Oxygénia

emoved from his arm, he was allowed to move into a beautiful
house, he was grown up.
Until they finished their studies, the youths lived in mixed
groups, boys and girls together, and spent their off time in clubs. In
the study groups, there were three main tasks aside from the
learning: playing cards, drinking and making love. They got
unlimited supply of a beer-like, slightly alcoholic beverage. Most of
them lived slightly intoxicated from the afternoon until the next
morning. The drink caused a cheerful mood and contained
hormones. On the cards were religious pictures: scenes from the
story of the godly mercy: God breathing a soul into the clay figures.
The arrival of the Evil Bird and the temptation of the beings...
Playing cards itself was a godly action, almost religious. The ceilings
of the sleeping rooms where everyone could sleep with any other at
any time at will were painted blue, together with the sun, the twelve
moons, and even if not thirty-three millions, but many, many
stars... In the clubs, there were books and of course TV. In the TV,
they often watched documentations from the cities of the Trunk
Beares. "The godly mercy also cares for these lower beings. They by
far don't give as much value to the community and to Oxygénia as
we do, but they, too, have a right for food and rationed oxygen", the
narrator taught, and at the end, the thanksgiving prayer was
repeated: "I am a lucky chosen one... don't push me amongst the
Trunk Bearers because of my sins."
OROs first working place was a surgical clinic were he was busy
with the programming of operations and new methods. From there,
he was later re-assigned to his new working place, into the
obstetrical ward.
Down in the concrete cities, no children were born. Children
came there – as it was taught in religious lessons – after the Grand
Spring Festival "out of the sky". The little ones who were born in the
City of the Rememberers, who were nursed and cared for there,
were brought down in the city of the Trunk Bearers at age five or
six, where they were selected after some Spring Festivals by the
machines...
ON had met IF 717 whom he had given the nickname Sunshine
in the studies group. It was usual that the boys gave nicknames to
the girls. ON and Sunshine decided to stay together. Looking for a
flat was very easy, they just chose an uninhabited house. A
machine with a camera at the doors of uninhabited houses gave out
the key after they presented a valid NFC chip, and the new tennant
could move in.
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