Circle In Square
by Ralph Pitre
Pablo was now, "the circle in the square", as the Agent from List Management, said of him. Pablo once fit in quite nicely, amongst others like him in a category sanctioned by List Management. But as time passed, his interests broadened and his spirit grew restless. He no longer fit in. List Management could no longer categorize him. Frustrated, List Management sent a specialist to study Pablo for one year.
The Specialist started his resolution with one word, "Misfit!"
"Pablo Barbie has no desire or inclination to fit in. Any attempt to fit him into a list was met with radical and unpredictable behavior, perhaps deliberately. Lists were modified, re-categorizing others, disrupting lives to accommodate this lone misfit, who would then change abruptly, causing the Crisis List Management Team to trash all their hard work and list tinkering. Pablo Barbie can't be listed. Not even Misfit or the older List Heading, "Floater", would serve to categorize him. Pablo Barbie can not be listed!"
"What does one do with someone you can't list?"
"Where do you send them?
"It's been years, if not decades since we've had a Misfit among the population. I thought we had done away with that propensity. I never imagined that we would encounter someone so rebellious. He has no desire to conform and is a danger to us all as a whole. While being non-conformist might seem desirable or even attractive, to some of our population, it is nonetheless dangerous to society as a whole, actions that might eventually lead to anarchy."
Pablo sits alone in an apartment, used by the police to hold him, until they figure out what to do.
He discusses the possibilities and his options with his lawyer and his father.
An assistant arrives and speaks quietly with the lawyer who then tells Pablo that a sentence of death has actually been suggested by a board member.
Pablo is visited by the board member, Martin, who suggested execution as the only course of action possible; be rid of the contaminant. Destroy it, before it destroys us. Martin reveals a gun he has smuggled into the building. He aims it at Pablo, shocked by the act.
Pablo pleads, admitting he doesn't fit, but explaining that he has committed no violence against a person or society. Martin explains he has done worse.
"The potential of his actions to dismantle what stability we have as a society is too great, too great to let you live. Your existence alone is dangerous, you must go away, so that no one knows what has happened to you, no one knows you ever existed. Don't you see what you've done? I am doing this for the good of all, but I must kill myself as well for society, because of what your actions have driven me to."
"I have not driven you mad. Your own fears have done this to you. You imagine me a monster and fear me, yet you don't know why you see me as a monster. I am a monster because that is the category you have put me in. I did not make myself a monster. You made me a monster. Killing me as well as yourself will only hide the truth about your fears and everyone else. They will always fear change, freedom of expression. They will always fear what they can't categorize. What they can't put in there little lists."
circle in the square
a short story by Ralph Pitre, copyright 1999
1601 Broadway Street, Concord California, 94520
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