33. Brotherhood Contact Winston

It had happened at last. The expected message had come. All his life, it seemed to him he had been waiting for this to happen. He was walking down the corridor at the Ministry when he became aware that someone larger than himself was walking just behind him. Winston stopped abruptly and turned. It was O'Brien. At last they were face to face, and it seemed that his only impulse was to run away. His heart bounded violently.

"I had been hoping for an opportunity of talking to you," O'Brien said. "I was reading one of your Newspeak articles in The Times the other day. You write Newspeak very elegantly. Have you seen the tenth edition of the Newspeak Dictionary?"

"No," said Winston, "I didn't think it had been issued yet. We are still using the ninth in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT."

"A few advance copies have been circulated. I have one myself. It might interest you to look at it, perhaps?"

"Very much so," said Winston.

"Perhaps you could pick it up at my flat some time that suited you? Wait, let me give you my address. I am usually at home in the evenings. If not, my servant will give you the dictionary."

He was gone, leaving Winston holding the scrap of paper, which this time there was no need to conceal.

The conspiracy that he had dreamed of did exist, and he had reached the outer edges of it. He knew that sooner or later he would obey O'Brien's summons. Perhaps to-morrow, perhaps after a long delay - he was not certain. What was happening was only the working out of a process that had started years ago. The first step had been a secret, involuntary thought, the second had been the opening of the diary. He had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions.

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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