EgnerQ1213

 The Best “Wilson A. Rudder” the announcer said, exhausted through the intercom. A handsome young man with blond curly hair carefully combed back and parted on the side slowly stood up from the plastic chair he had been sitting in. “Good luck Wilson,” whispered a lady in the chair next to him. She had bright blue eyes and thick strait brown hair that fell just below her tense shoulder blades. Her lips were parted slightly, and her eyes were wide and anxious. “Thanks Lily” he said apprehensively. He slowly walked across the silent waiting room into large gray doors. As he opened them, light from inside the room drowned the soundless dim waiting room, and Lily and the other couples squinted and looked away. The man paused, took a deep breath and went inside. Nervousness filled Lily’s body. She heard every noise in the quiet waiting room, the woman beside her chewing her fingernails, the couple across from her flipping through a baby magazine longingly, the announcer’s discreet squeaky chair in the corner of the room. Lily checked her watch and sighed. Her blue eyes scanned the room, and as she heard the dark gray doors open again, she squinted through the light, her heart pounding. After the doors closed and the waiting room returned to its dullness, she saw that the person from the testing room was not her Wilson. Instead, a short fat man with brown hair walked towards the announcer’s desk in the corner of the waiting room, grinning. “Did you pass?” the announcer behind the desk asked, her chair finally silent as she stopped rocking back and forth. “Yes!”He said. “Pink slip and __#|birth certificate__ please?” she asked. He showed the lady his birth certificate and a pink slip from inside the testing room and she gave him a __#|plastic card__ with three little bumps on it. He walked to the center of the waiting room, scanning the couples. He ran over to a woman sitting at one of the chairs, beaming. The embraced each other, crying happily and ran out of the waiting room holding hands. Lily frowned. She slumped into the chair, her feet stretching out and gripping the edge of the gray rug encompassing the middle of the room. “Samuel A. Rochester” the announcer blared into the loudspeaker in the same monotonic voice. “Ralph D. Winchester”. Different men stood up. Lily’s blue eyes fluttered. She looked around the room and as her body slumped lower into the chair, she fell asleep. //Wilson turned over. “Lily,” he whispered. “I’m so happy.” Lily smiled and turned to face him. His eyes were still closed. The light from their bedroom window was filtering in from the curtains. Lily slowly rose from her bed and walked over to her window, pausing only to stretch out her arms. She let out a glorious sigh and ripped open the __#|blinds__ completely, letting in the morning light.“Mama! Daddy! Are you up?” A little girl with blonde curly pigtails and bright blue eyes ran into Lily and Wilson’s room and jumped up on the bed, squealing.“Daddy! Get up!” she said. Wilson bolted up and grabbed the girl, tickling her.“Little stinker,” he laughed.// The doors opened again and bolted Lily awake. The woman who came out of the dark gray doors held her face in her hands. She put her hands down, ran up to the announcer’s desk, and sat on her knees. A man ran up to her and put his arm around her slumped shoulders. “Baby, it’s okay,” he said to the woman. Her eyes were bloated and bright red. “You don’t understand!” She wailed at the lady sitting at the desk. “Security,”she calmly said through the intercom. “No! Wait! You can’t do this to us! You don’t know how much we want this! This isn’t fair!” She started sobbing relentlessly, as two giant men wearing black and gray uniforms came in through the gray testing room doors and carried the woman out of the waiting room, the man following behind, his cheeks rosy and his eyes filled with tears. Lily groaned softly. Her blue eyes sleepy and her arms crossed, she thought about when she was a little girl. The population had hit 12 billion people on August 17th, 2082. There were too many people, and not enough space on the Earth. The next day the president made a speech, an effort to fix the troubling situation. Lily remembered how he kept running his fingers through his hair, and looking down. She remembered when he announced only the best 10% of the population would be able to reproduce, to regulate the uncontrollable population, and how he awkwardly swayed slightly when saying it, avoiding eye contact with the press below him. Lily’s mom and dad wept silently as the crowd on the TV went into an uproar. Lily threw her head back and stretched. The waiting room smelled like sweat and disappointment. Lily’s eyes met the gray door as she looked up cautiously. “Now,” she whispered. “Hurry up, Wilson. Don’t leave me in suspense.” The waiting room stayed dim and quiet. Lily’s mind buzzed with anticipation. “//He’ll make it.//” She thought. “//I know he will.// //He’s has to make it. I’ll name her Sarah. Or if it’s a boy, Patrick perhaps.”// She grinned, resting her chin in her palms. “//He has to pass,”// she thought. “//He just has to.”// With trembling hands she reached into her pocket and touched her plastic card, her promise of a baby. The gray doors flew open. Lily breathed heavily and nervously as she saw the silhouette of Wilson walking towards her slowly. “Come with me, Lily.” He said. She stared at his expressionless face. Lily tensely followed Wilson out of the waiting room doors and into the radiant sunlight which kissed their cheeks and warmed their tired souls. Wilson turned to Lily and held both of her hands. A quirky smile from Wilson calmed her uneasy breathing. “Baby…”he smiled, “screw this.” Then he ran. His arms outstretched, head thrown back, a glorious sprint with his chest exposed to sun. Lily just stared at him. She realized he had not passed and anger began to fill her tired body. She rubbed her thumb with her hand and then wiped her sweaty palms on her jacket. “Where are you going, Wilson?” She asked. “You can’t run from this. You didn’t pass. You can’t take the test again.” Her face was bitter and worry was bursting from her bones. “Where are //we// going my sweet lady?! //We’re// going nowhere! Somewhere they won’t find us! We’ll escape! We can have a baby! Lily, we’ll have two babies! Three! Four, even!” He laughed hysterically. “Wilson,”Lily whispered, “That’s crazy thinking. We can’t have kids! You didn’t pass. And even if we did pass, we couldn’t have more than one. It’s //the law//, Wilson. We can’t just //leave// just like that.” “To hell with them, darling!” Wilson shouted, as he stopped running and walked over to her. He held her hands in his again. His eyes were watering from happiness, passion, and hope. Lily sequestered a smile. “To hell with them,” he said again, in a hushed tone. Lily bit her lip. She imagined holding a baby in her arms, the feel of a baby’s breath on her skin. She thought about the smell of a baby, the way a baby could bring completion and joy into a tattered life. “//It’ll all be worth it,”// She thought. “To hell with them,” Lily said uncertainly. She took Wilson by the hand and they started walking. 