A Child Is Born

We are like many couples in this place. We went to college, found decent jobs, purchased a comfortable house, enjoyed a few years as the two of us and planned for our child. Due to the pressures upon our society we, like every one else, went for genetic testing. We wanted to make sure and get approval for this important event. As we discovered our combined genetic make-up had the potential for marginal success as defined by the Child Welfare Administration. We were refused the permit. We told no one.

“She’s beautiful, how old is she?” asked an older woman. She states further, “I was not allowed to have any of my own. I ran a foster care operation but the state took that away too.  All the child rules and regulations, they are even more stringent then when I was young. We didn’t have genetic pre-screens. Today, look at her, you are so lucky.”

Yes, we are. We both nod; not wishing to continue this any longer than polite coincidental meetings require. We want to teach her the proper methods of behavior through our own. We walk her every day in the early evenings when one of us returns.

Soon we will need to get her checked out. We purchased all the necessary forms. The technicians at the office doing the tests will have all the correct data. Our family asked no questions when they gave us the loans that we told them we desperately required. They knew it was unwise to know too much. Plausible deniability was learned from the great artists themselves, those in political power. It trickled down.

We have been noticing new speech patterns. She is becoming more mobile.  She has all normal attributes of a healthy child. We breathed a sigh of relief. We do have to watch what we say. She is a parrot. We are so attached to her. It’s as if we never cut the cord that we know some day we must do.

She runs and plays with the others. She appears a bit stronger and mentally quicker. We have to warn her to please be careful. Don’t play too roughly. It’s not nice. As most children she wants more! It’s difficult to keep her in check. We decided to let her play with older children to see if we could match her capability without causing undue notice.
 
***
 
It becomes more difficult to get the forms we need. The older more sympathetic officials and doctors have retired or have been “retired” as they are discovered. One day we will have to tell her, especially when she has to undergo the screening for her genetic coding. In the meantime we still have a few places we can go for her annual check-ups and get the medical papers signed. It all costs money, lots of money.

The government is cracking down on this trade. It’s been outlawed for some time. The new extreme rightist government declared our actions immoral. The children would be withdrawn from their families when located and the parents, their accomplices and families eliminated in order to maintain the proper equilibrium as well as destroy those with the type of faulty genetic makeup as proscribed.

We were lucky – we moved to a new town for our jobs. By coincidence, or the gods smiling upon us, the old hall of records was destroyed in an earth quake. They had never gotten to our little town for records upgrades. The gods give and take away as they will.  Our problems grew anew. What to do with a teenager?

She excelled in school – academically and socially. Our forged papers worked. As far as anyone was concerned, she was ours.  She was growing. Everything was working as it should. Yet we knew what the terms of endearment meant; all so what the terms of the end meant. We told her before she left for college. We were shocked. She knew!

“What with all the data around and my own studies you thought I wouldn’t figure this out. Please Mom and Dad, I love you both as if I was yours. But really, give me more credit, brain wise. How do you think I got through the tests? I am smarter than any of those in charge.”

“Dad, when I was in high school, why do you think I took that part-time job at The Administration? I was in the lions’ den, the one place no one would look. I am young and cute, and smart. I was no threat. I didn’t bring attention to myself and I jacked into the system. I’m OK.”

“There are only a few of us left anyway. Mom, that’s one important reason the authorities are not as worried about our type as they were when I was born. As I understand, The Administration and the government feel they will catch us all, figuring we will slip up eventually. Please don’t worry about me.”

She’s now on her own. She has learned well. Self upgrades; she picks and chooses her designer genes as she desires. No one will ever suspect as long as they never get too close. And as long as she can maintain her secret.
 

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I met her a few years back. I was entranced by her beauty and brains. She was a bit standoffish. I thought she was a snob what with the better schools, the looks, and her smarts. As a whole package I was smitten. As a woman she was my ideal.

When I mentioned family, she skirted around the issue. I didn’t care about her history, or her family. I was curious, making conversation but not probing. Those aspects of ones life outside the genetic requirements for children, which I had no care for anyway, were of no interest to me, especially at this point in our friendship. Maybe later.

I finally got to get her to go out with me. First for lunches here and there. Eventually, she accepted a few dinner invitations. She ate like the proverbial bird even though birds have to eat their body weight how many times over each day, I don’t remember. This went on for a goodly amount of time. And unlike me as it is to stick around if the prospects were not quickly forthcoming, I did.

We started what I would classify as dating. Over a year and no sex. Now I began to wonder if maybe something occurred in her past. “No,” she said, and left it at that. She was strange. No one cared about relationships anymore. I assumed she was a prude. Why I stuck around I couldn’t quite figure out. There was a quality about her, very different. I seem to recall that I may have run into someone of similar character once when I was younger. He disappeared.  
 
***

One day while we’re walking in a park, out of nowhere she says, “I trust you.”

“Yeah what does that mean? You trust me. Why wouldn’t you? Can’t you see I’m crazy about you?”

“Yes, but…”

“Yes. But what?”

“A secret.”
“Who doesn’t have them? I have my own too that may be...” and I let it drop.

She puts her fingers to my lips. They are cool and well formed. Beautiful. I just want to suck on the tips and work from there. I keep my head. She is serious.

“A secret,” in hushed tones. “It will cost me everything; even you if it ever gets out.”

“Oh, please. It’s different today, you are so in the past.”
 
“Hush!” is all she says with a look.
 
No looks from the people passing us. We appear like two normal people having a heated discussion.
 
She whispers to me, “humaniod.” Her lips brushing my ear.
 
I stand back. I never expected this. “Why me? You just put me in a difficult position. Why me?”
 
A smile breaks her lips.
 
“My experiment,” smiling coyly.  
 
“As a matter of fact, a very dangerous experiment,” I state. “You, you feel like anyone else… you’re so real…and”
 
“Hush. ”A smile, her smile. “Yes I am.”
 
I smile
 
I think, I feel, I want. I curse my creator.
 
She’s smart, cool, calm and collected. She 'is' Pygmalion’s dream comes true.
 
“My experiment,” she continues, laughing and singing to a tune I always hear her humming, “Hey hey you’re a monkey, and I just wanted to see.”
 
I look in her eyes, “I love you…”
 
“And I you, Kath.”
 
***
 
EPILOGUE
 
We are like most couples in this place. We went to college, found decent jobs, purchased a comfortable house, enjoyed a few years as the two of us, and planned. We told no one.