it was a boring read - there was hundreds if not thousands of rules. When my legs got numb I crawled over to the bed. Then I moved back in the chair and then on the armchair. The more I read the more I was surprised.
There was no money in this city at all.
What I understood for certain was: if you work hard and don’t break any rules - points will be added to your bracelet. If you break any rules - the points will be subtracted. In order to get out of Tally everybody had to collect one thousand points. Now I had no doubts that I was in a prison. The points system was quite logical if you don’t take into consideration some of the puzzling rules. For example: a person was not allowed to move across the street in the same direction for longer than half an hour. In order to move further, one must cross the street and proceed on the other side. What was that for? And what does it mean? Or for instance the rule about the bus tickets...
I found the text and read it once again.
“When boarding a bus, the passenger must obtain a ticket from the driver indicating the seat number which the passenger must occupy”. At first everything looked fine but the next sentence told me that every ticket has an encrypted code - some kind of a mathematic formula, which must be solved by the passenger in a limited amount of time.
“Why don’t they just print a number on it? Why do they have to complicate everything?”
I scratched my cheek in bewilderment.
As I discovered from the next paragraph - if the passenger does not solve the puzzle within the given time, they will be fined five points.
I put the book aside trying to understand what it all means and I didn’t like the conclusion I came to. It seemed to me that all these hundreds of rules were created on purpose to punish people for every fault. I picked up the book again and carried on reading. The more I learnt about the rules the more I was convinced that I was right. How else could you interpret the following text?
“The City Committee reserves the right to amend all or some of the laws at any time without prior notice. Citizens wishing to learn about the changes can do so by watching a TV program “The Laws” on channel twelve. The program does not follow a specific schedule; however the show time can be found in the daily newspaper “Tally Today” which is sold at newsstands across the city...”
I stopped reading and looked at the wall dumbfounded. What kind of rubbish is that? The program is on TV every day but nobody knows when it starts. In order to learn when exactly it starts you have to buy a newspaper. What if people are at work? Or what if this program starts at night when most people are asleep? And how long does it last? It’s almost mandatory to watch this “show” so let’s say I’m at work and I have to take a break to watch this program, subsequently I’ll be punished by an employer, won’t I?
Eventually I put the book away and looked at the TV screen in anger. Now it seemed like the epitome of the evil “Big Brother is Watching You” nightmare. I walked across the room in circles, feeling perturbed and nervous as I was trying process all the information in my head. The realisation of what was going on in spite of all my efforts was sticking out of my head like a bunch of straws and needles. I persistently kept on thinking about everything I read. I have to make sure I understand all this because I have to live in Tally for a while yet and for this reason I must put up with all the idiotic rules whether I want to or not. Does this mean I have to learn my equations before getting on the bus like a schoolgirl? What the hell?!
Eventually I’ve calmed down. It’s just temporary. I’m not in this city because I’m guilty of anything so all this crap does not apply to me. I’m not trapped. I just have to find Christopher Laroche and then I’m free to leave Tally forever and my nightmare will be
There was no money in this city at all.
What I understood for certain was: if you work hard and don’t break any rules - points will be added to your bracelet. If you break any rules - the points will be subtracted. In order to get out of Tally everybody had to collect one thousand points. Now I had no doubts that I was in a prison. The points system was quite logical if you don’t take into consideration some of the puzzling rules. For example: a person was not allowed to move across the street in the same direction for longer than half an hour. In order to move further, one must cross the street and proceed on the other side. What was that for? And what does it mean? Or for instance the rule about the bus tickets...
I found the text and read it once again.
“When boarding a bus, the passenger must obtain a ticket from the driver indicating the seat number which the passenger must occupy”. At first everything looked fine but the next sentence told me that every ticket has an encrypted code - some kind of a mathematic formula, which must be solved by the passenger in a limited amount of time.
“Why don’t they just print a number on it? Why do they have to complicate everything?”
I scratched my cheek in bewilderment.
As I discovered from the next paragraph - if the passenger does not solve the puzzle within the given time, they will be fined five points.
I put the book aside trying to understand what it all means and I didn’t like the conclusion I came to. It seemed to me that all these hundreds of rules were created on purpose to punish people for every fault. I picked up the book again and carried on reading. The more I learnt about the rules the more I was convinced that I was right. How else could you interpret the following text?
“The City Committee reserves the right to amend all or some of the laws at any time without prior notice. Citizens wishing to learn about the changes can do so by watching a TV program “The Laws” on channel twelve. The program does not follow a specific schedule; however the show time can be found in the daily newspaper “Tally Today” which is sold at newsstands across the city...”
I stopped reading and looked at the wall dumbfounded. What kind of rubbish is that? The program is on TV every day but nobody knows when it starts. In order to learn when exactly it starts you have to buy a newspaper. What if people are at work? Or what if this program starts at night when most people are asleep? And how long does it last? It’s almost mandatory to watch this “show” so let’s say I’m at work and I have to take a break to watch this program, subsequently I’ll be punished by an employer, won’t I?
Eventually I put the book away and looked at the TV screen in anger. Now it seemed like the epitome of the evil “Big Brother is Watching You” nightmare. I walked across the room in circles, feeling perturbed and nervous as I was trying process all the information in my head. The realisation of what was going on in spite of all my efforts was sticking out of my head like a bunch of straws and needles. I persistently kept on thinking about everything I read. I have to make sure I understand all this because I have to live in Tally for a while yet and for this reason I must put up with all the idiotic rules whether I want to or not. Does this mean I have to learn my equations before getting on the bus like a schoolgirl? What the hell?!
Eventually I’ve calmed down. It’s just temporary. I’m not in this city because I’m guilty of anything so all this crap does not apply to me. I’m not trapped. I just have to find Christopher Laroche and then I’m free to leave Tally forever and my nightmare will be
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