ATTRACTION

A few hours later, Jeremy and Sarah walk out of the nightclub laughing their heads off. They are less drunk than they seem; the alcohol and the atmosphere made them cheerful and relaxed enough to dare to get to know each other. They haven't seen Stephan all night, but they both guess he is in very good company somewhere. Since he lives nearby, Jeremy offers Sarah to go over to his place.

'How about your parents? she asks. Sitting at the kitchen table, she is amused by the young man bustling in the tiny kitchen.

'My mother died a few months ago, just before I started at Libra Justice. I don't know my father,' he replies, gently stirring a spoon in a saucepan.

'You shouldn't go to so much trouble for me, it's 5 am.'

'Don't worry,' he says with a wave of his hand, 'When it comes to food, I like to take my time. I'm very hungry. I'm sure you are too.'

'Do you have family in town?' she continues as she observes with great interest each object in the small flat.

'Cousins ​​here and there. A few relatives left with the first colonies.'

Suddenly, Sarah's face darkened. She looks down at her hands on the table, wondering if he knows what happened up there to the first colonies. Probably not. The government has kept the news secret to avoid a popular uprising on planet Earth. No media has spoken about it. Nobody counts the deaths that no longer count. There has been no leak even on social media which has been restricted and no longer free for over fifty years now. All communication with the colonies has been cut under the pretext of preserving the planet's energy and resources. The young woman only learnt about it through her godfather. Borys believes the news will break out sooner or later, most probably when it is too late to intervene.

'And you? Is all your family here?' Jeremy asks as he puts the spoon down onto the counter.

She hesitates for a moment as if sorting out which pieces of information to share:

'The family on my father's side live mostly in Asia, mainly China,' she says.

'Ah yes, I should have guessed with your surname,' he exclaims, taking two plates out of a cupboard.

'Today, a surname no longer means anything,' she snaps, laughing.

Jeremy pauses, puzzled for a moment then he asks her, 'And where did your parents meet?'

Again, she hesitates. She lowers her eyes for a split second, then gets up to take the plates from Jeremy's hands:

'It's a long and beautiful story that only my mother knows how to tell properly,' she says to him with a sweet smile.

Sarah places the plates on the table very slowly as if not to break them. Then, she turns back to him to ask cheerfully, 'Where do you keep your cutlery?'

'In that drawer,' he says, pointing at a drawer behind her.

Jeremy smiles at Sarah and the irony that allows him to finally see beauty in the saddest moment of his life. Sarah is also pleasantly surprised by his natural charm, which she only seems to allow herself to appreciate now. She never knew what to think of him nor his thoughts; His gaze constantly camouflaged behind his huge smoked glasses. Unlike her brother and most people of their generation, she isn't most comfortable with her sexuality. Object of desire of man, by man and for man, the purpose of her existence seems to be 'to please', regardless of her own desires. The survival of mankind depends on young women like her, bearers of the Babel gene. Society keeps reminding her that her body as well as all the choices she makes in relation to it carry the future of humanity. School has taught her the glorious deeds of her forefathers, and how people who looked like her had saved the modern world from Artificial Intelligence's servitude. In comparison, the ancestor people had looted planet Earth then left it for dead, which implies that they deserve everything that happened to their nations including their colonisation by AI. Similarly, people like her deserve their current position as a result of the colonisation by AI. She has always been confused by such a simplistic storyline that seems to fail to explain why the world, her world, still hasn't turned into the so-called better greater place they deserve. Deep within, she knows humanity has never deserved neither the good nor the bad that happened to them. It seems to all happen for another purpose beyond their grasp.

Always concerned about saying the wrong word, showing herself from the wrong angle, making the wrong impression, she prefers not to give any impression at all. Unlike Stephan and the majority of men she has encountered, Jeremy has a different way of addressing people, her including. It feels as if the young man considers everyone as his fellow. Even if he can't look them in the eye, the so-called window of the human soul, he sees them. This makes us wonder how she can relate so much with someone from the ancestor people who also happens to have such a severe disability. She can finally put an experience to a word her parents spoke so much about in her childhood: Humility.