Robert
I just got tired of it all, you know?
All of it. First off there was the mutant thing. “Die Mutie Scum” and all that scrawled on the walls and everyone screaming for my – our – blood. Back when I was still in school, there used to be rumor wars. This girl hates that one cuz she stole her boyfriend – or who knows why – and suddenly Girl 2 is a genejoke. Most of the time, the wronged party ended up leaving the school. Stupid rumor or not, you could still get beaten up or worse if the wrong people heard. Life sucks like that. Then they started trying to institute the tests. It was all for our own safety, of course. The offending genetrash would be sent off for ‘special training’ to make sure they weren’t ‘a danger to others.’ How long that went on, where they would go or if they would ever come back, was not brought up. The ACLU had a field day with that. It didn’t go through.
That time.
I knew enough about how this world works to know that sooner or later it would go through. And pretty soon, every regulated thing you did – public schools and jobs and everything – would come with accompanying tests. Being pushed out of the genetic closet would be inevitable.
But it wasn’t just that. Everything was going downhill fast. I hate to say it considering some of the people I’m living with now, but the last couple of generations really screwed us over. I’ve watched people try to make it in the ‘real world.’ They spend 4+ years getting a degree, then work three jobs to pay for a shoebox and still have something left over to pay off student loans. After a few months or years, they crash and burn. It’s like… all the boomers got to the party first, took all the cake and looked down their noses at us while we fought over the crumbs. There’s just not anything left here for us.
And don’t get me started on the government, the environment, etc. I could rant for an hour before I got warmed up.
So that’s kind of how I ended up here. Like I said, I was tired of all of this shit. I wanted out. I’m not talking suicide, cuz things were not that bad yet. I just wanted a way out of this…this…endless bloody cycle. That’s what Spiral Grove has been for me. It’s been a safe place, a haven. Not everyone here is a mutant, but that’s okay. Everyone here is like the 90s stereotype of acceptance. We’ve got a bunch of muties and norms; we’ve got ‘the Christians and the Pagans together at the table;’ we’ve got straights and gays and every degree between; boomers and babies and everything. And that’s just the humans.
It’s a good place. I think I might be able to spend my life here. It definitely beats the alternative, doesn’t it?
Return to Notebook 
