Piper's Tallies

    9,333 days. Only 1,022 more days to go, Piper thought as he scratched another tally mark on the cold, concrete wall of his dungeon cell. For 25 years and three months this had been the end of Pipers nightly routine before lying down to toss and turn on his concrete slab bed dressed with only a flimsy stained up old pillow, a flat, unfitted sheet he tied around a thin half inch thick mat and a grey, itchy wool blanket that was unraveling at the edges that he used to try and keep warm at night. He awoke at an early 5:45 am as usual the next morning to shower then eat a not so wholesome breakfast of a pasty gruel the man serving it called hot cereal. It was accompanied with a pint of 2% milk, a half of an overly ripened banana still in its peeling, a burnt and shriveled up half slice of what is supposed to be bacon and a single packet of sugar. Only allowed out of his cell to eat, shower and work, Piper returned to his hole in the wall by seven am to wait to be let back out at nine am to work.

     Work is a vast understatement for what Piper earned a mere quarter of a dollar an hour doing six out of seven days a week. From nine in the morning to one in the afternoon, he sledged the rock away with a sledge hammer to increase the dungeon prison's size. At one, the workers went to eat a lunch that was just bread and water most days. Every so often, a thin slice of greyish colored bologna or ham would turn the bread into a sandwich. By 1:30, work resumed until 6:30 in the evening when a dinner as cruddy as breakfast and lunch gets served. Piper always opted for a second shower and was in his cell for the night by a quarter past seven at the latest.

     When he went to tally his 9,334th tally mark that night, all the previous 9,333 marks were gone. 

     "Joe," Piper called to his neighboring cell mate, "D'you see anyone in my cell today?"

     "Naw, Pipey, ol pal. But I slept most the day away as usual. You know I's a hard sleeper. Why? Something wrong, er missing?"

     "My whole wall of tallies that I've been keeping track of my time with has been erased. Wall's smooth as a baby's bottom, Joe. Like I never scratched the first line in it. But I've scratched a line every night since the first one." Piper said, scratching his head.

     "Hmmm. You sure 'bout that, ol pal? If the guards filled 'em in then the wall would still be wet with new concrete. And I knows I can sleep hard but if'n they sand blasted 'em away, I'da surely been woked up…. Maybe the time in this place has finally gotten to that old noggin of yours." Joe replied.

     "Aww come on Joe. I didn't imagine doing the same exact thing everyday of my life in here for the last quarter century. Why would my mind create a part of the routine that never really existed? The walls dry and cold as alway. So no concrete fill in. But it's more likely you slept through a sand blasting than it is that I'm going crazy." Piper said.

     "Ask the guard when he does his rounds," Joe suggested.

     Piper twisted the connector that linked the drain pipes of his sink. The long rusty nail he used to scratch out the tallies was still there. He started his count over knowing he now has 1,021 days left in this damp, underground dungeon prison. When Piper heard the footsteps of the guard coming round to do head count, he moved over to wait at the bars of his cell for him. "Hey, Hollingsworth, why'd y'all erase my tallies off the wall? Did they think it would throw my count off? You all planning on keeping me longer than my appointed time or something?"

    The guard answered, "You're losing your marbles, ya old fart. No one erased no wall. I've worked here twelve of the last 25 years  you've been in here. I never saw no marks on none of them three walls. Now shut up and get ready for lights out!"

     Piper went back to his cold, hard, concrete bed and sat down. More confused than ever. Maybe a quarter of a century's worth of next to no sleep and no real nutrition is messing with my mind, he thought. The next morning, he looked at the wall where he marked a new line just the night before to find the wall, once again, completely bare. Piper exclaimed out loud to himself, "What kind of bizarre magic is this!?"

     Despite the mystery of the missing tallies, Piper could do little else but carry out his normal routine. When he returned to his cell that night, he got out his old trusty, rusty nail and carved a new tally mark on a different wall of his cell. This tally was more so for seeing if it would disappear than for restarting his countdown to freedom. Piper stayed awake with his eyes glued to that line in the wall the entire night. When he left his cell to eat and shower the next morning, the tally was still there. When he returned to his cell before going off to work though, the line had completely vanished. Piper exclaimed aloud, "What in the world is going on!? I must be going crazy!"

     Just then a light blue orb floated into his cell and hovered next to him. It spoke to him inside his mind, "You aren't crazy, Piper. You don't need to tally your time away. I have been sent to ask you if you will come work for my boss. If you agree you will work the next 1,020 days for him instead of in this wretched hole in the earth. You'll be free of this place officially and legally with all the pay you have already earned and your new job will pay you much more fairly."

     Piper spoke out loud, "Who… W-w-what…. what and who are you?"

     "I am Bluregard. A child of The Light. I work for The Light. The Light has sent me to find and recruit his other children," he continued on speaking like thoughts in Piper's mind. Since light orbs are souls without earthly bodies, they do not have voices to actually talk.

     Piper asked, "The Light?!? Work? What kind of work? And what is a fair wage exactly?" 

     Bluregard replied, "The Light wants you to plant seeds. Your pay will include food, shelter, freedom and a living wage of $25.00 an hour."

     "Plant seeds? Like be a gardener?" He asked the orb.

     "Yes," Bluregard answered, "but not literally but rather figuratively. The Light has been battling The Dark since the beginning of time. This battle must be fought but it is not a fight that can ever be won or ever end. For the physical realm to continue to exist the battle must continue on. Its purpose is to maintain the balance between love and hate, good and evil, day and night, and so on. Sometimes the balance may shift more one direction or the other, teeter tottering back and forth. But if either one gains complete power and control, then the physical realm will be thrown off its necessary balance and complete chaos and destruction will ensue."

     "Even if the The Light and love win?" Piper asked, somewhat shocked.

     "Even if The Light and love win."

     "How could that be? Why? Please explain it to me."

     "Without darkness, you wouldn't know that light enables you to see. If you never experienced being hated, then how could you appreciate when you are truly loved? If you never suffered through discomfort, would you be able to recognize the luxury of comfort? Do you see how one cannot exist without the other?"

     "I understand, Blu. May I call you Blu?"

     "You may. Well, Piper, will you join The Light?"

     "Is there a catch? Where's the small print? This all sounds too good to be true. Which usually means that it is."

     "There is a tiny clause. You cannot knowingly and intentionally return to work for The Dark even after your contract with The Light ends. Doing so will result in spending the rest of your physical life in a prison far worse than this one. And your after life sentence, before reincarnating, will be a billion times worse."

      "Does that mean I have to live a perfect, error free life!?"

     "Piper, that's utterly humanly impossible. Knowingly and intentionally means that you renounce The Light and do The Dark's seed work conscientiously and willingly.  So, what do you say?"

     "I accept your offer, Blu. So when do I get out of here?"

     "The guards will release you in the morning. I will be waiting to guide you to your new life outside the castle walls above us. You will not regret your choice." Bluregard's words lingered inside Piper's brain as the small, light blue light glided out of his cell and through the dungeon's long, dark, damp corridors. Fifty five years old was still young enough for a fresh start on team lightworker, Piper thought, then dozed off on that concrete bed for the very last night.