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First there was Edmund, begging for his freedom.

Then there is Emily.

They pass in the halls. Tom sees her eyes. He shudders at what he sees in them.

“I can’t help you!” Tom snaps. He flails a hand in her direction.

He is angry because he feels guilty.

Then he stalks away.

“All of them, ” he mutters. “Everyone. Why? Why can’t people just be happy being whatever my hat turns them into? Why must everything be so complex?”

Tom stalks into Saul.

“You!” he says.

Saul hangs his head.

“You want to be re-hatted, ” he says, “Don’t you.”

“Um,” says Saul.

“You are not satisfied with being one thing,” says Tom. “You would rather be no things, maybe. Or 1*i things. You cannot appreciate what it is that you have.”

Cheryl stops in the halls. She looks at them.

“Stop it,” she says. “Tom, you are having a terrible idea.”

“Bah!” he says. “I can recognize my own bad ideas.”

“But you still do them —”

“I am a prisoner of my circumstances,” Tom concedes.

As it was written, so shall it be.

<< Chapter 5: Tom

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