Hupert

Chapter 1 (9/9+?)

When the party returned to room 444, there was an envelope placed on the center of the round table.

“The unexpected can be frightening, but there is no feeling resembling the agitation of accepting what the moment offers us” said Paul spotting the envelope.

“An escape from the Cynics’ problem has been handed to us! The Lord is kind and He is on my side!” said Cândido lively when noticing the envelope while they were sitting on the same chairs they were before the coffee break.

“What does it say?” asked Will to Nona who reached for the envelope and went on to open it.

“It is an emergency. I assume we are all acquainted with the constant insufficiency of Socrates in the platonic section of the Island. Well, the circumstance has reached a critical state: the last standing Sócrates is fleeing from his pupils and ordering them to look for the foreigner from Eleia” Nona looked up from the letter revealing an apprehensive complexion as all the other philosophers sighed.

“Oh, that again” said Cândido, immersing his face in his hands.

“It strikes me that, with all the infinite possibilities of emergencies, yet again the worst one has been presented to us” commented Marty, who, even though uneasy with the message, amused himself with his wit.

“It really is unsettling” said Cândido, emerging his face from his hands to look at Marty “but not as unbelievable as an existing circumstance having nothing as its cause”

“Cândido, you present your ideas with such a degree of pride that I am obliged to suspect that you are ignorant of the absurdity of believing such dreadful news as the design of a kind god, when compared to my concept of it originating randomingly twice from nothing” replied Marty.

“Pray, do not persist on quarrelling over that topic” said Will.

“It is not worthy of the inevitable vexation it promotes” said Nona.

“The deficiency of Socrateses being harmful is not beyond my understanding” Jude changed the subject “but I am afraid I am lost when it comes to the foreigner’s topic”

“The words, when embodied in a speech, could be the presage for fearsome events yet to come” was Paul’s attempt to explain.

“Initially” said Will, ignoring Paul “there is no immediate harm from the Socrates’ statement about the foreigner, but we shall be wary now and go to the normals’ territory looking for new Socrateses in order to sacrifice this one as soon as we may”

“What could you mean by sacrifice?” asked Jude, perplexed.

“Here in the Island” said Nona “all the platonists need to suffer the loss of one’s Socrates to democracy. Such tragedy is vital for their understanding of aristocracy as the most valuable form of government. However it is in no extent ecological: the burning of so many bodies every year should be extremely harmful to the atmosphere. We are so very fortunate to have solved all the environmental problems, otherwise we would not have any true platonics”

“I am not convinced you are fully conscious of the gravity of such a statement” said Jude “you were all prevailed upon to kill a great deal of men so that an order is maintained!”

“Yes, and everything we agree to is according to God’s will” said Cândido to a disconcerted Jude