Иван Перепелятник
The Before Short Story Series. Part 1
The Before Short Story Series.
A short story series. Part 1.
Notes from the future about the technologies of the emerging civilization.
Before: Destiny
Ayaka
‘I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want! I won’t— I won’t eat anything without Daddy! Let’s wait for Daddy!’ Ayaka was as restless as ever.
‘Ayaka, you know it very well: there is a certain way things are done. We always have lunch at 12:30. Don’t you remember what Uncle Manabu was saying?’ Hiromi tried to distract her daughter from the so much detested lunch.
‘No, Mummy, I don’t! What was Uncle Manabu saying?’
‘He said, honey, that the girls that follow their daily routine the right way, that follow what their parents say and do as they say, will always have good health. And as you know, Ayaka healthy girls can spend a lot of time playing with their friends. Surely you want to play with Sano and Ryuu in the afternoon, don’t you?’
‘I do!’ Ayaka frowned, picked the edge of her dress, decorated with pink bear cubs, and lifted it, drawing it onto her head.
‘Ayaka, what are you doing?!’ The mother came up and pulled the dress back. ‘So many times have I already told you, Ayaka—good girls don’t do this! Please, don’t do this again.’
‘Sorry, Mummy. I won’t— And I won’t lunch now either!’ Ayaka exploded with loud objections, only barely not crying. ‘But where is Daddy?!’
‘Good heavens, Ayaka…’
Hiromi approached the kitchen area, separated from the living room by a high bar, and tried to call her husband on her communicator.
‘Hi Keirou! are you coming home? yet long to go?’ she made sure that Ayaka was busy with something and quietly continued recording a voicemail for her husband, ‘Ayaka is refusing to lunch without you. I need you at home. Please call me back, Keirou.’
Ayaka was making her way into her new constructor kit on a sitting-mat in the middle of the living room. The Martian base kit summary read, ‘The Quantum constructor will help your child not only with assembling multi-component engineering systems of a Martian base: development of data analysis skills, systematization and information structuring, creative skills development, and yet more—these are the ways for Quantum to fully uncover your child’s potential. The kit was developed with help of experienced children psychologists and Japan Space Agency specialists. Let your child make a confident step into the new world!’ Ayaka’s straight black hair—reaching her shoulders and tied into a ponytail so that they wouldn’t disturb her playing—for some reason were curling. She was mumbling something to herself while running through the kit details. ‘I wonder whom she’s like with this. Only Grandma had her ends curl too, I guess’, Hiromi was thinking while watching Ayaka play.
‘Aren’t you cold, Aya-chan?’ Hiromi made out some air conditioning sounds in the room noise.
‘No, Mummy, thanks! I feel great in these tighties!’
Hiromi impatiently took the communicator and went out to the balcony to see if she could spot her husband’s car.
‘Good afternoon, Ms Arai!’ a low male voice startled her.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Sano!’ she greeted her neighbour, a very old man smoking on his balcony, through a barrier.
‘Isn’t the weather just wonderful today, Ms Arai? only maybe a little too hot. What do you think?’
‘Oh, Mr Sano, could you imagine it, I even had to turn the air conditioning on. I totally agree with you.’ She spotted her husband’s pickup truck coming down the hill in the beginning of the street. ‘Sorry, Mr Sano! Keirou is coming back, I need to lay the table for my family’
‘Oh, sure, sure! Have a very nice day, Ms Arai!’
‘Wow, again like a chimney—at this point the smoke will totally get into the room. Thank God the wind is the other way today. Not only did he lead himself into such a state, now he wants to help the others too,’ so thought Hiromi about her neighbour, shaking her head on the way back to the living room.
‘Aya-chan, Daddy is back! go wash your hands and we will have lunch.’
‘Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!’ Ayaka leapt up and began to run wild around the room.
‘Ayaka, please, calm down! Grandma Yano will think a volcano is erupting if you stomp your feet so much!’
But Ayaka heard nothing of what her mother was saying. Running up to the front door and having made her way through the lock, she ran downstairs to meet her father, all the while yelling loudly.
‘So many tourists in the park today. There were like two buses of Americans brought here. I don’t even know where they got so many people to begin with! Can you imagine, Hiromi,’ Keirou was telling her wife, ‘two buses! I do think though it was on purpose—it surely is a lot cooler on Deck 1 than in the city, oh yes it is. They must have wanted to save on air conditioning, right Ayaka?’
‘Keirou, don’t distract her please! it wouldn’t hurt you to eat as well, too.’
‘I think, Daddy, that air conditioning needs to be turned off. They are very inefficient energetically. It’s so hot today! Mummy turned the air conditioning on at home. And she also put some tights on me: here, have a look,’ Ayaka lifted her dress in the same way again—to show her father her white tights covering half of her belly, which had already got bigger since she started eating.
Keirou burst into laughter.
‘Ayaka!’ Hiromi called her daughter as though threatening further action. ‘Pull the dress back at once and eat on! Why are you encouraging her, Keirou?’
’I am sorry, Hiro-chan. Sorry,’ he smiled while struggling to hold his smile and throwing a glance or two at his wife. ‘Aya-chan, Mummy was right to turn the air conditioning on. Otherwise it would be too hot inside—you see, it is about two o’clock, and it’s like 30° out there right now. And it probably will get hotter yet! Meanwhile, it is cool and nice in here, isn’t it? And the tights—you were sitting on the floor, so that’s why Mummy did that.’
‘Yes, Daddy, I do agree. It is right. It is warm in the tighties.’
‘The lunch is great today, Hiromi. Thank you!’
‘I am glad you like it.’
‘I like it too, Mummy!’ Ayaka supported her father.
‘Keirou, do you remember that we need to go to Tōkyō next week with Ayaka?’
‘Tōkyō? Why would it be?’ Keirou asked, surprised.
Hiromi looked at her husband with some disapproval, ‘Next week, Keirou, our daughter is turning six. That means we need to go to the Destiny House.’
‘I sure do remember that Ayaka’s birthday is next week, right. But I did forget everything about destiny.’
‘Well now you do remember—so please, we need to think everything out.’
‘Daddy, dad-dy! Look, I’m already done with it!’ Ayaka ran up to her father showing him a finished module of a Martian atomic power plant. A lamp on the module was blinking green, indicating that the module was ready to be connected to the main energy network of the base.
‘Aya-chan, and when did you open this constructor kit? when did you start assembling it?’ Keirou was asking.
‘Sorry Daddy, I had absolutely no time for that!’ Ayaka protested, shaking her head from side to side. ‘Mummy gave me a big reading task last night, it took all my time. I only managed to start it today before lunch.’
‘Oh, I see, Aya-chan. Great job! Let’s see what you got there.’
Keirou picked up the constructor kit box from the floor: ‘For children aged 10 to 14’.
Mt Fuji
‘Have you fastened your seat belt well back there, Aya-chan? Let me check,’ Keirou turned back to the passenger seat with his daughter settled comfortably in a child safety seat. He still had that certain mistrust of the autopilot—as well as of all those novel automatic stuff like artificial intelligences, automata, and robots, which had replaced humans in so many spheres of life—Keirou preferred to drive his car by himself. And it was quite a feat to find a manually-controlled electric car. The production of such cars was limited and in the first place they were designed for special emergency services, military, and some other detachments. However, as Keirou was related—even though only quite distantly—to the Emergency Service, being a member of the foresting service of the Fuji–Hakone–Izu National Park, he had had such a vehicle assigned to him by means of a special request.
‘Ayaka, has Mummy told you that next week you are going to Tōkyō?’
‘Yes, Daddy. Mummy said that we are going to the Destiny House. I have no idea what it is, though. By the way, what will we be doing there?’
‘I will tell you a story, Ayaka, on our way to the park.’
‘Tell it now. Please!’
‘Well, fine. Listen, Ayaka. Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a free ranger in Japan called Mr Fuji. He had no family: he lived alone. He served no-one, obeyed no-one. He had no children, no wife, not even a dog. As the free ranger didn’t need to care about his relatives, he resolved to dedicate all the time he had, his whole life to pursue wisdom from the most experienced, most knowledgeable people around. Mr Fuji decided that he would travel much further than just across Japan: he had the whole world open for himself, as the free spirit and pure heart know no borders and no limits. He decided to meet peasants, military men, sages, merchants, craftsmen, doctors—as many people of different life and craft as he possibly could, to learn from them their way of life, what matters to them, what they believe in, what sciences they learn, how they bring their children up,’ Keirou glanced in the rear-view mirror at Ayaka, who was attentively listening and looking at him from time to time. ‘Mr Fuji travelled so much, visited so many countries that people started composing legends about him. And the tale of his travels spread even quicker than he would go himself. When the wanderer reached a new place, one where he had never been before, the people he would meet there would already know everything about his pursuit, the reasons of his coming, and all that he wanted from them. Some were unwilling to share knowledge with him: they thought it might come to hurt them. Indeed, Mr Fuji had already learned so much, been to so many different continents, met so many learned people… they were afraid he would come to use his newly-gained knowledge to get hold of their houses and riches, to conquer their lands, to drive them away. Once, in a southern land, the free wanderer got caught by barbarians who demanded him to lay all his secrets bare. Mr Fuji was genuinely surprised, “What kind of mysteries do you want to learn about?” he said. “I have no mysteries. I am ready to tell you all I have learnt.” “Then do tell!” demanded the captors. And so he started his story: “During my wandering I visited many wonderful and miraculous places, and met many wise, open, and honest people. They told me so much about their achievements, about their skills and experience, that in the very beginning of my travel I realized that I had to continue not with the goal to learn all those wise peoples knew—for I would be unable to learn even an insignificant share of what they knew—but because when I would some day come back to my native land, the story of my life would serve as a proof that the life that we have been granted is an invaluable vessel. In the beginning it is empty, and what you fill it with and how—what the contents of your life will be, what would be your true goals and aspirations, and whether you would be worthy of your ancestors—all this depends on you, and on you alone. The secret for me to share with the world is simple: we ourselves are responsible for our destinies, we ourselves choose a path to follow. The wisdom of gathered knowledge is a priceless energy, which everyone can obtain and use for others’ sake.” The barbarians did not believe Mr Fuji, they thought he was deceiving them, as the secret he had just told was absolutely worthless, had no profit, and there was no-one it could be sold to. They left the free wanderer alone without food or water in a deep well and told him, “When you can fill this hole with your stories in such a way that your so-called priceless energy of life would lift you up to the ground, only then would you become free. Or else you can tell us the truth and uncover the secrets you are currently keeping—then we will set you free.” But the wanderer had nothing else to say, and so gradually, day after day, his saw his life fade. When Mr Fuji became one of the earth spirits, he roamed far and wide in search of a place to dwell. And so he came back to Japan, and found such a place for himself: such became Mt Fuji, a vessel of eternal wisdom, to be filled by his successors.’
Having made a pause, Keirou continued, ‘This story was told to me by my father—your grandfather. Did you get it, Ayaka, what it was that Mr Fuji did?’
‘I got it, Daddy! he settled in our volcano. Now I know why you are working in the park—you are guarding Mr Fuji, so that his wisdom wouldn’t get lost.’
‘Very well, daughter. It is important to remember that we choose our life course for outselves—what and when we should do, where and with whom we should live, how we can benefit our society, our country the most. Remember, Ayaka, that your life too is a vessel. Just as Mr Fuji’s, it can be filled with knowledge for everyone’s sake. Or else we can live our life in vain, scattering only rubbish on our way.’
‘Yes, Daddy. But there was one thing I didn’t get: why was it that the barbarians didn’t believe Mr Fuji’s words? why, Daddy?’
‘Ayaka, many times people don’t see the most important things they already have in their hands. Often we think that the truth is too difficult, and only having learnt it—having uncovered this great secret—do we realize what it really takes to be happy.
The blue truck drove up to the Fuji–Hakone–Izu National Park main building, surrounded by crowds of tourists—apparently, they had just got off the long row of buses parked nearby. Sun covers above the main building entrance—which harboured a Mt Fuji history museum, some lecture halls, a forestry service, a medical section, and the park administration—made the hot a little more bearable, but it was still very notable. Even the leaves on nearby trees got dimmer, losing a bit of their juicy shine.
‘You know, Ayaka,’ Keirou said to his daughter, ‘you should probably rather study at home today. Look how many visitors there are here today. I guess I will have quite a restless day.’
Keirou was critically examining the tens of people crowded by the central entrance to the National Park. The tourists wanted to get to one of the observation decks on a side of the volcano as soon as possible—and for a reason, as it was likely to be much cooler there.
‘If you go with me, Ayaka-chan, I will be constantly distracted, I will be worrying about you, and so I might miss something important. It won’t be good, will it? so we have a deal, Ayaka, right?’
‘Right, Daddy,’ said Ayaka, barely holding her tears.
Keirou approached the rear passenger door, where Ayaka was sitting to check the safety belts in her child safety seat.
‘Oh, and Mummy hasn’t got your tights off either… this way you will surely overheat here,’ he hugged his daughter’s shoulders and kissed her on the forehead.
‘Shin, would you please bring Ayaka back home and get back here?’ Keirou gave an order to his digital assistant. ‘Tell Hiromi to meet Ayaka near the house and to see her in. When you come back, please park on the staff parking lot. Did you get all of it, Shin?’
‘Sure indeed, Keirou. I will bring Ayaka back home and come back to the National Park main building,’ Shin confirmed receiving the task.
‘Ayaka, everything all right?’
‘Yes, Daddy. It’s only that I want to go with you!’
‘Sorry Ayaka-chan, but not today. Next time, I promise.’
Keirou saw the slowly accelerating blue car leave. The bare peak of Mt Fuji was visible through the leaf cover. ‘Even the snow cap can’t bear this heat, it all melt.’ Making a deep breath of heavy hot air, Keirou walked to the staff entrance.
Ozzie
‘Good Lord! My God! Is there anything at all that you can do normally?! Look at the hole you’ve left here! wow, this block is really worth nothing now. Throw this away immediately! just what kind of work is this, I wonder… that’s no work! that’s some half-assed junk, for all I can say! 100% pure shit, nothing more!’ Jordan got hold of the keyboard and, banged it loudly on the table with anger. A number of keys got loose and flew into his face. ‘Whoa, damn it! damn morons!… get out everyone! everyone out of here! Out no-ow! I am saying, GET OUT YOU DAMN MORONS! I-DI-OTS!’
Lizzie got up from her table, tears in her eyes, picked up her bag, her phone, and went to the exit. Everyone else—not a word spoken—left too. Silence ensued. Only a slight sound of the air conditioning system went on actively filling in the void with an image of office life.
‘Morons! Idiots! Damn it!’ Jordan picked up the broken keyboard and threw it into the wall. Then he came up to the scattered keys and crouched, holding his hands to his head.
A couple of minutes later Jordan got his phone from a pocket of his loose jeans and dialled Beg Shauncan: ‘Hey Beg. That’s me. I got fired up a little here.’
‘Oh wow! who would have thought!’
‘Not funny. I have to face these dumbass morons day after day, all day long. We could have already started the project, were it not because of them! you see?!’
‘Jo, your getting fired up costs us millions… but that’s not all yet! the worst is that the best coders we hire for you refuse to work with you! what shall I do about this, Jo?’
‘But they are just dumb idiots! you do get it! they don’t work—they do nothing but get in the way! that’s all that happens in this damn office! they only slow the thing down! they do nothing to make it quicker!’
‘Well, it’s fine, Jo. I see. We’ll make it work. Don’t overthink it. Let’s make a deal: get some rest. At least today. Please. You are tired. You get so worked up about nothing. Go home. Have a walk. Watch a film. Should I arrange for some girls to visit?’
Jordan sniffed into the microphone, ‘Fine, Beg. I will. I will go home. Sorry. No girls, please. I have a dog.’
The two shared a laugh.
‘Great then. Deal. Have some rest, please, Jo. See you tomorrow.’
‘Bye, Beg.’
Jordan stopped in a parking lot in front of a row of cars. Each parking space was marked with yellow JB letters.
‘The weather is great today. No rain forecast. The clearance of this car is low. It holds well to the road. The acceleration is acceptable. I shall air my head,’ reasoned Jordan while sitting down into a roadster. The Porsche reacted to a Start button pressing: the control panel lit up. He pressed some more buttons: and there was music, and the tin roof folded into the boot. The main screen read, ‘Please indicate the point of destination.’ Jordan pressed Manual control and kicked the accelerator pedal into the floor.
Driving to his house’s gate, Jordan turned the music off and took a deep breath. ‘Looks like I calmed down a little. Beg’s right. I do need to have some rest once in a while.’ Having chosen the Parking option, Jordan took out his phone and made a note, ‘Think what to do with dumb employees—might need an intermediary’. The car slowly passed by the main entrance and stopped in front of the garage gate, waiting for the lifting door to open. Jordan opened the car door and got out. The autopilot system started making sounds of unrest, and Please specify further actions appeared on the screen. Jordan, on his way to the front door, chose the Parking option in the Porsche app.
‘Good afternoon, Jordan! I didn’t expect you so early here.’
‘Good afternoon, Sarah. I didn’t expect myself here either—apparently I will have some kind of a holiday today. I hope I won’t disturb you too much.’
‘I am very glad you came home earlier today—it’s been a while that you have needed some rest,’ Sarah said with a kind smile.
A dog’s barking followed. As soon as she heard Jordan, Ozzie ran to see him through the whole house. Beating her sides with her tail, she rushed into her master’s hands.
‘Ozzie! you my good girl! good! good dog!’ Jordan sat stroking and patting his bull terrier, happily wriggling in his feet. ‘You my cutie! time to get you on a diet, Ozzie. Look how tight your sides have got.’
For a moment Jordan thought of asking Sarah if she was following the indicated diet for Ozzie, but then he realized that this question would have compromised him: how could he imagine the very possibility of the indicated course of actions in his house not being followed.
‘Sarah, today I will have my lunch outside.’
‘I will get it ready in a moment. I need some fifteen minutes.’
‘Very well, thank you.’
Jordan went through the living room to the terrace windows. Ozzie followed him at his foot, wagging her tail in a pleased way and glancing at him every few seconds—making sure that he was still there by her side. ‘The weather’s quite rough today,’ observing the waves, Jordan doubted the feasibility of his idea to have a lunch outside. He looked at the windmills, located as far as possible from the house, so that not to spoil the ocean view from the living room and the terrace. ‘The rotation speed is higher than usual. The wind is too strong and it looks like it can still rain in a while.’Approaching the end of the living-room glass wall, he pressed a button—and immediately a breeze hit his face, as though it carried all the energy stored in the deep ocean. Running out to the open area of the terrace, Ozzie began to bark. ‘Well, five minutes or so and we are frozen here for sure.’
‘Ozzie, come here! come here, my girl!’
By the glass barriers and still barking loudly, Ozzie was looking at her master. ‘Well, let’s see what is so interesting that you saw there.’ Jordan came up to the dog and looked around. A strong wind was hitting his face with cold blasts. It seemed that the splashes of breaking waves down below the cliff were reaching him.
‘Let’s go home, Ozzie. Let’s go.’ Jordan patted his leg and went back to the living room. The dog, waddling slightly awkwardly, followed him there.
‘Sarah, I am afraid the idea of a terrace lunch is not working out. Please bring everything to my first-floor study.’
‘I sure will, Jordan’, the assistant’s voice came out of the watch on his wrist. He appreciated a lot Sarah’s approach to her job, and he did trust her. As much, sure, as Jordan could trust anyone at all. Even so, the fact that he was ready to leave Ozzie with Sarah for a week when going away on a business trip spoke volumes about their relationship. Earlier he would take the dog with him on all trips, which naturally caused a lot of issues and slowed the work process considerably. It was necessary to observe all kinds of quarantines and to comply with all the varied requirements for animal transportation that applied in different countries. He entrusted all house keeping to Sarah. She was the one in charge of organizing and overseeing house repairs, maintaining a fleet of cars, and even of buying his underwear. Jordan set up a separate account for housekeeping, the money in which was totally under Sarah’s control—she would also hire various contractors to maintain all the environment where Jordan led his life. He appreciated—no, he greatly appreciated Ms Estrada’s work and he paid generously for it. Six years after she got the job, she brought over her whole family from Mexico to the States.
Ozzie lay on a leather couch by the window while Jordan sat down at his desk and turned the TV on, choosing a news channel—just to make the room less empty.
‘Did you get cold out there? Ozzie?’ The dog was trying to get her nose under the nearby plaid. Jordan walked up to her and covered her. Sitting down next to the dog, he started petting her muzzle. The black spot around her black eye was suggesting an uncommon coloration: on one side, the left side, she was completely white—and the other side she had it all covered with black spots, just as well as her right paws in black socks. ‘An interesting mutation,’ noted Jordan to the breeder upon seeing the energetic active puppy for the very first time.
‘Oh Ozzie, how quickly flies the time! we’ve been living in this house for eight years already. Soon our big project will be done, my girl. Who knows, what we shall be doing afterwards.’
Ozzie was happily snoring, her muzzle next to her master.
Tōkyō
‘Ayaka, we’re leaving in five minutes! are you ready? everything you need too?’ shouted Hiromi from her bedroom.
‘Yes, Mummy, I am ready.’
‘Ayaka, what’s that?! why are you still not wearing the dress I gave you? why are you in your tights? we have no time at all! the train will be at the station in twenty minutes. Please, get your tighties off quickly and put your dress on.’
‘Mummy, I did everything the way you told it last time: the air conditioning is on, so I am in tighties.’
‘Ayaka, did you get what I was saying—get your tights off and put your dress on! please hurry up! otherwise we will miss the train. We’ll already have to call a taxi to the station.
In ten minutes Hiromi and her daughter were standing on the Tsuru station platform, waiting for a high-speed train that would bring them to the capital city centre in twenty minutes. In Japan, the idea of building underground high-speed expressways was rejected due to the high risk of regular earthquakes, which although possible to compensate with use of some advanced engineering technology of our days, would be simply too costly to maintain. Japan Rail focused their efforts on creating a ground-level system of high-speed trains. Its main working principle is similar to that of the underground expressways: levitation, based on superconductor magnets. As there is no physical contact between the surface of conductive rails, which create a strong magnetic field, and the train, friction can be avoided altogether. Taking into account the unavoidable limitations of the ground level, such as train body air drag, the maximum speed values of Japanese trains could not reach the levels set by the newest transport infrastructure in other parts of the world. Nevertheless though, the artificial intelligence based on the quantum computing power of the PAX system allowed the engineers to increase the reliability and efficiency of the Japanese rail transport system.
On the platform, where a dozen people had gathered together with Ayaka and Hiromi, rang an announcement, ‘Dear passengers! the train No. 3346, Nagoya–Tōkyō, in five minutes will be stopping at the Tsuru station at the second track. The stop duration is limited and will last no longer than one minute. Please make sure to get ready for boarding in advance.’
‘Mummy, look, what a cute train! why does it have such a long nose? Mummy?’ Ayaka was gesturing quickly, greeting the swiftly approaching train.
‘Let’s take our seats and I will explain you everything there.’
‘Sure, Mummy.’
‘Ms Arai,’ a steward approached the newly-boarded passengers as soon as the train started accelerating, ‘I greet you on board the Japan Rail train. Would you like to order anything?’
‘Thank you very much. Could I please have a bottle of still water? It is very hot outside today.’
‘It is good that at least in Tōkyō it is a little cooler than yesterday. Your daughter will feel better there,’ continued the steward while passing a bottle to Hiromi.
‘And we are going to the Destiny house!’ Ayaka was curiously studying the steward’s uniform.
‘This is sure to be a great day for you! I have been to the Destiny house so long ago, but I still remember all about how it was. Me as well, young lady, I went there together with my mother. It was fifty years ago at this point, and I still remember everything. Congratulations! What is your name?’
‘Arai Ayaka, Mr Steward.’
‘Here, Miss Ayaka, please have this gift from the Japan Rail company! and receive our congratulations on this very important day in your life!’ the steward handed a long cardboard box, which had something roll around inside.
‘Thank you very much, Mr Steward!’ Ayaka slipped down from the seat and made a bow.
‘Very well, Ayaka. Let’s see what Mr Steward has given you,’ Hiromi helped her daughter unwrap her new gift.
In a colourful, vividly decorated souvenir box there were a colour book, a set of felt-tip pens, a badge, a hat with the JR logo, and an authentically-styled paper scroll, rolled into two coils on two wooden sticks.
‘What’s this, Mummy?’ Ayaka picked the scroll by one of the sticks, while the other one fell out of the box and rolled down the carriage floor, unfolding the whole scroll.
‘Right, Ayaka, let’s get it all back together quickly. Roll it back in,’ said Hiromi, unamused.
‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘It’s fine, never mind. Please roll it back carefully. It is the history of Japan Rail company. Read it, Ayaka, and then you’ll tell me what it is about.’
‘Sure, Mummy!’
‘I hope there will be enough to read until we reach Tōkyō. Oh, I wish it were,’ Hiromi picked up the communicator and started scrolling through the news feed of House, a social network. She reached the Haute couture, explained in simple words section…
‘Mummy, I finished,’ Ayaka started rolling the scroll back in.
Hiromi looked at her daughter, slightly surprised, ‘When would she have the time,’ she thought, ‘to read through all of that?’
‘Right, Ayaka. Tell me please what it is about.’
‘This is a story about how Japan Rail started building new high-speed train tracks across the whole country in 2059. They also tell about the PAX system and how it helped make the trains faster yet. Mummy, and what is the PAX? tell me more, please.’
Hiromi found an article about the PAX on her communicator and gave it to her daughter, ‘Here, please, read, Ayaka. I sure won’t be able to remember all the important details. Here you can learn a lot more.’
Hiromi looked out the window. The train was swiftly passing by small towns, the existence of which could only be deduced from the sound barriers installed to protect the dwellers from the noise of trains passing by at 600 km/h. Here and there between the hills—somewhere seemingly soft and yielding because of the green tree carpet, somewhere dangerously sharp with grey-brown rocks, reminding of a seasoned predator’s chisels—majestic stood Mt Fuji. This year it had no snow cap because of the unusual for the Eastern coast of Japan heat that came about in August. Hiromi did like looking at it, one of the main symbols of the country—yet she couldn’t help being jealous, resentful of the fact that it was taking nearly all of Keirou’s time leaving her with so little, and that was almost bringing her to desperate tears from time to time. A little animal park, a number of observation decks, meteorological and seismological stations, a museum, an infinite flux of tourists—requiring several hundreds of employees in high season—all that demanded attention and care. ‘Keirou is finding time for them, for Ayaka, but—unfortunately—not as much for me… well at least the article is long enough,’ thought Hiromi and tried to get those unpleasant thoughts away by immersing herself in an article about the summer 2167 holidays season trends on her tablet.
