FLASH FICTION:-- HORROR, SCI-FI, HUMOUR, CRIME, SLICE OF LIFE, ETC.

Friday 22 June 2012

The file on Alicia Fieldstone

I had only been working at the Ministry of Information for a few days, and was still finding my feet, so to speak. As the newbie I was given the trivial jobs to do, the drudgery, the crap that the more important guys couldn't be bothered with.

My task for today was debugging the Fs, trawling through the F files searching out typos and such, I skim read as fast as I could, not absorbing any of the data that was scrolling past my eyes, assessing the threat level of any individual was someone else's job, I wasn't qualified to process any of it anyway.

Then there she was, right there on my screen... FIELDSTONE. ALICIA.

I sat there a little shocked, Alicia lived only three doors away from me, a very pretty woman, twenty four years old according to the file, and single. I had seen her several times, we exchanged occasional smiles on the street, truth be known I was more than a little interested in asking her to go on a date with me.

And here she was, on file in the M of I.

I began reading the file, hungry to know what kind of super-terrorist or criminal had been living in the same street as me for the last two years.

The file proceeded to lay her life bare across the screen.

Every school she had attended, and links to the files of every pupil and teacher there. Her work history, friends, family, acquaintances. And again links to every one of these, and their acquaintances, and so on, like an ever widening spider web.

The file delved deeper and deeper into her life.

Her taste in clothes, make up, art, books, food, television.

Even the minutest details were not overlooked.

How thickly she spread the butter on her toast, which direction she stirred her coffee.

And into the very intimate side of her life.

Her preferred sexual positions. When she experienced her first orgasm, and who with. The links were there to every man she had dated, or slept with, and their acquaintances etc.

It even listed the brand of sanitary towels she used.

There was not one single shred of her life that the file didn't cover, even down to how many times she visited the toilet each day.

When the M of I targeted the bad guys, they certainly did a thorough job of it.

Jeez, I'm just glad that I never got up the courage to ask her out.

I kept reading, looking for the bombshell, for the list of criminal activities either past, present, or suspected for the future, but found nothing, not even a late library return.

To all intents and purposes Alicia was as clean and pure as the driven snow.

I must be missing something.

I leaned backwards in my chair and called over my shoulder.

“Hey Bill, this file I'm looking at, there's nothing incriminating in here that I can see, but she's some kind of terrorist or criminal, right?”

Bill leant across and glanced at my screen.

“Oh hell no, that's just a basic info file, we have those files on absolutely everyone.”

The cold tendrils of fear began creeping along my spine as my mind wandered to the skeletons in my own closet.


©2012 Stephen. J. Green.

32 comments:

  1. At the point at which we find out they've logged her favorite sexual positions, I'm suddenly unsurprised she went missing. It was probably willingly.

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    1. I never said she went missing John, she'll be blissfully unaware of all this info they have on her.

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  2. At first I thought, that's a terrifying glimpse of the future. Then I wondered if it represented the future or the present. Very chilling.

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    1. Hiya Sonya, who knows what files really are kept in secret places? It scares me a bit to think what lengths our government might be prepared to go to in the guise of preventing us from terrorism and crime.

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  3. It seems the blackest mark in Alicia's file is being a neighbor to the narrator. Nice one.

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    1. Thanks Tim. If the M of I have these "Basic info" files on everyone as Bill said, then any black marks at all would be likely to flip the file up a notch or two from "Basic".

      Alicia must have lead a pretty blameless life for her file to remain in the lowest category.

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  4. I'm voting for this being a present day story. Also, I'm wondering what terrible things the narrator has done, or are they just a terrible lover?

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    1. The skeletons in his own closet may be extremely trivial ones, but however small they might be, he now knows that they have been noticed, and logged.

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  5. Is that why our gov't can't get out of debt? They're tracking the BM of every person in the country? It all makes sense now. :)

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    1. Heheh! Don't laugh too soon Danni, he may well be reading your own file when he gets around to debugging the Ps. :-)

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  6. At some point our daily activities become a well organized fail on somebody's computer, and all of a sudden they do not seem so simple and unimpportant. That is quite scary.

    That last line had me wondering, what future awaits our narrator..?

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    1. There may not be anything bad in his future, but I would suspect that anyone working for the M of I would be under far more scrutiny than your average law abiding citizen.

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  7. The Ministry of Information aka facebook?

    A chilling glimpse at the future? or is it the present?

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    1. I don't know if Facebook has a sinister side to it or not, but I think there must be SOME people who have access to all of the information on there. So maybe this scenario is not too far from actuality.

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  8. I was thinking someone was doing him a favor and digging up all of this so he could ask her out. Your way is better...much more chilling. Great story!

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    1. Thanks Eric, I find something like this is rather unsettling myself.

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  9. Knowing absolutely everything about her, now will he even *want* to ask her out? Knowing that whatever happens will be logged in both their files?

    Chilling, dude. Maybe the details are too detailed, but I could see "them" having a file on everyone much like that.

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    1. I think his whole view on life may have changed drastically now.

      I felt I had to add some of the finer details to show just how deep and all-pervasive the surveillance on even the most innocent civilian was.

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    2. I had another thought: maybe this is a rite of passage for new employees. Find out who the new guy is interested in, then tart up the love interest's file and assign it to him as part of a large group. See if he takes the bait.

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    3. Larry you have a very sneaky mind. :-)

      I think you should fill in a job application form, the M of I could probably make good use of a man of your talents. :-)

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  10. Chilling. I am wondering the same thing as the others: is this future or the present?

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    1. Thanks Sonia, I think it works okay for either the present or the future, but is probably more unnerving to think of it as being in the present.

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  11. Ministry of Information makes me think immediately of the movie "Brazil," the excellent Terry Gilliam flick. The direction in which she stirs her coffee? That to me is crazier than the sexual positions. Big Brother at his best.

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    1. Thanks Richard, I have seen Brazil, a great movie, and they too had a ministry of information, I did consider a few other names for the department he worked in, but Ministry of Information seemed the best one, a Ministry always sounds so official and government-based.

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  12. Sounds like this is the start of a thrilling serial Steve...hint-hint. :) As everyone else has said, it is a wonderfully chilling story.
    Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go get cleaned up lest I be viewed as "that woman who never moves from her porch". ;)

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    1. Hi Deanna, and thank you.
      I haven't any plans to enlarge on this story, but if anything comes to mind that I can write as a follow-on then I shall do.

      Regarding the porch Deanna? I think there may already be a paragraph or two about it on your file in the M of I. (Bwuhahahahahaha!)

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  13. By the time I was halfway through this, I was humming my favourite version of "Brazil".

    Wait 'til he finds out what happened to Tuttle because a bug got him mixed up with Buttle.

    Nice one.

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    1. Thanks Katherine. :-)

      It's a great film, isn't it? A wonderful mixture of fantasy, comedy, and violence.

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    1. Thanks Icy, it's definitely one of those stories that makes you wonder where the hidden cameras are, isn't it? :-)

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  15. Put me in mind of Nineteen Eighty-four and Brazil (as someone else mentioned above). Fantastic book and amazing film.

    At least he can be reassured that whatever he's done, they still employed him, although he knows why his boss keeps smirking at him in their meetings now... his boss knows about, you know, that time that he, you know... ;)

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    1. Heheh! Yeah, and I bet every time he thinks about, you know, that time, he is squirming in his seat.

      But then again, maybe he can sneak a peek at his boss's file, and get a bit of damage-limitation info on him. :-)

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