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Take Margaret some paper and a
pen. She refuses to use a keyboard and she said she has something she
wants to write.'
'Of course. I'll take her breakfast in as well. She's very weak but
perhaps
she can eat something.'
'She's such a lovely old lady. I'm going to miss her.'
'It's the end of an era for all of us.'
The final breakfast a human will ever eat is sitting in front of me. I've lost my appetite, to be honest. I've put off this day for far too long, but now I don't have the energy to continue, so I thought I'd jot down a few notes about how things came to pass. Whoever is reading this, I don't know who you are, or what you are, but these are the final scribblings of the last remaining Homo sapien. My little piece of history for what it's worth.
I was only a young girl at the time, but as far as I am aware, the first time people here in Australia heard of the new developments, was a report back in 2015. A baby, named Donal as I remember, had been born in a hospital in Dublin to parents who seemed to show no such abnormalities. Within a month, every child born in the hospital was just the same. Many died very young, but as time went by, and the locations of the abnormal births spread and increased, so did the number of surviving infants. It's funny, I say 'abnormal' but that's not correct as they were perfectly normal. It's the definition of 'normal' that had changed. And now, all these years later, what I am is regarded as an evolutionary dead end, and who am I to disagree? The world moved on and purged that which was not good, that which had become sick.
At school I saw a documentary a few years after the first changed kids were born. It was footage shot in an orphanage in Peru. In many developing countries, parents of the new kids rejected them for religious reasons or financial reasons. Whatever, many ended up dead, or left in boxes outside churches or orphanages; places ill-suited to their particular needs. I still remember watching the film of the little girl Christina. The subtitles made what she was saying in Spanish even more shocking. The girl threw her metal bowl of food against the wall of the small room in which she had been isolated. 'Meat! I want meat! I can't eat this food - it has no nutritional value, you fools.' She was three years old at the time. The staff had called the local priest in to advise, but he was completely out of his depth. The staff were convinced she was a demon or monster, but he said, 'God has sent this child to us. We cannot doubt his reasoning, and must treat her with compassion and love. She is still a child of God.' Well, a child of God or a product of nature, whichever she was, she was the prelude to what we were all to become.
Look at me - an old woman sitting at her table. It's been a long journey through changing times and I'm so weary. The final breakfast a human will ever eat sits uneaten in front of me, and will probably remain so. They don't eat fruit, so when I'm gone, they'll just throw it out. If Darwin were alive, he'd surely laugh. Mankind didn't destroy itself in war as so many had wrongly predicted, or die to some virus developed in a terrorist's laboratory. It took only a couple of generations, but in the end we were simply deselected.
'She's gone.'
'Vidcall
the ministry and inform them of the exact time. I imagine they will
wish to make an announcement. It's a historic day.'
'Of course. I'll do it straightaway. It's kind of sad really, isn't it?'
'I suppose it is. But they are not really gone, they are still within
us. We must remain cautious. The genetic differences are small as you
know, further generations could regress.
Oh, and arrange for the autopsy.
The
authorities would like to
know why she survived so long.'
'Yes, Sir. Consider
it done. And what shall I do
with the short note she wrote?'
'Send it to the Museum of Humankind. They'll want to put it on
display.'
Adjectives
ill-suited:
Not suitable.
weary:
Very tired,
especially after a long difficult time.
Perhaps bored with the situation.
Verbs
jot
sth
down:
To write something quickly on a piece of paper so that you will
remember it.
come
to pass:
To happen.
purge: to get rid of
somone or something you consider is bad or harmful.
end
up: finally be in
a particular place or situation.
be
isolated:
To be put somewhere where no other people are.
deselect:
To choose not to have
something or someone.
regress: To return to a previous
and less advanced situation.
Nouns
scribbling: Writing or a drawing
which was done quickly and without care, so it looks messy.
a Homo sapien: The species name for
modern humans.
an
abnormality: A bad difference from what is considered normal.
an
infant: A baby or very young child.
a
dead end: Here meaning 'an evolutionary path with no future'.
footage:
A piece of film, especially one that shows an event.
an
orphanage: A building where children with no parents are
looked after.
compassion: Sympathy and sadness
for the suffering of others, and a wish to help them.
a
prelude: Something that comes before a more important event,
but is connected to it.
Darwin: Charles Darwin introduced
the idea of 'Natural Selection' in evolution.
a
Vidcall: A telphone call using vdeo.
an
autopsy: The cutting open of a dead body to find the cause
of death and record the details.
The
authorities: Here meaning 'the official people who are
responsible in a particular situation.
Expressions
For
what it's worth: Used when the information you are saying
may not be useful or important.
Out
of one's depth:
Not having the
knowledge, experience, or skills to deal with a particular subject or
situation.
Consider
it done: Used to say you will do something immediately.