Gueline got out of her majestic car. Her driver stepped out as well to take the baby carrier from the back seat and handed it to her. As soon as the security guard saw the carrier, he leapt into action. He took it from Gueline, opened the door for her, grabbed a baby-carrier chair, placed the carrier on it, bowed, and walked away. Two women approached Gueline to ask what she needed. She was there for some clothes. The whole process of showing, trying, and shortlisting took place. She chose seven new dresses. At the counter, she presented her card. “Department of Newborn Care” was embossed on it.
Baby mamas used to get a 10,000-dollar monthly stipend that they could spend on anything. This was in addition to the 25,000-dollar monthly stipend for newborn care. The world was going through a fertility crisis, and governments everywhere were providing mind-blowing benefits for people to have children. Childcare had basically become free of cost. People were actually being paid to raise children. The TFR still was not improving much. Several committees were formed to study the issue and come up with plans to keep birth rates from crashing further.
In some countries, bachelors were being monetarily punished simply for being bachelors. They were taxed more to push them towards marriage. This resulted in more marriages, but not more babies. Some countries banned contraceptives, some lowered the age of consent, some provided free IVF, and some gave huge tax breaks to people with kids. Some governments even provided surrogates, but the metric still was not moving. There were research projects on artificial wombs, but they were not proving successful for human babies.
There were no active wars in the world. Troop deployment had stopped, and some countries were overrun by criminals due to the absence of military forces. While all governments were pouring resources into benefits, they forgot that the world still needed basic security. Everything was going through a major revamp. A revolution, but without violence.
I thought that if I could somehow get access to the server, I could change her assignment answers remotely and fix them. Maybe she would talk to me after that. But how would she know who changed the answers?
I have this faint memory of sitting on the beach, talking to her about how colours shape our lives and how our colour choices reflect our personalities. As soon as the water touched our feet, we left because of sharqueks. Sharqueks were salt-water creatures. They were small and loved biting anything with a pulse. Oceans were full of them. Nasty creatures. They looked cute, but once they knew you were charmed, they bit. She liked them. I did not.
I might look like your average student, but I am more than that. I am a spy. I work with the Principal and report directly to him. I infiltrate notorious student groups and tattle on them. I keep the Principal informed about events and happenings around campus. He then decides which events to raid and which ones to ignore. He is very proud of me and does his best to make sure no suspicion falls on me.
I once spray-painted his parking space with “You Suck Balls” just to get a student group to trust me. I had already informed him about the graffiti that was going to appear there. He was fine with it. Sometimes you need to lose to win. What was in it for me? Nothing much, just the adrenaline and the feeling of power. I loved watching naughty kids getting suspended. I loved the look on a student’s face when the Principal showed them evidence of their wrongdoing. They were always so perplexed about how he got the evidence. It was me. I got it and passed it on to him. I was the omnipresent being. Me.
You can be anything you want.
But what if you do not want to be anything?
