The Last Scale - Chapter I

Tereza Končelová

They were here. All around. They called themselves scientists. I didn't understand the word scientist, I didn't know what it meant. After all, it's the word from their language. I did nothing but conveyed it in order to give my fears some name, a specific form. I kept telling myself that it could turn them into something less frightening. At times that knowledge helped me to stay conscious.

So, as I have already seen, I could imitate the speech of the scientists, but still I could barely control it, understand it. Thanks to their frequent wards, I connected the dots on and off, learned new names. It was the only painless distraction I could afford. When I tried to repeat something for them aloud for the first time, it impressed them. I could see the delight of pleasure in their faces, as if it was their little win, their efforts. I wasn't going to give it to them again. Most of these words didn't tell me anything anyway, they didn't help me explain my situation. Why shouldn't I keep them to myself? Thus I remained trapped, not only inside the glass and clear water, but also in the veil of passive ignorance.

Most scientists were cloaked in long, white starched fabrics. Therefore I began to call them simply the Whites in my mind. However, occasionally some different people accompanied them - and they showed themselves in variations of clothing with less irritating appearance. Nor they did not seem kind, but their reproachful looks did not point to me. They were angry with my scientists, I felt it. The animosity that prevailed between them and the Whites. As if they wanted to... Help me. If only they could do something against such superiority of that white freaks. It wasn't good to grab stalks in my situation, to make fleeting hopes. They are all of the same family. I was convinced that everyone had wanted to hurt me. Every single one of them.

The Whites watched me from under their glasses, noting something in the thick bundles of paper they called jotters, and sometimes waving a kind of square device in front of them. It was scary, namely because it only had one eye. The eye was black and motionless, right in the middle of a strange, clicking box, and it´s hostile gaze fixed on me whenever they pulled it out. At that moment, a snap of scattered white glow swallowed up everything around. It confused me, caused anxiety and fear. I wasn't happy when the scientists came along with this device. But in fact it was the least dangerous of those with whom they kept visiting me.