6

09:58

Gemma was looking with unhidden interest at a queue formed in front of a central building. All men were invited to come and the cause of their interest was two-fold. One important venture was to equip as many people as possible with condoms, the other was to give them a chance to trade shoes, as no one was going to resign from an opportunity to get a pair of shoes even a bit less torn than the ones they were currently wearing. And shoes in K. were given once in a lifetime. Those who had them stolen, used some rubber they could find, and those who couldn't find any rubber decided to go out only in summer when you could walk around barefoot.
All older men from the meeting got the instructions and taught every man how to properly use a condom, and once they were instructed and persuaded that this action would make them more manly and strong, they were let to try on shoes. Melquiades for months was considering what would be so attractive to men, to make them arrive since women and food were in abundance. He contacted the consulate via mail and asked him to buy as many second-hand shoes as he could for the money obtained from the selling of some of Melquiades foreign property, and to ship them in the same manner as four years ago he shipped Melquiades. One evening they saw a plane in the sky and he and Gemma both run to collect boxes. There were many of them: colorful, laced, stripped, floral; trainers, boots, wellingtons, and others, and even Gemma was impressed because Jacob's modest wardrobe couldn't compete with such a varied and unrecorded collection.

A few days afterward they were ready to distribute them along with simple instructions on contraception. They also suggested that whenever a condom was used or torn, or there was even a small hole in it, they should go to one of the elderly men and ask for another one. Melquiades knew that this wouldn't solve the problem but he needed at least a couple of years without the population growth and he hoped that those 20 thousand men who were given the means would spread the news to other two hundred million. And since they had rubber, they might use it for the mass production of contraceptives. People in K. were learning quickly and that was what he was hoping for.

All shoes were taken and Melquiades suspected that there were some men who now owned two pairs. Inequality rose attention and that he was hoping for as well. He wanted people to desire condoms as nothing else in the world.

Next month he asked his friends to announce that men and women who liked children were invited to come to the center of the town at noon. Gemma watched from a hideout as he climbed the monument of Jacob to be seen better by those who surrounded him. He decided to speak to all of them.

People noticed that he was so similar to Jacob that they weren't really sure whether it was not Jacob himself, and even people who didn't like children came to the meeting for fear of punishment.

'Is there anyone who has an experience in taking care of a child?'

Dozens raised their hands.

'Is there anyone who is willing to do that on a daily basis?'

Now everyone raised hands.

'Is there anyone sexually attracted to kids?'

Melquiades looked at about ten hands up in the air.

'Well, so I ask groups one and two to stay for a more detailed interview, and the last one to leave, since our legal system is only about to be created. For those you find a child attractive, men and women: you should be ashamed and suppress your cravings.'

They decided to apply the system Maria once invented for younger girls. Every man and a woman were to find children wandering unprotected and collect a group of ten to take care of them in a small room created in the buildings of the previous slaughterhouses. Children were to be given more proper clothes (also from second-hand shops shipped thanks to the work of the consulate), and they were to be made to stay inside or play outside under the supervision of a guardian, rather than do what they wished for all day and all night. They were to be gathered according to their age: thus groups up to five, ten and fifteen were to be created.

It took months to implement the reform: weeks to train the staff, and weeks to form groups and inhabit the slaughterhouse buildings. And even more weeks to make the news spread to other parts of K. and make other regions follow fashion.

Gemma was actively participating in all the reforms and Melquiades saw that the contact with others was beneficial for her. She started to think on her own, became quite independent and thoughtful, giving him more time for himself, which was a relief. But he didn't want to make her too tired. He was saving her for something bigger. There was one big reform he needed to make. And it wasn't an easy task. At that time it was less than an idea.

Once the kids were put to care, they started organizing the school. Children weren't dumb. They were fluent in speech, very fit, they could cook, take care of themselves and they were really able to survive. The elderly decided that they would only teach them how to read and how to perform some sort of basic mathematics, needed for day-to-day life. For a start. The best ones might have an access to a better education in the future, but there wasn't a chance for everybody. They didn't have enough teachers. To be honest, they didn't have any teachers. When the chain of education was formed, the elderly were training teachers how to teach, those newly-trained teachers would teach groups of older students, and those older students were sent to teach younger ones what they already knew. Even a six-year-old could teach something to a five-year-old, and thanks to that cooperation a very basic education system was created. It was enough. Illiteracy might not spread anymore and that left Melquiades content.

Gemma seemed busy. She didn't visit him, and since her education was finished, she was spending a lot of time in her room and didn't disturb him.

The old man had to work on law and health system, which was exhaustive and didn't have much time left for a cozy home life. K. was getting in shape and it took over five years for him to even start to knead this dough from scratch. Gemma's eighteen birthday was approaching, which made Melquiades anxious for another venture.