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.
 
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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?