so to me.
A minute later, we found ourselves in some quarter,
consisting of completely identical small red square
houses, separated by straight, even passages
between them.
“We’re here, come in,” the stranger offered,
opening the door. “Oh, by the way, my name is Stel.
And you?”
“Okay, Ben,” I muttered and added: “I was definitely
him this morning,” but without waiting for a
reaction to my apparent joke, I entered the house.
Inside, everything was laconic, simple, clean, and
without any excess. Again, the same strict geometric
proportions, squares, and rectangles. A minimal
set of furniture provided significant free space
in this very small house, which generally resembled
an enlarged shoebox, inside which a room had been
neatly made.
“Sit down, and I’ll organize dinner. And since
you’re from the elite, you have taste sensations,
right?”
“I don’t know what elite I’m from, but I could tell
honey from horseradish this morning,” I joked again.
“Yes, I’m afraid if you’re not from the elite, then
you’re definitely not below the green level. Well,
if you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, let’s eat
first. Today is Tuesday, and in our city on Tuesdays,
you can order organic food.”
Stel approached a large monitor, pressed some
button, and the monitor’s voice asked: “What would
you like for dinner?”
“What will you have?”
“Sushi,” I answered automatically without thinking.
“Ooh,” Stel drawled, “you’re definitely from the
elite if you’ve eaten sushi.”
“Well, yes, of course. Haven’t you?”
“Well, sushi, sorry, is out of my budget for now.
But if I move to the blue level and get a blue
cube, then I’ll try these sushi. For now… Do you
like beans?”
“Beans?” I asked. “I like them.”
“Well, that’s great. Beans,” he said into the
monitor.
I watched all this, apparently still in shock or
at least not over it. And so I just tried not to
panic and to listen and observe more. A minute
later, there was a knock at the door – a messenger
brought dinner. Stel quickly set the table, and we
began to dine. The dinner, I must note, was not
bad. Beans with peppers, some juice, in general,
not like I imagined from science fiction films,
where they usually have plastic for dinner. I said
this out loud, but there was no reaction to it. No
reaction, just like last time. Stel began to say
something and ask questions. And I tried to catch
his thought, but my eyelids were getting heavy and
simply sticking together. Stel, noticing this,
silently pointed to the bed. I tried to mumble
something like an apology, but my speech was
incoherent, and I trudged to the bed, fell on it,
and sank into a dead sleep.
I don’t know how long I slept. I only woke up, it
seems, at night, and since it was dark and quiet
around, I began to turn yesterday’s events over in
my head. Events or a dream? Could it have been a
dream? If a dream, it was very realistic. And
immediately I catch myself thinking: in that case,
where am I now? I remember being at the construction
site, falling, and then all this… dream or not
dream?.. But Stel’s peaceful breathing and the
flickering light of the lamps brought me back to
the fact that I still seem to be in an unclear
place. And I engaged in what is called “reasoning.”
Well, it does look like the future. In any case,
it’s definitely not Honduras or Antarctica. But
how? How is this possible? Okay, whatever happened,
if it happened to me, then it must be for some
reason. And it’s interesting here, actually. Only
Stel is somewhat strange, seems like a normal guy,
but, truth be told, he never smiles and doesn’t
react to jokes. Why? And he talked about some
levels, cubes. What levels, what cubes? And the
objects are strange, all square, rectangular. And
how could all this happen? I’m in the future!
Fantastic!
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice how morning
came, and sunlight penetrated through the lowered
blinds, filling the room with morning light. From
the rustling coming from the other end of the room,
I realized that Stel had woken up.
“Are you awake already?” he beat me to the question.
“Yes,” I answered and quickly got out of bed.
“Good morning,” Stel greeted me and, gesturing to
the side, said that the bathroom was there.
I found the door behind which was the bathroom,
but it seemed to be locked and didn’t yield to my
attempts to push it in both directions. Returning
to the room, I explained that the door was closed.
To which Stel replied in surprise:
“That’s impossible, as the house control system
recognizes you and the door opens automatically.
Well, as usual, don’t you have it like that?”
We approached the door, he grabbed the handle, a
red light lit up on the handle, and the door opened.
“Well, you see, everything works.”
I grabbed