Short Story Showcase

Dan L. Biggin

March 16th, 2015

Mortem Autem Privus 

     The death of Privacy needs to be addressed, firstly the implication of Privacy’s passing means that it has lived, been born, and toiled through a long life, no doubt characterized by secret meetings and hushed whispers in the dark, with messages only passed in person and then burnt by the same candle light they were read under, or some secret message delivered to a spy behind enemy lines that would immediately self destruct after it was read, Privacy’s life would have been very lonely, and a life in  constant threat of revealing its most treasured secrets; by nature its essential being and inner essence, something a kin to our most private thoughts, those dark amblings at the back of our minds, which fear even the slightest mention of the idea of a telepath, or someone with the slightest ability to read minds, in Privacy hides the secrets of our savagery, but in Privacy’s comforting cloak Truth and Honesty were first introduced, now Privacy was not so lonely as before, but Truth would not be held to a line on a page, it could not be bound to a whisper, and needed to shine in the dark, Honesty was stubborn and rude, and thought everything Privacy did was a lie, something that Privacy fought persistently to deny, which only further fueled Honesty’s distrust. 

     The introduction of Truth and Honesty was poised for disaster from the beginning, as it was under the cloak of Privacy, the setting took place on a dark and rainy day, in a town with no name, in a far off secluded rural area, in a bar that was found only after traveling down dark twisting alleyways, to the front of a run down kitchen where they slipped through a false freezer door in the back wall to a dimly lit distributor of a wide variety of any means of provocation, where Privacy would wet its tongue, Privacy proposed that they talk through tin cans attached to a length of string, the guests obliged but then became increasingly frustrated with Privacy’s insistence to whisper, and all that could be heard through the can was an incomprehensible rattle, no matter, Privacy had another plan, sheets of paper were distributed and the guests were given pens with invisible ink to write with, to Truth and Honesty’s utter confusion Privacy then explained a system of writing in a secret code that could be understood using a set of keys, Truth and Honesty did not take to the idea, not because they did not entirely understand Privacy’s elaborate means of communication, but because Truth could not write for itself and Honesty couldn’t read a word. 

     Finally, and in desperation of losing his guests to the absurdity of their encounter, Privacy permitted that they could communicate in low whispers, after all there was no one except for the bartender present, and Privacy had the funny feeling that the bartender was in fact a lie, so allowing this momentary infringement into their communication, they could proceed in dialogue if they were assigned code names and wore masks, Truth and Honesty conferred with one another and after a number of disagreements they came to the conclusion that they would wear a mask, but a single mask and they would split it in half, as Truth could not have its eyes obstructed and Honesty insisted that anything positioned near its oratory faculties would be a hinderance to its being. They allowed the use of code names, unanimously, as long as they could chose their own, for which Truth insisted on ‘Tortoise’ and Honesty the ‘Hare’, Privacy, after pondering on its own in a corner, decided that this was all appropriate but had to insist upon not being associated with a code name, and that it could not ever show or reveal its mask, but would wear a veil, which Truth and Honesty agreed with because at this point they had been locked in a conversation with Privacy for what seemed like a lifetime, and they were starting to lose their patience with their paranoid host, so Truth remained seeing and not speaking while Honesty blabbed on eyes masked in ambiguity, talking and not knowing to who, or what end, and there sat Privacy between them, privy to what Truth really saw, and what Honesty really wanted to say. 

     Truth and Honesty did not know Privacy’s intentions for their introduction, but found a certain solace and protection under their hosts precautions, yet Privacy had set this affair in motion with purpose and Truth and Honesty had felt the familiar feeling of Privacy’s subtle work, like the dimming of the lights, the closing of the blinds, and the click of the lock. With their cups filled, the guests now felt at home in the underground speak-easy setting, for the first time they felt as though they could let go of their inhibitions, the bartender, whom Privacy still suspected as an agent of deceit had stepped out of the room which made the host even more so at ease to be alone with its guests, and its guests seemed equally at ease, Truth and Honesty could now continue their discourse and the trio chatted happily as the ‘Tortoise’, ‘Hare’, and the unnamed veiled host we know as Privacy. Truth had warmed to Privacy, maybe it was the libations, maybe it was the onsetting of Stockholm syndrome, but Truth was eager to tell their host and the world the secrets of the universe, but Honesty thought it wouldn’t be understood, not yet, not now, Honesty went on and on; about how ugly Truth was, Honesty also accused Truth of making people who have happily gone on believing in God, or Gods, deities, any idea of a high power or uniting force in the universe, made those people look very very silly, Honesty also lamented about the damage Truth had done to the population of unicorns and dragons. 

     Truth thought that Honesty was mean, and had struck a hurtful chord with the death of the unicorns and dragons, Truth had bowed its head but Privacy saw the tears quivering in Truth’s eyes, Privacy also felt for the demise of humanity’s most treasured fantasies, but knew something that Honest and Truth could not, that they may yet still exist, exist in the safety of the human brain, nestled beside hope and ignorance, in private day dreams those dragons and unicorns may still yet play. Privacy had a confession to make, but knew not how to broach the subject, Privacy was dying, it may even already be dead at this time, and all that was present was the ghost of the host. Truth had known this, Privacy’s secret intention to their introduction, Truth had always known their host was dying,

     The minute Privacy was born into this world, at first only capable in its powers of the slightest whisper, the quietest thing to ever exist, within its little body for the first time a being was able to contain its own thoughts, before; ideas and fantasies would bound from every entity and there was a terrible mass of action and activity in the universe, only after some time did Privacy’s powers grow and things were able to contain themselves, with its help, the entities’ abundant thoughts now sealed within their own minds, Privacy allowed everything, even Truth the ability to retreat into the safety of ones own mind, it allowed certain things to pass unseen, so that the world would seem simple to any observer from any perspective. Even then, Truth knew Privacy was dying, the only one able to see the ones who set its demise in motion; Power and Control, neither of which had really liked others using Privacy, but they in fact lavished in using it themselves, they would embrace it like an awkward pair skinny dipping in a sea of champagne, drunk, happy and naked, but with a dark sense of looming guilt, Truth knew though, and Honesty had been screaming it for ages, that in order for Power and Control to really be something, to amount to their full potential and totalitarian glory, Privacy had to die, it was simply in the way, Power and Control hated the idea of a private conversation, and preferred a world more in line with Orwell’s 1984 vision.

     What they had always suspected Privacy of was the aiding and abetting of Dissent and Free-thinking, they thought Free-thinking was dangerous and might kill itself on an overdose of hallucinogenic drugs while attempting to fly into the sun, they loathed Dissent, which they often dealt with through a down crack of sudden violence, which Honesty would point out that only further spread to more dissent, mostly by spreading the bloody mess around, but also because of the prejudices and hate that always grew and abounded in the bloody mess of dissent through their use of sheer brute force, Power and Control wouldn’t kill Privacy in this fashion, so Truth knew they were safe for now without fearing the door being knocked in. As is Privacy’s nature, it was a paranoid thing, and had taken these precautions to avoid that very outcome in any case. But it could not plan for what even Privacy itself couldn’t see, its silent killer floated unseen, unobserved for quiet some time, Truth knew this, but Honesty couldn’t say with certainty until it had the correct scientific tools and intellectual perspective to affirm this, fortunately, little beings of sentience and science had fruitfully been working away at uncovering Privacy’s killer through experiments of brass and glass, thanks to Hertz and Maxwell, Truth knew, and Honesty could name the radio-wave as Privacy’s invisible killer. It wasn’t Hertz and Maxwell’s fault, who to their credit loved Privacy and had spent most of their lives in complete bliss and comfort in its embrace.

     Radio-waves would have undone Privacy without their original discovery, someone else would have discovered them, it was in radio-waves’ nature, they’re everywhere, and that is precisely what led to the death of Privacy, with the all pervasive radio-wave and humanity’s collaboration with Power and Control over it, there was no where left for Privacy to run or hide, the reason why their host chose such an elaborate venue and means of communication for this introduction to Truth and Honesty, who at this point in their cryptic dialogue with Privacy had come to the conclusion that they were witnessing Privacy’s final moments. They saw Privacy as a thing fluttering on the very edge of existence, perhaps that ghost had been present all along, laying dormant, waiting behind the facade of a living thing, it was as if when they saw the radio-waves for the first time for what they really were, they saw the very atoms of Privacy, all that was left to see was its sensorium floating, glowing in atomic glory, just electricity and light exposed and naked in the dark setting of the bar, all that was left was Privacy’s inner thoughts, which Truth and Honesty felt obliged to cover up and bury, but still even after its passing, their was still a whisper in the air, where it came from and what it meant, nobody could be sure.