nathalie, although she hasn’t spoken to Kitty in years.

This book is very well researched, it gives us an insight into the beginning and during world war 2, whilst living in another city in another country, Paris, France as opposed to London England.

With each chapter I became more and more intrigued, Fay was quickly finding out about her past, but is it all the truth? We find out yes and no, but how much can Fay, being only 4 years old, be blamed for what happened? I am pleased how it turned out for Fay. After what happened, a split second decision made by Nathalie, when she was sister Therese, that is rationalised afterwards as a bad call causes the rift between Kitty and Nathalie, we know what the future holds as Fay is with Kitty, but again I wanted to read on to see how it all worked out for all of them.

 I think it is a good idea for Kitty to return to Paris with Fay, to lay ghosts to rest and to get to know the new chapter in Fay’s life.

Jerry's Journal: New Collar

After much use, his collar has worn out. 

Yesterday, we went to Pets at Home where we got him a brand new collar. He loves it, but he loves his denta stick more.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 238:

(Tom’s perspective)

I found myself, once again, being escorted back to my cell. I think my requests were reasonable. Granted, a couple may be a bit imbalanced, but it’ll defiantly give them something to talk about. I doubt I would be in my cell for very long, the last time was anything to go by, but at least I’ll be able to have a good lie down once more, maybe.

‘If we give him anymore, his immune system may not be able to cope with it.’

What was that?

I looked around to try and spot who might have said that, but the only person who I can see is Peter walking in front of me. I wanted to ask if he had said anything, but I just know that he didn’t. I have no idea what is going on in this place, so anyone could have said it. All I can do is accept it and move on because the chances of finding out who actually said that is pretty much slim to none.

Once at the cell, Peter unlocked the door, slid it across and let me walk inside, and as soon as I did, he slid it shut once more, locking me in. He then turned on the balls of his heels and walked away, leaving me with my thoughts. I fluffed up my pillow and laid down.

And now I wait.

If the last time was anything to go by, I don’t have that long to wait for when Peter comes to collect me again. You know, I’m starting to get a little tired of constantly being ferried from one place to another. Can’t they do all that they want to do in one session. No, I guess that would be easy. This obviously isn’t the first time they’ve had a visitor. It would make things so much simpler. Unless the procedure states that they must discuss each step before advancing to the next one. What do I care anyway?

Without warning or any built up, the most intense headache I’ve ever experienced exploded throughout my head. It kept building and building until it was a full-on migraine, and it continued to intensify until it was something I wished I would never have to feel in my entire life: Cluster Headaches. I could barely think. I curled up in a ball, wishing it to go away, but it didn’t. My eyes starting watering with the amount of pain going through my head – it felt as if it was splitting in two.

What’s happening to me? Why is this happening to me? No matter what positioned I curled up in, nothing helped eased the pain. I tried yelling for some help, but no sound was generated. I’ve never heard of a headache rendering you moot, but then again, I’ve never experienced this before. I don’t understand how this could have happened. I tried backtracking over the last couple of minutes, but all I could think and feel was the headache.

I punched my pillow, trying to ease as much pain as I could, but that didn’t work in the slightest. I hope someone comes to collect me now so that they could help me. I don’t care what they do, I just want this headache to go. Please, this headache needs to go now. I have to get rid of this headache. I can’t bare it any longer. I have to do something. Anything.

I rolled over to my side, slowly getting ready to stand up. The room started to spin, and the more I tried to stand, the faster the room span, until it was too much for my stomach. It couldn’t handle it anymore and I lent forward as far as I could go, letting my stomach empty as much content as it could to try and help me regain some control back to the room, but when I sat back up, the room was only spinning faster as my headache continued to strengthen.

Tears were now streaming down my face, dripping into my lap. I could feel myself losing my grip on consciousness, but I didn’t mind. The longer I’m unconscious, the more time my body has to defeat this headache.

And then, a very strange feeling happened. My head felt both light and heavy at the same time. It was trying to send me to sleep, but at the same time, I was soaring through the clouds.

That strange mixture of feelings plaid havoc with my stomach once more and I was forced to lean over and let my stomach do its business. My throat stung as my stomach’s acid burned it.

I can’t take this anymore. I need help. I can’t…

Help me. Somebody, anybody. Help me.

I closed my eyes, and a miracle started to happen. With my eyes shut, I couldn’t see the room spinning, which settled my stomach, and somehow, calmed my headache down, but only by a bit. I couldn’t believe it. All I had to do was close my eyes and it would disappear. I started to relax my body, allowing any built up pressure to fly away, and my headache to evaporate sluggishly. I no longer felt lightheaded, nor did I feel heavy-headed either. Whatever had happened to me, is slowly passing. I started to smile.

I didn’t have to say anything to know that I was no longer moot. I could talk again. As soon as I’ve fully recovered, I’ll let the first person who comes to collect me know what I’ve just experienced and maybe they’ll be able to tell me what happened. I’ve never felt anything like it before, and I would do anything to prevent it from happening again. Did Dr Amanda inject me with anything? There’s always the possibility. Will she expect me to recover or will she expect something else. Should I confront her? Only if I can guarantee that she won’t do the same thing to me again, and because I can’t, I had better not.

After a while, my headache eventually went away. It was about time to open my eyes.

And when I did… Hell was revealed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

The Watch – Part 237:

(Tom’s perspective)

I found myself back in the interview room.

‘I apologise for calling you back after only a short while, but we have come to what we

feel is a reasonable decision towards hearing out and accepting certain compromises

that you would like to put forward. You put forward your end of the bargain and so we

will put forward ours to level any debt that we have between us. In return, we feel it is

reasonable to ask any more questions we may have in the future. Do you accept

that?’

‘I do.’

‘I said before that we have the right to refuse any and all requests if we deem them

inappropriate for any reason. Do you still accept that?’

‘I do.’ I don’t really have a choice in the matter, anyway.’

‘Once we have made a note of your requests, there will be a brief moment when we

will discuss what we can do and what we cannot do. Depending on what you have put

forward does make the time vary. Do you accept that?’

‘I do.’

‘How many requests would you like to put forward?’

‘Um…’ it was at this moment that I never actually thought about what I would like to

request. I probably should have done. I’ll have to make this up on the spot. That may

make things difficult. The first thing I need to come up with is the number. How many

requests would I like to put forward? Well, I don’t want to say too small a number just

in case I want to request more, and I don’t want to say a too big of a number because

that might put them off and I may not have that many requests in the first place. A

good number would have to be, ‘five.’

‘Five requests,’ Dr Amanda repeated for confirmation.

‘Yes,’ I nodded. She made a note of the number in her notebook. Then, with the pen

ready and waiting, she looked up at me and said.

‘May I take your five requests, please?’

And this is where things gets complicated. I have no idea what I want to say. I know I

made a big commotion about compromises, but who wouldn’t, I guess? I never

actually thought she would agree to discuss it, and when she said that we would, I fell

asleep instead of thinking about what I can ask her. I don’t want to say anything, as

that would be a rather very awkward situation. I have to say at least something. OK,

think rationally, what would I like to request that isn’t too big or too small and is

something that is reasonable. How about; but I doubt Amanda would go through with

it.

‘I would like a tour of your organisation,’ I stated, not asked. Dr Amanda wrote down

what I said to the letter. She didn’t say anything, nor reacted in anyway, just wrote it

down and let me carry on. That didn’t sound reasonable enough. I need something a

little bit more rational. Well, if I’m going to be stuck in a cell for an unknown amount

of time, I might as well make it worthwhile being there.

‘I would like a TV. It doesn’t have to be a big TV, just a TV so that I can watch

something.’ I saw that she only wrote down ‘I would like a TV.’ She understood what I 

meant. OK, three requests left. You can ask for a lot with three requests left, but it’s 

easy to waste them very quickly, so use them wisely. Having a TV in my cell is

probably the better of the two, so if I stick to that level, I might be getting somewhere.

What else can I have as well as a TV? A DVD player? That’s wasteful. And so would a

games console… and a computer. Although, a computer might be handy, actually. I

would be able to do a lot of things with a computer. Ah, but you can also do a lot with

a computer. They won’t give me one for risk of me doing anything that would help me

with my plans in anyway. So a computer is completely out of the question. Come on,

think, Dr Amanda is waiting for my last three requests.

‘I would like to be able to choose what I would like to eat each day. Because I’m from

another universe, certain foods may be different and so I would like to know what is

what?’ The first part makes sense, but the second part doesn’t because I already

know what foods there are on this planet. I was making it up on the spot and I found

myself saying that before I could stop myself.

Two more requests remaining. I can do this. They need to count. What can I say? I

wouldn’t mind a set of DVD’s, but it really would be a waste of a request. Well, I do

have two more. Ah, yes, but once this one is used up, I’ll only have one more, and that

will mean I will have to think of something that is worthy of just one more request.

Why don’t I just make two worthy requests?

‘A set of books to read.’ I’m not sure if that is wasteful or not. I’m not a big reader, but

at the same time, being stuck in a cell with only a TV would make me want to read a

book to break away from the screen from time to time. I think that is a worthy one…

ish.

OK, one last request. Make it count.

I do believe that my first request will not be carried out, so I might have to redeem it.

How about.

If I get a little claustrophobic in my cell, I would like to leave and walk about the place.

You get to choose where I go and who guards me, of course. No, I have a feeling that

they would allow me to do that anyway. Keeping anyone in a confined space for a

prolonged amount of time can break anyone. I need to think of something better.

‘I would like to leave this place every once and a while. You get to choose where I can

go and who must go with me, but I would like to get some fresh air, away from this

organisation for a bit.’ It’s the same as getting out of the cell, but much better.

‘OK,’ Dr Amanda said, ‘I have made a note of all of your requests. If you wouldn’t mind

returning to your cell once more, I will call you back to tell you what we have decided.’

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)