Daughter 4254

Chapter 19

The Official School Archives were in a section of the building I’d never been to before. It was after evening meal on the fifth day of the week when 0203 passed me a note saying she left a map and her pass on her desk. She was studying in the common room at the time. She was serious about protecting herself from the whole mess. I guess you’d have to be to live the kind of double life she  balanced without getting caught.

I made my way through the still crowded corridors. Silence had been reinstated for all students but the soft soles of our government shoes filled the air with a soft kind of shuffling. They also started a series of school wide announcements. Most of them were reminders of new or seldom needed rules and a few were meant to be motivational statements to help us stay focused. I happened to find the latter quite motivating, only not for the reasons they were hoping. The more they reiterated the need for Usefulness and Uniformity and Strength in United Numbers, the more I wanted to break down their unity and smash their usefulness into a million pieces. I actually dreamed one night that I found one of the pocket clickers like my Flora and Fauna teacher used to take care of the song bird and I ran around the school zapping any one and anything that I felt like zapping. It was thrilling and yet scary at the same time, I never thought I was capable of the kind of disregard for life that they were. When I awoke I had to remind myself several times that it was just a dream and I would never do something like that in waking life.

The map was clear and I was nearing my destination. My palms started to sweat and my heart was racing as I reached the door with the official Secondary School seal and name plaque. I took 0203’s pass out of my pocket and tried not to look around for the Auto Eye I knew was focused on my every move while I swiped it through the reader.

The red light blinked three times and then flashed green. I took a deep breath and turned the knob to go inside.

A strange smell wafted over me as I pushed the heavy door ajar. Another series of corridors lay in front of me, only these were quite dim. I figured this was for preservation reasons. I stepped over the threshold and as my eyes adjusted to the light the door clicked behind me and I was alone.

I looked at the map one more time. I was to head to the left and then turn right at the third passage. I was then to look for a set of shelves on the left labeled Multi-Media. I had no idea what that meant but I couldn't’ wait to find out.

Eventually I found the correct passage, and regretted the fact that I only had a few short hours of free time to get what I could and get back to my quarters. There were shelves labeled Literary Fiction 1800-2100 lined with paper readers that looked older than any I’d ever seen, even in Professor789’s walls. There was one section labeled Specimens that held jars of murky, multicolored liquid with strange shapes floating inside. One jar looked like it contained multiple eye balls. I almost missed the section I was looking for because I was in such a hurry and so distracted by the other interesting things to see, but eventually I saw it and entered.

It was like stepping into a small room made of shelves, much less tidy than the Professor’s office. There was a desk and a chair in the middle however, conveniently facing the AutoEye just outside the doorway. I peered at the shelves. They were lined with boxes and folders and jackets of some sort that didn’t contain books. I pulled one such jacket off the shelf and opened it. An odd looking black plastic box fell into my hands. It was hollow with two spindles in the middle and a plastic ribbon wrapped around them. It was labeled “Watership Down” and had several lines of other text that I couldn’t make sense of. I put it back on the shelf in it’s battered wrapper and looked further to a shelf with smaller, hard plastic cases. There were rows and rows of them from floor to ceiling. They seemed to be ordered alphabetically and for the most part I seemed to understand some of the words on each case, if not all. My eye immediately went to one titled “Beethoven’s 9th Symphony - Ode to Joy”. The word joy rang in my head. It seemed to be a good word to me, but I couldn’t recall exactly where I had heard it before. For some reason it brought up memories of my young years with my mother and father. They must have spoken it to me on a free day when we were allowed to roam the forest and speak freely. I took the case off the shelf and held it to my chest as I looked further.

I began to understand that these were ancient storage devices. Somewhere between paper readers and electronic ones.  I kept searching but nothing else made sense or jumped out at me - Van Halen, Ziggy Marley, Zombie Sisters.. these were all towards the bottom. Farther to the middle I read Morrissey, Mozart, Monsters of Rock. I would have to climb on a chair to see the top sections. But all of this was a waste of time if I didn't’ figure out how to read the files.

I turned to the shelves filled with boxes. In side the closest one was an odd assortment of devices. I set my precious “Joy” file on the table and pulled out a device and opened it up. There were two large spindles and a monitor, clearly this must be for reading the larger files on the first shelf. I set it on the table and opened another box with smaller devices. One contained a single spindle in the middle and a smaller screen with a portal cord that looked like it would fit my reader. Luckily I had thought to bring my whole study bag with me. I thought it might look suspicious if I were going to study and didn’t have any materials for note taking.

I set my bag and the ancient reader on the table. My hands were shaking I was so excited. I took a deep breath, trying to control my movements for the camera. I couldn't go too fast or it would look suspicious. I had to make myself a calm, older student, not excited at all by the prospects of seeing something entirely new.

I opened the “Ode to Joy” case and a silver disk slipped out into my hands. It fit perfectly into the ancient reader in front of me. I closed the lid and looked for a way to turn it on. A small button on the side prompted several lights to flash and then the screen lit up. I hurriedly pulled out my own reader and turned it on, plugging the portal cord in with hopes of being able to possibly record something I found and take it with me.

I noticed an extra cord coming from the back of the ancient reader. It split in two and looked like some kind of rudimentary broadcasting devices. When I pushed the right button I heard a sound coming from the little round knobs at the end of the wires. I put them in my ears.

On the screen an ancient man walked out onto some sort of stage in front of a group of people dressed in black, sitting in chairs and holding strange objects in their hands. I had never seen an elder so very old before. Most people in our society were put to final use before their hair turned completely white and they walked laboriously like he did. There was thunderous applause and everyone on the stage stood as the older man bowed to them and what appeared to be a rather large audience. He walked to a podium and raised a small stick. I wondered if this was some sort of public hearing, why was his back turned to the camera, what were those people holding? They looked too happy to be receiving chastisement. And then he brought his stick down and my mind was, in fact, blown.

It was like nothing I had ever heard before. The strange things the people were holding were now being used to make the most wonderful sounds... like an entire flock of song birds, but in perfect tune with each other, the sounds started out sweet and low, like a mother who loved her baby and then quickly rose to a triumphant call that I could only explain as pure happiness flowing through my entire body. I watched with my mouth open, no longer worried about the Auto Eye as the short  - song - for that was the only word I had to describe it, came to a close abruptly. The image skipped and jumped, obviously the disk was damaged. I quickly figured out the basic controls and made it play again, and again. There were tears streaming down my face as I hit replay over and over again, so grateful I was able to record this treasure of all treasures and take it back with me to my quarters and with me where ever I went.

Suddenly I realized that my time was quickly slipping away. There was less than an hour left to spend in this amazing place. I would not be able to return here again very soon so I had to act fast but not be suspicious. I tried to discretely wipe my face as I poured over the other disks. I didn’t have time to set up any of the other types of readers so I stayed with the one I had. I decided to climb up and get one from the top, middle and bottom of the wall.

I chose “Gone with the Wind” from the highest shelf that I could reach because I so desperately missed feeling the wind on my face while sitting on the hill or working in the fields behind my home. From the middle I chose “Monsters of Rock”  because it reminded me of the rocks I used to kick on the dirt road that was the long path home from school, and “Marion Gold” because at least I knew what gold was.

I started the first disk playing without even bothering to listen or watch, I just made sure it was recording correctly then started looking to the bottom shelves. “Vivaldi Spring” jumped out at me as I misread it the first time and thought it said vivid spring. I pulled it out and set to work recording the next disk while I put the others away. I only had a few minutes left to clean up my area and get back to my quarters. I happened to glance at the screen as the last disk played, disappointed that it wasn’t displaying a moving image like the others, there was only a picture of some sort of strange wooden device with strings stretched across it and holes cut into the center. Time was up. I cut this recording short and packed up. This was definitely one day I could not afford to miss curfew.

I tried to appear calm as I left the archives. My head was humming with the song I had just burned permanently into my memory. To my surprise it was playing itself over and over again with no prompting from me. I was having a hard time not smiling and running to my quarters. I noticed other students rushing and figured it was ok to pick up my pace - it wouldn’t be too obvious. No one wants to be late. So I picked up to a jog and was back to the blue receptacle in no time. I nearly grabbed 0203’s ID card to swipe at our door but thought twice and reached for the lanyard around my own neck instead.

Once inside I couldn’t stop to talk to the other girls in the common area. There was so much spinning inside my head and I couldn’t wait to see what other treasures I was able to capture. 0203 looked at me with raised eyebrows and I couldn’t help myself, my face split into a huge grin. She rolled her eyes and went back to her conversation with another older girl.

Once in my room I slipped through the washing room and put the ID card back in 0203’s drawer then slipped out of my day clothes and into my night time smock. I didn’t plan on leaving my bed until daylight even though we had a full hour and a half of free time in our dormitory. I snapped my listening pods onto my ears and turned on the reader. The recordings were easy to find. I opened on the first one and sat back on my bed, ready to take it all in.