Oxygénia

small marbles had to be shook into the destination, a small pit.
Peter remembered having seen many people handling those things
out there on the square, turning and shaking them.
He also saw children in this strange warehouse. They went alone
or in groups, had pale faces, took one or two games and moved on.
Just as in the other building, everything was monotonous, the
omnipresent grey color made it depressing. And one more thing:
there were only very few kind of goods. In a toy store on Earth, one
could see small enignes, cars, rockets and many different
mechanical toys, as well as teddy bears, stuffed plush animals –
oddly enough, here there wasn't a single animal figurine amongst
the toys. And for bricks, there were only grey, windowless pieces
which only could be put together to dark monotonous cube-shaped
buildings.
After the toy department, a book store followed. It was a storage
just like the others. On long shelves, he witnessed a total of only
eight or ten different books – in giant numbers. On the first shelf,
all were labeled "School book". He took one of the massive tomes,
pressed it under his arm and went on. At the moment, he didn't pay
much attention to the other books. He had seen a thin booklet
labeled "Love" and another one "I'm waiting for the Grand Spring
Festival". On the cover of the second one, a man and a woman
kneeling looked up to the sky.
He pressed the school book firmly to his body and felt an
enormous excitement flooding his body. He couldn't help but
directing the translator on it to understand at least the first page.
School book for children
it said on the title page.
Neither an age for which children it was written was stated, nor a
certain topic. In general, it was the only school book in the storage.
He felt that he would find the solution to many of the mysteries
of this strange planet in this book. He paced up his step and
returned into the entrance hall. Once again, he looked around
thoroughly if he could find a staircase or another ascend to the roof
somewhere, but in vain. He hurried out on the street, or more
precisely, on the huge square. From there he went randomly into
the building marked with five vertical dashes. Once again the
already familiar sight: a spacious entrance hall with frosted glass
swinging doors to all sides. But above those doors there were no
symbols. He opened one of them.
It was as if he would have been in the control room of a power
plant, or in the pilot's cabin of a spaceship, or in the cockpit of a
21