Araya and Fagin walked along the corridor leading to the next exhibit. The year was 3000 and the two of them had decided to take a limited edition tour of the museum that was dedicated purely to the last changes since 2000.
"And so here we are," said the tour guide, "Lijes Dvoje Ljubavnika, or the Coffin of Two Lovers, two very important people that have changed the way we live today." He had a dull voice but surprisingly interesting at the same time "Our story starts way back in 2054 when a discovery in science was made, a discovery that would change the way we live in this day and age. The revelation was in fact the idea Reverse Lungs. Reverse Lungs are of course when every third child born in the hospital has their lungs modified so that they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, these people were called L types. The L types were marked as well, one of their fingers on each their hands was branded with a L. Another law stated that only opposites like L types and Untouched were allowed to go together and get married, the theory was that this minimized air wastage. The two met accidently when they were five years old in a forest not far here, instantaneously the two became the greatest of friends and later on lovers, but there was a problem, the problem between these two people was that Zhūlìyè, the girl, was a L type and the boy Luómì'ōu was the same. This meant that the two could never be friends let alone partners." He paused for effect, and then continued. "Their next meeting was in a park, when they were seven. These meetings kept occurring throughout the years until when they were twelve they realized that they were both L type and therefore could never be together. An extract from Luómì'ōu's diary says, "Zhūlìyè can never be with me for I am different and so is she. I long for her to run away so I can forget, but I fear that it has gone too far and I shall never fail to remember her as long as my cursed lungs breathe in each infuriating breath. Sometimes I pray for God to let me die and spare me of this torture, but perhaps this is too much to ask of him, since the whole world is praying to." This shows how much Luómì'ōu cared for Zhūlìyè. This also showed how much he was willing to give for her. She however was a lot more determined for them to be together, so when they had their weekly meeting under the oak tree she suggested that they marry in secret and disguise the ceremony as a funeral. So, the so called "funeral" was held in an old church run by their good friend Isaak who believed that reverse lung separation was wrong. Their plan seemed fool proof; once they were married they would run away together and live in secret but sadly the unorganized Isaak destroyed they secrecy of the ceremony by agreeing to hold a christening on the same day, what was more was that the christening was of Zhūlìyè's cousin Bān fú lǐ ào, which meant of course that her family would be present. The catastrophe occurred on the 15th of June at 12 o clock. On that day, at exactly 12 o clock, when Zhūlìyè's mother caught sight of her daughter, she said, "Never again shall I consider you as a daughter of mine, instead I shall think of you as a villain, a flouter the law and a disgrace to the name Zhūlìyè." Perhaps this was what drove her to do what she did or perhaps she was caught in the confusion of the moment. The action which made history was this; Isaak had given the two a wedding gift that was for their journey, a coffin like case that was air tight so that they could store food for years and years, perhaps even centuries, this was in fact the coffin you see here," said the guide pointing to a golden coffin like case that was behind him. "If you haven't guessed already this is what happened. Zhūlìyè asked Luómì'ōu to climb into the case with, then to her mother the last words she said were, "I cannot bear a world where my love is so close yet untouchable." Then she closed the lid and kissed Luómì'ōu for the first and last time in her life. As their last breath was spent they became frozen in time, their souls entwined and their love forever preserved.
After this the law was changed because of their sacrifice, so any one could associate with any one and though reverse lungs were still kept they did not matter at all in marriage or friendships." The tour guide smiled and then instructed everyone to move to the next exhibit. But Araya and Fagin strayed behind looking into the case at the two lovers. "She looks so beautiful," Araya said with a smile. "Can you imagine sacrificing your life to be with another? I mean, they made it possible for so many people to be together and now they're legends." She smiled softly at the case and then turned to Fagin who was gazing at the craftsmanship of the room they were in. She grinned, "Come on you," she laughed, "We'd better be off,"
Yeah," he agreed, "on we go."
She laughed, "You're funny,"
Fagin looked at her, "What's so amusing?" he inquired.
"Oh, nothing, it's just that we are so different and yet so alike." She laughed and then looked towards the case, "You know I think I might write their story down."
"What are you going to call it? Zhūlìyè and Luómì'ōu, catchy"
"No, silly, I'm going to call it their proper names; Romeo and Juliet."
"Oh," he said, "Could be the next best seller."
"Yeah," she said with a smile, "that would be cool."
So they walked down the corridor, holding hands, linking their lucky fingers; their L fingers.
