Year: 3274

LIMA, PERU, Friday.

Late Thurday night, 117 year-old Marti Okubaji passed away from congestive heart failure. She was the last survivor of a small colony of English-speakers, unusual for a practice known as Reading. The Bookreaders remained isolated for many years, and recently the population and condition of the colony's enclove on the second level has declined as children left for other sections of the acropolis.

Although the exact meaning of this word is not completely understood, it has been explained as a precursor to the common Mediaglyphs and Multisound which serve to represent all information currently available. The practice of Reading was passive, requiring the use of bound sheets of a material known as paper. The Bookreaders were in possession of the last known examples of these so-called Books.

Being of no value to modern literacy, the Books will be placed in the Cellulose Wing of the National Museum for Physical Objects on the fourth level of Raised Lima, best known for its recent showing of a reproduction of the Last Tree, which died in captivity three years ago.

Mrs. Okubaji is survived by her daughter, grandson, and a newborn great-granddaughter, who was named in her honor.