Essay --

Imagine yourself strapped upright in a chair, so tightly that you can move no issue, not even your head. A sort of embroider grips your head from behind, forcing you to look straight in front of you. This place is larger than most of the cells you had been in. alone you hardly notice your surroundings. All you notice is that thither are two small tables straight in front of you, severally covered with green baize. One is and a meter or two from you the other is further away, near the door.For a moment youre just then the door opens and I come in.You asked me once whats in board 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing thats in Room 101 is the rack up thing in the world.The door opens again. A guard comes in, carrying something made of wire, a box or basket of some kind. He sets it down on the further table. Because of the position in which Im standing, you cant see what the thing is.The lash thing in the world varies from individual to i ndividual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where its some quite fiddling thing, not even fatal.You move a little to one side, so that you have a better view of the thing on the table. Its an unsubdivided wire henhouse with a handle on top for carrying it by. obstinate to the front of it is something that looked like a fencing mask, with the concave side outwards. Although it is trey or four meters away from you, you could see that the cage is divided longitudinal into two compartments, and that theres some kind of creature in each. Theyre scorpions.In your case, the worst thing in the world happens to be deathstalker scorpions.A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of youre not certain what, ha... ...ck panic takes hold of you. Youre blind, helpless, mindless.As didactically as ever It was a common punishment in antique Persia.The mask is closing on your face. The wire brushes your cheek. And t hen -- no, its not relief, only hope, a tiny fragment of hope.Youre falling backwards, into enormous depths, away from the scorpions. Youre dummy up strapped in the chair, but youd fallen through and through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, through the oceans, through the atmosphere, into outer space, into the gulfs between the stars -- always away, away, away from the scorpions. Youre light-years distant, but Im lock away standing at your side. Theres still the cold touch of wire against your cheek. But through the darkness that envelopes you, you hear another metallic click, and know that the cage door had clicked shut and not open.Wake up now.