“Adriana, do you really hate my guts?” Gooden asked.

  “Gooden, I think you’re an ass.”

  Off in the distance, a series of glass circular towers were coming into view with another exceedingly prominent glass circular tower at its center. They arrived in front of the large center building, the carriage dissolved, and the passengers touched down.

  They walked through the large entrance of the Center’s center into what appeared to be a large, and largely vacant, waiting room. In fact, there was only one other person besides the three in the room at all. She was sitting behind a desk busily doing something that appeared to be a lot of nothing. Gooden told Olive to take a seat.

  Adriana and Gooden left without saying goodbye, leaving Olive and the lady as the only people in the large waiting room that seemed to grow even larger with the departure of half its hold. The lady got up and took a seat near Olive.

  “Hi Olive, my name is Elizabeth,” said the brown haired lady with gray-blue eyes speckled with brown near the iris.

  “Hi,” Olive answered with a smile.

  “Its an honor to meet you.”

  “Why?” asked Olive with obvious concern.

  “Well… only a very few have ever scored flawlessly on the preliminary tests, and all of them have received the gift.”

  “Oh… Well what about you?” she asked still disturbed.

  “Yes to both. I also scored flawlessly on the preliminary test, and I also did receive the gift.”

  Olive sat in thought while Elizabeth looked at her and smiled.

  “I’ll let you be; I can see that you have a lot on your mind, but if you have any questions, I’ll be at my desk. Ok? The rest are on their way.”

  “Thank you,” said Olive.

  The flock entered in lurches accompanied by their escorts. It was typical to see a score of children for every two escorts, but obviously a few, like Olive, received preferential treatment. The room seemed to grow smaller with the influx even though there was more than enough space for everyone. Most were very excited, eagerly comparing notes on the tricks their escorts performed and the stories they had been told, but a few possessed that odd divided look that accompanies excitement with loss. Olive looked up at the high inclined ceiling to remind herself of how much space there really was. She drowned out the noise with thought.

  Olive knew that sometime soon there was going to be some sort of orientation, and that at this orientation there would be obsequious usage of the gift with the obvious goal of making those kids with the odd divided look forget about home. Olive had no problem with sleight of hand, but sleight of mind made her very uncomfortable. Olive decided that she was not going to be sucked in.

  A large opening materialized at the far end of the waiting room. Everyone who was coming was already here, about 160 in all. Olive was told by her dad that there were about one billion people on Earth. Apparently there were almost 10 billion people on Earth before most people people just stopped wanting to have kids.

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  She also reasoned that because of the elimination of all sickness and hunger, the age distribution was probably relatively even through the 125 years of the average ungifted life span, with an unknown number of gifted with longer lifespans. In other words, each of them was more rare than one in 50,000. They were ushered by Elizabeth into a round auditorium with stadium seating that had exactly one seat for each of them. At the far end of the auditorium there was a low stage, and at the center, nothing. Olive took a seat, promptly folded her arms, and made her best “not impressed” face.

  Once everyone was seated, the ambient light dimmed and the opening to the auditorium disappeared. In a flash of brilliant white light and falling and fading green sparks, the Premier appeared. He looked youthful, but had white hair and a short pointy white beard. His uniform bore 5 stars.

  “Welcome to the Center!” the Premier proudly exclaimed while materializing an image of the Center in the center of the auditorium. The image of the Center’s surrounding landscape passed through the audience. Most of the children turned around and some even tried to touch the landscape, but felt nothing. “In this room sit some of the greatest minds of your generation; the responsibility falls upon you to maintain our blessed way of life for many generations to come. The Center, the conceit of this world, is also most likely the intellectual center of the universe,” the image zoomed away from the center at tremendous speed to the fringes of the universe and faded out. The audience, with one exception, was completely entranced. The Premier smiled.

  “We at the Center have governed this world to utopian bliss,” an image of their lovely world materialized at the center, with stars and planets beyond in the audience. “Through our technological advances we have eliminated all hunger, removed all sickness, preempted countless natural disasters, and saved humanity from itself. With our superior intellect we have guided the world into a new golden age.” At these words the world at the center of the room went golden and faded away.

  “One thousand, five hundred, and eighty-three years ago, Barbara Woodall and Carl Glass,” a 3D image materialized of an older Carl wearing a silly helmet and Barbara standing together and holding a bar of iron, “built the first version of Prometheus, marking a new era for humanity. Creatio ex nihilo!”

  The iron bar in the image became the only image left, was zoomed into the atomic level, and the atoms in the image borrowed parts from each other through a catalyst of light and changed form into a new atomic structure; the image zoomed out to show the matter conversion, the iron was now gold. The image faded out.

  “With Prometheus, it became possible to manipulate matter. Old rules and old economic principles were no longer valid, leading to chaos. The Center was formed to be the guardian of the world and to conduct the research that would end all needless suffering.” An image of Center personnel feeding people and administering medicine to a war ravaged world appeared. “You are the custodians of that mission- welcome to you future!”

  There was applause.

  “We will discipline your mind and mold your character. We will teach you about science,” an image appeared of an exploding atom akin to what would happen in a particle accelerator, “math,” the image cross faded to Euler working an equation in the center of the auditorium while other mathematicians and equations floated about the children’s heads, “history,” the image changed to depict great historical events, rapidly zooming through time and place, eventually landing in that very auditorium at that very moment, obviously connoting that this was a very historic moment indeed, “literature,” the image converted to great authors and visual interpretations of great literature, “and art,” the image went through wonderful works of art and finally landed the audience in a living, three dimensional interpretation, of a Claude Monet landscape. The audience oohed and awed as the final image slowly faded.

  “We will test your strengths, discover your weaknesses, and guide you to your place in the future of this world. Some of you may even be granted the gift and become regional directors; one of you,” glancing at Olive, “may even replace me as Premier one day… who knows what the future has in store for us?”

  “But the present is relatively easy to foresee, and it beckons Elizabeth to direct you to the testing facilities! So, without further adieu, I bring you Elizabeth,” Elizabeth walked through the back wall and onto the stage. “Take pride in your place and protect your future,” the Premier finished, “Adieu, adieu.”

  There was a roar of applause followed by a standing ovation, but Olive remained seated with folded arms. She still wasn’t impressed.