The Marigold

(Read after my story Aberdeen)

Auri was brand new to the world. She lay in a plexiglass bed, wearing a yellow Onesie, behind a glass wall—the lone baby in the nursery.

There was no smile on the face of the man standing outside the glass room. He looked at her, and his forehead made a thud sound as it hit the glass in front of him. He wanted to bang it again and again, but his second thought was the sleeping baby. If he woke her, she'd cry. He hated babies, especially crying babies.

It was the year 2130. Earth and the Mars colony were suffering the scourge of infertility. The few babies that were born were females.

The Divvy brought Auri from Proll, a state on Earth in the United States. The Divvy was a colony-sanctioned human trafficking organization that made trips to Proll to select people to use on the colony for experiments, prostitution, and concubines. Flynn was the man outside the glass, and he had no idea why the Divvy had brought back a baby girl. There was no shortage of girls in the colony. There was a shortage of boys. He walked to his office, sat behind his desk, and read the report. It told him the Divvy was shopping Proll for young men and women to recruit. They'd heard about a fifteen-year-old feral child living in a deer stand near the river, so they went to get her but found a baby in a basket. One of the traffickers felt he couldn't leave the baby behind.

Flynn read the medical exam and saw the baby was blind. That settled it; she was useless. Flynn told the nurse to take the baby to The Clearance, the orphanage on the Mars Colony.

The Mars colony was established in the late 2070s and consisted of wealthy, mostly white, healthy people from the United States. The inhabitants were not allowed to have unhealthy children. If a person developed any physical defects, limitations, or illnesses that the Mars Colony doctors couldn't fix, they were dumped back on Earth. Children born with defects went to The Clearance, and the colony would attempt to find homes for them on Earth. If a family didn't adopt them on Earth before they turned five, the Clearance dumped them in Proll, the most impoverished state in the United States. It also had the highest crime rate, lowest life expectancy, the worst medical care, and the highest rate of congenital disabilities. The primary defect of the people of Proll was toothlessness. People who hadn't been vaccinated against the covid 19 virus and contracted it and survived passed down a gene defect that caused their children never to get teeth or if they did, the teeth fell out quickly.

Auri’s last name became Marigold. That was the name given to all children in The Clearance. The Marigold flower has a symbolic connection to death and despair. Dew collects in the marigold flower petals overnight, so the flowers will weep in the morning when the dew drips from the blossoms. Marigolds are sometimes called the flowers of grief. While they are alive, they add value to their surroundings; they keep rabbits away and protect the surrounding plants from insects in a garden. They are beautiful flowers, but they live for only a short time.

The caregivers dressed their little Marigolds in orange and yellow like the flowers they were named after. They believed themselves superior to the children because God cursed anyone with a physical defect, disease, or chronic ailment according to the doctrine of the colony. Still, the caregivers were kind to the children and took pity on them. They were earning brownie points by sacrificing their time to care for inferior humans.

Flynn sat in the office of his superior, Minister Tagetes. A massive middle-aged man with black hair delicately trimmed with sparkling greys. He looked up from the report and gave Flynn a shit-eating grin. "Flynn dear boy, what are we going to do about these renegade Divvy? We don't hire them to get a wild hair and decide to bring home a baby. Granted, this was the first time they'd encountered an abandoned baby but still, let's address this situation at the next meeting. Why didn't they return? Your report says something about a fight?" Tagetes thoughts quickly jump back to the baby, "It would be one thing if you'd miraculously found a healthy baby boy, but that's not the case. She's completely defective. The scientist could use her for visual research in the best-case scenario, but no such projects are happening now. What a mess. I'm not happy, Flynn." He clapped the report folder closed and rose from his seat. "You get those Divvy in line. We can't afford to lose any more recruits." He walked around his desk and put both hands on Flynn's shoulders. "Now, let's go have lunch." He said in his chipper, asshole way and turned to walk out. Flynn said, "Sir, I need the medical section of the report to give to the ladies at The Clearance." As Minister Tagetes kept walking, he answered without even looking back, "Sure, grab it." Flynn promptly took the paper from the folder and followed the minister out. As they approached the elevator, Flynn handed documents to the director of The Clearance. She’d been waiting for their meeting to end.

All during their lunch, Flynn felt like he was in a fog. He tried not to stare at Minister Tagetes, who seemed oblivious. "Could he really have no clue?" Flynn was trying to wrap his head around the Ministers behavior. He hadn't noticed the DNA section of the report, or he just refused to acknowledge that, according to the DNA report, Tagetes was Auri Marigold's father, which meant he was visiting Proll for sex, which was prohibited. And he'd been having sex with a fifteen-year-old feral child who lived in a deer stand. "Ah, the power of denial, the way of the Colony.” thought Flynn. Which, in reality, wasn't a Mars colony at all. It was a massive ship floating in the Earth's atmosphere, but the inhabitants believed they were on Mars because someone told them they were. The vessel had a realistic sky that changed from day to night as expected. It deceived the gullible by design. Oddly they never questioned why it only took a day to travel to Earth. When they heard people saying the Mars colony wasn't on Mars, they just wrote them off as jealous or uneducated. Flynn shook his head, thinking about the minister, the baby, and all the stupid people he had to deal with.

"Now to address the rebel Divvy," thought Flynn.

Athwart Freeman had been a Divvy for five years. He sat in Flynn's office waiting. He knew this meeting was coming. Would he be protected by the person who sent him to find the feral child?

"Lieutenant Athwart Freeman," Flynn pronounced as he walked into his office and extended his hand to Athwart for a handshake. Athwart stood, shook his hand, and responded, "General Flynn." The general leaned forward and said, "Athwart, we're in a world of shit. What possessed you to bring that baby back here? It's a girl, and we don't need girls, especially blind baby girls." Athwart responded, "That baby may be minister Tagetes' child." Flynn interrupted, "exactly, and that's why you should have left it there." Athwart looked at him and said, "Minister Tagetes' wife knew about his trips to Proll. She's the one who asked me to find the feral child. Mrs. Tagetes wants the baby." Flynn was stunned. He had to think for a second. He finally said, "did you tell Mrs. Tagetes that you brought the baby back?"

Athwart replied, "Not yet, I wanted to wait until the DNA results came back, and I was sure it was the baby Minister Tagetes had fathered. Is that the results?" Athwart said, pointing to Auri's report on the desk. Flynn didn't answer his question; he just said, "I’ll take care of this from here. Thank you.” He rose from his seat abruptly. Athwart started to protest, but Flynn cut him off, “Don’t say anything else. Leave my office, go back to your post, forget the baby, Mrs. Tagetes, and all of this. I will talk to her and fix everything.” Athwart was hesitant, but he nodded his head in agreement and left.

The next day, as the fake sun was rising in the artificial Mars Colony sky, Mrs. Tagetes sat in a rocking chair in The Clearance holding baby Auri. Mrs. Tagetes was never able to have children, and now she was in her late forties. She looked out the window and admired the sunset. Baby Auri stirred in her arms. One of the caregivers nearby handed Mrs. Tagetes a bottle, and she started feeding Auri. When the bottle was empty, Mrs. Tagetes laid Auri on her shoulder, and the nurse placed the burp cloth. She began to pat Auri’s back gently. She whispered, “I wish you could grow up to see this beautiful colony; it's perfect; that’s why you can’t stay for very long. You are imperfect. But while you’re here, I will make sure you get the very best care. I’ll visit you every day, my little Marigold.” Auri cooed and then burped. Mrs. Tagetes kissed Auri’s head and smiled.