The Birth Mark - NaNoWriMo 2013

One

© 2013 Laura Crean

This was not the place she should be right now.  The dank, putrefying atmosphere repulsed her and frightened her, but the woman had no choice but to squat here in this dark corner of the dirtiest, poorest part of the city – she was out of time!  Time – the very reason she was here.  It mocked her, punished her, and continued to chase her relentlessly.  Time always chased her, but she was determined the chase would end with her and not be passed on to her child.  No more marking time – it had to stop here!

She gritted her teeth and held in the scream that threatened to give her away as her contractions grew too intense to ignore.  The urge to push the child out was more than she could control now and she cupped her hands beneath her aching loins ready to welcome the child she had tried so hard not to conceive.  Time had other ideas however, you see time had its own agenda and would not be ignored.  It was time’s turn once more to call the shots for how things would be and just as the scream escaped her treacherous lips, fate turned the corner.  The woman did not see the hunched figure approach her from behind; she was a little too busy trying to keep control of the birth of her baby. 

She never understood why she found herself coming to in the Community One Hospital on the other side of town with a healthy squirming baby gurgling in a hospital cot next to her.  All she knew was that she had failed in her task and Time had been marked – her child was now registered in the system like every other baby born on the planet, his own genetic marker injected into his very DNA and switched on.  He was now marked for life and could be found by anyone who had the key to his DNA switch. 

She lay still, trying not to draw attention to herself as she carefully opened her eyes a small crack to see if anyone else was in the room.  She was alone.  Well apart from her poor child.  What was she to do now?  How could she save him from this fate worse than death – this mark of the Devil?  She silently pulled back the sheets on her bed and lent over her baby.  He was so beautiful, so perfect, but he would never know the truth of his birth.  But maybe she could make sure he did.  She quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and slipped it into his cot, and then she took off her watch and laid it with the note before kissing her child for the first and last time.  Then she calmly and confidently walked to the window of the 200 storey hospital and threw herself out of it.   

There was of course pandemonium in the hospital and the child knew nothing of the extraordinary events of his first hours of life.  The doctors and nurses fussed around him whilst the GMAPT Agents tried to find out his mother’s identity.  They did the usual tests; they extracted her DNA and looked for the marker that would give them the exact time, location and number of her birth - all to no avail.  She had no marker!  The detective on her case was slightly taken aback by this result but didn’t worry too much.  He extracted the Father’s marker easily from the child and was soon delivering the news and responsibility to the stunned man’s door.  The man was immediately charged with unlawful conception out of wedlock and the baby became a ward of Community One, destined to be brought up in the local community orphanage unless an appropriate adoption could be arranged.  Adoption was rare, only the wealthiest could afford the government set “Contribution” to take on such a child.

  Amazingly this child was lucky and he was soon in the loving arms of a new mother, unable to conceive herself.  He had a privileged upbringing, wanting for nothing, until one day his safe, well ordered life would be thrown completely into disarray.