Oxygénia

36 – In the park
"Back to the palace with a stopover in YA", Peter said.
Obediently, the car started moving. It went at a high pace, and
soon, the huge block of the Cental Economy Control had vanished
from Peters view. Friendly forests and meadows followed, and there,
the car rose up in the air again, flew along the blue sky in the bright
sunshine above a heart-pleasing landscape.
He had to try to think strategically.
He had to shake out of this petrifying despair.
He was already aware that the society of Oxygénia was a scary
closed world, that every one of his steps was controlled, that...
No, he didn't know anything, and less than anything else, he
knew what was wanted from him and what was planned for him.
The vehicle flew above two snow-swept mountain tops and
landed at a lake shore in the middle of a fairy land. On the map,
this was point YA.
For the first time, Peter saw children nearby. Down in the city of
the Trunk Bearers, the little children went along crippled, pale, with
breathers. Tired and uninterested, they took the grey machine
models and the puppets with grey trunks from the shelves of the
warehouses. In the canyon, however, he had met premature,
hungry children with glowing eyes. But the flock of children that
was dancing, playing and jumping here was the sheer luck itself.
The children sang, danced, yelled, threw colorful balls, played their
wheels and played with wonderful puppets and little cars. Peter
climbed out of the car and watched their bustling. Two little boys
jumped around naked in the crystal clear water of a fountain. On a
tennis square, smaller than the one for the adults, girls in snow
white dresses hit the balls. And the sun shone from the clear sky
above so much undisturbed joy...
In a corner of the playing park, music sounded. Young girls and
boys played beautifully on small instruments which reminded of
violins. Strollers surrounded them and then went on. The youths
gave a concert for their own pleasure.
Just a few meters from the concert stage away was a row of
colorful parasols. Peter sat on one of the tables. Its plate opened
right away, and a cup with ice coffee and cream appeared.
'This is not true', Peter thougt. 'It can't be that on one single
planet, there is so much pain and so much beauty, so much joy and
so much hellish unjustice at the same time. Where had ORO gone?
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