In this story, we all live in a prison in solitary cells. The prison lacks regulatory mechanisms except for a daily meal at 7pm. There is no natural light so we all sleep at different hours, and we all sleep with earplugs.

 

We sleep with earplugs. All through the day and night strange figures parade the halls of the prison and shout at us through the bars. Each figure puts its face up to the bars and shouts its say, and each has a different say.

 

There’s one who tells us the government should be smaller. One tells of the top ten rap albums of the year. Another tells of Western Civilization. Another tells of the injustice of race relations.

 

Another tells of a skincare line and also of environmental degradation. Another gives a motivational speech. One tells that women are bad, but sex is good. Another tells that sex is bad, but women are good.

 

One wears a solemn expression and says nothing. Another says nothing but with a smile. Another says he is a scientist and implores us to live as long as possible. One is smoking cannabis and flipping like flash cards through images of apartments in Paris. At least one is disfigured and three are limping. Two are bodybuilders and seven are supermodels.

 

Nearly all of them stick to a script and at least half invoke history.

 

When we are released for our evening meal, the strange figures have disappeared and we are together again. We talk, but we talk a mix of ourselves and what we have heard, since we are starting to become what we have heard in our cells.

 

 

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LIAM POWERS was born in Arlington, Virginia in 1997 and educated at Harvard College. He is the son of two writers. Short stories from his undergraduate thesis were published in Harvard Review and the Harvard Advocate. A postgraduate fellowship took him to California, where he researched water infrastructure and drought issues in the American West. He lives in New York City.

 

The art that appears alongside this piece is by GRANT RAUN.