BLUE - Caitlin Szmerling

ONE

"What do you mean it's a boy?" I asked. "I mean that the child you just gave birth to, for the first time in 60 years, is a boy," replied Dr Sinclair. "But that is impossible, we wiped men out. They are supposed to be eradicated"

...

This can seem confusing, so I will explain. Around a hundred years ago, scientists made a discovery on a new way to be able to reproduce. The new discovery was that inseminating female bone marrow into another female egg, it will result in only female babies. This became very popular in quite a short amount of time, as it was an easier and quicker process of getting pregnant, especially with same-sex female couples. The world's population became 62% female in 20 years after the discovery was made. Eventually, women would begin to only use this method, because of how easy and quick it is. A war between men and women eventually broke out because of this, resulting in women defeating the feeble men. They then began a process called the Great Eradication. The execution of men began, which took 25 years to exterminate all men. They even came up with a process of who was killed in what order by age range. They began to kill the elderly since they believed that would be easiest, this took approximately 3 years. Then it was middle-aged men, this was difficult because some were stronger than women, this took a total of 13 years, as there was a large number of men in this age range. Finally, women went for men 30 years and younger. This would have to be the scariest part of the eradication, because of how much fighting would happen, as they were the stronger age range.

Finally, on the 28th of February, 2048, the last man on earth was killed. His name was Jacob Kingston. They made a plaque for him for some reason which lays where he is buried, praising him for lasting so long, which I think is a bit weird considering that they killed him and then awarded him, even though they didn't want men around.

The year is now 2103 and there are no more men running countries, no more unfair wages between men and women. The world's population has gone down significantly, only 4 billion people now on Earth.

The process to reproduce is simple, but painful. There are two mothers, one will volunteer to be the bone marrow donor and the other is going to carry the baby. Once the bone marrow has been extracted, it is inserted into the other mother's egg and this starts the process of becoming pregnant. The chances of getting pregnant is a lot higher if both women are healthy, and will always result in the birth of a girl, which is how we were able to eradicate men and still be able to reproduce.

Because men have been eradicated, a lot of problems that we were struggling with have been solved. Global warming has been stopped. We were at the point where we thought we had permanently damaged our planet so we decided to get rid of single-use plastic all around the world. We were also able to reduce the number of children who were up for adoption to now 3% of what it was before and it is still shrinking to this day for those couples who want to have children but can't or don't want to go through the pain of the conception. Turns out we just needed more female leaders to overrule what men believed was right.

Men are still being talked about to this day, some people even say we shouldn't have wiped out men, that we still need them, but we are still managing to survive without them, we have improved the planet a lot since they have been gone. And anyway, there is no turning back now, is there?

Today, my wife Bella and I are going to get Bella's bone marrow inserted into me. I'm scared because I hate needles, I mean, who doesn't? They terrify me, and I also don't know if I would be able to handle motherhood. I mean, what if I don't know something and I end up ruining my daughter's life. I mean, it can happen. I feel like whenever I'm around kids, I become really awkward and can't handle the pressure. What if that happens with my own child? I don't know if I would be able to do this, I haven't told Bella how I feel about this yet, after today there will be no turning back. Once I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant. What if something goes wrong during the pregnancy and I die, or if the baby dies? Maybe I am just overthinking this.

"Cassandra! Babe! Hurry up, I'm waiting!" I heard her call from downstairs. "I'm coming! Be patient!" I walk downstairs and head out the door with Bella following close behind, I get into the passenger seat whilst she gets into the driver's seat and we head off the hospital. "Are you nervous?" She asks, "Extremely. Why, is it obvious?" I reply. "Not really, but I know you so well that I can tell when you're nervous. Don't worry, you have nothing to worry about. This procedure is 100% safe." She places one hand on mine whilst the other is on the steering wheel. "Thank you for choosing to be the one to carry out daughter. Out of everyone in the world, I wouldn't want anyone else to carry my baby." She says. "Seriously? You're thanking me? You're the one who had your bone marrow extracted, which is a painful procedure. How are you feeling today?" I ask. "A little sore, but more excited than that. At the end of the day, you're going to be pregnant!" I smile at her excitement. "I know, I can't wait." She looks at me for a second then back on the road, keeping her hand on mine.

Bella and I met at a party 5 years ago. My best friend Tamara introduced us, it was love at first sight and ever since then we have been together. We ended up getting married 2 years after we met, and had been talking about kids for ages until we could finally get up the courage to begin the process of conception.

We arrive at the clinic and walk in and up to the reception desk. "Appointment for Cassandra at 1:30 pm?" Bella says to the receptionist behind the counter. "Yes, the doctor will be out in a moment." She replies. We thank her then head over to the waiting area. I am squeezing Bella's hand out of nerves, and rather than pulling away, she squeezes back.

"Cassandra Patrick?" We hear the doctor call out. "Hi, there!" We stand up. "Come on through." She smiles. She leads us down a hallway to her office. "Don't worry, Dr Sinclair is the best doctor in town. You have nothing to worry about." I notice that I am still squeezing Bella's hand as we walk through the doorway, but I have to let go in order to sit on the bed while she sits in the chair. "Ok so I have Bella's bone marrow here and I am going to be inserting it into your uterus through your skin with this needle, are you able to pull up your top for me Mrs Patrick?" I pull up my top and she begins to sterilize my skin. She presses the needle into my skin after counting to three and I scrunch up my face. Bella rushes over to grab my hand, noticing my discomfort. "You're doing great Mrs Patrick, we are almost done." I hear the doctor say, but I can't focus on what she says because of the pain. I don't do well with needles.

"Okay, we are done now. The baby won't be fully developed to know whether you're pregnant for about 2 weeks, so come back then and we can confirm your pregnancy." Dr Sinclair smiles. "I will let you get cleaned up and chat to you about everything you will have to do from now on." I pull my top back down and sit up, wincing from the pain in my lower abdomen. "I'm so excited," I say to Bella. "I know, this is going to be amazing. You're going to be an amazing mother." She says. "And you are going to be an amazing mother as well."

"How are we going in here?" Dr Sinclair pokes her head in. "Oh good, you're dressed." She smiles and walks in. "Ok, you are going to have to avoid doing any hardcore physical activity for a few weeks. Come back in two weeks so we can do a pregnancy test. You are welcome to do an at-home pregnancy test but know that it may come out negative. Don't be alarmed though, that is 100% normal, nothing to be concerned about as it can take a couple of weeks for your body to actually release that hormone." She smiles. "Ok, thank you," I say to her. "No problem, see you in two weeks." Bella and I walk out of the clinic and drive home. "I'm so proud of you." Bella smiles at me. "You did so well and I know this will be an amazing pregnancy that will result in a beautiful girl. I mean look at the two of us, we are stunning." I laugh at her comment. "That is very true, I can't wait to meet her," I say rubbing my stomach. "I'm not that nervous anymore. I thought I was nervous for being pregnant but turns out it was just the procedure I was scared about." I say. "I'm glad, I told you there was nothing to be worried about, and there wasn't. Does this mean we can have lots of kids?" She asks. I think about it for a second. "How many kids do you want?" I ask. "I don't know, 5 maybe?" She replies. I was shocked, not expecting that many. "I'm not sure, we will take it, one baby, at a time and see how we go." "Fair enough." She smiles.