Smart

Worries

Ellie sat in bed, unable to fall asleep. A letter had come in starting her daughter Amery would not be matched if she didn't get her grades up. "How did we go wrong?" Ellie wondered. "How did my baby not make it?"

Her husband, Selvin, sighed. "It's not our fault, Ellie. Amery's just not a math and science person," he soothed.

"But genetics," Ellie said. "They say talents are passed down. They built the whole system on this principle. We're geneticists. We know how this works. Why Ame?"

Selvin leaned over and held Ellie. "Don't stress. It's just matching that she's out of, anyway. She hasn't been filtered by careers yet." He sounded hopeful, as if he didn't see the magnitude of the problem.

"Not yet," Ellie pointed out. "With her grades, they will filter her out of careers, and maybe even slate her for termination."

Selvin sucked in a breath. "I won't let them. They can't terminate Amery. I'll refuse it."

"You can't refuse anything," Ellie said, tears filling her eyes, threatening to fall. "It's the council's decision. We can't do anything about it."

Selvin was silent. "She has to do better," Ellie pressed. An idea, albeit a really bad one, popped into her mind. "Maybe we should tell her to study."

Selvin sighed. "Studying is against the rules," he reminded. "If the wardens catch her, they'll suspend her."

Ellie felt a tear slide down her cheek, burning its way down her face. "I'm only forty. I can't lose my baby now. I can't lose Ame. Not after how well Terrik and Johana have done. They can't do this to me, can they?"

"Ellie, don't stress," Selvin repeated. "We'll figure something out. Just not at two in the morning." He yawned, his body yearning for sleep since two hours ago.

Ellie lay back in the bed, snuggling up with Selvin. "Okay, I'll think about this later," she relented. Nervously, she covered herself with her miraculously soft blanket. Suddenly, nothing she'd worked for in life mattered anymore. The only thing that mattered was the life of her daughter. The one thing she knew she couldn't control.

"Do you think we can save her, Sel?" Ellie asked. "Do you really think she could become normal in four months?"

"Ellie, go to bed," Selvin insisted. "Besides, I believe in her. I think she can make it." Ellie sighed, closing her eyes and squinting away the darkness.

Finally, Ellie and Selvin, the top students of their classes way back when, willed themselves into dreamless sleep.