Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

(WHAT HAPPENED AT THE INDEX OFFICE)

As they entered the office which open into a big and wide circular space that was surrounded at the edge with square shaped booths that were roughly the same size around them. She waited for the couple to walk to one of the booths but they didn't.

"Why aren't we choosing one yet or going to one?" Pyopey asked.

"Look up, what says the time?" Gideon asked.

It was the first time that she really noticed that there was something else that was hanging at the top, it was a clock hanging on top of them and it wasn't the type that was mostly seen at home. It was round, that was one thing for sure, big - yes, filled up a whole lot of space, mostly the free circular space that they were in as the clock was faced down and not hanged on a wall; it was simply used as the ceiling.

"Whoa," she said in amazement, watching as the hand of the clock moved, it wasn't used only for decoration. "It is five minutes to ten," she read.

"Work start by ten at the index office and it seems that we came earlier which is quite good," Gideon said happily.

"Eh, this clock, if it stop working, how will they repair it?" she asked curiously.

"Pyopey, a word of warning though, you shouldn't say words that you aren't supposed to say and don't touch things that aren't given to you," Victoria reminded her.

"Ok, ok, I won't. Why are we still standing still around here then? And why is this place still empty?" she asked.

"It's because we are the first people to get here," Gideon explained. "And you asked why we are still standing still …" Gideon looked up at the clock, it shorter hand had finally gotten to where the longer one was and it was now 10:00am. The clock body lightens up as every part of its body became blue except for the clock hands that were white.

Gideon and Victoria looked around at the surrounding square booth, waiting eagerly until one of the booths at the corner lightens up in glowing blue.

"Whoa, that was fast, one booth already lightens," Victoria said happily.

"Come on," Gideon urged Pyopey as they ran towards the booth that lightened up. Pushing Pyopey into the square booth before she could protest, the couple forced their way in as well. The door click shut behind them and the booth colour changed from blue to black in just a few seconds.

Pyopey only felt a soft breeze blow against her face and the next thing she knew was that they were at another floor with the couple as well. The couple pushed her out as the booth door opened, stumbling for a few seconds before regaining her balance.

She turned back to face the booth and watched as the couple stepped out of the booth, she was amazed at the way the square booth went back into the wall and disappeared - yes, it disappeared.

"That was fast," Pyopey said excitedly, waiting for another ride.

"And that is the only ride you are going to be using in the index office," Victoria said.

"Oh!"

"Enough of the chit chat, let's get started," Gideon said, leading them to the office that was also around the corner. Although she didn't know why, she was sure that the square booths downstairs were linked to the offices upstairs.

Gideon pressed the door bell and a light blinked on the door knob before a clicking sound sounded and the door was partially opened. Pushing the door completely open, Gideon stepped in and waited for Pyopey and Victoria as well before he closed the door.

Pyopey entered the office, it was spacious and well, looking plain, there were no decorative items on the wall and neither was there anything interesting to look at apart from four things that were affixed to the wall.

One of those was attached beside the door. It was a flat, circular device that seems to be embedded into the wall and has two depressions at the middle in the shape of the human hands. The other ones were located near the table.

She looked at the man sitting at the table, he was dressed in an office working suit and was wearing a big eye glasses. As soon as they arrived beside the table, the man stood up and came around to where they stood.

The couple moved backward by two steps as they created a space for her. He introduced himself as Jerkins or was it Jarvis? She didn't commit it to memory as the man was a fast speaker and soon she learnt that the indexing and registration can only be done once in a person lifetime and that was when the person clocked eighteen.

After his long speech, the man went towards a rectangular device attached to a wall, pressed some buttons that she couldn't see, waited a few minutes as the device beeped and a light lightens up at the down part. She saw as the device opened in the middle and the man stretch forth his hands, she couldn't see the rest but when he withdrew his hands, there were glowing blue gloves in his hands.

The man moved to another device attached to the wall, this device looks like it has been smashed into the wall by a force based on its outward appearance, there were no keys on it saved for two slits that it has in the middle.

She watched as the man put forth his hand in front of the device, two red ray of light came out from the slits before turning to blue and then stopped. There was a grunting kind of sound which sounded more like a protest as the device beep.

Seconds later, the device thrust out from the wall slowing and regained it shape, one of it slits opened and an object was pushed out. The man took the object and came back to her side. She only glance at it and realized that it was a smooth and soft looking object like foam.

"Open your mouth wide," the man said and she did. As soon as her mouth was opened, she realized that the smooth and soft looking object like foam was been inserted into her mouth.

"Bite down hard on it," the officer instructed.

She muster up all of her strength and bite down hard on the object, only to spat out the foam like looking object immediately which was quickly caught by the officer in charge of the indexing or rather the glowing glove that was separated from the man hand and returned back to him.

Pyopey reaction wasn't anything strange to the three grown up people in the office, for every Indexing process that was being carried out, every participant must bite down hard on the grader; it was the soft and smooth looking ordinary foam that could be in different color.

This grader pops out from the device attached to each indexing office and it has a number on it, which makes it difficult to be recycled or to be used by another person once bitten. Although it looks soft, look can always be deceiving, right? Now, when the grader is bitten, it becomes hard and a liquid which is bitter is directly released on the tongue. The user has no other option than to split out the grader as they facial expression becomes grim. Their jaw might ache for some minutes but the liquid always soothe it immediately, leaving only the bitter taste in their mouth but taking care of that was not a problem because there was a neutralizer pad for that.

"Take this," the officer said, returning from the second device and on his palm was a three cm thick and square pad held in his hand.

Pyopey grudgingly collected it, wondering what she had to do with it.

Victoria saw her confused look and decided to help her out of her dilemma. "You should place it on your tongue; it will absorb all of the bitter liquid on your tongue."

"How am I to trust what you've said about this strange looked pad? As far as what had happened, I shouldn't believe in all those deceiving looking devices. What if it glues my mouth together?"

"Well, if you want your tongue to be bitter for one month, you can keep on being a stubborn brat," Victoria replied.

Pyopey looked over at Gideon.

"Just use it," Gideon encouraged.

She placed it on her tongue and realized that the bitter taste was gone and the pad tasted sweet, she unconsciously closed her eyes. A hit on her back made her eyes flew open; she looked up at the person which turned out to be Gideon.

"Don't lick it, it isn't a sweet," Gideon said.

"Oh," but it sounded muffled as her tongue could barely move. She made to reach out with her hand but Gideon stopped her.

"Go dip your hands into the basin beside the door," Gideon said.

She went beside the door, dipped her hands into the two depression and she felt a cool sensation before she removed her hands. She went back to Gideon who looked over at her hands as he shook his head.

"You only took your hands out when you felt a cool sensation, right?" he asked. She nodded.

"Go back and repeat the process, you can't take it out until your hands are gloved," he said.

She went back and repeated the process, she watched in amazement as a slit opened in between the two depressions and cover it up including her hands. It retracted after some seconds and she saw that her hands were gloved; she never felt anything though. She went back to Gideon showing him her hands.

Gideon nodded, "Now, you can remove it."

She removed it and the man came forward to collect it, she felt herself being moved and moment later, she realized that it was Gideon who had dragged her to sit down.

The man went to the last device, this machine looked like a coffee dispensing machine but wasn't used for that. There were two points addressed as in at the top and on the down part, there were two place marked as out. The man dropped the two things he had collected from her at the top of the device and some moments later, a transparent tube came out from the left side market as out which consisted of the two things that were collected from her in it while a paper slip came out from the other side.

The man sat down on his chair, placed his right hand on a part of his desk that lightens up and pressed some things. A circular arch opened at the middle of the desk and a tube holder came up, the man inserted the transparent tube into it and it closed back.

After this, he took the paper and typed on his desk, Pyopey couldn't see what he was pressing but a moment later, a buzzing sound started as he continued typing and when he was done, another rectangular shape object came out of the slit on his desk and was levitated.

The man took the object and unwrap it, reading over it for some few minutes. There was a slight change in his face as he looked at Pyopey, puzzled. Pyopey starred back, she was surprised by the strange look she was receiving from him.

He cleared his throat, unsure of where to begin. Fortunately for him, Gideon decided to ask him what the matter was.

"There is a problem with the registration, it says that she is already a registered person," the man said.

"You must be mistaken, this is her first time here," Gideon replied.

"I thought so but I checked up the data base and this pops up," the man said, motioning for Gideon to come over and look at the object.

Gideon arrived beside him, took hold of the object and read it out loud for the rest to hear. "Temporarily permitted to bypass registration and indexing, but the card can be used as a proof of identity until further notice," he read.

"Has that sort of thing happened before?" Victoria asked.

"It has not," the man answered.

"Then what is happening?" Victoria asked.

"Eh," the man had a helpless look.