Nata Kay - The Choice Era. Part 1

Interpreter Pelageya Rykova

© Nata Kay, 2021

ISBN 978-5-0053-6600-9 (т. 1)

ISBN 978-5-0053-6599-6

Создано в интеллектуальной издательской системе Ridero

«Why did you even start remembering all this?» Harry was sitting motionlessly, leaning relaxed against the chair back. He desperately wanted to smoke, but as far as Mona was pregnant, he had to forget about smoking in the apartment, likely for the rest of his life.

«Just for fun,» Bob shrugged his shoulders. «This is our history.»

«These are relics of the past,» Mona got up to make another cup of tea. The first weeks of pregnancy didn’t affect her appearance and motions. Friends and acquaintances, unaware of the good news, didn’t suspect anything. «Are we going to look back to primitive people?»

«Why not,» Bob grinned. «Next time we’ll definitely look back to all our charming hairy ancestors. But our today’s agenda is to reflect not so distant times. When people already knew how to make fire using a lighter, but they still couldn’t choose their sex.»

Bob sighed dreamily.

«Just imagine,» he continued. «What would have happened to you if you had been originally born as a boy or a girl. Stop frowning. Come on… Let’s have fun.»

«I don’t want these kind of funs,» Mona muttered. It was supposed to be just another night, full of fun and conversations about nothing, and it was such a night until Bob started focusing on some odd topics. Mona enjoyed it less and less. She got back to her seat and stared into her cup. «To be born originally as someone is pure wildness.»

Harry said nothing and gave every appearance of supporting his wife.

«You’re all boring,» Bob said slowly and frowned. He was trying to get his friends excited for a good half an hour, but they kept resisting.

«But you’re too funny,» Harry tried to joke. He didn’t like that Bob’s topic was making Mona nervous. Though humanity invented a way to stop the genders evolution long ago, no one had yet devised a medicine guaranteeing the normal fetus development while maternity stress. Scientists were certainly working on such product, but so far the results looked mediocre and unconvincing.

Harry didn’t like and always tried to avoid those moments when Mona was nervous. Usually such state was about annoying voice, sudden moves and, of course, a bit childishly pouted lips. But even in such moments Mona managed to be surprisingly charming.

In fact, nature was favorable to her. Only the ones who saw her without heels, knew that Mona was below average height. However, even a passer-by would appreciate her slim figure and harmonious forms. But no, Mona never put anything out to the world and refused any vulgarity and artsy-fartsy stuff, and the same time, in matters of style of clothes emphasizing her merits, she would give a head-start to a lot of people.

Her face features were never out of fashion – large hazel eyes, a neat nose, graceful expressive cheekbones and pale pink pouty lips. Her dark hair was always styled and well-groomed. Mona also didn’t give it any right to grow longer her shoulders.

In short, almost all her relatives and friends considered Mona attractive and only a few didn’t take an opportunity to make Mona a compliment.

But as for Harry, he was one of those men who were not considered to be an example of absolute beauty. He had a slightly elongated face, thin lips, the most ordinary gray eyes and dark hair which Harry flatly refused to cut in not classical style that Mona considered a bit boring.

Fortunately, all the inconsistencies with ideals were compensated by Harry’s ability for self-presentation. Harry always displayed confidence even in those moments when he really lacked it. At the same time Harry respected the limits between the confidence and self-confidence, and despite some people often neglected such limits, Harry strictly complied with them.

Harry’s facial expressions could be called lively and active, but Nelson never stooped to grimaces. He also preferred the right balance here.

«Sense of humor…» Harry looked at Bob again. «Sometimes it is dangerous, you know».

Bob grimaced, got up slowly, walked over the window and leaned against the frame staring out into the street.

The rays of the evening sun lit the street and decorated the pavement with long figured shadows. These shadows were generously casted by signs of any self-respecting street – houses, trees and people. Summer was just getting started, and the hottest days had not bored the citizens of Lydres yet.

So while a new summer was setting in and examining the territory, cars, as timeless as the sun itself, were rushing along the streets. Cars passed so fast that one could hardly mention them. All of them were definitely in a hurry.

Citizens were also in a hurry. It was only them who knew where and why exactly they were going to. Nobody even tried to examine the «neighbor» on the sidewalk. In a world where everyone focused only on themselves, no one paid the minimal attention to people around.

The lanterns had not yet been lit, and the light brown house, located across the road, still hadn’t got the mystery rewarded by dark every night. Nevertheless, the windows of this house were slowly filling with electric light, and in those apartments where residents hadn’t yet bothered with the pulled curtains, one could easily see the flickering figures.

People who lived there many years ago were observing the same picture. It seemed that such similarity with the past couldn’t be possible in a society marching by leaps and bounds… However, it could.

Despite the fact that technologies were moving on rapidly, people eventually realized that it was important to leave some things at least partially intact. It was about, for example, charming architecture, that continued to delight the eye, to inspire and to give coziness. Surely architecture hadn’t been preserved everywhere. Some cities were growing promptly and brought the most modern fantasies of architects to life. But Lydres wasn’t one of these cities. It kept living its own life filled with a light scent of the past centuries.

The only thing that was different from the past was a lack of cars parked on the sidewalk. Numerous underground garages and parking lots had freed the city from the need to contemplate immobile cars. The streets now looked much wider and more spacious.

«I’ll bring you a few books tomorrow,» Bob looked at Harry through the reflection in the glass.

If Mona hadn’t been annoyed by the topic, she would have grabbed the phone and started taking photos. Mona loved capturing beautiful moments and a huge number of various photos were stored in her laptop’s archives.

Bob kept staring without turning around.

He was a little bit shorter than Harry, but it didn’t matter. His eyes were almost always blazing and, according to the widespread belief, it signified an agile mind, vivid imagination and obsessive desire to get involved into some adventure. Although such qualities were often not welcome, Bob found the middle ground between his own desires and normality a long time ago.

«A few books?» asked Harry and squinted. He still wanted to believe that Bob was just joking. This wasn’t the first time Bob attempted to add something unexpected and provocative in a measured life. Sometimes such attempts led to fun, sometimes to awkwardness.

«We have a library left in the city. Did not you know?»

«I suspected it,» Harry nodded gloomy. «But I thought that its only visitors are… freaks.»

«Well,» Bob smiled again, quickly returned to table, finished his tea in one gulp and loudly put his cup on the table. «You’ve spent the whole evening with a freak. Sorry.»