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So when the oldest of them asked us: "Where have you been?" we thought of our glass box and of our light, and we forgot all else. And we answered: "We will not tell you." The oldest did not question us further. They turned to the two youngest, and said, and their voice was bored: "Take our brother Equality 7-2521 to the Palace of Corrective Detention. Lash them until they tell."
Then we walked away together and back to the Home of the Street Sweepers. And we walked in silence. Thus did it come to pass that each night, when the stars are high and the Street Sweepers sit in the City Theatre, we, Equality 7-2521, steal out and run through the darkness to our place.
All men are good and wise. It is only we, Equality 7-2521, we alone who were born with a curse. For we are not like our brothers. And as we look back upon our life, we see that it has ever been thus and that it has brought us step by step to our last, supreme transgression, our crime of crimes hidden here under the ground.
So we awaited our turn in the great hall and then we heard the Council of Vocations call our name: "Equality 7-2521." We walked to the dais, and our legs did not tremble, and we looked up at the Council. There were five members of the Council, three of the male gender and two of the female. Their hair was white and their faces were cracked as the clay of a dry river bed. They were old.
Ever have the Teachers and the Leaders pointed to us and frowned and said: "There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers." But we cannot change our bones nor our body. We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has always given us wishes which men may not wish.
We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we alone are to know it. It is said. Now let us be lashed for it, if we must. The Council of Scholars has said that we all know the things which exist and therefore the things which are not known by all do not exist. But we think that the Council of Scholars is blind.
Then Collective 0-0009, the oldest and wisest of the Council, spoke and asked: "Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar." "Our name is Equality 7-2521," we answered, "and we are a Street Sweeper of this City." Then it was as if a great wind had stricken the hall, for all the Scholars spoke at once, and they were angry and frightened. "A Street Sweeper!
"Equality 7-2521," they said, "your face is white." But we could not speak and we stood looking upon them. They backed away, as if they dared not touch us. Then they smiled, but it was not a gay smile; it was lost and pleading. But still we could not speak. Then they said: "We shall report our find to the City Council and both of us will be rewarded." And then we spoke.
But we, Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish no virtue. Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not well with our brothers. There are Fraternity 2-5503, a quiet boy with wise, kind eyes, who cry suddenly, without reason, in the midst of day or night, and their body shakes with sobs they cannot explain.
Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which all men wear on their left wrists with their names upon it. We are twenty-one years old. We are six feet tall, and this is a burden, for there are not many men who are six feet tall.
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