Looking down at the worn-out carpet on the waiting room floor, I felt my daze soften as my eyelids got heavier. There was a small stain I could just make out about a foot in front of where I was sitting. It was a dark brown color that must have faded with time. Could be chocolate. Or dirt. I reached out my hand to touch it when the doctor opened the door. I looked up immediately. I sat the way I was instructed to by my mother when I was young. I could still hear her exact words: "Back flat, chin level, shoulders straight, and knees together. They can't relieve you if you obey." I never really understood the "relieve" thing but all of my mother's lessons revolved around avoiding it. In school, however, they taught us how being relieved of stress and pain was a good thing. My mother told me to never believe the nonsense they would tell us during school, but I always wondered what it would be like to be released. Completely free of obligations.
"Mr. Hudson if you would join me please," Doctor said.
I stood and walked slowly, one foot in front of the other. I walked through the door he had so generously opened for me. I walked past about six doors with small circular windows in the middle of the door. It always amazed me how everything was perfectly the same. The doctor gave me a shot to maintain my state of mental foggy-ness and told me to go straight home.
"Miles if you don't wake your ass up I'll come in there and do it for you." I heard my mother's voice ring out, waking me up from my nightmare.
My cousin Leila was right; don't ever read the giver before bed. That shit messes with your dreams.
Once downstairs, I breathed in the warmth of the new year. The smell of cheesy eggs and crispy bacon filled my nose as I smiled with excitement.
The school day went by pretty quickly until the last period. That's when we all get our medicine. My friend Stacie and I decided that today we would fake it.
The "government officials" put the pill in our mouths and watch us swallow them to make sure there are no problems with it going down.
Stacie and I brought saran wrap to school so we could cover our tongues and lower mouths with it.
When they gave me my pill, I stuck it under my tongue and swallowed just the water.
Nothing happened.
When I woke up the next morning it was dark. I was laying on a cement floor in a big cement box. I saw my parents making the motions of cooking breakfast, but they were using imaginary pots and pans, and the big box we were in had nothing else in it.
In fact, the world was empty.
Outside was just a big white void, and people were walking all over it.
The scariest part of it all was the monster-like creatures walking around among us. I walked over closer to one and squinted to try and read the pin on its shirt.
It looked like it said "government official".
