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Monday - September 13

Stunned by what she said, I find myself becoming numb. She wouldn't be pregnant if I were sterilized. My God, I'm not sterilized either!

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I yell. "Damn it! This can't be true! I have to be sterilized, Claire! My parents wouldn't have broken the law! Damn it, Claire, my dad was a medical doctor and he..." I stop and realize my dad was a medical doctor, and he could have been able to forge anything to make it look legal. "Hundreds of us," I mutter.

"What did you say, John?" asks Claire.

I turn around and look at her, and say, "You said there were hundreds of us. This was planned, Claire; you and me. My dad and your parents were part of some plan from the beginning. They, and I'm sure other conspirators, have had something up their sleeves for years. Why didn't they tell me? Why did I have to find out from you?"

I look at her, wanting answers, but I can see that her knowledge, if any, is meager. Since it was obvious that Claire can't answer any of my questions, I'll need to find out who can. Since both of our parents are deceased, the only thing I can do is to try and find some way to get into my dad's old files.

For now, though, I have to get back to the reality of things. I have to go to work and pretend that this "baby news" never happened. It's now my turn to have secrets.

I half-ass kiss Claire on the forehead and tell her I must leave for work. She walks me to the hallway and helps me with my coat and hat, and then kisses me tenderly whispering, "It will be all right, John. Trust me."

Claire smiles at me and blows me a kiss as I walk out the door. When she shuts the door, I mumble, "Yeah, right. Trust you?"

I walk down our snowdrift stairway and blend in with the masses of hundreds of people trying to survive in Atlanta. Walking amongst them, I take quick glances at their faces. Not only are they tattered by the poverty they endure, every day many must toil effortlessly just to survive: women sell their frail, thin bodies for a cup of coffee; children beg on their knees for a piece of bread; men implore for work in order to support their loved ones. Yet no one cares. How are they able to care when they're trying to make sure that their needs are being met, too? Food cost is so high, that it is a miracle that those who do have jobs can afford to eat. A loaf of bread is nine dollars; a gallon of milk is fifteen dollars. Only a few restaurants exist, and even they can only be supported by those who are affluent. Life on Earth for everyone, regardless of their situation, is stressful.

Employment for many is a dream that no longer exists. If an advert appears for one position, thousands stand in line to apply. While only a few people are able to fill out an application, only one lucky bastard gets the job. When unemployment rose dramatically in the twenty-first century, people naively assumed it was a chain of events where the kinks would eventually work out. They were wrong. Many were wrong, including the governments. When one link of the chain was broken, and was unfixable, a domino effect began. Humans stood by, not realizing that their time was ticking away.

Every day, now, I walk to and from work. The price of gasoline is so high that practically no one, except the billionaires, can afford to buy it. At one hundred fifty dollars per gallon, the Earth's ozone has the benefit of a break from the burning of fossil fuel.

I cross Clifton Road onto Houston Mill Road and head towards the guard house to my place of employment, the Center for Disease Control. In 2021, the CDC became heavily guarded since terrorists bombed the original site. A strain that targeted the black population caused millions of deaths, and the black society strongly believed that the CDC invented a strain in order to subdue the race. After two years of working on the disease, the cause was due to pasteurized products that targeted the sickle cell, which affects the black race. While a cure was eventually discovered, the black's felt that the white society deliberately released the strain in order to rout their race. This of course made them to never trust the white's ever again. Racism had returned in full bloom.