Ma's Golden boy

Ma's Golden boy sat at the quiet dinner table with a full plate. He wasn't Ma's favourite, Ma never did favourites; as always, every one at the table had equal portions. Although, Ma didn't heed to the plea of her Golden boy, the bland porridge wasn't all that bland, that's because they ate in tears. It's only normal they cried, they had watched their brother die few minutes ago. And now they were forced to have dinner. 

"You'd better eat your food, if you don't want to end up like him," Ma had said.

 Ma had a few rules.

 Ma never repeats herself. 

Ma never gives a suggestion, it's a command. 

It's not your choice to obey Ma, it's your mandate.

"M...Ma may I please be excused from the table?" His eyes were red and swollen, with puffed cheeks and parched tears, he stared at his plate. 

Ma looked up her plate for the first time since dinner. Her cold eyes scanned the table until it settled on Sam and then his plate. It was just as she had served it, except it was clogged together, cold and a cracked skin had formed on the top. Although, he was the last child, he ate a ton. His chubby cheeks and weight can attest to it. Currently, there isn't a Man of the house, but if you were to choose, it would be him, because he ate like one.

Ma smiled, "You can...when you finish your food"—Sam gagged at his plate—"I don't care how it gets into your body, but get it all in."

Welcome to the Republic of Medo. Right about now, no matter the outcome of The Selection, there were tears heard in every house. 

The selection is the mandatory process whereby each family examines if they bred a Golden boy. It takes place every ten years. The only purpose of a family to the system is to provide a Golden boy.

 Every family wants a golden boy, but there can only be one golden boy in a family. It was rumoured that a family once had two golden boys, but the only survivor of that family, who can verify it, is Ma.

Ma was the first child of her family. When the news had spread that her family had two Golden boys, she began to get a lot of suitors. They lined up like ants marching to sugar, their only purpose was to strengthen their blood lines and increase their chances of getting a Golden boy. Few weeks later, all her family members died mysteriously leaving her behind, and like bats fleeing from their cave, her suitors deserted her. At twenty, she married Carl, a twenty-seven year old farmer, who barely escaped death when his family produced a Golden boy at the third installment.

At twenty eight, she witnessed another selection, this time as a Mother. Her three sons, Ben, Nick and Steph, who were seven, five and four respectively went through the process. At the end of The selection, they were all labelled Not Golden. As if being told your children aren't special, isn't hard enough, she'd have to go through the process again. If by the third time, she failed to breed a golden boy, they'd be exterminated. Every single one of them. 

As the system says, "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

"It's just the system. They believe they do what's best for us...by uprooting the weeds," Ma had once said to her kids.  

By the second installment, Ma had given birth to four more sons, Joe and Joey the twins, Pete and Sam. She went through the stress again, only this time without the comfort of her husband. She was lucky to have only males, not that she ever differentiated, she is a woman herself. All seven of her sons would be put through The Selection. The system makes room for disqualified participants to repartake till the third selection. This rule was adopted to accomodate parents who couldn't give birth any more. It's rumoured that a disqualified child can be revalued as Golden, there has been few cases like that, but others argue that it's a glitch in the system. 

"It's the system." Ma had said at dinner, a day before the selection. "It's meant to help us."

Only I don't think it's a system, it's a competition. The process turns brothers into rivals. It tears the family apart. You could ask Ma, only she'd never tell. I've heard cases of families where the boys killed each other, driven by jealousy and strive.

After dinner, the boys gathered in their room. It was once the living room, hence the biggest room in the house. The walls were as white as the fourth moon. From the wall, above each bed protuded cabinets. There were three beds to the right and four beds at the left. A long table ran across the middle, with chairs standing harphazardly around it. Behind the table, is a large window, the only window. The frame opened to a cool, dull night. Maybe the stars were anxious too, so they hid.

Sam stared at the white ceiling. "What would happen if—"

"You're asking what would happen if there isn't a Golden boy tommorow?"—Sam nodded—"I'll tell you what would happen. I'd be stuck here in this stupid house for another ten stupid years. We wouldn't work or own a property or get married. Then, by the third selection if there isn't still one, we'd all die. Me, you, Ma, all of us, gone like we never existed."

The system limits the right of children from families without Golden boys. They have differentiated schools. When they are eighteen, they aren't allowed to move out of their parents house, get their own property, vote, drive, anything. They'd stay at home, hoping for a Golden boy or awaiting death. Discarded, forgotten. Only at the inception of a Golden boy, would they be incorporated back into society and their rights restored.

"Geez, you didn't have to scar him Steph. He was only asking a question," said Nick as he left his bed to Sam's.

"And I answered."

Nick wiped his tears. " Listen bud, no matter what, we would be fine."

"That's not how I remember it."

Ben who sat at the table, stopped his scribble in his grey leather Journal. "Don't cry Sammy. I'll get chosen tommorow, then nobody has to die."

 "What makes you so sure, it's you. It wasn't you last time. Why would this installment be any different."

The twins played Chess at the table. It was always difficult to differentiate them, but Jo had a dimple on his right cheek. If there's no dimple, it's Joey. "This time I'm prepared...Joey."

Joey moved his black queen two boxes to the right to capture the Knight. "You can't be prepared, the system chooses. It's not an exam you prepare for, that's exactly why I'm not bothered." 

The selection was created by our ancestors and it's the reason we've survived for so long in this cruel world. The criteria used to choose the Golden boy is unknown.

It's said that the boys are born golden. 

It's also said that it's based on their souls.

It's also said that's it's based on that the child has learned to make them qualified.

Whatever it is, worked, at least to an extent. Every person in our history books, who'd ever achieve anything of significance was a Golden boy.

It doesn't predict what the boy would do. Cure a chronic illness, stop a natural disaster, invent a new game but it does predict that they would do something important, eventually.

"That's where you're wrong! This time I'm worthy to be chosen." Ben said, as he counted with his fingers, "I've learnt Art, Chemistry, Physics, Literature and Mathematics. I'm a man of intergrity. A man of the people—"

"What people?" said Nick.

Jonathan looked at Ben with arched brows, and his signature smirk that highlighted his perfect teeth. "Yeah, we're your only people."

"Moving on.... I'm braver, nicer, smarter—"

"Ehmmm..." they all echoed.

"Correction, I'm the smartest," said Joey.

"You wouldn't have said that if you were

smart," said Nick.

"It doesn't matter. I'm still the most prepared. I've learnt every skill and read every book, I came across. Basically, I know more things."

Joey shook his head and he rested his forehead on his wrist. "I'm telling you, Ben, it doesn't work that way. You are either born golden or not, there's no two ways about it."

Nick hands were wrapped around Sam. "Actually, no one is certain on how it chooses."

"It's just stupid." Steph kicked the chair beside him. "I think I'm great and I don't need the system to know that. Stupid system with their stupid rules."

"It's not stupid, the selection is an accurate process employed by the system. Our ancestors—"

"I'm not stupid Joey, I know what the system says. But it's still stupid."

"Yeah...I can't think of any reason why you're not the Golden boy."

"If you were, I'd doubt the system," said Ben.

Steph stood up abruptly, murmured under his breath and got in bed. They could only make out the word 'stupid' from the jibberish.

Nick left a sleeping Sam and walked to his bed. "I think you're all missing the point, instead of arguing and fighting, we should be supporting one another. Because it's not a competition—"

"It isn't Nick?" Ben said, folding his hands. "Don't play the good guy here, because I know all about you."

"There isn't a competition, because the result is fixed."

"No, it's not!" said Ben as he slammed his pen on the table.

"What are you doing Ben. They're all looking up to you," Nick said looking around the room, at the poking eyes.

"Ma doesn't like it when we talk about this," Pete said from underneath his blanket.

" I won't let Ma down this time, I'll make her proud. I'll be her Golden boy."

"Get down from your high horse, Ben. It's not always about you..." Joey said," Checkmate. I win again."

Jo shrugged. "You always win. Next time, I'll pick the game."

"I just want someone to be the Golden boy, I don't care who it is," Nick said and switched off the lights.

The lights were out and everyone in their beds.

"You're wrong, it's was never about me. It's Ma. You think she's happy? I know what the people say, how they look at us, how they treat us. Ma, she's had it the toughest. We're discarded. I just...I just want to help."

He didn't get a reply.

Maybe the others were fast asleep.

Maybe the heard, they would understand too. If they were to respond it'd probably be, Me too.

***

At noon, the next day, Ma and her sons gathered around their Transmitter and so would every other family. They waited for the message. Every nail biting millisecond wore them out, as they drowned in their thoughts, their fears. Eventually it came, only a second late.

Welcome to The Selection, may the stars favour you. Please enter.

Lined according to age, they came to the transmitter. First, they place their index finger on a button on the transmitter, then a needle pricks their finger to draw blood. Once the DNA has been verified, the right hand is placed on the transmitter pad. It does it's work, reading their palm using the Star allignment.

Not that Joey didn't think of hacking the system. Every Selection, there are desperate people who try to cheat the system and produce a fake Golden boy. But they always got caught, and all their family members were killed. Not worth it.

"Not Golden", echoed the house. Until, "GOLDEN!" was finally heard. Various emotions filled the house, relief, jealousy, joy.

Later that night, Ma and her sons were at the closed down Transporter station. The

sky appeared to be a Canvas that had been painted with cosmic fuel. The air around them was covered with a thick fog, they'd to cut through with their hands. The Northern Medo wind beat against the run down structure, the whistling causing shivers down the spine of the children.

"I'm really sorry Ma, I really wanted to be your Golden Boy," the blond boy said from the ledge of the Tansvic gas tank, twenty feet from the ground.

"What are you doing? you'd at least finish your chores first. You're ghost isn't going to wash the floors."

"I know Ma, I switched with Joey, it's his turn to wash the floors." He looked at Ma and wiped his tears. "I could have given everything and anything to be your Golden Boy."

"Don't be silly Ben," Ma shouted. " Get down from there. Let's go home—"

It happened in a flash, but to them it was in slow motion. They held their breathe, as the soul crushing sound filled their ears, and the resulting pain spread to their heads. Every inch of the scene engraved at the back of their skull like a tattoo. They were never going to forget. It's never going to be the same.

Ben was gone. My brother had no way of returning.

Ma, my mother. She lost her family, now she lost a son, to this rivalry.

And I? Pete. I'm Ma's Golden boy. I watched the whole thing from behind Ma. A tear slipped down her cheek. Never have I seen Ma cry, she was never a woman given to sympathy.

The body landed away from us. We couldn't see the body and Ma didn't give us the chance.

"Come on Children...let's...go have dinner...

before it's cold," Ma said dragging us back home.

I witnessed this system claim another life, a future, a family, because of the importance it places on Hierarchy. Should one life really be more relevant than the other, it's a life nonetheless. Everyone has an equal role to play in the system and should be treated equally. Republic of Medo has a long way to go. And I, my story just began.