They had been well fed on the night of their arrival and then sent to bed. Pleasantries had been exchanged. There was some mumble about the weather and about how difficult it had become to drive in the big cities of their country. The term overpopulation had been used.
The next day, some creatures that the promises had never before met would test how well they'd fit inside a box. The same box, multiplied by the number of promises. The promises were doing this voluntarily. Money were involved. Prestige had also been promised to the promises.
The testing started in the early morning. The promises were tested in parallel on how well they could fit certain predefined aptitudes. Some promises were lucky and were able to show that they could really fit, over and over again, in the same kind of pre-sized box. Fitting repeatedly rather than only once was good.
The promises were given a break after a predefined number of hours, each of them receiving something to eat in its own box. The promises could not look at one another, nor did they have any desire to do so. Each of the promises ate alone in its box.
Inside the glass boxes it was rather hot, but the view was good. The view looked like the promise of freedom. In the distance, there was a river, flowing still among tall buildings.
The promises spent another hour inside their boxes, waiting for someone to come and tell them whether they’d be allowed to manifest their potential inside the same building on that day and for numerous days to come.
By 2 pm, their brains and killed potential were unpeeling in frothed layers. If only a human had passed by to witness it.
But regular humans had no access to the building, and the promises' brains were already fried.