The Perfect World (The Perfect World Series Book 1) (3 page)

“This continent is called Antarctica. Unfortunately, there are no countries here because it’s too cold for anyone to live on. Does everyone understand?”

She smiled as she received the quiet head nods again as her answer.

“Does everyone understand what we’ve learned today about the continents and countries?” Their teacher got some nods in response from the class, but not every child nodded to her.

“Oh dear. I’ll have to be clearer about the material to make sure that everyone understands. To repeat myself, there are seven continents. These landmasses are divided into  six countries. These countries are China, Iran, Russia, Libya, Venezuela, and America. There is no one living on Antarctica. All people live in conditions similar to ours no matter which continent they live on. Is it clear now? Say, ‘Yes, Ms. Amelia.’”

“Yes, Ms. Amelia,” they all repeated, and she clapped her hands at their obedience.

“Perfect. Well, that’s all for class today. Ms. Linda will be waiting to take you back up to your rooms. I’ll look forward to our next visit.” She smiled far too sweetly at them as they got up from their chairs. “Say, “We’ll miss you, Ms. Amelia.”

“We’ll miss you, Ms. Amelia,” they all spoke in unison.

“Awww,” she gushed with a hand over her heart, “I’ll miss you all too. Now, run along to your rooms. We’ll see each other soon.”

Silently, the children in the circle walked between the chairs and formed a line beside the door. The children made the line so that they were in the same order as they were before they entered the room. They had been told that they had to maintain their line order at all times.

Ms. Linda opened the door to the conference room as soon as they were done lining up and escorted them out of the room. They stopped in the middle of the floor by two giant metal elevator doors. Ms. Linda pressed an up arrow button, and they all waited patiently until the doors opened. Once they had, their attendant had all the children file into the elevator. When they had done as she asked, she stepped inside herself and pushed the three button.

The elevator moved them upwards as they all stood in the metal box in complete silence. When they reached their floor, Ms. Linda reformed the line and had them go into their rooms one by one. Cyrus was one of the last to be dropped off, and when he entered his room, the door shut behind him with a click, just as it always did.

He walked over to his fold out bed and pulled it out. Flopping down on top of it, his mind was filled with pictures of continents, countries, and their different names. He thought about how he was told that everyone lived in the same way he did. He wondered if it was really true. He wondered if he’d ever find out.

A week later, Cyrus and his fellow students filed into the conference room for their latest group lesson. After a week of learning the same information about continents and countries again and again, the faces of the students ranged from mildly interested, tired or grumpy. Cyrus found himself being in the last category as he took his normal seat across from Ms. Amelia.

When they were all seated, she scrunched her eyes up and greeted them with a wide grin. It was the one that always looked forced to Cyrus, and it made him feel even grumpier than before.

“Good morning class.” She spoke in a wheezy, yet adoring tone. She made sure to hold her grin in place for the kids.

“Good morning Ms. Amelia,” they all responded at once. After all, if they didn’t do it right the first time, they knew they would practice their greetings until their teacher was satisfied.

“Now, today we are going to go over the most important topic in our group lessons. In fact, this lesson will give you the building blocks for understanding our entire wonderful system.”

Ms. Amelia’s sing-song voice came to a halt as she started writing a big word on the board. “Our discussion today will about,” she paused for effect and stepped back from the board so that everyone could see, “feelings.”

Ms. Amelia clearly expected a big show of excitement over this revelation. Cyrus could only tilt his head to the side, not entirely understanding what the big deal was. Apparently, the class shared Cyrus’s lack of clarification for their teacher went into a very quick explanation mode.

“Feelings are the emotions inside of all of us. These emotions  can be either positive, which means good or negative, which means bad. Our enlightened society is made so that only positive emotions exist. To show you why this is so important, I have prepared a brief history lesson.”

She quickly wrote the words “positive” and “negative” on the board. Then, she listed a few words underneath both categories before she capped her pen and turned back to the class.

“Sad, angry, lonely, guilty, and tired. All of these feelings are negative emotions. Happy, joyful, peace and contentment are all positive emotions. Through our new system, these negative feelings have all but been eliminated. All we feel are positive emotions. But,” Ms. Amelia held up a finger and her gaze swept over them all with an unusual intensity, “it wasn’t always like this.”  

She quickly wrote two large words on the board and underlined them. “Uncivilized Times is the expression we use when we talk about the way people lived before the perfect world came to be. Back in the Uncivilized Times, people used to take feelings for granted. Some people were very happy during these times, while others were very sad. Some people were at peace while others were so very angry. Some people lived lives of joy, while others were lonely and tired. These differences in feelings were very common in Uncivilized Times.

“These people and their negative emotions caused trouble for everyone in society. They wouldn’t trust those who were in charge of the former system. Their negative emotions made them feel as if they couldn’t trust those in charge or any who supported them. These negative emotions led to fights with others in society, creating more negative emotions.

“Eventually, a handful of very smart people began studying emotions in humans to find out how to prevent negative emotions. Through their hard work, they discovered the two sources of the problem. Those sources were fairness and control.”

Ms. Amelia wrote the word ‘fair’ on the board and underlined it several times. She then wrote a definition after it so that they could understand its meaning.

“The first reason that everyone’s feelings were different was because not everything was fair in Uncivilized Times. Fair means that things are equal for everyone. Now, could everyone tell me what the definition of fair is?”

“Fair means that things are equal for everyone,” the class read off the board to her. She clapped her hands together in delight.

“Oh, you’re all such quick learners,” she said with another big smile. “Now, why weren’t things fair? Ask me, ‘Why weren’t things fair, Ms. Amelia?’ Go on now.”

“Why weren’t things fair, Ms. Amelia?”

“They weren’t fair because some people had things that others didn’t,” Ms. Amelia responded with big wide eyes and a vigorous nod. She wrote her answer down on the board as she continued to explain it to them. “At first, all the attention was paid to the physical things that one person had and another didn’t. Things like some people having a place to live while others didn’t or some people having the ability to buy lots of things while others didn’t. This contributed to negative feelings because not every person on the planet got every single thing they wanted. I don’t have to tell you that this was a very terrible thing.

“Now, I don’t want to scare you, but there was something even worse than not having the physical things that you want.” She looked at each of them to make sure they were still okay before going on. “You see, the first Experts on the subject of feelings realized that what was even worse than not getting the physical things you wanted was not getting the emotional things you wanted.

“First, let me define the word ‘Expert’ for you,” Ms. Amelia said as she wrote the word and definition on the board. ‘Expert: Someone of very high intelligence on a matter which should not be questioned.’ Can you all repeat that for me please?”

The class proceeded to do what she asked though Cyrus wondered briefly why someone of high intelligence wouldn’t be able to answer any questions.

“Now, back to the discussion at hand. Let me show you a few examples of the experts’ findings about positive and negative emotions.”

“One problem was a unit known in Uncivilized Times as the family.” The word ‘family’ was written on the board under the category of problems. “In those times, people used to live together in one residence. They would eat together, celebrate special occasions together and even be there for each other in hard times. Unfortunately, not everyone in Uncivilized Times had a family. Sometimes even if someone had one, their family wasn’t happy like other families were. Some families split apart and made the members of it very sad. Others stayed together and fought every day, making everyone involved just as miserable as if they had been split apart. 

“Since the family structure created such negative emotions and since not everyone could have one, the Experts believed that this was an unfair system to have and that it would be best if no one had a family.

“Another problem was the concept of ‘friends.’” Ms. Amelia added the word ‘friends’ underneath the word ‘family.’ “You see, in Uncivilized Times people used to believe that they liked certain people more than others. They would spend more time with these people who they liked rather than spending time with everyone they knew.  This made the people that someone chose not to hang around with as much or at all feel bad about themselves. In reality, there was nothing wrong with these people who were made to feel bad. It was the fault of those who had the misguided idea that they liked one person more than another. 

“This idea of liking one person, thing or idea more than another is a form of psychosis that was fueled by the terrible practices of the Uncivilized Times. In today’s society, we like every person equally. This is the only way to make sure that everyone’s feelings are considered. It is the only way to make sure that people are truly fair to one another.”

Ms. Amelia wrote another word under the problem category. The letters spelled the word ‘opinions.’

“In Uncivilized Times, people were allowed to hold different points of view. This meant that two people could look at one event and hold two completely separate thoughts about it. This was known as having an opinion. These differences in opinion caused people to be unhappy with one another. Some people didn’t get their way because of people with different opinions, and that just wasn’t fair. Thus, the experts believed that opinions were things that no one should be allowed to have. That differing points of view were harmful for the good of us all.”

Their teacher paused to write a definition by the word ‘opinion.’ She then turned to the class and pointed to the board.

“Just to review, can everyone tell me what an opinion is?”

“An opinion is something that no one should have. Everyone should agree on everything,” the class repeated at different paces.

“Very good class,” Ms. Amelia told them in a simpering voice. “Now, ask me, ‘Why were there different opinions, Ms. Amelia?’”

“Why were there different opinions, Ms. Amelia?” the class repeated obediently. Cyrus began fidgeting in his chair, feeling cranky about having to repeat things that had just been said.

“Well, since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you. Both the family unit and people choosing their friends caused this problem. One family often had different ideas from another, which led to the spread of negative emotions. The friends that one group of people chose in Uncivilized Times also held one type of opinion while another group of friends would hold another. These different opinions and ideas were a never-ending cause of negative emotions and conflict between people. These different ideas and opinions also led to something known as confusion.”

Ms. Amelia paused to write the word ‘confusion’ on the board.

“Confusion means that no one knows which person or which idea they should believe. The Experts of the time discovered a way to solve this problem. It was solved by setting controls on the population.

“There was confusion because back in Uncivilized Times people didn’t know how to think. No one had ever properly taught humans how to use their minds or given them a strict structure to abide by. The Experts decided to fix that by controlling the thought process. To do this, they created a system where everyone learns together. With every person learning the same ideas, there can be no more conflicts and, thus, no more negative emotions.

“That is why in today’s Enlightened Society, we do not select our families, our friends, and we certainly do not learn ideas different from one another. We are all one family, and we are all friends. We all share the same ideas. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Ms. Amelia.”

“Good.” She placed her pen down on the whiteboard and came to sit with them. “Now our class is almost finished, but there is one  important piece of information that I must give to you. I want you to know that all of you are special. Since you are all so special, every one of you children will have a great destiny given to you. You will all have a special place in the world.”

Ms. Amelia went silent for a moment, practically glowing from having imparted such knowledge. The children in the circle of chairs had different expressions on their faces. Most of the kids, though they did not understand the language or the words, understood the tone and were giving big smiles back to their teacher. A few seemed confused, like they weren’t sure what to make of what they’d been told. Fewer still were the children who were looking dubiously at Ms. Amelia. They didn’t completely understand what their teacher had told them, but they instinctively felt like something was missing. Cyrus was one of those few. 

“All right class, today’s session is finished.” She got up from her chair and opened the door to reveal Ms. Linda standing outside. “We will learn more about the words ‘special’ and ‘destiny’ in upcoming lessons. Take care children.”

After they gave their teacher a prompted goodbye, they filed out of the classroom in their usual line. All the way back to his room, Cyrus mulled over what he had learned for the day. He was having the same problem he did at the end of every class. He wanted to ask questions, but it wasn’t allowed. All that was left to him was to just believe what he was told, but there was a part of him deep down that simply wouldn’t let him.