Page 3 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

The Spark of Life

embryo left behind by a sister, a cousin, or an aunt. The church
firmly drew the line at bearing one’s own siblings, however; no
suggestion of incest, however tenuous, was permitted. Directors of
Reproductive Responsibility had other duties to perform—some
bordering on the inquisitorial—but the power they wielded in
granting human existence to a microscopic bundle of cells and
fulfillment to a frustrated husband and wife was something special,
requiring talents beyond those of the ordinary pastoral leader.
Wilson Johnson, indeed, harbored aspirations to national office;
the Secretary of Televangelism was elderly, and feelers had already
been sent out from the Synod. Johnson could ill afford a mistake
at this time, and he realized that the woman before him presented
a rather difficult challenge.
Mrs. Everly would not have qualified as an embryo adopter
based on her merits. As the Right Reverend could determine from
the dossier displayed on his unobtrusive desk monitor, her father
had been an Old Believer, a member of one of the now-extinct
liberal churches refusing to march under the gold-and-vermilion
banner of the UCA. Decreasingly subtle forms of persuasion had
reduced the ranks of the rebels to insignificance, but their
descendants bore a taint of suspicion. Disestablishmentarianism
was a disease easily cured by killing its cause, secular education.
The UCA confidently anticipated a doubt-free society within
twenty years. Meanwhile, the wretched few exuding the heretical
whiff of pluralism had to be watched.
And thwarted, if possible, in a kindly, quiet sort of way. First,
Johnson had to find out the extent of the woman’s knowledge.
After the formalities of introduction, he began, “My dear young
lady, the Church will make every effort to satisfy your wish to
adopt one of our Souls in Abeyance. May I ask why you
specifically desire one of your aunt’s embryos?”
Mrs. Everly blushed.
“Well, reverend, it’s like this. My husband and I were going
through some papers and letters and things that had been left by
the Rawsons. They both died with grandfather in a terrorist attack,
you know, and I was given a lot of their personal effects by the
executor.”

2