I am Lloyd

Past the Wall

Beyond the wall, there is grass aplenty. There are flowers everywhere, and the grass smells wonderful. How can I even smell? I must have been built with a nose. I reach my hand up to my face to feel that I do indeed have a nose. A little bit past the flower bed there is a road leading to a town. I walk to the road and towards the town. When I arrive, a man greets me.

"Hello!" he says. "Welcome to Toledo!"

Inside of Toledo there is a lot of things to see. A place where they keep animals captive, which I never understood. They die in the wild, but they also get to live. However, in captivity, they are already dead inside.

Another thing Toledo has is a giant river flowing through it.The natives must get their water from there. Would water kill me? I wouldn't like to find out.

"Did you jump over that wall all on your own?" he asks.

I nod my head. I've found out I don't speak much and I am shy.

"Come with me," the man says. "I work at an antique shop. We'll go there to talk."

I walk down the road with the man, seeing no bad people. Oddly enough, all the houses in the town are small. Maybe they are insignificant to the world, just as the people are. The man and I finally arrive at his shop. It is filled to the brim with glass, mirrors, pottery, and so much more. I look around and find a broken mirror.

"Excuse me sir," I say. "This one is broken."

"I know. Why do you think it's broken? If it was broken, why would I keep it?"

"Do you have an attachment to the mirror?"

"No, but I am the mayor of the town if that helps."

"Just as the people of this town are broken, you keep them because they still matter."

"Very good! I'm surprised you got it so fast."

I feel...proud of myself. I've never answered a question in my life until now. I look at myself in the broken mirror. I see a broken machine. Am I broken? Or is that just the perspective of some people? Whatever it is, the mirror is still broken. Is it the person, or the machine that is broken? These are questions I ask myself. I step away and go look at pottery when suddenly, a cloth bag is put over my head and electronic handcuffs are put around my wrists.