LYNNE IWONA-ANNE WILLIAMS LESZCZYŃSKI

The Year 2054

To my great surprise and joy, Ousmane agreed to leave with me to join Charlene on the other side of the ocean. Fatou saw no objection or inconvenience to his decision. She had taken care of him alone with her family in the most difficult years of his life as a boy and teenager. Now that our boy was becoming a man, it seemed only natural to both Fatou and I that I took over.

***

Do you know what the two most expensive things on Earth are since the liberation of the rich countries from their artificial intelligence? 

A healthy, good quality egg and a vivacious, fast sperm. 

The human body lost the knack for procreation when the life and the bread of its days began to become scarce. The uncertainty of tomorrow, climatic austerity and human indifference drastically affected the fertility of the human species. The science of men saw another great opportunity to make more people cough up more money. If they wanted to see their genetic heritage reach the finishing line, signing the end point of humanity, they would have to pay more and more.

Back when Charlene wanted a child, half the population couldn't conceive naturally. Today, in 2082, more than 70% of the population can't. Children's adoption because of illness, disabilities and poverty no longer exists in a world like ours either. Science has gotten rid of them for good, unless of course some unfortunate accident. Nowadays, no one is really poor or really sick, but we are all short of money and medicine.

Charlene had a younger cousin who was fertile and her eggs were of good quality. Given my age, I thought we would have to find a sperm donor also, but the doctor confirmed that luckily for us, I didn't have to worry about that; my sperm were still vivacious and fast enough. Finding a surrogate was another adventure for us as Charlene's cousin's generosity would stop at conception. She didn't want to devote the next nine months of her own life to our desire to bring a new child into such an ugly world. She wanted even less to see her body change, expand, round out, and then finally tear itself apart in the name of the miracle of life or that of human greed.

Charlene and I were present during the delivery of our little girl. Both of us were more frightened than our surrogate mother. I hadn't attended Ousmane's birth. It wasn't really the custom in Africa for a man to attend childbirth. In Africa, conception is a couple's business, birth is a woman's business while caring for a child is everyone's business. To be honest, I think they are probably right. What good is there to be there watching when one doesn't even have the strength to bear the pain inflicted, unimaginable. And yes, it takes a whole village to care for a child born through one woman.

Our surrogate mother demonstrated remarkable strength and calm. One hand in Charlene's, the other in mine, she pushed our daughter out of her baby bump into the portal to our rotten world without the screams you often see in movies and documentaries. Only the sweat trickling down her grimacing face indicated the intensity of her pain.

"Who are you? And me, who am I?" Lynne's wrinkled little face seemed to ask me when she first looked at me with her curious little eyes.

This time, I don't know by what miracle, my eyes had the courage to answer her while my lips simply sketched a broad smile.

"I have no idea, but we'll all find out eventually before we die."