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Divine tragedy (II)

             The old man reacted happily to the first question that, apparently to him, seemed to be a perfectly normal question.
             - An ark- he said anguished - I must make a floating ark. Urgently.
             - An ark? What is that? Why?
             - God told me.
             - God?
             - God. He took me to a deep dream. He came to me and told me to build an ark as soon as possible inside which I am to keep my family and one pair of each animal species.
             - Animals? Of each species?
             - The old man was afraid of asking for too many things... - well, perhaps it would be suffice if I only took a pair of each of the big animals. They would bring the microbes and parasites along with them.

             The controller pondered for a moment, but just for a very brief second, due the ticking of the clock. It was evident that the old man was crazy, but he still needed to deal with him anyway. “If it was a dream… why didn't he rather go to the Psychoanalysis Department?”. But the grandpa didn't budge, and time was running out… He looked at the clock.
             - Well, what can I do?  Do you need something from the Materials Department, perhaps?
             - Yes, I need materials!  To build my ark.  And animals of every species. I have to follow God’s instructions.

             The controller wasn’t listening to him any more. “Finally!”, he thought while pushing a button on the control clock, just in time before the time expired. As the mechanical platform once again desposited the old man back to the exit, he shouted to him:
             - Expand on your request in the General Register!
   
             And that's exactly what the old man did. But, as his case was so strange, none of the registering machines were able to process his request… and once again, a very old man, a counsellor, was called from his small office to write a hand-written report like in the ancient times, explaning that Noah from Glupistan, who had no ID number - a shepherd - had asked politely for… And even that report wouldn't be accepted by the registering machine. Even after applying three or four filters, the machine expelled it from the system with the label “anomalous”. And that is how the odd document was passed on from one administrative deparment to the next, remaining unresolved after countless attempts.

             The answers that were provided to the grandpa's requests were even more bizarre. For instance, the Zoology Section wasn’t opposed to giving him the requested pairs of animals, although they advised him that he wouldn’t need to procure all the species, because he would be able to apply genetic mixtures to achieve the desired species (i.e. zebra = mare + tiger). But the answers weren't very useful when the Materials Department refused to give him the wood he needed to build the ark, explaining that the project wasn't justified. The applicant also seemed to have ignored the fact that the oceans had been removed lots many years before in order to remove all the dissolved salts. And the sewage waters were stored in huge tanks that had been built in the desert areas of the flat planet. The rain that fell wasn’t anything other than recycled water from those tanks, condensed into clouds by the Urban Council in order to make different landscapes and to enable the citizens’ changes in moods.  So it was stupid to feel threatened by a universal flooding.

             When the last machine read the final report to Noah, he could hardly understand anything but they weren’t gong to help him. Actually, he couldn't really understand the ordinary words when they were spoken through those loudspeakers. And then, those platforms... that implacable geometry in front of him, all those chemical products in food and clothes, the mandatory “happy and sad” periods of time, the adjustable sense of pleasure… After all, the fact was that he had fulfilled his mission of going there and enduring all the pressures. He couldn't wait any longer: after tying his clothes to his wooden stick, he turned around to leave, hurriedly trying to escape from that unfriendly place. He tried to forget the horrifying experience as soon as possible.

             Once he found himself in the shade of his beloved mountains again, he wrapped his woolen scarf around his neck, sat down… and meditated, with his head bowed.