The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (2 page)

After a year of these computer classes and alphabet worksheets, Cyrus began attending a group class with the other children on his floor five times a week. This class marked the first time Cyrus had been allowed out of his room for anything other than to go to the bathroom at certain times during the day. It was also the first time he had ever seen the other students on his floor.

Some time after lunch, the lock would click on his door, and he would be allowed to exit his small corner room. He would automatically exit his room and enter into a white-walled, rectangular hallway with two stairwells on each side. There was a bathroom with several toilets and shower stalls just a little ways down the hall and an elevator around the corner.

Silently, he would file into a line composed of thirteen small children. Seven of them were boys, including himself, and six were girls. Once they were in their line, Ms. Linda would walk down the line to make sure everyone was there. When she finished this task, she got in front of them and led them to the stairwell. She opened the locked door to the stairwell with one of her keys, then proceeded down the steps.

This was the only time that the doorway had ever been unlocked. Cyrus would know. He had tried to push it open many times during his trips to the bathroom. The same could be said of the elevator, which never moved, no matter how many times he pounded the up or down buttons.  

Staying in their line, never speaking a word for they were strictly told not to, they made their way down three flights of stairs. They would arrive on the main floor where they would exit the stairwell adjacent to the facility’s laundry room. Occasionally, Cyrus would catch a glimpse of other older ladies who wore the same clothes as Ms. Linda working inside. He looked up at the glass slot in the door to the laundry room, but this time he didn’t see anyone new.

The line of children turned right out of the stairwell, away from the laundry room and into a small conference room. The curtains were always closed over the large windows in the room so that no one could look outside them. The carpet had a spotted pattern, mixed with an ugly orange and brown color combination. The lights above hummed and flickered occasionally, making the room seem dimmer than it should have been. Otherwise, the room contained two tables, one round and one rectangular that were pushed against the wall and fourteen blue chairs.

The chairs were all placed in a circle in the center of the room, and at the top of the circle was a tall, gaunt woman with straggly blonde hair. Her skin was incredibly pale and her thin face was marked with lines. She had large, drooping bags under her cold, dark eyes. Her nose was large and crooked, with a large mole on the right side. The skin on her mouth looked dry and cracked. Whenever she opened it, the children could see that she was missing a few teeth. Her hands were small, her fingers long and thin, and the bones were visible through her flesh. Her hair fell in untidy, twisted lengths down to her waist. Her whole figure was so thin that Cyrus wondered if she would fall over if he blew a little air on her.

The children all entered the circle and found a place to sit, still maintaining their line order. Cyrus ended up in the seat directly across from their group teacher, Ms. Amelia. Once they were all seated, Ms. Amelia gave them all a big, false cheery smile and spoke in the sing-song voice she used for the class.

“Good morning, everyone. How are you today?”

“Wonderful Ms. Amelia,” everyone responded at once. This was the answer they were told to give her every time she asked that question. “How are you, Ms. Amelia?”

“I’m wonderful too. Thank you for asking.” The reedy woman’s answer was also the same every time they asked, so the kids were used to the routine.

“Now do you remember the rules we have for group discussion class?” Cyrus nodded, as did a few others, but not everyone did. “Ah, I see that no one remembers. Not to worry. I can go over it as many times as I need to. Let’s start with the first rule.”

She got up and walked to the back of the room, where a white board was. Picking up a black marker, she made a large ‘one’ on the board.

“First, when asked a question by the teacher, you will always answer together. No one is to answer by themselves. Answering by yourself is distracting to other students and takes away from the class.

“Second, you will always do exactly as you are told by the teacher. Any deviation is strictly forbidden.

“Thirdly, no one is ever allowed to work individually. True understanding only comes from group work, so, if you want to learn, you must learn in a group. Remember, nothing is really learned unless everyone understands it. If one person out of one hundred doesn’t understand the material, then all one hundred people do not really comprehend the information.

“Fourthly, if anyone has a question, they may raise their right hand to be called upon. If, however, the question the person asks is not one that is shared by the rest of the class, the question will be considered invalid.

“Fifthly, when the teacher asks you if you understand, you are all to reply, “Yes, Ms. Amelia,” or “No, Ms. Amelia.” I believe that’s all of them.” Ms. Amelia turned to the class and spoke in her soft, child-like tone to the kids in the circle. “Now, does everyone understand?”

“Yes, Ms. Amelia,” they all said in unison.

“Good,” she said with a false cheeriness.”Now, does everyone remember what we learned yesterday?

No one said anything to answer her. For one thing, it was very hard for everyone to answer her question in unison. For another, they had all learned if they waited long enough, she would give them the answer without any effort on their part.

Deciding that she had waited long enough for an answer, their teacher erased her previous work on the board and wrote down the vocabulary they had gone over the day before. “We learned colors and numbers yesterday.” Ms. Amelia snapped the lid back on her marker and turned back to the class. “Now, class, what did we learn yesterday?”

“Colors and numbers.” Cyrus and the others tried a few times before they could answer in unison. The process was undertaken with little enthusiasm. Most, if not all of them, could have told her what they had done the class before this one and saved them all some time. Since individual responses were looked down upon, however, no one dared say anything to her.

“Good, you all remembered. What smart children you are!” Her face scrunched up, and she gave them what she must have considered a pride-filled smile at their achievement. Cyrus always found her smiles, particularly this one, to be pretty repulsive, though he could never put his finger on why.

“Today, we’re going to learn something completely different. Now, class, don’t you want to find out what it is? Ask me, ‘What are we going to learn today, Ms. Amelia?’ Can you do that for me?”

Whenever the terms, “Ask,” or “Ask me,” came up, the children knew they were supposed to repeat the phrase, regardless of whether they had understood the question or had any interest in it at all.

“What are we going to learn today, Ms. Amelia?”

“We are going to have a quick geography lesson. Today, you’re going to learn about the continents and countries of our world. Now, ask me, ‘What are continents, Ms. Amelia?’ Together now!”

“What are continents, Ms. Amelia?”

“Continents are several large landmasses on Earth. Now, can everyone tell me what Earth is?”

The majority of the children nodded, but a few shook their heads. Before their reedy teacher could explain it to all of them, the smaller boy to the right of Cyrus spoke up. He had dark, black hair, small, dark eyes covered by glasses and light brown skin.

“Earth is the name of this planet,” he said with a quiet, confident assurance.

Ms. Amelia went on with her lesson as if she didn’t hear him. “I see. So, no one remembers what it is then?” She turned around and wrote “Earth” on the board and slowly started writing the definition as she spoke.

“Earth is,” she paused to keep writing, “the name of the planet we live on.” She put down the marker and faced the class again, gracing them with one of her big smiles. “Now, can everyone tell me what Earth is?”

“Earth is the name of the planet we live on,” the class repeated in monotone. Cyrus noticed that the shorter boy next to him recited the sentence in a slow and overly exaggerated fashion. He had to purse his lips to keep from chuckling, lest he draw their teacher’s attention.

“Excellent,” Ms. Amelia said in a sappy tone. “Now, as I said before, there are seven continents on Earth. These continents are divided into six countries. I’ll show them to you with this map.”

Their teacher slowly walked over to the table closest to her and shuffled through the papers on the table with her bony hands until she found what she was looking for. While she was occupied, the circle of children remained silent. Talking out of turn went under the same category as answering a question without a group and was strictly forbidden.

Ms. Amelia unrolled the map and placed it on the edge of the whiteboard. Picking up her black marker, she used it to point to what she wanted to show them.

“This,” she panned her hands slowly over a large piece of paper that was mostly blue except for the greenish-brown masses that dotted it, “is a map. A map is a tool that people can use to find places in the world.” She stopped talking for a moment to write her definition on the board. “Now, can everyone tell me what a map is?” She pointed her marker to the words she had just written.

“A map is a tool that people can use to find places in the world,” all the children read together at different speeds. This time, Cyrus was the one who made it clear how bored he was by the recitation. He noticed that the boy next to him had looked over briefly and cracked a small smile. He placed a hand over his mouth so the teacher wouldn’t see.

“Good,” she said with another big, cheerless smile. “Now, I’m sure you all remember what I said earlier about continents? Continents are several large landmasses on Earth.” She wrote this down as well and had the class repeat it to her before moving on.

“These,” she pointed to the greenish-brown structures on the map, “are continents. There are seven of them, which are divided into landmasses and distributed between the six countries that make up our world. The first country I’d like to show you is this one.” She tapped her marker against a mass of green-brown on the lower right-hand side of the map. The structure was outlined in red, and it started with a large island on the bottom right of the map. The red line stretched all the way back across some islands until it reached a large landmass. From there, it stretched out until it hit a line of blue above it and a line of yellow on its left side.

“This is one of the six countries on Earth. It’s called China. Can everyone say the county’s name with me?”

“China,” all the kids repeated dully.

“That’s right! Now, there are people living on this mass of land. All of them live in conditions similar to ours. They are special just like us. Do you understand?”

This time, every child in the circle nodded their heads, and their teacher turned back to her map.

“Good, good. Now, look at this country.” She pointed to an area outlined in yellow to the left of China on the map. The yellow section stretched until it met with another landmass to its left marked with a green line. Above it was a large landmass outlined in blue. “This yellow section is where the country called Iran is located. All the people who live here live in conditions similar to ours. They are special, just like us. Does everyone understand? Great! Let’s move on to the next one.”

Ms. Amelia traced her marker cap back to a large landmass that was on top of the China continent. A blue line outlined its location, ending at the blue water towards the middle of the map.

“This entire country you see here is called Russia. It includes these islands up towards the top of the map.” Ms. Amelia pointed her marker at several islands, the last one being closest to a country outlined in white. “All of the people who live there live in similar conditions to ours. They are special, just like us. Does everyone understand? Good.”

She moved her marker down the map, stopping at a landmass that was closer to the middle of the map. It was outlined in green. 

“This entire country is called Libya. It includes this island here.” She tapped her marker against an island near the bottom of the country. “All the people living here live in similar conditions to ours. They are special just like us. Does everyone understand? Splendid! Moving right along then.

“Now this country here,” she tapped her marker against a landmass towards the bottom left of the map that was outlined in orange, “is called Venezuela. The people living here live in similar conditions to ours. They are special just like us. Does everyone understand? Wow, everyone’s doing so well today.”

Turning back to the board with another broad, twitchy smile, she moved her marker to the top of the landmass above Venezuela. It was outlined in white.

“This country is called the United States of America, also known as just America. This is the continent that we live on. We live in similar conditions as other people in the world. We are special just like they are. Is that clear to everyone?” She received head nods from everyone in confirmation. “Okay, now for the last one.”

Ms. Amelia showed them the last continent, which was at the bottom of the map. Cyrus noticed that unlike the other continents, this one was colored completely white and had no outline.