SEVENTEEN years to Live

14 ●○► THE CONFERENCE ROOM

Kevin and Jamela begin walking along the corridor that stretches ahead in front of us. As we reach the end of the stairs, I stop for a moment to look. The corridor is not that far from here. There are doors in each side, and all doors, I think, have a lock of its own. They must be rooms, I wonder.

“Why did you stop?” I hear Bryan whisper. “Is there something wrong?”

I shake my head.

“Let’s go now then.”

I nod.

We begin to walk again. This time I feel my legs as if I am no longer the one controlling them. I feel numb. I can’t feel Bryan’s hands holding mine or even his skin contracting against mine. As we pass, I read the inscription at the top of each doors. The first one on the right says MARJIE and on the other side it says GHISLAINE. The moment I read the inscriptions I know that they are names. Are they Bryan’s sisters? How many brothers and sisters does Bryan have?

We pass more doors. The second ones are JAMES and DIVINA. And the third ones are BRYAN and JAMELA. Them.

And then we finally come to the end of the corridor, an oak door which has an inscription that says CONFERENCE ROOM.

This is it, I thought. This is really it.

“Are you ready, Mary?” asks Jamela when she stands in front of the door facing me.

I take a long breath and nod. “Yes.”

She purses her lips as if my answer is a mistake. “Okay. But I want you to relax the whole time. No panicking. No lies. Just the truth. The Conference Room can detect any kind of lie. Your answers will determine your execution or not.” She raises one eyebrow at me. “Understand?”

I take another long breath. “Yes,” I say, nodding.

Before she turns her back to me to open the door, she gives me an encouraging smile, which I do not understand. I don’t know but I think she feels sympathetic about me being interrogated by her family. Maybe she knows the feeling of this. She knows the feeling when Kevin was interrogated. Bryan also feels the same way.

When the door opens with a soft click, the light almost blinds my eyes. Jamela enters the threshold and Kevin follows in her wake. Bryan and I start to move, stepping into the doorway slowly with my head slightly bowed down. The walls are coated with chalk white paint. It brightens up the place more besides the light given by the huge fluorescent bulb located at the ceiling.

The room is probably twice as big as our house. There are three tables at the center of the room, each are made of glass and their feet are made of curvy iron. The first table in front is occupied by the Mayor, his wife and another man that, I think, ages from forty to fifty years old. The two longer tables behind them are occupied by four teenagers and five adults. No one turns around to look at me. Bryan then guides me toward the half-a-foot high platform located few feet in front of the Mayor’s table.

Suddenly I look around. They are all staring at me as if I am an insect. I sense their disgust, the same expression worn by Jamela when she saw me the first time when I was with Bryan, which was just a few moments ago. Bryan lets me sit on the wooden chair first, holding my hand as I take my seat. Then he whispers to me, a very low sound.

“Good luck, Mary.”

I give him a smile. Then he walks to take a seat around the teenagers table.

“What is your name, darling?” the Mayor’s wife asks, her voice soft. She is dressed in a green blouse with beautiful curly patterns on the sleeves. As she leans forward from the back of her chair, her gray hair bounces on her shoulders. She gives me a smile, and her gray eyes narrow as she waits for me to answer.