[ WP ] There were no crimes for so many years that all jails were closed . Crime finally happens .

I live in a nice cottage at the end of a nice street, in a nice sleepy town. My neighbours, the Hendersons, were nice people who for the most part kept themselves to themselves. Nice. That's all it is. It was a Sunday, so it was even quieter than usual. Looking out of the window was one of the best sources of entertainment available to me, but this was a slow day so I was only offered a few dog walkers. 
 
 
 Crime has all but been forgotten about. The last ‘ crime ’ was committed nearly 70 years ago by Jennifer Gregas, who spoke during a movie showing in the local cinema. I read somewhere that 200 years ago that wasn ’ t even a crime and now cinemas are illegal. The story goes that once real crime had started to drop off the Government made more and more things illegal in order to protect the thousands of jobs directly involved in the prevention and prosecution of crime. 
 
 
 Owning a TV, using a home PC for anything but work, motorised transport vehicles are all things now illegal. Hell, a gathering of more than 4 people is now a crime. Life is a lot simpler but I can ’ t help but think things were better in the past. 
 
 
 It ’ s 5pm, 14 hours before I have to go to work, by bike, across town. I work on an assembly line in a factory, making bicycles. It ’ s a good job and we get lots of benefits, mainly the company bicycle, but the work is monotonous. At least it ’ s better than looking out of the window. 
 
 
 I ’ m not going to work tomorrow. It ’ s no big deal, we ’ re really overstaffed and it ’ s not as if I need the money anyway. The sirens ring out marking 7pm, the start of curfew. It ’ s illegal to be outside of your home between 7pm and 5am, it ’ s not as if there ’ s anything to do at night, since alcohol was made illegal. I think I ’ ll just go to bed. 
 
 
 There ’ s the 5am siren. Looking out the window I can already see some of my neighbours leaving for their jobs. Riding their bikes that I probably helped to make. Not today, though, I won ’ t be making bikes today. After breakfast I turned on my computer. Since video games were banned computers are only to be used for productivity. I can ’ t live like this anymore. I need to do something daring. 
 
 
 I open up the internet browser and my homepage pops up. The ‘ Google ’ search engine. I looked at the hefty book next to my monitor. It contained all of the words which are illegal to search for. I pick it up and open it to a random page. Meme, Mercury ( Freddy ), Merde, Merlin, you get the point. There ’ s a lot of words in the book. 
 
 
 I decide I ’ m going to search for one, but which one. In that moment my mind goes completely blank. What should I search for? I realise that without any exposure to all of the prohibit things I had no idea what would be the most exciting. After long consideration I decide on a word to search for, ‘ Crime ’. 
 ‘ Your search is too broad, narrow it down ’. Great. After all that deliberation all I got in return for my courage was an error message. It ’ s time to go all in. I now know what I want to search for, ‘ Worst crime to commit ’. I hovered over the search button for what felt like hours before I finally had the courage to click. 
 
 
 Without reading I click the top link, my heart racing with anticipation. Before the page fully loads a pop up message appears ‘ Are you sure? ’ Am I sure? I ’ ve never been surer of anything. I click ‘ Yes I ’ m sure ’ and hold my breath. I can hear my heart beating in the silence, as it dawns on me what I have done. I ’ m going to be notorious as the first criminal for 70 years. My mind races and I start to panic. 
 
 
 The computer makes a sound, and snaps me out of it. I go over to it and look at the screen. I can barely focus on the words in front of me, but after a few seconds they become clear ‘ Download complete: Car ’. 
 

