The Case of the Text Message
The case of the text message is a novel by Olivera Olja Jelkić, her third one from the “Detective trilogy” for children, published in 2003, in the edition of Narodna knjiga from Belgrade, the biggest publisher in the region. It follows the adventures of Big Mickey, the greatest detective in the world. In this novel, the story is set in a distant future, when distant descendants of Big Mickey land on the Planet Earth in their children space adventure.
The authoress’ incredible imagination is manifested, when, two decades ago, she is able to envision the technology of the distant future, when everything is virtual, when children teleport themselves as part of a game.
However, the plot thickens when boys discover a book in the attic of their grandfather’s house. Fear of the unknown leads them to ask their parents about the password with which to open that object.
“What strange people, Mick said, I guess they disappeared because their books were so heavy and dusty”.
-Np, that’s not why they disappeared. They disappeared because they stopped reading, Luka answered. At that time, the scramble for money was so prominent that they didn’t have time to read. Few people wrote books, but they didn’t have money. Those who neither wrote nor read, accumulated wealth and went to space stations to live, having left wasteland on Earth. With a heavy heart, I have to admit that this new civilization is the posterity of precisely those people. That’s why it took two thousand years for the civilization to be renewed. There, see, mistakes have a high price – Luka said somewhat shamefully.
Mick took one book and opened it.
-Why is it so heavy and colorful?
-It’s heavy because it’s printed in lead, and those patterns, those are letters. There are computers that can translate them. They shouldn’t be underestimated. There is a lot of wisdom in them.“