Life is a Right, Not a Choice

Life Is a Right, Not a Choice

         You should treat all people equally.

         “Now we will accept requests for Renouncement,” said the minister. Everyone got silent as two lines started to form, one of parents and another with one of their children. People who were not lining up started to leave and a curious, young girl with blonde hair started to question her parents about the events that had just occurred at the Renouncement Meeting.

         “What’s renouncement mean?” she asked.

         “Renouncement is when you give up something,” they replied.

         “What are they giving up?”

         “That is not of your concern right now,” her mother snapped back.

         “Oh” the girl sighed and continued walking, now with a saddened expression. As they walked away from the building, you could see parents saying bye to their children and leaving them with police officers and agents.

         8 Years Later


         “So are you going to my house tomorrow or not?” asked Kara as she walked with Ariel to class.

“I’m not sure, I might stay home to help my mom take care of Diane,” replied Ariel.

“Oh, well call me if you are.”

Ariel and Kara had been friends since kindergarten. They were almost complete opposites, but they still enjoyed being around each other. Ariel was a tall, outgoing blonde-haired person, which enjoyed playing her flute and dancing. Kara was a brown-haired person. She was not as tall as Ariel and she did not have an outgoing personality either. She was a shy young girl, but she also loved music and dancing. Of course, both of them liked to tint their hair and pigment their eyes. Because of this, you could almost never tell what their actual eye color was. Ariel usually spent a lot of time in Kara’s house. However, ever since Diane, her sister, was born Kara spent more time at home helping her mother. Diane had dyslexia so she usually had trouble with her homework. Therefore, Ariel spent a lot of time at home helping her with her studies.

“Have you seen Jessica lately?” asked Ariel.

“No. Why?” said Kara.

“It’s because I haven’t seen her since she went to my house last week. I hope she didn’t get offended with what my parents said.”

“What did they say?”

“Well it was mainly my dad. He said that he didn’t understand why I had to have an African American friend. He gave this long speech about his childhood, and how his ancestors were slave owners. He said all that in front of Jessica. Slavery was like thousands of years ago, were in the middle of the 30th century, we live in Alaska and there’s barely any snow. The world is way different than it was when he was a kid. I don’t get why he’s so racist. I felt really bad and I apologized like a hundred times.”

“Well what did she say?”

“She said that everything was ok, that she was used to it. Then she left and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Well if we see her brother after school we can ask him if she’s been ok.”

Jessica was Ariel’s only African American friend. She was only nine, but she was very fun to be around because she was a very outgoing person. She had ebony skin and chocolate brown eyes. She was a curious little girl that was not afraid to share what was on her mind. For that reason, she often got in trouble for saying too much at the wrong time and speaking without thinking. Yet, she was a very intelligent little girl. Most kids her age were in 4th grade, but she was in fifth. She had a brother named Andres. Andres was 16. He was very overprotective of his sister. He loved football and basketball, and was very good them too. He did not go to school though because even though he was also very intelligent like his sister, he had to work because their father had died and what his mother earned was not enough to pay the bills. He worked in a convenience store about a block away from Ariel and Kara’s school. Therefore, at the end of the school day, Ariel and Kara passed by to see if they saw him.

“Hey,” they said in unison.

“Hello, how may I help you,” Andres replied.

“We would like to know if your sister was ok. We haven’t seen her in a while.”

“She’s fine. I told her not to talk to y'all anymore because she could get into trouble, that’s all.”

“But that’s not fair. She’s our friend and we want to talk to her,” they replied.

“Well I’m sorry, but your father being how he is and my sister acting how she does could cause a lot of problems and I don’t want my sister hurt,” he told Ariel.

“I don’t care about what my dad thinks, Jessica is my friend,” Ariel said.

“Ok!”

When Ariel got home she went straight to her room, as she was walking she heard her parents talking.

“I really want to have another kid, I miss taking care of a baby,” said her mother, a short woman with brown eyes and black curly hair.

“I want to have another kid too, but we already have two kids and were only allowed to have two by law,” said her father a tall man with short brown hair and a beard.

“Yeah, but we can get rid of Ariel at the Renouncement Meeting. She’s about to turn thirteen. I’ve never really understood her. She’s always smiling and she laughs for everything. She learned to play the flute in band when I told her that I wanted her to be a violinist. She never listens to me. The only thing she’s good for is taking care of her sister. Diane is so different from her. Diane is… funny and …and creative…and she are really quiet when she watches TV. She doesn’t laugh and scream without reason. She may not be able to read but she has great conduct.”

“I guess we could Renounce Ariel. I never really liked her either. She doesn’t look like neither of us, with her blonde hair and hazel eyes. Plus, I’ve always wanted a boy,” replied her father.

"I’ll start all the paper work. She turns thirteen next week so we have to hurry.”

“Should we tell her?”

“Tell her what?”

“That we don’t want her anymore.”

“Of course not, she’ll hate us. I don’t want my daughter to hate me.”

“You’re right she might run away or something.”

Ariel ran into her room crying . She could not understand what her parents were doing. She had tried to be a good daughter. She loved her parents. She tried her best in school and she always got straight As. She tried to make her parents happy but there were always things they could not agree with. Like how racist her father was and how her mother was so vain. She cried herself to sleep.

That night she dreamt of her eighth birthday. On that day, her parents had not made her a birthday party.

“Hi mommy” she told her mother as she walked into her room that morning.

“Go to sleep,” her mother told her.

“It’s my birthday mommy, I’m eight now, “

“I don’t care who’s birthday it is, go to sleep or I’ll give you a way to the first person I find on the street! I’ve told you before to not bother me when I’m sleeping!” she screamed at her daughter as she through a pillow at her.

“Ok mommy. Good night. I promise to be good now,” she said crying.

The next morning, Ariel awoke to a rainy morning. She was confused about what she felt and what she was going to do. Therefore, she decided to go to Kara’s house. Before she left she told her mother were she was going. Like always, her mother said that she did not care about what she did. She was amazed at how her parents acted as if nothing was happening. She wanted to scream at them for so many things, but she decided not to. “That’ll only make things worse,” she thought. When she got to Kara’s house, she was surprised to find Jessica there. She was happy to be able to confide in both of her friends. She told them everything that she had heard and how she felt. When she had finished the three of them just sat their silent for a couple of minutes.

“Don’t worry Ariel everything will be fine,” Jessica finally said.

“No it won’t. You don’t get it because you’re barely nine. Once I’m renounced their going to take me to that planet, Pixion, and they’re going to make me blind like everyone on that planet.” Jessica said.

“Abortion will be no longer tolerated on Earth. Instead parents will be forced to live with their child at least until they are thirteen. After those thirteen years of being together and experiencing parenting, the parents may choose to Renounce the child. Then the child shall be taken to Pixius, the planet of the blind, which right now is poorly populated. As we all know to live on Pixius you must be blind. Therefore the child will be blinded before arriving there and will if he/she so chooses be allowed to be visited by his siblings but not his parents for that may cause emotional trauma,” red Jessica from a history book on Kara’s desk.

“That law is terrible,” said Kara.

“What are you going to do?” asked Jessica.

“Nothing I guess.”

“You could ask that your sister be taken in your place. It says it right here look. You just have to give good reasons for which she should be taken instead of you,” said Jessica passing Kara the book.

“I am not going to tell them to take my sister in my place. She may have dyslexia but my parents love her. She’ll be happy her and I’ll be happy for her because I love her too. The Renouncement meeting is tomorrow. I’ll just have to get over the fact that I’ll be blind for the rest of my life.”

“We are going to miss you so much,” Kara said.
“I know I’m going to miss you too but my parents don’t want me anymore and I’m not going to sacrifice my sister,” Ariel told her friends.

The next morning everyone awoke to the sound of bells. The whole community gathered at Town Hall in their best clothes and with the finest jewelry. Most women wore elegant gowns, while men were tuxedoes. Everywhere you looked, there were bright diamonds and beautiful pearls. The law stated that every citizen needed to be present. Therefore, people took this event as and opportunity to show their status in society and boast about what they had that others did not. This was one of the few events to which the Minister attended. The Minister was widely respected for his advances in law and technology, so everyone wanted to speak to him. People started to file in to the Grand Hall and take their seats. Everyone was anxious for this particular meeting to start because not only were the Renouncements taking place but also the Minister would announce whom his new apprentice would be.

“Today we have gathered in the Grand Hall to accept requests for Renouncement as we do every year. As we, all know Renouncement is something that has improved our planet because it got rid of the terrible practice of abortion. As Minister of this city, it is my obligation to accept requests for renouncements and see that the law is followed accordingly. This year’s Renouncement meeting is one of the most important in my life because it will also be the event at which I will choose my apprentice, because as you all know next year I am retiring. Before I began with the Renouncement requests does anyone have any announcement that they would like to make?” the minister asked. Everyone was silent and the meeting continued as usual. “Well since no one has anything to say, now we will accept requests for Renouncement.”

As soon as Ariel’s parents heard these words they smiled, stood and started walking, almost jogging, towards stage. Ariel not surprised by her parent’s attitude stood and followed her parents to the stage. Two lines were formed at the center of the stage. As the two lines started to form, the Minister took his seat at the center of the stage. A bell was rung to signal that everyone who was not going to renounce a child could leave and that later another bell would be rung to announce whom the Minister had chosen as his apprentice. Everyone who was not formed started to exit the room. When everyone was gone, Ariel noticed that she was the only one that was going to be renounced that year.

“Good day,” said the Minister with a strong voice like thunder.

“Hello,” said Ariel’s parents.

“Your renouncement papers please. “Ariel’s mother handed him the papers. He scanned them. “What is your main reason for Renouncement?” he asked

“Over the past 13 years our daughter had been rude and misbehaved. Yes, she gets good grades and helps us around the house, but she does not have the values that we tried to teach her. She thinks differently than us in many ways,” Ariel’s father said.

“Could you please be more specific,” the Minister said.

Both of Ariel’s parents stared at each other. Everything was silent for a long time. Ariel decided that it was time to speak up.

“My parents have never agreed with my friendship with an African American girl named Jessica. They are always judging people of her race. Every time that Jessica has gone to visit me my parents have either insulted her or people of her race. They cannot stand the fact that Jessica is only nine and is already in 5th grade. Besides that, my parents have never truly loved me. They want to get rid of me to have another child. “

“If I recall correctly, you have another daughter named Diane, is that correct?” said the Minister to Ariel’s parents.

“Yes, she’s right there.” Her mother said pointing at her daughter who had been sitting in the room the whole time waiting for her parents.

“She has dyslexia?”

“Yes, she does.”

“Ariel, do you wish that your sister be taken in your place? You have enough to set you case.” The Minister asked Ariel.

“No, my sister is happy here. My parents love her very much. She may not be perfect but she is my sister and I love her. As long as she is happy I am happy.” Ariel responded.

“Well if that is how you feel I will respect your wishes. Follow the guar...”

“No please don’t take my big sister!” interrupted Diane.

“What?” asked the Minister?

“Please don’t take my sister. She is a very nice person and she is smart. She is smart enough to be your apprentice. Take me to Pixius in her place. Please don’t take my sister,” pleaded Diane.

“Diane, you don’t have to do that. You’ll be happier here.” Ariel told her sister glancing at her parents. She was amazed that they had not objected to their daughter’s decision. Maybe they did not love Diane after all.

“But I want to,” said Diane.

“If this is what you truly wish than it must be respected,” said the Minister.

“Are you one billion percent sure you want to do this Diane?”

“Yes,” Diane responded.

“Very well. Diane please go with those men over there. Ariel you can accompany here to say good-bye. And concerning that racism problem you two have,” he said to her parents “Racism is illegal. It is not tolerated at all. You all know that. You are going to have to accompany me to the police station.”

“Diane, always remember that I love you. I am going to find a way to visit you ok.”

“Yeah, I know you will. You’re smart like that.”

`“You’re smart to Diane. Don’t forget that.”

They gave each other one last hug. The officers took Diane. Ariel’s parents did not seem to notice that they had taken their daughter. They sat handcuffed in a corner, her mother crying and her father trying to console her.

“Would you like to become my new apprentice?” the Minister asked Ariel.

“I don’t know it’s a great honor but…”

“Your parents are going to be taken to jail for a couple of months. The truth is they do not want you. I could use a person of your character. You are an excellent person, with the best of values. You love your sister very much and she loves you too.”

“Ok. I’ll become your apprentice if you take me to visit my sister every week for the rest of your life.”

“You are a little to go visit your sister, but I could probably find a way to let you visit her.”

“Of course you can, you’re the Minister. Everyone loves and respects you.”

“Power doesn’t give you everything. That is one of the first things I want to teach you. Go home and get some rest. I will make the announcement of my choice for apprentice. “

Ariel said bye to the old minister and walked home. On her way there, she reflected on the things that had happened to her in the past days. Her life had changed so much. She would no longer live with her parents. She had become the Minister’s apprentice and one day she would become the Minister of this city. She decided that she would be the best Minister this city had ever had.

One week later…

Ariel walked into a big room, with only a table two chairs and a small girl sitting in one of those chairs. The room though empty was full of light and happiness. Huge colorful tinted windows create beautiful shades of color on the wall.

“How are you?” Ariel asked. A pale little girl with a grey dress sat in front of her. She had dark brown hair and her eyes were closed.

“I’ve been good “the pale girl said.

“I’ve missed you so much.” Ariel said.

“I’ve missed you too,” said Diane as she started crying tears of joy.