Essay --

Imagine yourself strapped upright in a chair, so tightly that you can move nothing, not correct your head. A sort of pad grips your head from behind, forcing you to look uncoiled in front of you. This place is bigger than most of the cells you had been in. But you hardly fall upon your surroundings. All you notice is that there be two small tables straight in front of you, each covered with green baize. One is unless a meter or two from you the other is further away, full the door.For a moment youre alone then the door opens and I summon in.You asked me once whats in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing thats in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.The door opens again. A guard comes in, carrying whatsoeverthing made of conducting wire, a box or basket of some kind. He sets it down on the further table. Because of the position in which Im standing, you cant chance on what the thing is.The worst thing in the world varies fro m individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where its some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.You move a little to one side, so that you have a better regard of the thing on the table. Its an oblong wire cage with a speak on top for carrying it by. Fixed to the front of it is something that looked like a close in mask, with the concave side outwards. Although it is three or four meters away from you, you could discern that the cage is divided lengthways into two compartments, and that theres some kind of marionette in each. Theyre scorpions.In your case, the worst thing in the world happens to be deathstalker scorpions.A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of youre not authorized what, ha... ...ck panic takes hold of you. Youre blind, helpless, mindless.As didactically as ever It was a crude punishment in ancient Persia.The mask is closing on your face. The wire brushes your c heek. And then -- no, its not relief, only hope, a tiny fragment of hope.Youre move backwards, into enormous depths, away from the scorpions. Youre still strapped in the chair, but youd fallen through and through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, through the oceans, through the atmosphere, into outer space, into the gulfs between the stars -- ever away, away, away from the scorpions. Youre light-years distant, but Im still standing at your side. Theres still the shabby touch of wire against your cheek. But through the darkness that envelopes you, you hear some other metallic click, and know that the cage door had clicked shut and not open. light up now.