The Light Points

                                                          ‘The Light Points’

                                                               Fiction
                                                                  by
                                                         Gene L. Gillette
                                                  Copyright Gene L. Gillette


Star light, star bright---

“Oh God, what a glorious sight—the light points.”

“You there! What’re you doing?”

“Oh I’m sorry officer; I was looking up at the ---the---.”

"Well!”

“I was looking up at the light points.”

“Where do you live son?”

“Number twenty, building six, thirty-second section, Upper New York.

“Where do you function?”

“Paper paste plant six, New York.”

“Identification?”

“Male, number four-seven-six, Third Century.”

"What were you looking up at the points for? You can barely see but one or two.”

“I was pasting down in the sixth level today. That’s a level we hardly get into anymore--I discovered this book. It was called something--as---strah---, yes-astronomy. It had many pictures in it. Pictures of the points, only there were millions of them. It got my attention.”

“So you thought you’d catch a look on your way home?”

“Yes--I’m guilty.”

“And you should be--Actually I don’t know if you know it or not, but this is one of the few places in the whole New York section where you can see the light points anymore. The incandescents on the glass domes have all but blinded our view.”

“Yes, I know.”

“--I don’t make the laws.”

“Why is that? Why can’t we look at the light points?”

“Well, I’m not sure but I suppose it’s to protect us. The owners didn’t want us to become depressed or restless—to brood about the past. The past is dead. It can be no more. Why remind people of what used to be and can be no more?”

“But the past isn’t completely dead. The points are still there. It’s like the grass.”

“Son!, have you been on the grass?”

“No, but I’ve been tempted. Late at night, I’ve been tempted to sneak out and go over  to the Grass Enclosure. I was going to climb the steel fence and run all over the damn stuff.”

“You better watch what you say.. If you were talking to some of the men on the squad right now, you’d be headed for the interrogation chamber.”

“--I can remember my  Grandfather talking about it. The ‘Great Sacrifice’ he called it. He talked about the ‘Great Fire War’ and how our people came to live inside these domes. He told me of how the owners promised that things would be worked out. That someday we could live outside again. My  Grandfather never lived to see that day--I wonder if I will?”

“Now young man, I think you’ve said---.”

“You know what my  grandfather asked for on his death bed? He wanted to feel some dirt. That’s all. He just wanted to feel some real dirt. I think you know what I’m talking about because you’re on the squad and you have to know about these things in order to deal with people like me.”

“I’m warning you now son, you’ve gone too far. The things you say are true enough,once man was free to walk about the planet, walking wherever he chose; planting his feet wherever he wanted. But it came. The only people prepared for it were the people that owned the blast shelters. They were the ones that survived and built the cities. The owners. We owe them a great deal. They took our forbearers into their shelters and protected them--fed and clothed them. Their way was right and we have followed their ways ever since.”

“But what kind of a life is this? Living inside a---a prison?”

“A prison that protects you my boy.”

“But from what? From what?”

“I think you’ve said enough. You’d better run along now. I’ll just forget I saw you here tonight.”

“If you don’t mind I think I’ll just stand here a minute longer and look at the points.”

“Son--you see that point over there? That’s Sirius.”

“I see it officer. I see it.”



                                            ------first star I see tonight.