I Suck

by Judith Bakkensen

 

I am a second child.  The kids on the playground called me "Suck," for second kid.  The third kids were called "Turds."  The fourth kids, rare as they were, were called "Farts."  I have a copy of a document stating my blessing came from a woman whose child died in a car accident.  Her son, named Robert, died before he fathered a child.   So I am a legal child.  Every since the one birth per woman law came into effect in 2023, the second children have been actively discriminated against.  It really doesn't matter that I am a legal birth.  I am called Suck.  I feel guilty that my blessing came from a young man who died so I can live.  I feel guilty that my mom applied for a blessing.  I am a freak.

 

When the one birth per woman law first was enacted, no one really noticed women with more than one child because it took a whole generation for things to change.  There were also children to adopt.  Now there are no children to adopt.  A woman with two or three children is stared at, especially if the children look alike.

 

Blessings are passed to other women by elders who never had children or, like in my case, their child died childless. 

 

It seems unfair that I exist, anyway.  I will be sixteen soon.  I've already been brainwashed to be very careful with my birthright of one child.  Mom says back in the past, 2007, one million people were added to the planet every four days.  The governments of the world asked women to voluntarily have only one child until the population fell to 1 billion.  Only a few countries complied.  Soon the governments made it a law to try to save the human species and bring the planet into balance.  She sounds like a book.  She says the same thing every time I ask.

 

 

I can hardly wait to get out of high school.  No one will know that I am a "suck" in my new job.  I can proudly say, "My name is Roberta."  Maybe then I can forgive my Mom for having me and move out of suckdom.