Genesis: A science-fiction short story. Read Free Page B

quite quickly once the epidemic reached a global scale. She was abandoned to her modest home and her child and she was quite happy about it, all things considered. She now had her answers: there wasn’t anything wrong with her or, if there was something wrong with her, it was wrong with everyone.
    Her beautiful—if she could say that without being conceited—daughter was healthy and happy and, in fact, through her daughter Kathleen learned to love herself a little bit more, too.
    Eventually, Kathleen married one of the young researchers that worked on Dr. Rivera’s team, and she created a normal life for herself; sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but overall content.
    The story was no longer about Kathleen Cardoff.
    But that didn’t mean that the story was now over.
    Genesis meant that reproduction could no longer be controlled by the individual, and thus, it was said, it needed to be controlled by society itself. Given the technology of the time, the only thing that could be done to avoid it was sterilization.
    S cientists cautioned against abusing the process; ultimately, it could lead to the extinction of the human race. They painted dramatic and cautionary end-of-the-world scenarios that the scientific and political community debated at length.
    The majority of the world quickly fell into chaos. At first, the sudden shift between genders in developing areas led to social and political issues , but that wasn’t the largest problem. As the population increased dramatically, the issues became primarily biological and logistical; disease and hunger cut through the globe at a record speed, laying waste to entire nations.
    In the developed world, rigid protocols were enforced to monitor and control reproduction, to avoid what had happened to the rest of mankind.
    It was not possible to qu estion these standards; all anyone had to do was point to the pandemonium that had been unleashed upon those who had lost control.
     
    Sylvia Rider settles herself down into the cushioned bottom of her bathtub, lilac scented oil wafting around her and the steam rising up in her vision.
    Caroline has agreed to stay the evening to watch the children; she can hear them whispering, talking and giggling just outside her door. She feels strangely now, as though she has just floated out of a dream. She can imagine that none of this is happening; that it’s just another day. But that does not last very long.
    After a while, s he imagines the child that she will have, in another seven months of time. Her child will be just as her others; she will come out with blonde hair and blue eyes, which will slowly turn darker. She will be intelligent, but there any expectations diverge.
    Sylvia cannot deny that both Maggie and Kate display completely different personalities. Maggie is her sweetheart and Kate is her rock; the only young child she had ever known to never, ever cry. Sylvia would never imagine to take responsibility for these characteristics within them; they were physically identical, but they had their own energy, spirits and souls.
    Sylvia had been relieved when the doctors had said that her medical issues had likely rendered her sterile. Now she sits in the warm water and runs through the last year of her life and she wonders why she didn’t follow up—why she didn’t do anything at all.
    She had known without a doubt that she needed to do something; she didn’t know why she had put it off, why she had procrastinated about such an incredibly important event.
    She had just never expected this.
    Sylvia gets out of the bathtub and feels the water run off of her. She touches her stomach, though she knows that it will be months before she can sense anything there. At this stage, her soon to be child is nothing more than a whisper within her. She wonders if, perhaps, her unique medical situation could cause her to miscarry.
    She wonders if it would be possible to cause a miscarriage.
    She spends her time drying herself off; she dresses