Chronicles From The Future: The amazing story of Paul Amadeus Dienach

All night I was squirming in my armchair with impatience. I remember the very first time I visited Markfor with Stefan, late one night, about three months ago; it made me the same wonderful impression that Paris did the first time I saw it, with all its feverish joy and lights, and it revived in my sub-consciousness the memories and freshness of my youth! Stefan didn’t feel like sleeping that night so he came into my room and found me reading a history book. “Why on earth would you sit and read at such a divine hour?” he told me and pulled me towards the window to show me the magical starlight…

And so began the journey, if it can even be called a journey. It was rather a dip into infinity, so silent and quick that I didn’t even realise it! It only lasted four minutes and it felt like we were in a vacuum!

Lombardy spread beneath our feet, the Lombardy of today, that is, this massive, vastly populated city-country inhabited by millions of Scandinavians, or rather, their dark-haired great grandchildren, which, however, has kept the same ancient name. It looked like a gigantic human beehive that stretched into infinity! Imagine that the entire plain, from Gallarate and onwards, is now an immense settlement that stretches continuously as far as the eye can see!

I don’t know what happened to Stefan and he suddenly—for the second time—gave the vehicle a straight upward trajectory. My instinct and reflexives pushed me to grab him in order to hold on.

In response to my reaction, he gave me the “We’re almost there” look…

There came a moment that I thought would be my last one but, ultimately, my faith in their technological advancement mitigated the fear in my heart.

From up above, you could see countless milky-coloured floodlights coming from the South. One of them started getting closer and closer at the point where it looked like a piece of evening daylight sank into the deep darkness of the night… This unburning, cool light they have managed to create is, in my opinion, one of their greatest achievements.

“Look! Look! It’s Markfor!” Stefan shouted, pointing in the direction of the city. And instantly the “State of the Temples” revealed itself below us: this exquisite megalopolis, the centre of modern art and literature, which I had heard so much about from Ilector Jaeger.

We slowed down, entering the normal flow of traffic along with the other mechanical birds that crowded that part of the sky, silently passing by each other. In a few minutes we were landing inside the powerful white light.

Seeing how excited I was, Stefan told me that he wished his own mental world were a tabula rasa like mine, ready to welcome new impressions without being influenced by any previous memories.

You didn’t see houses here—only palaces, parks and temples. Various incredibly large terraces and plenty of architectural works of art, strongly influence by the Roman order, I would say. Enormous gardens and squares, and many sculptures, including a huge marble statue I saw, depicting Christ with a halo on his head which, however, wasn’t made of marble but of an invisible source of light instead!

Many times that night I heard Stefan utter the phrase “another day”… He was so narrow-minded that he couldn’t understand that for me and my impatience there was no “another day”; I wanted to see everything now! Among other incredible sights, I saw a very leafy tree, something between a fir tree and a cypress, huge in size and very different from ours.

After a while, in the Reigen-Swage Palace, the partners walked ahead of us, leading us through the building. Those kind young ladies and willing young lads, all with the same, typical pageboy hairstyles and dressed in their white and light green uniforms adorned with silver belts, appeared behind some enormous columns to welcome us, before we had even finished going up the great exterior marble staircase. I remember asking a seventeen-year-old blond with grey eyes, who ended up being our guide, if having to stay awake so late at night was tiring for her.

“Why, of course not!” she replied smiling hesitantly, as if she were surprised—whether from my question or my accent is unknown. “Each of us only has to stay up at night once a month, but still, we switch every few hours.”

Stefan had entered the Reigen-Swage Institute to inquire and, for a little while, I waited alone and slightly lost, observing the scenes from modern history captured by the big boards on the walls. There were no inscriptions on the bottom and so the subjects and contents of them remained unknown to me. Suddenly, Stefan came out and my heart leapt excitedly. It is incredible how even seeing this man makes me so cheerful, considering that a few months ago I was completely unaware of his existence. What’s wrong with him, though? He doesn’t look so pleased.