Unwanted child
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Every day, he came to the room with the baby and fruit. When Lars came inside, he lit a scented candle, put it on the bedside table, and put her favourite sweets in a saucer. She was tied to the bunk and there was no way she could eat them. It was part of some inalienable personal ritual for the man, carried out for the health of his wife. He knew how dear Theodore was to Inessa and how she felt about him, so Lars had hoped to the last moment to awaken in her new strength to fight the incurable disease by bringing a child with him. However, these attempts, as well as many others, proved futile. In May 743, Inessa died of the Hyena disease, making Lars a single father. Although, in fact, he had been such a long time ago, and now, it was only officially registered in the city registry.
The first arrival
The year is 744. It's been exactly one year since Inessa's death. Theodore was three years old. The family business had gone under. Lars practically stopped coming to his restaurant. More and more often he went to the bar to forget himself with a few beers or something stronger. The grief-stricken father of a young child tried to cope with the loss of his wife through alcohol, sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss of misery and frustration. Caring for the boy continued to be a mere formality without any feelings of love and care. Lars couldn't wait until the month of August to dump the burden in the Children's Educational Centre (or CEC for short) far away from himself.
This was the name given to all existing educational centres for children aged three to six. There were many such urban and rural institutions in the world. The main task of which was to identify talents in the kids. On the basis of appropriate recommendations from the teachers, parents would send their children to schools where they would be trained for their future professions. Lars was not the kind of parent who cared about the welfare of his child. He never dreamed of finding out what talent lay in his son. For him, the CEC was just a place where he could send his child for a long period of time. The classes were held on weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. If it had been up to Lars, he would have left Theodore there forever and would not have regretted it.
The month of August has arrived. Crowds of parents and their children rushed to the gates of the CEC to celebrate the first school day. As the population of the village was small, there was only one CEC. This only added to the excitement of the enthusiastic parents who were genuinely proud that their children were entering a new phase of life. Where they had yet to learn about such concepts as ‘independence’, ‘self-discipline’, ‘responsibility’, and so on. And also to learn a lot of new things.
The Education Centre was a three-storey rectangular building with several classrooms connected by spacious corridors. There was a canteen on the top floor, and common toilets on each floor. Depending on the specific profile, the classrooms were equipped with everything necessary for classes. For example, there was a study of architecture and construction, where there was a large number of children's constructors of various shapes and colours, which were intended for children of different ages. For three-year-old children – bigger, for six-year-old children – smaller.
There was a sports room, where there were children's exercise machines, a football and fighting ground. In this room, children were deliberately provoked into conflicts in order to identify their leadership skills, team spirit, stress resistance and other useful qualities.
A low platform was erected near the entrance to the Education Centre for the first school day. On it, the presenter, teachers, director and older children who have been in the institution for at least one year performed. Thus, demonstrating what they have already learnt from teachers and coaches. As the holiday was not only for new students, senior students, there were a lot of people gathered. All of them watched the festive show, which consisted of dancing, singing and handicrafts.
Lars, a little tipsy because he had had a couple of beers before going out, stood emotionlessly in the centre of the crowd with his son, glancing around every now and then. Theodore held his father's hand tightly, seeing almost nothing but the backs of the people ahead of him. Caring fathers put their children on their shoulders so that they could see the performance better. But Lars was not such a father. He stood silently among the other people, as if serving a punishment for his misdemeanours.
One of the last numbers was a children's song. Many people were amazed at how the children, who had studied only a year or two at the education centre, had already learned to sing, hitting the notes exactly and feeling the rhythm. Not so long ago, they could not even speak. However, nothing so humbles and amuses the gathered mums and dads as the successes of young talents. Naturally, those children who had a certain talent for music and dance performed. In all probability, these children will go on to study vocal art and play some musical instruments. The song ended to great applause from the audience. In the middle stood the vocal teacher, and on the sides of him, holding each other by the hands of children of different ages. All of them, at the signal of their teacher made a simultaneous bow to the audience, which prompted the audience to clap even more fiercely and louder to support the little artists.
After the performance, the CEC headmistress came on stage again. She was dressed in a bright luscious pink bouffant dress. Taking the microphone on the stand, the headmistress thanked the children who had performed and invited the parents for a short tour of the educational centre where their little ones would be studying for the next three years.
After entering the main door of the CEC, the tour group found itself in the main hall, to the left and right of which were administrative and training rooms. In the middle of the hall was an escalator leading to the upper floors. It was unusual in that it worked in two directions, switching automatically depending on the time. For example, now the time was 10-00, and it was moving upwards. And at 10-30 its direction changed and the steps started moving in the opposite direction. The escalator itself was fenced on all sides with protective glass fences so that kids could not get on it without being accompanied by adults.
Headmistress: ‘This is the main corridor to get to any classroom. Mine, is at the very beginning. It's right here. And just beyond that is the teachers' lounge area. The toilets are at the end of the corridor.’
Man: ‘This escalator…it only goes up. How do you get back down?’
Headmistress: ‘Firstly, it changes direction every half an hour. Secondly, in case of force majeure, of course it can be stopped, or the direction can be changed manually. Let's go. Let's go into each room in turn.’