Guys, end of story. I know some of you won't like it at all, but understand that it's not easy to please everyone. I hope you won't be too disappointed. Thank you very much to those of you who have followed the story and, specially, to those of you who have commented and sent feedback!
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I was in the garden that morning, gathering my courage for what I was about to do, when I heard a knock on the gate. I walked over and looked out. It was my friend Liam! I hadn't heard from him since that fateful evening with my father.
-Liam, what are you doing here? Go to the main door and I'll open it for you, my father is not here...
-No, Ethan, I'd rather not be seen coming into your house -he said hurriedly and in a low voice-. Listen... my father has recently joined the Resistance...
The Resistance! The underground movement of opposition to the infamous regime. I had heard something about it, when I was still free, but I didn't know if it was real or a myth. Liam continued:
-I've told him about you and he wants to help free you, to help you flee the country...
-I can't run away, Liam -I said sadly-. It's impossible. You see, I'm not locked up. The doors are open. I could leave at any time... But the collar won't let me. It has a tracker that would cause them to locate me immediately -I had been thoroughly briefed on this, as a warning, when they put it on me.
-The Resistance knows how to do it, Ethan... Listen, I have an untraceable cell phone for you. With it you can talk to my father and he'll tell you what to do. Can you hide it from your master?
-Sure -I replied. There were a thousand places in the house to hide such a small device. That would be no problem.
-Take it -he held out the device-, and wait for my dad's call. He'll make sure he always does it when you're alone. Tell me what times that usually is.
I informed him of my father's work schedule and, with a few words of encouragement, he quickly left. I stood there, stunned, with the cell phone in my hand and not knowing what to think, but being thankful that, at least for the time being, I didn't have to take my own life....
In the following days I was talking several times with Liam's father, Alfred. He was willing to accompany me in my escape. Just the fact that someone cared about me and my well-being was a tremendous novelty for me. I had come to think that everyone was like the inspector or my father's colleagues. Alfred explained to me that the technology of our collars was very sophisticated and it was almost impossible to hack them, but that the Resistance had managed to develop a device that overrode them and they could be removed. The problem was that they only had a single device, as it was extremely expensive to make and quite bulky, and it was located in the Resistance headquarters, in a remote place in the middle of nowhere and far away from the city where we lived. In addition, the arrival there had to be done through secondary roads, rural tracks, always avoiding urban centers... In conclusion, getting there from my house would take at least 7 or 8 hours. The problem was that the moment my master reported my escape, the tracking of the collar would be activated and, one of two things: either they would kill me immediately, activating the collar remotely and electrocuting me, or they would capture us. For me, at that point and as you will understand, dying mattered very little to me, in fact, I was thinking of taking my own life anyway, but I did not want Alfred and the Resistance to pay the consequences of my escape.
We planned it carefully. It would have to be at night, obviously. The cage in which I slept locked up would not be a big problem. After all, it was a cage designed for animals and its lock was more symbolic than truly effective. It would be simple to pick, even for someone as clumsy as me. The real problem was my father. I needed him to stay asleep for at least eight hours, and my dad never slept that long. In fact, he was a bad sleeper, and would often get up several times during the night and start reading or eating something. The moment he saw that I wasn't there, he would report me and everything would go down the drain. To avoid that, Alfred passed me, through his son, a strong sleeping pill. He told me to give it to my father at dinner and that would give us enough time to get to headquarters.
The day came when we were to carry it out. I felt terribly nervous and my catastrophic nature led me to imagine all possible disastrous scenarios. What if my father noticed something? What if the sleeping pill didn't work, especially in a man as strong and burly as my dad? Foreseeing some failure, I came up with an idea. I would leave a note in the cage addressed to my father, in case he woke up earlier than expected. If I managed to move him, even slightly, perhaps the escape would succeed, in case all else failed. The note I wrote went like this:
"Father, by the time you read this I will probably be on my way to my freedom. If you read it before dawn, please, I need to ask you for something. I know you have to denounce my escape but, I beg you, don't do it until the day comes. This is the only way I will be able to do it. If you report me in the morning, you will not arouse suspicion or be accused of anything. Please, Dad, I know I have no right to ask this of you, but I beg you, for the love you once had for me, for the love you had for my dear mother, have compassion and do what I ask of you. If you do not do so I will most likely be executed this very night. Please help me. And whatever you do, know that I love you and that you are still everything to me. Love, Ethan".
The letter was all emotional blackmail, albeit totally sincere on my part. I didn't expect much from it, however. My father had long since been a complete stranger to me.
That night I dissolved the sleeping pill in my father's drink. I had also gotten my hands on some pliers to open the cage, and had hidden them under the mat (it was the only comfort my dad had allowed me to have again after the inspector's visit). I had everything ready.
To my dismay, things did not go well. My father barely touched his drink during dinner. He sometimes did like that. It seemed to me that he had only taken a couple of small sips. Would that be enough? I was really nervous.
When bedtime came, my father locked me in the cage and went into his room. I waited a prudent amount of time until he had fallen asleep, as Alfred had advised me, however, there was no time to waste, so shortly thereafter I took the pliers and tried to break the lock on the cage. It took me rather longer than I expected. I'm such a klutz! But I finally succeeded and slipped out. As soon as I got outside, I taped the note I had prepared to the cage. Then I made my way to the door quietly and hurriedly when I heard a noise. I turned around and I almost fainted. My father was watching me from the doorway of his room. No doubt he had heard me move, despite my stealth. As I feared, the sleeping pill had not been enough. He asked me, harshly:
-Where do you think you are going, slave?
I stood there still, looking at him, not knowing what to say. I couldn't make anything up, or justify myself in any way. But then my father looked at the cage and saw the paper stuck to it. I had placed it so that it was very visible. He walked over, curious, and took it in his hand. As he read it, my heart was pounding so hard I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
When he finished reading it, he stared at me, with an absolutely inscrutable expression on his face. I was feeling so anxious that I was about to faint. I expected at any moment to feel a strong shock from the necklace or for my father to start hitting me. Then the miracle happened: my dad's eyes moistened and a tear slid down his cheek!
I looked at him stunned, had I done that with my letter? My heart was pounding out of my chest. My father nodded his head slightly and said to me simply in a very low voice:
