“So what should we do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Let me think for a sec....Do we know anybody in New Orleans or Philadelphia because those are the places to go, they said,” Ralph looked at his watch. “I gotta go to work, hon’. We’ll have to talk more later. Can you meet me for lunch?”
Phyllis gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, “I think so. I’ll have to call you from the office. Have a good day, and don’t worry about it so much.”
“I won’t. You always have to say that, don’t you? You sound like your mom whenever you tell me not to worry. I’ll be okay. How about you? Do you feel all right?”
“Just a little sleepy,” she yawned. Ralph started putting on his raincoat and headed for the door. “Ralphie?”
“Yeah, hon’ ?”
“I love you.” Ralph gazed at her for a moment, walked over to her and kissed her deeply on the lips. “I love you, too,” he whispered then turned around and left the apartment. Phyllis stood there staring blankly at the door. She walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the narrow white plastic stick with the telltale fine blue line in the center. What are we gonna do, she worried. How are we going to manage this?
Ralph merged on to the jam-packed freeway, listening to his usual morning talk radio program. “KLIF traffic time is 7:08, and this is the Lance McGovern Show with yours truly on this lovely rainy Wednesday morning, and today’s topic is: Should we give those smokers, how ever many of you out there still smoking, a break by letting them smoke at a few designated smoking areas like we used to do years back. I know most of you out there are probably up in arms--I can see the board lighting up already--saying that why should we let them, knowing the dangers of second-hand and even third-hand smoke as recent studies have shown, and that it’s been so wonderful since smoking outdoors has been banned more than a decade ago, etc. I agree with you. It’s been wonderful breathing clean, fresh air all over this great nation of ours. But I think we should give them a break, and I’ll tell you why. This is supposedly a free country...”
Yeah, you tell ‘em, Lance, Ralph said to himself. I am so sick and tired of sneaking around, trying to find a place where no one can see me smoke. Dammit, what kind of place am I living in? Is this the kind of world that I want my child to grow up in? Ralph then stopped himself in the middle of his ritualistic morning rush hour mental frenzy. My child. Good Lord, I’m going to be a father. That’s right; I will be a father, if I have any say about it.
Unfortunately, he didn’t, not legally anyway. He didn't exactly look forward to the prospect of having to hide out like some mob informant in a witness protection program for nine months, six months at least. Do I know anyone in Pennsylvania or Louisiana? Or how about Arizona? Utah? We are not gonna live with freaking Mormons all barricaded behind some paramilitary fortress around the whole state, assuming that they would even let us in in the first place. Jesus, how did things get this far? Ralph let out a sigh in frustrated resignation. I gotta figure something out. Will this traffic ever move?
Phyllis walked a few blocks from the apartment to catch the 7:26 bus to her office. Another day at the stinkin' unemployment office--no, sorry, job placement office. It's hard to be positive in such a dead-end government job where she meets an endless stream of disaffected, displaced and disgruntled, out-of-work lot, day in and day out. Is it right to bring another life into this god-forsaken world, she thought. What makes me more fit to become a mother than all those women that I see everyday? Having a job? Do I have a right to do go through with this? Damn straight, I do. I want to be a mother. Phyllis kept telling herself that. If she couldn't convince herself, then this whole endeavor would fall apart when it barely started. Yes, I wanna be a mother!
Ralph survived another commute and finally made it to his cubbyhole cubicle to tackle another routine testing project. The stupid thing is automated, but I have to be here to watch and make sure that nothing out of the ordinary occurs. He sat in front of the 50-inch monitor looking at the cryptic event messages flying across one terminal window after another. There it goes--pass, pass, pass, pass…Does it ever fail? Of course not. If it did no one would be able to handle it, much less try to fix the bug. Ignorance is bliss. Out of sight, out of mind. I just sit here and collect my paycheck, man. So begins his waiting hours until lunch time.
"As you well know, the laws and regulations on starting a family in this state are very clear and strictly enforced. Have you submitted your application to the Department of Child Welfare?” Dr. Garrison asked sternly.
“Yes, we have,” Phyllis answered, “but we have not taken the competency exams yet. We’re still awaiting a reply to see if we qualify for being parents.”
“We’ve always sort of been on the borderline. This is our third try…” Ralph’s voice trailed off.
“I see,” the doctor replied in a sympathetic tone. “For now, there is not much that I can do for you until you get the final go-ahead from DCW.”
“Robert, please. Couldn’t you just put in a good word with some of your friends at the department? I’m asking you as a friend,” Ralph pleaded as Phyllis chimed in, “Please, Robert…”
“Okay,” he replied in a hushed voice. “I’ll look into it, but I can’t guarantee anything. Things are not like it used to be. Everything is by-the-book now, more than ever.”
“Thank you, Robert,” Ralph shook his hand. “You…you have to understand that this is our last chance. All we want is to be able to have a child of our own. That is all, but we really need your help.”
“I know, Ralph. I wish you both good luck.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Phyllis smiled.
About a week later a letter came from DCW for the Chases. The envelope was very thin, just like the ones they had received twice before. They threw the envelope away in the recycling bin in the garage.
“It’s a funny thing about people who just insist on having children,” Todd started on his soapbox. “Why don’t they see what is going on around them? Can’t they see the kind of world we’re living in? For god sakes, most of us live in these shoeboxes that we call apartments because of how crowded this city, let alone our whole country or the whole world, is and is becoming. How can they possibly justify bringing another life into this world?”
“Well, the rich folks can have all the children that they want. That’s just plain criminal. If that ain’t discrimination, I don’t know what is, not to mention that most of the rich people are white and Asian.”
“Easy there. I’m as white as they come and I don’t qualify for kids. But it doesn’t matter 'cause I don’t want kids anyway. I believe it's better for the common good...and the environment.”
“Fine for you, Todd, but millions of other people in this country want to have children but are shut out completely. Where is the good in that? Pretty soon all the poor folks are gonna die out and there will be no one to do all the shitty jobs that keep the rich folks livin’ happy as clams. The chickens will come home to roost one day, I’m tellin’ you. Something is seriously wrong with this country.”
“You can go and live in Alabama or Mississippi or someplace like that and have as many kids as you want, Tisha. No one’s stoppin’ you.”
“Don’t be givin’ me that shit. You think I want to live in the South with them hood-wearing, cross-burning white trash rednecks? I don’t call that a choice. I am fine where I am, but that doesn’t mean I have to support everything the government throws down at me and like it!”
“All I’m saying is if we don’t control this overpopulation, we’re all going to choke ourselves to death. We’re just screwing ourselves by bringing more kids into this world…”
“Well, then nobody should be allowed to have them, not even them rich people!”
“The rich people having babies is not the problem. They’ve never contributed to high birth rates in this country. It’s always the middle- and lower-class people who have lots of kids and unplanned pregnancies. The rich folks, as you call them, account for barely one percent of the population. In any case, they are the only ones who can even afford to raise kids in today’s economy. The poorer people are just contributing to more social, educational and environmental problems that we are already suffering.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what you conservative-types want us to think. That’s all bullshit…”
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