A note that changed everything

 

1984 Rewriting Assignment

Even now, though his intellect told him that the note probably has something to do with his death, his heart did not want to believe it. His hands tapped against the hard wooden desk with anticipation. He wanted to open the note but a thought kept eating him up inside; what if one of his comrades reads the note. Despite the fear of death, Winston felt a strange warmth creep up on him. He had to convince himself that the note could be something great; something he has always wanted. Finally he decides that if he doesn't take any risks then he won't achieve what the wants; which is to be loved by someone. He takes a deep breath and rolls up the completed bundle of work. He looks over at the note, and how it is just sitting there, poking at his weakness. He watches the clock, one minute passes, then two minutes, he stares at the clock until fifteen minutes have passed. He sighs and starts to grab the note from his jacket pocket, when he hears a comrade calling his name. He quickly puts the note down on his wooden desk, and whips his head around. Its Comrade Phil approaching him, “Hey there, Comrade Winston, the printing machine is jammed and I was told by Comrade Rose that you are superplusgood at fixing things. Could you help me?” He forced himself to get out of the chair and help his comrade as much as he wanted to read the note he willed himself not to. Once he had fixed the printing machine, and was thanked by Comrade Phil, he slumped back into his chair. After a couple seconds had passed, he re-adjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work towards him, with the scrap of paper on top of it. He was about to read the note when Comrade Rose walks up to him and asks if he done with the batch. Winston realizes that he hasn't printed the copying sheet, he goes to the printing machine while Comrade Rose starts to get the batch of work organized. When he returns, he notices that Comrade Rose's eyes were glaring at him, like he had committed a crime. Without making eye contact he hands the batch of the completed work to Comrade Rose, and continues with the next batch of work. He then carefully and slowly takes the note out of his pile of work. He sees that the note is already flattened, but he doesn't think much about it. On the note was written, in large handwriting; I LOVE YOU. For a couple of seconds, he just sat there, which a ton of questions just floating in his head. He was too stunned to hide the note, even though he knew that if he got caught, it could mean death. At first his mind just asked him if he was dreaming, if she was lying to him, but then he started to think about the possibles way he could express his hidden love for her. But he was so caught up in the fact that the dark haired girl loved him, that he didn't pay attention to the fact the the scrap piece of paper was already flattened, and how this little fact would change his life forever.