Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In One Page Per Day
Sunday, April 14th, 2019
Chapter
Three: The Hidden
Privacy was
a luxury, inasmuch as it was an illusion. A person could only make pretenses
for privacy, knowing all the while that there was no escaping the hidden eyes
of the Empire, or the watchful presence of the gods.
The common man and woman lived secretive lives, they did not share their
resentments or their hopes with anyone. This was the closest thing to real
privacy they could manage. They hid their pain and their fears inside of
themselves. They hid their true feeling even from those closest to them.
The revelation of such things was the most profound expression of love a
person could issue. They performed rituals around their disclosures hiding them
in secret codes, rituals which they had to invent in order for their intimate
partners to receive the message and comprehend it.
A tap, a touch, a blink of the eyes. The common person developed
profound abilities in the art of concealment; it was non-verbal, intuitive and
unconscious.
The oppression of fear covered the people like a cloying-moist heat,
robbing them of the air they breathed. They dared not complain about it, speak
a word about it, if they did they could risk the loss of everything.
Only those who had nothing already, had nothing to fear.
The Continuum delighted in exposing these secret systems, at directing
children to betray their parents, at sewing dissent among families.
When it was able to coerce a loving couple to betray one another, to
surprise each other by the ease with which they gave up their most cherished
secrets, the Continuum was ecstatic.
There was no greater drama, nothing more piquant, for the voyeur’s table.
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