"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Results" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Are they here because they will decide what their child will be? Or are they here because they will
commiserate together, knowing that to bring a child into this world will either be too costly or too
dreadful?

She does not like the waiting. Fortunately she told her boss she might be late. He knows that this is an
important moment for her, and he understands.

The park is full of children: in strollers, in parents’ arms, running around the benches. These are not the
perfect children she usually sees. They have bad skin, mismatched features, eyes that are slightly crossed.
They are not perfect. There is no intelligence in their faces.

These are the children of the poor, the desperate, those who will not listen to their doctors or cannot
afford one. Those who believe that they must go through with a pregnancy no matter what. Those who
cannot afford in-the-womb enhancements. These are the children who will be, in the-not-too-distant
future, A Burden On Society.

Maybe that is why Bryan chose this place. To remind her about the costs of making the wrong choice.

She sees him emerge from the subway, head down. He is balding ever so slightly, just a lighter spot at the
crown of his head. He used to joke before they got the test that he will make certain none of his children
will go bald.

He hasn't made that joke in weeks.

He makes his way to the bench without a second glance at the children. When he reaches the bench, he
does not touch her.

Instead, he hands her his palmtop. On it is an e-mail already opened. She skips the salutation and the
signature, reads the body instead.

Percentages fill her brain. She glances at the high ones first, expecting something awful—a high chance of
spina bifida or Alzheimer's Disease. Instead she sees none of that. The high percentages are silly: 97
percent chance of child having blond hair. 96 percent chance of child having brown eyes. 98 percent
chance of child being tall.

It is in the middle percentages that the problems strike: 47 percent chance of having an IQ above 120. 36
percent chance of having artistic talent, acting talent, musical talent. 24 percent chance of having strong
athletic ability.

Mediocre. The test results show that their child will be mediocre. At best.

She scrolls through the e-mail, searches for anything positive, anything that will negate this bizarre news.
She sees instead the layman's explanation of how the figures are arrived at. Her IQ, lower than Bryan's,
brings down the total score. His physical abilities mismatch with hers; her talents do not go with his. They
are genetically incompatible. Already they are, before her first pregnancy, failures as parents.

She does not raise her head. She doesn't want to see the children playing across from her, screaming,
laughing, not knowing that, in some undefinable future moment, their poverty will catch up with them and
hold them back.