Trafika Europe 4 - Armenian Rhapsody

July 2040

T

he evening news flashed on the TV. Viewers couldn’t tear themselves from their screens even during a long commercial. Everyone was waiting for the

sensational show to begin.

The commercial splashed in the foam of sweet libations, with the chomping of crunchy chips, and finally ended suddenly on an optimistic note about the battle of the waistline bulge. The show began. The anchorwoman prattled her usual opening words with more brevity than usual. She didn’t show off and toot her own horn as she usually did, which made it evident that she, too, was waiting in trepidation. She just announced in brief: Professor Coifman from such and such an institute for the first time in history has been able to extract biological time from the human body and is prepared to demonstrate this on live TV. Dry as a mummy, the professor appeared in the studio. Without even introducing himself and his research assistant Fred very effectively, he sat down his assistant in a chair. Both of them were noticeably agitated. The long gray professorial mane dangled charismatically every which way. Coifman’s nearly two-meter height accentuated his gauntness. He held in his hands something that looked like a water pistol, but equipped with an electronic display. Shaking it in the air, the professor gave a short talk, of

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