Age of Blight Read Free Page B

centennial year 2100, there was this case concerning Chelsea Benderfield of Brooklyn, New York .

    Little redheaded Chelsea Benderfield, ten years old, hurt the Bobo doll so badly its innards spilled forth and did not grow into new Bobo dolls.
    Dr. Russland and her six assistants were aghast. Aghast and triumphant. They barely contained their excitement. The non-PhD’d personnel cheered. It was the first time they had encountered a true aggressive.
    The less aggressive kids were not able to replicate the kind of focused anger and strength which Chelsea Benderfield exhibited that day. When they participated in the “killing act,” or the disassembly of the plastic doll, their heart wasn’t really into the act; they were simply trying to please their handlers in order to get an imagined reward. They were then deemed unfit, shipped back to their parents with a red label indicating their ineptness.
    Dr. Russland gave Chelsea a glowing star and a two-day break to visit a marine conservatory and a bonsai emporium. She claimed to be very interested in bonsai cultivation, babbled about bonsai wire-training practices that resulted in beautifully stunted branching in miniature trees. She said suffering could breed grace,could lead to discipline. She was chaperoned by two attendants who reported no untoward incidents.
    A few days later, the battery of tests commenced.
    â€œHow angry are you feeling right now, Chelsea,” the experimenter asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” she said, brushing a strand of her hair off her face. “I’m not angry. I just want to hurt it .” She referred to the Bobo doll that was now reduced to shreds—the shreds rendered sufficiently inert and unable to propagate new Bobo dolls.
    The experimenter did not react.
    â€œI’m supposed to hurt it, right? Like on the video?” Chelsea persisted. Her tone said that she already knew that it was the case. “Hurt it so that it won’t grow back. Hurt it so it won’t replicate. Hurt it so we remain safe. Like how we treat our enemies, correct?”
    â€œBut were you angry while you were hurting it?”
    â€œI suppose I am now. I don’t know why. I just want to get my star.”
    Dr. Russland’s glowing star was famous in North America. It was the stuff that fulfilled every child’s dreams. The questioning was stopped after exactly twenty minutes, the maximum time allotted in the manual for interrogating a child.

    Little redheaded Chelsea Benderfield, ten years old, was given a glass of real milk between questioning. Real milk was pricey and could be considered an unnecessary expense, but the lab would naturallysplurge to provide for a child who would soon become the president. She slurped the expensive white stuff sourced from real cows in Outerbridge, the only remaining farmland in America where plants were still grown in soil.
    Ignoring the cameras in the room, she concentrated on the milk. She found it incredibly delicious and unlike any other milk she had tasted before.

    The recording of Chelsea Benderfield’s eighteenth and last interrogation that week started at 0100 hours.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Subject description: Subject is dressed in a plain white dress and patent leather shoes. She appears alert and well-rested. With Dr. Russland’s approval, she was given a meal of hypoallergenic protein mix and cereal, artificial celery, and an organic apple thirty minutes before she entered the interrogation room .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Interrogator is Anne Fender (designated as AF in the following transcript), accorded secondary status by Dr. Russland .
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  AF: Hello, Chelsea. How are you feeling today?
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  CB: