Nata Kay - The Choice Era. Part 1

The kindergarten tour was intense and made a strong impression on Harry and Mona. They have been talking about it for a long time, recalled it again and again, discussed global issues and various little things, after which they agreed that the kindergartens were superbly organized.

Despite it had been a while since the tour, Harry found himself remembering it still vividly and distinctly. That was there, in the kindergarten, where Harry realized how much he and Mona would need to raise a truly happy child.

Special institutions, of course, helped parents to cope with many difficulties, but Harry didn’t want to accept the fact that his child would receive the comprehensive development in the kindergarten and poor at home. Harry had to learn to meet the high standards created by society. Fortunately for him, he passed an excellent psychological test that was held the day after the excursion.

The night was about to come. The windows across the street were slowly going down, quietly reminding that many citizens had gone to bed, which meant that the rest of them should do the same. In this district the nightlife wasn’t as active as in the central part of the city. If Harry and Mona wanted to go dancing or visit some noisy bar, they would have to drive several blocks.

Tonight Harry and Mona didn’t have such a desire. Sometimes they felt like spending an evening outside, perhaps in a large company, but now both of them needed comfort and silence, so they were sitting quietly on the sofa in their living room and watching a new episode of the sixth season of the sensational science fiction series.

Mona found the series fascinating, literally «addictive», but at the same time too violent. Nevertheless, she continued watching it to find out how it would end. At least, that was her official statement of why she kept watching it.

Harry wasn’t looking at the TV screen, but rather through it. He lifted his head as if he was trying to focus on a large monitor built right in the wall opposite the sofa. However, he couldn’t get focused on it.

Every time Mona commented something or asked a question, Harry suddenly started blinking and trying to figure out what was happening and what he had missed. This reaction made Mona laugh. Cinema didn’t allow to follow the fast-moving plot inattentively. One had to fully immerse in viewing to capture all the details.

Harry didn’t immerse in anywhere. In fact, he had completely lost an ability not to think about the past day by nightfall. And if he could design a plan concerning Ivy and her daring desires, get used to it and calm down a little bit, it was still hard to loosen up because of the book he had started. And it flatly refused to get out of his mind.

Finally the routine leisure was disrupted for the most common reason. When something important in the series was about to happen, the episode ended. Credits ruthlessly filled the entire screen, unequivocally hinting that viewers wouldn’t understand the story totally and completely again.

Mona waved her hands.

«As usual!» she was outraged. Before the end of the episode she put forward a hypothesis suggesting what would happen next, but now she had to wait for the whole day, because there was only one new episode daily. At such cases a day was no less than eternity. «Why are they doing this to us?»

Mona got up and switched over to her household chores. She was dealing with dirty dishes for a while and then announced she was going to bed. Harry wished her good night and said that he would stay in the living room for a while. He didn’t want to sleep yet and lying in bed and wandering at the ceiling was useless, so he decided to keep watching a sports channel, for example.

«Oh, it’s that sports channel again!» Mona rolled her eyes playfully. She didn’t enjoy such channels and didn’t watch them herself, but she never refused to watch it for the company. «I wish you did sports more often instead of watching it.»

Mona left to get ready for bed and a few minutes later walked down the hallway wearing her favorite lace nightgown. She waited till Harry turned away from the TV and noticed her, then she smiled winking at him and went into the bathroom. After a while she went out, gave her husband a tender kiss and went to bed quietly closing the door behind her.

Harry turned on a tennis match. During adolescent and student years, he wouldn’t mind holding a racket in his hand. Now he wasn’t involved in any particular sport, he limited himself only to some planned trips to gym once or twice a week. With the correct training intensity, this was enough to keep a grown man in good shape.

Harry spent his spare time watching replays of memorable matches. Sometimes he got on live broadcasts, but they didn’t attach him because of his inattention to the standings and to the worthiest athletes.

And now, Harry was watching the court without interest. He wasn’t keeping track and couldn’t even say which teams play which. He only noticed that some of the strikes were very spectacular and effective. Moreover, he was noticing it rather because of the cheering and applauding loud audience, and because of the commentators, who started talking faster and more emotional.

What about Harry, then? Harry remembered that the book was still in the case and he felt almost physical need to reach it and read it to the very end.

He could hardly explain such an unexpected desire to read. Curiosity? A thirst for knowledge and new experience? Or it was sort of charm that impressed most of humanity in ancient times? Harry leaned towards the first two ideas, since he considered the style not successful and therefore not particularly attractive.

When it became quiet in the bedroom, Harry waited a few minutes, got up silently, walked to the door and listened. Mona always fell asleep quickly, and Harry had no doubt she was already plunged into her sweet dreams.

Harry tiptoed into the hallway. He left his briefcase on a couch. After a glance towards the bedroom again, he took out a book and stared at it. It was exactly the same, unless it became a few hours older. Harry curled his fingers along the spine and opened the book in the middle. He opened and closed it immediately.

«No,» he whispered and shook his head. He thought how ridiculous it was to be a man, who was unable to cope with such a trifle as simple sheets of paper decorated with simple letters.

Harry was standing with indecision for about a minute. He couldn’t find the strength to put the book back in the case, so he walked with it into the living room to the sofa. On the way to it he promised himself that he would read a few pages, just to make sure he got involved in it and worried in vain. And then he, Harry, would return the book to the case and forget about it.

In the living room Harry sat down on the sofa and quickly found where he left off at the office. Then, one thing led to another. Harry was looking tensely over the lines, stopping and rereading some of them all the time. Why was this woman doing this? This was illogical. Why did she say that? What a strange woman…

When Harry managed to look up from the book and checked at his watch, he winced. An hour and a half… He was sitting with a book for an hour and a half. He didn’t even notice how time flew by. Maybe the watch was lying? No, that was really unlikely.

Harry was still annoyed by the plot and some of the characters in the book, but their emotions made him think, made him feel his own emotions. Sometimes it happened when he was watching a movie, but now Nelson noticed that reading a book launched some mechanism in his mind, and the whole work of human fantasy started.

Harry didn’t finish the book till the end. It seemed that there was enough food for thought today. Another portion of his own untested emotions could lead to unforeseen consequences that frightened Harry like ghosts, whose existence had never been proven.