Hello. I am Number 131, your doctor. Although I am supervising your treatment, you do not remember me. Indeed, due to your, ahem, unmutual circumstances, you remember very little. This is understandably confusing, but I hope you will keep an open mind about what I have to say.
You are a patient at the Village Clinic, where I oversee your case. The Clinic provides health care services for all inhabitants of the Village, free of charge, from cradle to, ahem, grave. Recently, you suffered a traumatic shock that has caused a form of memory loss called profound retrograde amnesia. In other words, you have experienced a loss of memory. This loss of memory occurred because you attempted to escape the Village. It may have been caused by a futile struggle against one, ahem, security system or another, or it may have been a prescribed erasure as an attempt to pacify your anti-social tendencies. The immediate cause of the memory loss is not known at this time, but regardless of what caused it, its persistence and depth is unusual. We believe that this is due to a trauma caused by some action on your part, and your mind has created a barrier as a way of protecting you.
We, that is, you and I and Number 2, had discussed various possible treatments and you decided that your only option was an experimental drug called Mnemosyne....
FACTS AND, AHEM, REASSURANCES
You were brought to the Village after you attempted to leave a post of great secrecy and high responsibility. You may have been a secret agent, an intelligence analyst, a foreign operative, a corporate executive handling confidential matters, or even a religious confessor to the moneyed and powerful. Whatever your job, it made you privy to information and secrets, and whatever your attitude towards your job, at some point you attempted to leave it officially or unofficially. Soon after that, you were brought to the Village to live out the remainder of your days in security and tranquility.
It is the middle of the twentieth century. Human technology - automobiles, jet planes, telephones, punch-card driven computers, plastics, space rockets, the atomic bomb - has not advanced, largely, beyond your hazy recollection of it, though the Village is fortunate enough to possess several advanced pieces of technology not available to the general public for its exclusive use, including a large white sphere affectionately named 'Rover' that handles security, and advanced surveillance equipment to keep you safe and secure.
To most people, the world is a mundane place. The general public is not aware of the existence of the Village. Indeed, it is secret even from the highest level of authorities and governments. Only a select few know of its existence. Everyone else leads their normal lives, going about their business in a day to day way.
You are nothing supernatural. Although you may be a highly trained agent or brilliant nuclear scientist, you are not capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound or clouding men's minds.
Number 2, myself, and the rest of the Village hope that this will aid you in recovering your memory and helping us understand your situation. Please know that we are, ahem, always monitoring your progress throughout the treatment, though, for reasons explained earlier, we will not intervene during it.
QUESTIONNAIRE
1 - Remember the first person you met in the Village.
When I think of ___________________________, I remember...
Why was that person so different after you met them?
2 - Remember your first escape attempt from the Village.
When I think of ____________________________, I remember...
What did you lose during this attempt?
3 - Remember your last assigned, official task in your previous occupation.
When I think of ____________________________, I remember....
Why did you resign?
Do you want to remember?
If you choose to remember, naturally there may be other questions that others have for you at various points. The importance of the information you carry may be vital to the interests of the Village. However, we understand if you cannot bear this burden. If that is your decision, upon successful completion of the treatment, we will selectively remove the memories that are dangerous to you and allow you to live out a fully mutual, adequate life in the Village.
To scour my brain out after watching the first two hours of the remake, I went to the video store and rented the original. After watching The Arrival, my 15 year-old daughter quipped, "Why would they remake this? It's awesome!"
After I dried my eyes, she went on to say that the weather-balloon-on-a-string rover was way more creepy than the cgi version.
Anyways - I think my family would dig playing a Penny-Farthing For Your Thoughts.