Then he started cooking. For his guests, he chose beef broth with homemade liver dumplings as a soup. He put a lot of effort into it, because it was, after all, part of his farewell. With his century-old hands, he rolled one dumpling after another on a large board. He made them small, two centimeters, so there would be many of them. Not like in a restaurant, where they give you one huge or three large dumplings to make it easier for the chef.

For the second course, he chose grilled steak with grilling spices and mustard. He prepared the meat, spices, and electric grill. He cut the meat and removed the fatty parts, but then he put it back in the refrigerator. It would be best to make them just before serving.

Meanwhile, some time had passed, and Michal watched from the kitchen window as the front moved towards him from Prague. It was a whole dark gray strip of clouds that also measured something in height. It brought with it, though sparingly for now, wind, which would only get stronger in the next hour.

A cat scratched at the patio door. It probably realized that the weather was changing, and so it came a little earlier for its daily ration of food, or maybe it was just looking for a warm shelter from the coming storm. Michal left the kitchen and went into the living room with the stairs to the first floor on its left wall and went to open the door for the cat.

"Hello, Micka. You're here early. Another fight with your husband?" he said to the old tabby cat opposite him. As soon as the cat was inside, it meowed.

"Aha, you can't make it home," he said as if he understood the cat. The cat quickly climbed onto the carpet in a spot next to the couch where it would be least conspicuous and where it was least likely to be stepped on, and began to lick its paws. When it was finished, it meowed again. But Michal didn't wait for that, and he had long since brought 'her' bowl.

The cat was such a frequent visitor, who randomly came and went, that it had earned its own bowl and a bag of food for when it came at the wrong time to have anything left over for it. But today it was lucky. As if the cat had clairvoyant abilities, it came just in time to get the steak trimmings from Michal. He placed the bowl with the trimmings under the stairs in the corner of the living room and then slowly began to look out for the visitors. Within 5 minutes, it started to rain. The rain gradually began to intensify, as did the wind. From a distance, occasional rumbling of thunder could be heard as the storm approached. Michal went out the door from the living room onto the covered terrace. Everywhere around him, it was rustling with rain. The rain intensified, and strings of water poured all over his garden.

"It was time to clear the air. That stuffiness was annoying," Michal said to himself. The branches of the trees in the forest behind the house began to dance. They bent and did Mexican waves as the wind brought the true center of the storm to Michal's house. And now there were lightning bolts too. In an instant, there was light everywhere, and then everything was back to normal. A few moments later, the air torn apart by lightning thundered deafeningly.

"When it reaches Moravia, there will be a tornado somewhere again," Michal said, "It didn't exist here until 2021. It was a rarity back then! And how our whole little republic came together to help the victims. Now it's here every six months, and nobody cares anymore. Maybe if Veronika ruled here with her firm hand, she wouldn't allow such damage to nature. Oh, I mustn't idealize her. I'll see how she figures it out the second time. She certainly won't care about people, so how would she care about the environment? Unless... if I ruled with her, I would have the power to decide that myself. I would always consult with Pavel and... That's a devilish thought.

But how many people would it cost? Nobody will give her anything for free. She'll literally go over dead bodies. She'll do 5 times more harm than good again. And that thing with genes, that's a problem, and I just won't be able to talk her out of it. The worldwide fertility crisis will only convince her more this time. Artificial insemination is already standard, because we carelessly put new, untested chemicals in our food, clothes, and everything else, so we have this. So gene manipulation will be just the next step, according to her. At the same time, a population of clones is even more dangerous for the sustainability of the population. When they decide to have a child, it's actually incest with all the problems that come with it. A perfectly logical argument. But she just won't let herself be convinced. I have a... nice future ahead of me. Ehhh..." and he sighed:

"The period of calm is ending."

Then he went back into the house to the sound of another clap of thunder. He took his mobile phone out of his pocket and looked at the time.

"Ah, the time... They should be here soon. But it's raining and there's a storm, let them not rush," he said to himself and sat down on the couch.

The cat, meanwhile, saw a chance and snuggled up to his feet.

"Who will you go to? You'll probably have to be content with what they give you at home. I won't be here for you anymore to feed you," he said to it and wanted to pet it. But the cat avoided his hand, it didn't let itself be petted completely, but it was happy to be near him.

"Nothing today, huh? Well, wait, you'll be sorry when I'm gone," Michal said. He took the remote control from the table and turned on the TV. The midday news was on. But he immediately switched it to another channel. He switched and switched. Nothing interesting anywhere. Just mindless crime shows, here some woman who probably always made bad decisions in life was reading cards for money. Right next door, they were selling fake jewelry and waste electronics to seniors for their grandchildren at unbeatable prices in a limited-time offer. Michal stopped on that channel and said:

"I don't understand. I didn't understand it when I was young, and I still don't understand it. I'm even at the right age, and it still doesn't appeal to me. And I should already have the right to be stupid. Those people must be completely brain-dead. Or... uneducated. Unfortunately. Or I don't know. If I didn't know that the production company would keep all the money anyway, I'd call that woman and give it to her as charity. Poor thing, it's certainly not her idea or her dream job, but she has to support god knows how many children she's had, or finance whatever she's addicted to. She's not pretty enough for porn anymore, so she has to sell in dubious teleshopping." Then he switched further. There, they were showing some old movie for old-timers, where a bald actress in a storm was saying something about God hidden in the rain.

"Shouldn't he be everywhere? Not just in the rain? Literally in everything and everyone? No? Okay," Michal answered her and then switched further. On the next channel, another crime show awaited him.

His mobile phone rang in his pocket.

"Hello..." Michal began into the phone. He listened for a moment to what the other side was saying and then replied:

"Sure, I'm ready. Just don't rush. Trees will probably be falling again. I'm waiting for you. Bye."

In the worst of the weather, which could easily be mistaken for a tropical storm, a convoy of 3 cars arrived at Michal's house. At that moment, hail was already falling, and it was up in the air whether the aforementioned tornado would take it over Michal's house this time.

Michal ordered Ivanka to open the gate, and all 3 cars drove onto the lawn behind the house. The cars then stopped right next to Michal's small garage by the fence at the end of the garden.

From there, their owners ran out in a frantic rush onto the terrace. In their hands, they carried tubs with homemade creations with which they wanted to contribute to the joint gathering. As soon as the entire delegation, consisting of a total of 5 people, ended up on the terrace, they didn't dare to go further into the living room. Because of their shoes. Michal dismissed them, telling them to go ahead. Whereupon everyone began to take off their shoes and enter the living room in their socks. Michal quickly ran to the hallway and brought everyone slippers for visitors. Micka, meanwhile, watched what was happening and began to circle impatiently around the visitors.

"Oh, you have a cat here," came from twelve-year-old Dan. He was a skinny boy with light brown hair and glasses. He was wearing a white T-shirt with small black dots and blue jeans.

"They found it during a check-up. He only has 1 diopter, it's developmental, they say. They'll see if it gets better or worse," said Klara, his brightly blonde mother with a pastel red short-sleeved T-shirt and tight jeans.

"So some sleeping gene was activated there. I had it similarly. Until puberty, I saw normally."