The first of us was walking along the road to the small town on a cold windy day. An old lady driving the same way pulled up beside him and asked if he could use a lift.
“Where are you going young man?”
“Our house”
“And where is that?”
The young man showed her a piece of paper with an address on the opposite side of town.
The lady was kind enough to drop him off in front of the house.
The young man soon settled into the daily rhythm of the small town. Everyday he would go and sit in the park, watching everything and nothing. In about a week, birds would alight on his head and squirrels would run up and down his shoulder. Parents would leave their children with not so much as a second glance in his “care.” When asked who would look after their children, they would say “That nice young man over there, he is my neighbor.” This was despite the fact that not one word (except a nod now and then in greeting) had he exchange with any of them.
In his mind was a question and an answer:
“Why are you here?”
“I am the first of us, and I know the way”

A month passed and one cold miserable day, a second man was found walking towards the town. He also got a lift from some passerby who dropped him off in front of the same house.
A quiet knock on the door. The first of us opened the door an inch and looked at the newcomer. Neither showed any surprise that they appeared to be identical in all visible aspects. The first of us asked the question “Why are you here?” to which the answer was given “I am the second of us, and I have the key”. The door was fully opened and the newcomer went in, immediately descending to the basement of the house, where he proceeded to open a great door with a key that was in his pocket.
The two lived quietly in the house. Saying very little to each other or to the town’s people. Yet, people who only just met them thought they had known them for ages.
A further month passed and a newcomer knocked on the front door of the house. The door was opened and the two occupants of the house saw before them a man that could have passed for their twin. The question was repeated “Why are you here?” to which the newcomer answered, “I am the third of us, and I have the plan”
And as if on cue, the three identical men then chanted:
– Three is the number
– We have been sent to put order into this chaos
– We shall destroy to build
– And build to last
– But what we build shall be built on tears, sweat and blood

And that was the beginning of an end and a beginning.