The next morning, Papi and Pablo breakfasted on cold spam and soggy no-longer-frozen waffles. The gallon of milk was already turning a funny color, but Papi figured it would be best to save the two cereal boxes for last if food became scarce. He cleaned up the table as best he could without water, another problem that soon could become an issue, and opened the windows to let in a warm breeze.
He heard a hubbub of noise in the parking lot and went out the door onto the breezeway to investigate, followed closely by Pablo. The boy did not understand what was happening but realized something had unsettled his Papi.
Nearly all the remaining residents, less than half of the total because of the number of still missing, milled around a large metallic box that appeared unseen during the night. It was a dull gray cube ten feet to the side and four feet high, but Papi could not make out any other features from his perch on the third floor, so he slowly worked his way down.
He hobbled towards the stairs and made his slow, painful way to the parking lot. Most of the small crowd stood a few feet from the enigma, but an old Pakistani widow approached one side and kept touching the top edge while she peered down her granny glasses.
"There's some pictures and slidey things. I need some younger eyes to help me. You! Come here, girl."
She pointed to a young Chinese woman, one of three foreign exchange students that attended the local community college. At first, the girl shook her head but overcame her shyness because of the social conditioning to honor her elders' wishes. They both stroked and prodded the top of the cube at random, growing more insistent as nothing happened.
Just as Papi came near, a panel slid open on the previously featureless side nearest the two women. The girl jumped back in surprise, but the widow peered into the opening, reached in, and brought out an oval container about the size of a gallon jug.
Everyone saw that there was a light-blue liquid sloshing around inside, but no one said a word. The widow flipped open the hinged cap and sniffed. She inhaled again, deeply, then offered it to the girl. She also sniffed, cautiously at first, and exclaimed loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Cinnamon!"
She handed the jug to a man in the crowd, who passed it around until everyone had a turn to examine and smell the strange liquid. Three teenage boys ended up with it and somehow prompted one of the peers to take a sip. Several people exclaimed and yelled at them to stop, but the young man just grinned, took a long swallow, then handed the jug to one of his friends who had to follow suit.
"It's delicious! Strange, but good. I can taste cinnamon, but also something sweet, almost like chocolate."
The third boy took his turn as the fear of appearing a coward superseded his fear of the unknown, and then passed it on. A few of the adults, mostly men, took a sip and agreed it was pretty good. Papi did not taste it, but only because he did not want to be a bad role model to Pablo. He walked up to stand at the side of the cube across from the woman and the girl.
As soon as he looked down, the top of the cube lit up with icons of buttons and slide bars. He gently touched the surface and slid one of the controls, and a series of small images appeared and filled up the display.
He experimented and found that the slides worked on a hierarchal menu system. Groups of icons changed as he moved the slide, and when he touched one of those, a lower-level slide bar appeared.
Papi continued to manipulate the controls while a few of the onlookers peered over his shoulder. He gained a general understanding of the overall system and took an educated guess based on a slide bar that seemed to imply edibles. He chose an icon at random, then worked the slides he interpreted as temperature control and another series of slides that might have represented salt, sweet, bitter, and protein.
There were also options for color and texture, but he left those for later and pushed the largest virtual button. A panel opened on the side of the appliance below him, and he retrieved a covered bowl that proved to be a warm, fragrant steak, albeit bright yellow.
He bit into it while juices ran down his chin and said, "Not perfect, but passable. Once I play with the controls some more, I think it could be delicious."
Everyone crowded around the cube and insisted that Papi show them what he did and how it worked. There was room for four people per side as a virtual screen appeared under each person. The remainder of the curious crowd gathered closer to make sure they got a good view.
Soon the ground around them was littered with jugs and bowls. A few of the offerings were discarded as unappetizing, but only because the flavor combinations did not complement or the color or texture was too strange. There appeared to be an almost limitless variety of slide controls available.
In the early afternoon at the same time as the previous day, an open-carriage floating trolley soundlessly turned into the apartment complex. One woman who leaned against the hood of a disabled car noticed it first, pointed, and arched her eyebrows in question.
No one wanted to risk the unknown just yet, not when their immediate needs were now met. The bus dinged twice and left empty. Despite the fear and anger over their missing loved ones and the mystery of the power outage, the apartment residents came together as a community for the first time and later shared the evening feast in camaraderie.
~o0o~
Five years had passed since the old world ended, and the new one abruptly commenced. As the residents referred to the dispensary cube in the parking lot, the appliance was reliable and without any need of maintenance, anchoring the apartment community.
The wheel-less trolley continued the daily run, but the enigma of why and how abided in mystery. The original population had mostly deserted the apartment complex during the first year, especially when the winter weather arrived.
A few others dribbled in and settled in since there was no easy way to cross the river nor reason to continue through the wilderness on the other side.
Papi had been the first to discover that the appliance also dispensed two portable items that made life without electricity reasonably comfortable. The first was a small heating unit that worked within a specific range of the appliance, although it lost function when taken too far away.
The second was a technological marvel, or maybe magic, as far as anyone knew. They resembled half-height kitchen garbage cans with a wide lip along the top. Anything placed inside evaporated into a smoky mist, including toilet waste.
The device also had a safety feature that ignored living tissue, making Papi trust its otherwise frightening capability. Like the heater, it appeared to have no moving parts or external power source and was manufactured without seams or access panels.
~o0o~
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