Chapter 7 Facade
Johnny B & Kendra
Amber knew there were always surprises in the Line data. And she understood a good deal about how the SIN Score system worked. Between their own research, personal experiences, and a number of friends’ stories, Darren and Amber had firsthand knowledge of a horrific array of social injustices done at the hands of government agencies, using the SIN Score as a battering ram.
It all began at a young age. Children always took on the class of their parents until they were sixteen years old. After that, their SIN Record drove their SIN Score just like everyone else.
If children rebelled and did stupid things in their youth, it would immediately affect their Score on their sixteenth birthday. For obvious reasons, sixteenth birthdays were always a huge stressor for both parents and children as no one really knew what all had been recorded in the SIN Record database all the years prior. But even if there was an unexpected surprise on a sixteenth birthday, there were ways to advance in social class.
Many of Amber’s friends struggled to move up in the classes, some in bizarre ways. Some achieved success, like her friend, Kendra, and her husband, Johnny. John “Johnny B” Mitchel had been in the B class his whole life, pretty much sheltered by his B class parents. In his youth Johnny had never caused much trouble so at age sixteen he retained a B3 class, much to the joy of his parents.
Johnny was working at a hospital as a Registered Nurse by the time he was twenty years old. At the hospital he’d met Kendra, twenty-one, who was also a Registered Nurse. She was in B class as well. After six months of dating, they decided to get married. Their parents helped pay for an extravagant wedding and reception at a posh downtown hotel.
Once married, they automatically advanced to the top of B class. But Johnny and his wife had aspirations to move to the top of A class. Doing any sort of “buy up” in order to get A class privileges was out of the question, as neither he nor Kendra were willing to work their main jobs for free for six months or more, much less take on a second part time job to work for free even longer. They had another plan.
During their first year together, Kendra had gotten pregnant. But she had a miscarriage two months into it. They tried again and now she was pregnant for the second time. She was about six months along and everything was looking good. Even though she could keep working nearly right up until child birth, she was about to take a four month leave of absence from her job, three months prior to the birth and one month recovery. That was part of their plan.
She and Johnny had already made arrangements with a State agency to accept their newborn baby. In exchange, the State would authorize her leave of absence for four months (and the hospital had to agree), pay all of her medical expenses, and pay for the last four months of her wages at double the rate. Then, once the baby was born, and upon transfer of it to the State, Johnny and Kendra would be advanced one whole class level. For them, it meant going to the top of the A class.
The A class was the easy life. Easy, high paying work with the best of benefits was available, the best housing, any foods people could want, transportation, freedom to travel, and more. As long as people didn’t screw it up, they were set for life. And in case they did screw it up, there was one more safety net.
For providing the State with a lifelong labor slave, Johnny and Kendra were protected from ever going below a B class, despite anything that might ever be added to their SIN Record (except for serious crimes), for the rest of their lives provided they stayed married. If they ever divorced, then the B class guarantee was gone.
All this, for one child. For fucking, getting pregnant, and handing over the child after birth. No wonder that States’ labor programs were thriving, as were their economies. They had a constant source of wage-free labor.
Kendra couldn’t contain her excitement as she completed the last day of work before her fourth month leave of absence. That evening, she impatiently waited for Johnny to get home. When she heard the front door open, she ran to it and threw her arms around him.
“I finally have my freedom, Johnny. Things have been so good with you. Thanks for encouraging me when the first baby didn’t work out for us. I’m glad we stuck to our plan. After the baby is born and we bump up to A class, you can take any job you want. I may never go back to work!” She was beaming.
Johnny already had his arms wrapped around her, and he gently lifted her up and swung her around in a circle as she giggled and clung on to his neck.
“Only the best for my princess. This is what I told you could be possible back when I proposed to you, huh! I’m glad you said yes. I couldn’t have done this without you. We make a great team.”
Johnny kissed her and took her by the hand as they walked into the living room and collapsed on the sofa, talking for hours about all the stuff they were going to do, and buy, when they reached their goal.
For months, Amber had listened to Kendra going on and on about their plan, week after week, bragging about moving to the A class. It actually made Amber feel kind of sick. Was this how the upper classes really thought?
She just couldn’t understand how anyone could trade a baby away so they could have more stuff or just to be a little freer. If this is what she and Darren were going to turn into, maybe they should rethink their plans before going any further.
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