Vadim Simbarskiy – Cubes (страница 5)

“Well, sushi, sorry, is out of my budget for now.

But if I move to the blue level and get a blue

cube, then I’ll try these sushi. For now… Do you

like beans?”

“Beans?” I asked. “I like them.”

“Well, that’s great. Beans,” he said into the

monitor.

I watched all this, apparently still in shock or

at least not over it. And so I just tried not to

panic and to listen and observe more. A minute

later, there was a knock at the door – a messenger

brought dinner. Stel quickly set the table, and we

began to dine. The dinner, I must note, was not

bad. Beans with peppers, some juice, in general,

not like I imagined from science fiction films,

where they usually have plastic for dinner. I said

this out loud, but there was no reaction to it. No

reaction, just like last time. Stel began to say

something and ask questions. And I tried to catch

his thought, but my eyelids were getting heavy and

simply sticking together. Stel, noticing this,

silently pointed to the bed. I tried to mumble

something like an apology, but my speech was

incoherent, and I trudged to the bed, fell on it,

and sank into a dead sleep.

I don’t know how long I slept. I only woke up, it

seems, at night, and since it was dark and quiet

around, I began to turn yesterday’s events over in

my head. Events or a dream? Could it have been a

dream? If a dream, it was very realistic. And

immediately I catch myself thinking: in that case,

where am I now? I remember being at the construction

site, falling, and then all this… dream or not

dream?.. But Stel’s peaceful breathing and the

flickering light of the lamps brought me back to

the fact that I still seem to be in an unclear

place. And I engaged in what is called “reasoning.”

Well, it does look like the future. In any case,

it’s definitely not Honduras or Antarctica. But

how? How is this possible? Okay, whatever happened,

if it happened to me, then it must be for some

reason. And it’s interesting here, actually. Only

Stel is somewhat strange, seems like a normal guy,

but, truth be told, he never smiles and doesn’t

react to jokes. Why? And he talked about some

levels, cubes. What levels, what cubes? And the

objects are strange, all square, rectangular. And

how could all this happen? I’m in the future!

Fantastic!

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice how morning

came, and sunlight penetrated through the lowered

blinds, filling the room with morning light. From

the rustling coming from the other end of the room,

I realized that Stel had woken up.

“Are you awake already?” he beat me to the question.

“Yes,” I answered and quickly got out of bed.

“Good morning,” Stel greeted me and, gesturing to

the side, said that the bathroom was there.

I found the door behind which was the bathroom,

but it seemed to be locked and didn’t yield to my

attempts to push it in both directions. Returning

to the room, I explained that the door was closed.

To which Stel replied in surprise:

“That’s impossible, as the house control system

recognizes you and the door opens automatically.