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John liked cutting his chop into fine pieces and then spreading some sauce onto them, playfully mixing the pieces on the plate, and then combining one perfect bite: meat, some vegetables and a piece of potato. He would put the bite into his mouth and chew slowly, appreciating both the texture and flavor. His mother prepared such delicious meat casseroles, minced pies, tasty little dumplings with meat filling and grilled steaks with the addition of cranberry sauce, all of which made his mouth water. He also enjoyed the stew which his mother made for special occasions, carefully chopping onions and adding the right amount of flour to make the sauce thicker. He loved meeting his friends in their favorite burger place where you could taste really good burgers with home-made buns and a great selection of sauces and vegetables, from oriental to traditional. He enjoyed inviting his friends for an evening with a film and a pizza sprinkled with chopped meat, or a meaty lasagne with an excellent Bolognese sauce made from fresh and plump tomatoes.
There was a period in his life when he decided to become a vegetarian, after being taught where N.'s meat came from (his mother called it a period of the conscious teenage activism), but after a year his immune system got worse, he would get colds and flues, so his mother decided to put an end to his idealistic ambitions and got rid of his diet by preparing for him a full, fatty broth and a proper dinner with a piece of meat. You could say that he struggled but after a while, he enjoyed eating meat again and couldn't be convinced to do otherwise.
Some parts of activism stayed in his heart, and maybe that's why he strongly attached his future and vocational life with K.
His first school essay on K. gained him a scholarship and a positive comment on the part of his teacher, his choice of career was to his mother surprising but it wasn't devoid of the pride on her part. Not every son had such ambitions. Most boys wanted to have a stable and secure life, a beautiful wife and a beautiful child, secure occupation, a few houses in the suburbs and a few flats in the center; possibly their own plant or production center if they didn't like working for someone else. John didn't seem to crave such security.
John, however, felt that he made his mother worried. He couldn't wipe out his interest in K. but he could well fulfill his other obligations and seriously started looking for a partner.
He logged onto the system and put all the necessary details, highlighting what he liked and didn't like in a woman. He was very precise about her measurements and even provided the picture of his mother as the exemplary first woman of his life, whom he found attractive. Filling in the data and answering questions in his psychological profile was tiring, however, he was proud of his hard work and the summary of the system.
His specific traits were considered to be conscientiousness, loyalty and the lack of appreciation of material possessions. He was valued for his educational achievements and neatness. His interest in K. wasn't much of a concern, but his interest in a woman was likely to perish after ten years of marriage, so he was a potential divorcee with a high status of fidelity on his part. His physical attractiveness was assessed as satisfactory with an annotation that he should devote more of his time to physical exercise and skin protection. His hair was considered genetically perfect, while his teeth were of a standard size and didn't need any improvements.
His specific traits were considered to be conscientiousness, loyalty and the lack of appreciation of material possessions. He was valued for his educational achievements and neatness. His interest in K. wasn't much of a concern, but his interest in a woman was likely to perish after ten years of marriage, so he was a potential divorcee with a high status of fidelity on his part. His physical attractiveness was assessed as satisfactory with an annotation that he should devote more of his time to physical exercise and skin protection. His hair was considered genetically perfect, while his teeth were of a standard size and didn't need any improvements.
The following day he was provided with a hundred pictures of potential partners, matching his interests, psychological profile and genotype. He looked at the photographs and tried to find a common denominator. All of them were attractive and the majority had similar character traits and life experiences. Some of them specified that they were willing to enter the marriage only for the purpose of reproduction, others guaranteed three years of mutual fidelity and a separation to go on with their individual careers. Some of them experienced one or two failed marriages and offered good time spent together, without plans, expectations, and children. Others specified which character traits were considered by them inappropriate and with which they wouldn't be able to deal with for a long time. A small percentage already had children and needed partners to bring them up together. Even a smaller one needed only partners for conversation and didn't consider physical closeness necessary in the marital relationship.
John devoted his whole week to reading through the profiles and choosing five with whom he wanted to meet face to face. He showed the list to his mother who carefully looked at the pictures.
'I know one of them,' she said smiling to him 'A month ago this girl was applying for N. citizenship. She's really attractive. A rare beauty. But I wouldn't try it just now. She's too young. She just started the adaptation process. It's too soon for dating.'
John was disappointed. Mother sensed it by the look on his face.
'But you can wait. Give her some time. I'm sure she'll be a perfect match, however, not so soon. Meanwhile, you can test other candidates.'
John nodded and put the girl's profile in the wardrobe.
Girls from the remaining profiles were particularly attractive. They were entertaining him with their conversations and saying how profitable and lucrative the marriage with them would be. One girl was especially disappointed after meeting him in person, so they both decided to finish the date instantly. And on one particular occasion, it was John who was disillusioned. He couldn't make out what the woman was telling him about, they visibly didn't see eye to eye, so he dropped out from the dating experience and formally apologized for the time taken.
With some of them he had sex in his house, sometimes he invited ladies to his mother's home, at other times he was invited over to his date's place and had some seductive time there. Sex was complicated. Sometimes they were so physically different that the intercourse wasn't complete. At other times they had different temperaments and completely separate outlook on physical closeness and expectations. John liked talking after sexual fulfillment and as he was talking about K. (as that was his main interest) most of the women he slept with were instantly discouraged. Maybe he wasn't that good in bed? He didn't have the courage to ask about such matters, however, in physical matters, he felt out of his element. By talking about K. he wanted to make up for the inadequacy in other areas.
After a month of dating, he decided to stop. Maybe he wasn't the marrying type. His mother was content that he at least started doing something about it and dropped the subject. She even asked about his work concerning K. and didn't stress him about the importance of a relationship. He had still time to conceive his progeny. When she was maturing her parents insisted on her marriage. She didn't have to love the man, she even didn't have to like him, but giving a birth of at least one baby was her duty and early in her life this duty had to be obeyed.
John, instead of being discouraged by the failed dating process, decided to develop his career and, along with his on and off research, he won a position at the K. calculation placement institution. The job was quite monotonous but required some skills. Each year the number of K. citizens was transported to N. for utilization purposes. Some won the post of plant engineers, others were able to apply for K. citizenship as this blond girl from the profile picture. There were hundreds of people responsible for minor number variations. Everything had to be checked and calculated. Closed districts had to be cleaned and inhabited by the remaining citizens of K. And apparently in K. there were funny things going on. There was some gossip about the creation of schools or the imitations of social institutions. John didn't belong to a group believing that K. people were deprived of mental abilities, but he was sure that those years of the lack of civilization made them at least a little bit less advanced. They just couldn't all of a sudden organize themselves on their own. Brains didn't grow on carrots. He laughed. He didn't believe in those rumors.
But he did apply for the position of the head of the project on social customs in K. and applied to the consulate for a visa abroad. As he didn't have a wife, he had time to develop yet another project of his dreams.
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