Out of Body Universe - Part One

by Martin Chu Shui

  Chapter 13

  “Good morning, Nathan,” Amy greeted him as he walked out of his bedroom.

  Things had happened quite rapidly in the last week. Amy had helped Nathan launch an application to work for OBUarity and he had gotten approval the next day; they needed extra hands, as Amy said. It was even better that two of Amy’s roommates had moved out a couple of months ago, and she had been struggling to find someone to share the costs of renting the three-bedroom apartment, so Nathan moved in.

  Amy commented that it’d be best if her roommates were working for the same company, so at least they would have some human interaction in the real world. Plus, the apartment was so close to Nathan’s mother, he couldn’t really get a better deal.

  Nathan had initially felt a bit awkward when Amy suggested that he share the apartment with her. Though he tried to think that Amy must have got over her high school crush on him long ago, if she had ever had one, Nathan could still sense that Amy had feelings towards him. He might be completely off the mark, but if he were right, sharing a flat with Amy wouldn’t do either of them any good. However, he couldn’t really decline the offer either. Let’s face it, for a guy like him with an unfinished tertiary education degree in oriental philosophy, what were the chances of him getting a job in the OBU age that he knew nothing about? The conclusion was quite simple and straightforward: if Nathan wanted to get employed, this was the only opportunity. Besides, Amy was quite open and frank towards him; she told him jokingly that, despite the fact she was supposedly three years younger than him, because of his much younger appearance, she should be his big sister. Nathan took it as a subtle hint to him not to worry about any complications in their relationship. So a decision was made and Nathan spent his first night in the apartment.

  “Good morning, Amy,” Nathan said. “It smells wonderful. Wow, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Why don’t we just have some cereal, and enjoy it as bacon and eggs in OBU?”

  “Well, we all need to spoil ourselves occasionally, don’t we?” Amy put the bacon, eggs, fried mushrooms and tomatoes, and toasted bread onto Nathan’s plate and her own. After sitting down, Amy said, “Little brother, tomorrow morning it’s your turn to cook breakfast.”

  It seemed Amy was quite enjoying playing this elder sister role. Nathan smiled. “No problem, big sister; I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.” In fact, he didn’t have much choice. He knew nothing about this new OBU age, and Amy would be the perfect guide. He fully appreciated her help.

  After breakfast, Nathan did the washing up. When everything was done, Amy said, “See you in OBU,” and walked into her bedroom.

  It was OBUarity’s standard policy that all employees wore masks during their working hours for security reasons; they supplied the latest version of anti-seeker masks. Of course the employees were able to alter their masks to suit their individual needs. The adjustment and alteration of masks were in fact relatively easy, sort of like using Photoshop to change a photo in pre-OBU age, at least that was the best way Nathan could describe it.

  Amy didn’t bother about her look that much, she simply changed her hair to black and slightly altered the shape of her nose and eyes enough to make her look like a different person, but she left her body untouched. Amy was very fit and her body was in good shape so there was no need to change it at all.

  Nathan, on the other hand, liked the blond surfer boy image Gary had created for him when he had visited little Amsterdam; he felt like he was watching the world from behind his mask, the way normal sunglasses would offer.

  “Wow, a blond surfer boy. I didn’t know you were a surfer, but I didn’t really know you that well,” said Amy.

  “No, I wasn’t a surfer. It’s just a mask Gary created for me during my first visit to OBU; I’m just too lazy to change the design.”

  “Okay, let’s go to Africa and start our adventure of the day.” Amy brought the floating globe forward into mid-air, and zoomed in to their destination. In no time at all they were in the login area. Following Amy’s lead, Nathan scanned his wrist against the shiny pole.

  The school was located in Africa, along the borders of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The students attending the school were also from the tribes of those neighbouring countries. In theory there was no reason why these poor kids couldn’t easily go to Europe, the USA and other western countries to get educated but in reality, it was still much easier to establish the schools where the students were due to financial, political, and cultural considerations, not to mention immigration reasons.

  The digital version of the school campus was designed to follow local dwellings, the typical round mud walls and thatched dome-shaped huts, but inside they were very spacious, and contained modern computers and other educational facilities including libraries.

  Nathan kicked the dirt on the ground, seeing the dust fly as the wind blew it away quickly. He knew that it was just a simulation of the real grassland. If one stood in this exact location in the real world, there would not be a single piece of evidence that there had been any human activities, just the vast grassland and wildlife.

  It was still early for the students so the campus was very quiet. Amy showed Nathan the classrooms. As they were walking into the library, Nathan saw two more European-looking people also stepping inside the door.

  “Good morning, Amy,” a brown-haired woman said with a strong French accent. “Is this Nathan, our new teacher you were talking about?”

  “Good morning, Lucie and Pierre,” said Amy. “Let me introduce you to each other. Nathan, this is Lucie, our science teacher, and Pierre, the geology teacher; they are both from France.”

  Nathan shook hands with both of them.

  “What are you going to teach, Nathan?” asked Pierre.

  Amy answered for Nathan. “Nathan is going to take English, philosophy and world history. I am so glad Nathan is here so I can concentrate on teaching math. To be honest, English is not my strength.”

  “We all know you have done a wonderful job teaching English,” said Lucie.

  Soon the students arrived. Nathan then understood why he had gotten the job so easily: there were at least three hundred kids ranging from eight to eighteen years old, so they did need any extra help they could get.

  One of the advantages of a digital school was that you could expand the classroom to be as large as required. Looking at his class of over seventy kids, Nathan started his first English lesson. Amy had done a good job getting these kids started with basic English.

  Even though Nathan hadn’t got a teaching qualification, he did have some tutoring experience from his two years of studying at university. Of course he had never tutored such a large group; nevertheless, he managed to get through the first class and he enjoyed himself very much. He loved the kids who were so eager to learn. He made fun games for them to play, sang simple English songs, and utilized any new technology OBU could offer. Combining a mix of visual and sound aids, Nathan was satisfied his students had learnt something from the class.

  Time passed quickly when one was busy; it barely felt like he had blinked before it was time for all the students to go home at the end of the day. Only then, after saying goodbye to the last student, did Nathan feel exhausted. Soon the other three teachers stepped into his classroom.

  “How did the first day go?” asked Amy.

  “A bit of a struggle and quite stressful, but I’ll manage,” said Nathan.

  “You seem to be doing great, much better than my first time teaching,” said Pierre.

  “Nathan, why don’t you come with us to Paris? We can have a few drinks together, and I can also introduce you to a few new friends,” said Lucie.

  Nathan thought about it and then said, “Thanks for the invitation but I’ll give it a miss today. I feel exhausted so I think I’ll have an early night.”

  “Well, too bad you’ll be missing out on all of the fun.” Pierre turned to Amy. “Amy, are you sure I can’t persuade you to come to the party even once? I have faile
d for the last twelve months, but today may be my lucky day.”

  Lucie held Pierre’s hand, dragging him towards the door. “Come on, Pierre, Amy is not interested in partying. Good night, we’ll see you both tomorrow.” They walked out of the door.

  “Amy, why don’t you like to go to their parties? It seems that Pierre was quite disappointed about it.”

  “Well, I am not into their ‘‘all for one and one for all’ French-style love party.”

  ‘Oh, do you mean that Lucie and Pierre have multiple sexual partners?”

  “I think it’s a bit beyond multiple sexual partners; they are basically large daily orgies for OBUarity volunteers from all over the world.”

  “Wow, I never imagined that. Amy, what do you normally do after work?” Nathan was going to ask if Amy ever went on dates but decided against it.

  “Apart from attending fitness classes and taking a few recreational classes for fun, I have been travelling lots, making the most of the perks I get from OBUarity.”

  “It sounds great. What kind of fitness classes do you go to?”

  “Why don’t you come with me tonight and see for yourself?”

  “Okay, let’s do that.”