As time goes by

As time goes by

She had been sitting in her office all morning from 9 – 12 o’clock doing routine work on the central computer system control unit. She liked routine work. It left you time to let your mind wander. It at least was a well-paid job because she was responsible for the files of all the computers used in her country. She knew where to look for certain contents of personal and business files. That morning of June had made her think of her planned marriage. Within few weeks she would be Mrs. O’ Connor. How nice it would be to have the restaurant in Ocean Town 10, which had such a picturesque view on the sea ground with its cliffs and all the sharks slowly gliding along your window seat. Spotlights followed the movements of the huge beasts automatically so that you could follow them with your eyes over long distances. In her fantasy she already saw the beautiful decoration of a large variety of seaweed and mussels. They would have algae-soup for starter followed by grill shark liver with artificial potatoes flavoured with caraway from Scotland. However a voice from the computer reminded her that she had to meet Sean, the director of the genetic institute after lunch. She already knew that he wanted to have some information on how many scientists recently had been successfully doing research on equally intelligent creatures able to fulfil a standard job at a high quality level.
Lunch with Mike would be nice though. She called her mobile telephone and heard a melodious voice saying: “I’m in your handbag. Whom do you want me to ring up?” She said: “I would like to speak to Mike.” While the telephone was dialling Mike’s number she took it out of her handbag. At hat moment she already could see him on the screen. “Hi, Priscilla, how are you? You look tired. Some fresh air would do you good.” “Hi Mike. Well, I’m quite okay. But some fresh air would be a nice idea. What about meeting at Joe’s at the waterfalls? By the way, you should try a different after shave. Yours doesn’t smell good.” “All right, I can smell the flowers in your office. Do you like that one?” “Yes, that’s fine.” “Well. I’ll order that smell for my after shave and you will be pleased.” “Thank you Mike, let’s meet at half past 12, shall we?” “Okay, bye!” She put her mobile back into her bag and it switched off automatically.

Mike was in time. He had come by magnetic tube from Oxford. Those trains were an extraordinary invention. They were very comfortable and fast. You could go from Oxford to Paddington in ten minutes. Of course they were air-conditioned like every room or place where people moved. You weren’t able even to live without air-conditioning. People lived in one air- conditioned area and went to work or to amuse themselves in another air-conditioned area. The outer surroundings had become more and more hostile for people to stay for a longer time. Mike found Priscilla sitting near the falls, which of course were artificial like everything that people called nature. “Hallo Priscilla, I’m really glad to meet you.” He bent down to kiss her cheek. “Oh, that really is a better scent. I didn’t like the one on the phone.” “Thank you. It came by pneumatic post at the moment I wanted to step out of my office into the tube. That was an express delivery. I think it’s great that wishes can be fulfilled so rapidly. But I don’t need to
tell you, because you know how to find and use information”, Mike answered. “You’re quite right. But wouldn’t you like to sit down before we go on talking?” He went over to the chair on the opposite side of the table. The chair turned from the table. It tickled a bit when the chair felt around his bottom to form the seat most comfortably. “Let’s have a drink before the meal”, he said. “What about your wedding?” A smile made her eyes even more attractive. He really could understand that Jonathan wanted to preserve this beauty for a lifetime and keep it as if it was his own. “Well, you know, I’m a bit old fashioned, and I’m a romantic dreamer sometimes. Of course I know there’s no plausible reason in the year 2066 to marry anyway. Children are produced in laboratories and brought up by the state. We are not even able to bear a child. Everyone, except for some especially selected babies that are needed for future breeding has been sterilized at a very early age. But it still is a good feeling to have someone to belong to, with whom you can share your ideas and feelings. I love Jonathan. That’s it.” “But don’t you think it will become very boring soon if you are bound to stay with one man only?” Priscilla sipped from her glass of tomato juice. She didn’t want to answer his last question. Her way of being old fashioned and having romantic feelings were things that made her something special. She could feel as an individual, which gave her strength and made her successful.
“As you already know”, she then continued, “I’m one of those few people who still have got natural parents. There I learned what love really means, and how precious it is if you can rely on your partner as long as you live. But I’m also glad to live now and not 60 years ago. Life was so much harder then… Do you know that children had to go to school then, had to learn how to write and read and to remember what they had read in their school books and had been taught by their teachers?” “I’m glad”, he invented, “that there are no books necessary any longer, and you needn’t remember any facts you learned before except for which button you’ve got to touch on your computer. Though, I must admit, some books that I saw in a museum some time ago look nice, and I can imagine that they might be a nice form of decoration.” “Well, my great- grandmother was still able to read those books. I didn’t get to know her because she died before I was born. But my grandmother sometimes told me of those old days.” “How interesting”, he remarked, “What was it like then? How did they live?” “As far as I remember it was much harder to live then. People still had to work with their hands to earn their living. They were afraid to lose their jobs and had to travel far from their homes to find suitable work that was paid well enough. Everyone had to earn his own living.” “How horrible”, he put in, “I think the state is responsible for the people living there. So they must provide jobs that are well-paid for everyone.” “But just think”, she added, “in those days people not only had to go to school, learn for exams, apply for a job, and if they’d got one be afraid to get out of work again, they also had to decide who was to govern them. They called it democratic election. Now, everyone today knows what has come of democracy. I think the only good way to live is as we do it now.” “Right you are”, he continued her ideas. “By the way, where’s Jonathan? I haven’t seen him for ages!” “He had to go to Peking. He’s got some business there with some people of the government. You know, he has to make his report about economies in Western Europe. Those Chinese always think everything must be under supervision.”
“He will stay longer then, won’t he?” “No, he’ll be back soon, because we must organize everything for our wedding.” she answered.
“Well, I think it’s a really good thing to have the government in China. They do a good job and everything has become better since they occupied Europe 30 years ago.”
“Well, I agree”, she said, “Just think of all those wonderful originally German inventions that have come to us via China. And just think, at the beginning of the century, those Germans were stupid enough to think they could profit by letting the Chinese participate in their ideas and inventions only to make them copy them and produce them much cheaper.” “I know”, he said, “And it was quite easy for them to occupy all our countries because Europeans had become such peace- loving people that they even didn’t try to defend themselves.”
“Dear me”, she suddenly said, “We’re talking and talking and I’m nearly forgetting that I must keep an appointment. I hope to see you on my wedding. Bye, I have to go now.”

To meet Sean Priscilla had to leave the air- conditioned area and walk for over a mile through deserted countryside. The air was hot and dry and she could hardly breathe. Although she had quickly taken her handy oxygen mask, which she always carried with her for such an emergency. The heat was hardly to bear. The ground under her feet was dusty and deep cracks went through it, and lizards hurriedly disappeared when she came near. Swarms of grasshoppers made it become nearly dark suddenly. Trees had died and everything was barren and like a desert. It was only a walk of about a quarter of an hour but she was totally exhausted when she reached the entrance of the next air-conditioned area.
“We should thank God that he has given us such a wonderful material as glass.” she thought.
After she had recovered and put away her oxygen mask, she took out her mirror to look if she was alright. She looked on the information board to find out where Sean’s office was. She’d just found his name on the board when she heard a voice. “Hi, darling. I’ve sent you a message. Please take your mobile.” She groped in her handbag to find her mobile. What was Jonathan trying to tell her? Something made her nervous. “But no, Jonathan must be alright. Nothing can have happened to him; otherwise he won’t send me a message.” Something made her hesitate. Finally she looked on the screen. What she saw came like lightning from the blue sky. If she had expected anything, it wouldn’t have been this message. “Sorry to disappoint you. I’ve got another week or more to work in Peking. Please cancel all the arrangements for our wedding. We must postpone this event. We’ll have to talk when I come back. I kiss you. Jonathan.” She felt her heart beating and had to take a deep breath in order not to faint. Something told her that that was the catastrophe of which she thought that it would never happen. She knew that all her dreams of a romantic life with Jonathan had been dreamt a little too long. She sat down on a bench at the next corner to organize her thoughts.
People went by and some looked at her and smiled when they saw her beauty. But she didn’t even take notice of them. There was a long hard way in front of her.
She looked on her watch. Realizing that she had to meet Sean in five minutes she pushed away all her sad thoughts and did her job as usual.

When she rang at the door she thought of Mike and what a pity it was that he couldn’t come to her wedding.