My friends tell me that I am strange, I dedicate very little time to the screens of electronic devices, they bore me. Unlike them I rather like to go to the public library, there every afternoon I check out some books on paper where the stories of other times very different from mine are contained.

One of the things I enjoy the most is to look at the photographs printed on the pages, I like more than seeing them on the computer screen, I am impressed by the images of large forests where the green of the vegetation contrasts fully with the blue of the sky.

In my time, year two thousand five hundred, nobody has seen a forest, almost all of them disappeared. They began to die out around the year two thousand three hundred, when the planet's climate became hotter and hotter... There are only two or three regions on Earth, in the Arctic zone, where trees still exist. But almost nobody can go to those places, only a group of scientists are there who are studying how to adapt new species of trees to the current climatic conditions...

Another thing I like to look at in the library are pictures of food, how many different things there were in the past, animals, fruits and vegetables of all kinds. We only have synthetic food formulas, with artificial flavors, by tradition they have kept the names of the past. My favorites are a formula of pasta carbonara and yogurt ice cream with strawberries. Actually those names tell me little, no one has any idea what the ingredients used to prepare those exotic foods were like.

My city is like most of the world, a completely desert area with high temperatures during the day. All our activity is done in air-conditioned spaces, outside it is difficult to be. Sometimes, in the evening hours, we go outside for a bit to see the reflections of the moon on the wide surface of earth and stone that stretches to infinity.

On colder nights I go out to explore the remains of a nearby city, from the times before air conditioning, where thousands of buildings are still standing, almost no one goes there, they are not interested. But I am, there I have found many objects that I collect; thanks to the photos I get on the internet I know how they were called...I have pens, measuring tapes, pen drives and things that surely were useful for the people who lived in those times...

Tonight I take advantage of the fact that the temperature is quite low to go a little further without getting thirsty. For us water is very rationed, we can only drink about two hundred cubic centimeters a day of liquid water, otherwise we quench our thirst with some hydrating tablets that taste very bad to me, and I try not to take more than necessary.

After an hour of walking I reach a building that I had not seen, like all of them it is quite collapsed, I have to step very well in the places where there are stairs, the worst thing that could happen to me is to get trapped, no one would know where to look for me.

Carefully I go up to the second floor and walk for a while, there is nothing that catches my attention, I decide to go up another floor, for safety reasons I never go up more than two floors, if a staircase comes loose it wouldn't be so difficult to go down, but higher up it would be.

On this second floor there are many empty rooms, I walk around here and there and suddenly I see something shiny, some small object that the moonlight has highlighted, I approach and see that it is a small envelope, I throw it in the backpack and return ...

Already in my house I check the object, I look on the internet and I see that it is a coffee package, a very used drink in the times before the air conditioning, I continue reading and it says that it was drunk hot or cold. On the packaging you can clearly read: "your ideal solution, just pour in hot water a portion of the content and that's it, even the sugar we have included..."

I look through my collection and find a small metal container, that would be enough to put in my liquid water ration for the day. Now I just have to leave it outside for two or three minutes before sunset, that will be enough to heat the water..

Already at sunset I put the insulating suit on me, even with it it is not good to stay outside for more than thirty minutes. I take the container and leave it outside. After two minutes it is already warm enough..., the night is falling fast.

Very excited, I open the package and pour some of the contents into the container. I am afraid to see that blackish liquid, I am very suspicious of tasting it...

But a pleasant smell invades me little by little, after a few seconds the intensity of the smell overcomes my resistance and I decide to try coffee for the first time in my life, I am aware that I am doing something unprecedented in my time, that I am privileged... The sensation is indescribable... as if a sweet dream was spreading through me... Another sip and once again a great wave of pleasure travels through my body...

I am happy and sad at the same time, I think of all that we have lost... I feel a little envious for those people who could enjoy every day a sensation like this...

Thank you for your time.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Edited images in HDR Max and Photoshop.

Until the next delivery. Thank you.

The photos, the digital edition and the Gifs are of my authorship.

Logo creado por @themanualbot