"Janice is at the door and asking if you are ready to go eat. I would not normally disturb you, but your blood sugar is getting low."
"That's fine, let her in. I'm just going to use the toilet real quick."
He finished and came out to see Janice snuggled into his chair. The butterscotch yellow made her bare skin glow in a pleasant effect that made her extremely attractive, at least to his sensibilities.
Unfortunately, he had always been shy around girls, and the fact of her nudity just made things more complicated. He wanted to ask if everyone went without clothes but could not figure out how to breach the subject.
"Is that the toilet? I should probably avail myself of the opportunity, then we can go eat."
She returned with a concerned look on her face.
"Umm, not to be rude or anything, but you do know about basic hygiene, right? Like maybe a bidet, and a sink at least?"
"Oh, right. I'm sorry, but I fell asleep as soon as Woogie showed me how to make the chair. I'll put a bucket of water in there as soon as I get back."
"No, no, no. You live in the city now, back into civilization. Here, let me show you."
Janice fairly skipped to the Appliance, ordered a few things, and then expanded the toilet walls to enlarge the bathroom.
"This is a specialized mini-appliance that produces a stream of water as a showerhead, and this one is for a sink faucet. This bowl is actually a disposal unit for under the sink, and this larger platform will dissipate the water from the shower. And this attaches here on the toilet to wash your backside. There. Now you can invite a girl over without embarrassment to either party."
"Thank you very much. The basic Appliance out in the world doesn't offer any of those things, and I certainly wouldn't have thought to look in this version. How did the first residents of the city figure all this out? Is there a manual or instructions?"
"Mainly, it came down to simply asking the PDA's. And, of course, people love to share their discoveries. Showing off new tricks is second only to general gossip as the official national pastime. And if you want to know anything in-depth, there is always the Library."
"There's a library? That is one of my most favorite places ever! You'll have to take me."
"Well, not exactly a library, but kind of. Sure, I'll show you after we eat. Or you can just ask your PDA. Anyway, I'm starving. Oh, and the next time you invite me over, there had better be towels."
The door to the hallway opened, and Pablo had to trot to keep up with Janice's quick, bouncing strides. He stopped a moment and almost went back to ensure Woogie followed them, afraid he might get lost if they got separated. He felt silly but relieved when he remembered that it was actually just a hologram in his field of vision.
Besides, Woogie was loping behind them using his short back legs and the knuckles on his long monkey-arms. The length of the walk along the white, featureless corridor was indeterminate, although subjectively, it was shorter rather than longer.
Pablo never shook the slight sense of claustrophobia as doorways opened and closed on their own. The fact that the route was seldom the same even when he traveled between familiar points in the ensuing days gave him an uncomfortable feeling of losing control over his own life.
The changing paths may have been explained by the building's internal variability, but there seemed no satisfactory reason no one met other travelers while walking the corridors.
The final door opened onto a vast space filled with endless rows of simple tables with benches along either side. Janice led him deep within the half-filled space with a purposeful stride as if she could tell exactly where she was heading.
He realized she most likely was following her own PDA. She suddenly smiled and waved both hands to a small group who responded in kind as she and Pablo approached their table.
Pablo was relieved to see they all had clothing or at least various coverings, but as he looked around, he noticed about one out of ten of the general population was as bare as Janice. It was unnecessary to his immediate circumstances, but he really wanted to discover the reason without making an embarrassing faux pas.
Janice gave a full-body hug to the three people on her side of the table and reached across to grab forearms with the four on the other. A middle-aged man closest to Pablo motioned for him to sit, and each member of the group introduced themselves in rapid succession. Pablo was never good at placing names with faces, so he immediately forgot each and thought that Woogie might be even more useful than he first thought.
Janice sat next to Pablo and reached over to tap the table in front of him, which resolved into a slide control for food and drink. She repeated the gesture in front of her own section of the table and ordered.
"Pablo, go ahead and order something to eat. These are my colleagues, as well as friends. We volunteer to show new arrivals the ropes, but our main interest is more sociological, specifically the outside world's changes over time. When you're ready, I should say if you're willing, we each have endless questions. And, of course, ask us anything you'd like. But first, relax and enjoy your food."
An access door opened in the middle of the table, and a tray arose with Pablo's order. He tended towards traditional foods that he had shared with Papi and the other adults for his main course. However, like most youngsters, he experimented with desserts of wildly imaginative flavors, colors, and textures that the older generation found unpalatable.
"Nice to meet you all, and I'd be happy to help any way I can. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why people can eat so much and never gain weight? That was actually one of the questions my Papi had that drove him crazy."
Everyone laughed at the question since it was prompted by the four full platters of food that the petite Janice had piled up before her space and was busy demolishing. Two people answered over each other, but one deferred to an older-than middle-age woman who Pablo soon discovered was the group's titular head.
"The city keeps track of every person's nutritional and metabolic needs and adjusts the contents of the food and drinks accordingly. Health is also analyzed and repaired where necessary, using the same delivery system. I'm sure you've noticed this even with the portable appliances out in the world."
The arrival of the appliances had given everyone the luxury of extended leisure. Pablo had used the time to devour endless stacks of books, magazines, and newspapers within walking distance from home. Much of what he read was out of context since the world had changed so radically, but he retained a very broad, if somewhat shallow, base of knowledge.
"Does it use some kind of retro-virus to change us on a genetic level?"
The group looked at each other and shrugged or avoided eye contact for a moment.
"Our field of interest is in sociology. I'm sure someone, somewhere has absorbed that answer in the Learning room. I don't know anyone personally who has, but if you are seriously interested, you can upload it for yourself."
"Learning room? I haven't heard of that yet."
Janice finished the last of her dinner and was just attacking a dessert or two when she jumped into the conversation.
"He's only been here one day! I just thought I'd give him a chance to settle in before throwing anything more at him. But since Frank brought it up, the learning room has a specialized appliance that you can search for any information you can think to ask about, and the subject matter is scanned directly into your brain within seconds.
You can customize it to go as light or as deep as you desire. There is a limit, though. The human brain evidently has only so much capacity, but the procedure is reversible. It leaves a sort of index so you know what you once knew, just not in detail so you can add other subjects."
"That sounds...wonderful!"
"It certainly created a whole new social structure, that's for sure. Anyone can become an instant expert in any field, whether in the sciences or the arts. At first, some of us were concerned that people would just give up on self-improvement since all the answers seem to be available for the asking.
Instead, everyone has the opportunity to pursue and develop their inner passions to their ultimate potential without the drudgery and wasted time of imperfect repetition and practice.
Take our group, for instance. We all have the same sociology skill levels, yet we filter those skills through our own personalities and experiences. This results in a synergy of ideas and applications that will keep us interested for the rest of our lives. And if not, we can always upload a new field of interest."
"So is the Learning room the same as the Library you mentioned, Janice?
"Not strictly, but they are related. The Library is a hierarchal listing of all the subjects one can scan into the brain using the Learning room. The problem with the Library is the vastness of the database. It's best if you have a clear idea of what you're looking for, and even then, there are so many levels and variations available it's easy to get lost and not find the exact item you might be searching for.
It is usually much easier to have the Learning room work with your PDA to auto-search from your description while it tries to interpret your thoughts. Everyone knows about the Library, but hardly anyone uses it."
Janice noticed Frank get impatient, so she deferred back to him.
"As we've mentioned, there are thousands of questions we would love to ask you over the next few weeks, but the most important is this; have there been any births in the outside world?"
"As far as I know, no one has conceived since the world changed, even those few back-to-naturists who refuse to use the appliances. I don't see any small children here, either. Is it the same in the city?"
"Exactly. The restrictions on mass communications keep widespread panic at bay, but there is a growing concern. Why was all this, the city as well as the outside changes, why was all this provided and enforced if humanity is to become extinct. It doesn't make sense, so we assume we are missing something vital. That's the base reason most of us at this table chose to study and practice sociology, to try and discover an answer before it is too late.
~o0o~
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