• I may not be proud of what I do, but I do it anyway. Every morning is the same. Wake up in my plain, grey apartment, shower in my pale bathroom, and get dress in a dress-suit or suit-pants. I mostly wear they dreary knee-high skirt with tights and my black heels with a white blouse and a matching suit-coat.

    I may or not be married, I don’t know. I may or may not have kids, I don’t know. The government took everything once I developed that atrocious machine. I am a machine myself to the United States Government.

    In fact, to the entire world, I don’t exist. No one knows of me, my name, my family, friends, loves, and hope and dreams. I am nobody. I look at the manicured hands and see my lack of a fingerprint. I smile as I remember a movie I had seen so very long ago… an old movie with that actor Will Smith. That was when he was young. I think he died just a few years ago.
    I never mind the empty feeling I have as I drink my coffee and read the paper. I know there’s no point in reading it, seeing as more than half of the words are missing. God, what have I done?

    I rip the paper in half and throw it in my recycling bin. I stand swiftly and pour my coffee down the sink. The taste was disgusting, why did I drink it?

    I pass a mirror on the way to my apartment door. I quickly glance at it as my blonde hair falls down my shoulders and my piercing blue eyes are shaded by my naturally long eyelashes. I never wore mascara… or have I in a past life? A life where I existed, maybe, back when I had parents and friends.

    Sometimes, I liked to make up a past. What I imagined in my teenage years was that I was a girly-girl who never expected to be where she is today. The younger me would sleep-over her best friend Mary Lovely’s house and she would have make-overs all the time. They would wear make-up that didn’t match, fake lashes and paint their nails.
    But, that was all pretend.

    In the taxi to the building I work at, I sifted through my briefcase and took out a picture. It was a picture of the past life me with faceless parents and a faceless younger brother. The government has fixed the picture so that I wouldn’t be easy to find, easy to get a hold of, easy to have someone hurt me.

    Too bad the government already hurt me.

    I entered the steel building in Washington D.C. and continued to look at the photograph. It was yellowing and crumpled. As I approached the check-in desk I put the photo back and replaced it with an I.D. card. I showed the lady at the desk and she gave a nod before typing something on her keyboard. It wouldn’t matter too much in a few days. Neither would that sign above her.

    A Better Future, Inc.
    Since 2050


    I walked into an elevator and scanned my card on a pad. The elevator immediately closed and the lights went out. A blue light shown into my eyes and confirmed that it was me. On the same pad, I punched in the password. The elevator numbers spun around and were replaced by negative numbers. I pressed negative five and the elevator began it’s decent.
    The gold door opened to two very tall men in black suits. They reminded me of that Will Smith movie again…. God, what was the name?

    The men wore identity tags with a lot of the words blanked out. I stared at it for a while before looking up at them. They turned and led the way down the metal cage lined hallway. I peered through the cage and saw my retched invention. Why did I think I could make the world a better place without words?

    I sighed and stared at the backs of the tall men and walked for who-knows-how-long. This was a daily routine. They would wait for my arrival and tell me of the plans for today. All I could do was nod or shake my head or… stay silent.

    In the process of making my machine, I had removed my own words. I haven’t spoken in almost two years.

    We entered a conference room and sat down. The men around me were talking freely thanks to the collars I also invented. They looked like the shock collars you would put on a dog to keep him in the yard. They made you immune to the word removal process. It wouldn’t matter once the machine was turned on completely. Nothing can avoid that, not even those collars.

    They handed one to me. I blinked in confusion and looked up at the owner of the hand. It was the president of the United States, President Gibson. I gulped and took the collar, clasping it around my neck. I pressed the button and heard a beep that was close to my ear.

    “Good morning, Sir.” I said. Wow, that’s the first time I spoke in… wow….

    “Good morning, Maria. How are you today?” he replied with a bright smile. I didn’t mirror him.
    “Same as everyday, Sir,” I gave as a cool reply.

    “You have a beautiful voice, Maria. Perfect for the announcement to the public.” He said with admiration. I wanted to shake my head in disgust. “Well, we were going to have you make it whether or not your voice was nice to listen too.”

    I gave a curt nod and walked past him and the other men. This wasn’t right… but it didn’t matter now. It was me against the government, and I lost. I made my way to the fourth level of my machine that was in the fifth basement level of A New Future Inc. and it was the way we had to communicate to the public.

    A lanky man handed me a paper with a smile. I took it and entered the booth. I made a public announcement to the people of the United States, and maybe the world. The announcement would be coming out of their mouths. Sure, it was strange, but I had a very creative mind. I left the booth and gave a file to the man that was still standing outside of the room. I snaked my hands under my straight blond hair and unclasped the collar. I gave it to the man and walked away, ready to begin another day at work.

    At home, I ate microwave noodles, like every night. I made a lot of money and had an apartment that most people would crave. I was bored with it. And I didn’t feel like cooking. It was a large apartment that was for sure. An apartment for more than one person. I sighed and turned on the television, only to hear static coming from every other word the news reporter said. I turned it off and opened a book. Most of the page was blanked out. Damn, this was my favorite book, I remember thinking.

    Without words, what were we going to do? I leaned back and thought for a while. Maybe I should get a videogame. I should go out and buy a Playstation. You didn’t need words to play videogames, did you? Then I remembered I couldn’t even control a Pinball machine, let alone a Playstation remote.

    I was thinking like a teenager again.

    Go back to being an adult, Maria, get a hold of yourself.

    Distract yourself Maria.

    Think, Maria, why did you invent the machine?

    Equality.

    Yes, that was it. I wanted everyone to be equal. I nodded. What gave me the idea for equality. The month of August popped into my head. Okay, Maria, what was the date…? The twenty-eighth! That’s it! Okay, what happened August 28th? Crap… what year? 1963. Right! Martin Luther King Junior! He made a speech! One that moved all of America! “I Have a Dream!” That’s it!

    I sat up and crossed to my computer. I searched and searched, coming up blank. I continued searching for God-knows how long….

    Two days passed. Tomorrow was the day no one would speak again. Ever. I finally found what I was looking for and saved it to a CD drive. I went to work, like usual on Friday morning and snuck into the booth once more. I fixed up the program, allowing the words to be spoken freely. I smirked with happiness as I pressed the green SEND button.

    Suddenly, Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice was coming out of everyone’s mouth. It was his speech. One that moved, possessed, and was embraced by everyone. “I Have a Dream.” I was very satisfied with myself for doing this. This would help people realize what was happening was a good thing. People can not speak and everything will be okay. Everything will be new. Everything will be evolved.

    Everyone will be free.

    “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”