Cycle of Time

2.6

As the reading ended the group began to mingle. They talked, and cocktails were served. As they talked they exchanged books. This seemed to be how things happened here. Now books were a rare commodity. Most were in antique stores, or the libraries kept them. The ones exchanged here were mostly the ones that had manages to get passed on through private hands. So they were mostly books that must have been common place at one time. Most of them were fiction. Most of that fiction had become reality now, so that the readers' imagination was stimulated not in thinking about what could be, but the little differences those Sci- Fi writers in the past had missed. It was interesting .It was also amazing how long paper lasted. It didn't get lost like it happened in the digitized world. It just faded away, Uben thought as he looked at the book in his hand. Before he could go any further, the lady on the bench tugged him away to a side.

"So what's going on? How did you find this place?"

"Well thank you very much for saving me from the crowd back there. I didn't get to thank you. I'm Uben".

"I'm Maya" she smiled this time.

I need to return these to you". He took out the pieces of paper he had so interestingly read and handed them back.

For a moment she seemed half surprised then said" Oh thank you very much I thought I had lost these forever," in an almost matter of fact tone.

"I must apologize to having read them. But again I must say that they were a great read. You can write very well".

"Is that what made you come to this place today?"

As Uben started to relate his story, he noticed that Maya was an expressive young women, probably in her late 20s. She had a nerdy look but was somehow attractive none the less.

She did not deny it was her writing. Uben took this as an acknowledgement that she was the author.

"Well we are not a secrete organisation trying to topple the system. Far from it, we are a group of people who have just got together to slow down our lives and to find something different. Most of us seem to find this in books" Maya volunteered an answer even before Uben could ask the question.

"I must confess that I am a private investigator, and this whole thing was so intriguing tome. I couldn't resist following up all the leads."

"That's okay. Do you like books?" Maya's answer was again almost matter of fact.

"I think I do and I rediscovered this in the past week reading your story".

"There's also an experiment going on" she moved on.

"Are you like some group of crazy scientists implanting things into people's brains?"Uben asked jokingly.

"Well in a way we may be the group that is removing the implants that are already in your head," Maya retorted playfully this time.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh don't' worry. I was just talking very metaphorically." What I meant was that the experiment is about avoiding devices. Some have been off them for years" she said looking around at the people in the room.

Uben knew that there were many people that didn't use devices. But the vast majority of humankind was connected, now that you think about it, through these external devices. It was really mostly the homeless who didn't use them. Every essential thing in life happened through these devices, so much so that Uben couldn't remember a time he didn't use them.

As he could vaguely recall there had been some kind of research that tried to point out that these devices were bad for you. But these studies had been disproved by a larger body of studies or that is what he recalled. Maybe it was very difficult to prove they were bad for you even if they were. The tech companies in the meantime had adapted and changed so well that they seemed to have addressed many of the earlier concerns. Or so they said.

"Well that must be hard. But why would you want to do that?"

"It gives you more options." Uben felt that she was playing with him.

"Really? I thought that the whole point of these devices were that they gave you more options.

"Come-on Uben . Are all those options, are they options that you want? Do you really want all those shopping options or things that keep you linked to the system. Have you thought of the option of spending a day just doing nothing but enjoying what is around you, feeling the wind and the warmth of the sun on your skin?"

"All this is for free you know"

"Maybe I should. "

"But you guys read books right .What's that go to do with all of this?"

"I don't know, but books take you to a different world. I feel I have regained a bit of my creative life back now that I'm reading again.