203 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
203 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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Career Day
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John was going to be a fire fighter. Or a hockey player. He hadn't
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decided yet. Anyway, it was career day at his junior high school.
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Business people, professionals, machinists, and public sector
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employees had been invited to speak to small groups of students all
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day long. But first, you had to take the aptitude test, called the
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Sharp-Culligan Interest Inventory.
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John was confident his test was going to show his innate ability to
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achieve, either in athletics, or in hazardous situations. He wrote
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the test in only 40 minutes, asked to be excused, and went across the
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street to the park. He liked to kick the crap out of the pot heads
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who smoked grass in the park pavilion, during breaks in the school
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day.
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The rest of the day went well. Several fire fighters and a police
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lieutenant gave rousing speeches that John heard. He was also very
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impressed by the construction workers and the thought of working in
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high-rise steel construction. Sure, there were risks, but "hey, what
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is life if there are no risks?" he said to himself.
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The next week, John's family received an unusual letter from the
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Principal of the school. John and his parents were to come in for a
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special parent-student-principal career conference. His parents were
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very surprised. They questioned John, but he was just as baffled as
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his parents.
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John's parents came to school on a Thursday afternoon, after everyone
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had gone home. They were told that their son should wait in the main
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office while the Principal and his parents talked in private. John
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waited restlessly in the outside office.
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"I'm afraid your boy wrote a most unusual career-aptitude test," said
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the Principal.
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"As you know, our modern society uses these tests to determine career
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path. Well, John has selected for himself a most unusual career
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path".
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His parents gave each other blank looks.
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"John has the ideal psychological make-up to be a wet-nurse," said the
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Principal. "Or, a greeting card-shop owner. Or, a preschool
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teacher," said the Principal. "Do you understand what I am saying???
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The test indicates that John would make a great stay-at-home wife..."
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"Now just a damned minute!" said john's father. "There must be a big
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mistake. John has his heart set upon being a fire fighter or a hockey
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player. You must have made a bad mistake!!!"
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The Principal was not amused. "Look, the interest inventory has been
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statistically optimized on several hundred thousand children. It
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predicts with 99.9% confidence the optimal career path at a very early
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age. Our low crime rates and economic prosperity depend upon the
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principle that every individual must pursue an optimal career path.
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In fact, national law requires it. I'm afraid that, John has selected
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this career path for himself, and scientific research shows that we
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know what's best for John."
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He continued, "You could have John re-take the test, but it likely
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won't change. It would be far better to accept John's fate, and to
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help him, so that he can achieve lifelong happiness as a productive
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member of society."
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Well his parents talked, and the Principal talked, and after a while
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they agreed to have John re-take the test. John was told his test was
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lost, and that the conference had been called because John was accused
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of skipping the exam. He seemed to accept this white lie.
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Two weeks later, the test results came back exactly the same.
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This time, John's parents went to see the principal in secret. His
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mom was crying. His dad was distraught. There were laws in the
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country, saying that people had a god-given right, no, an obligation,
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to follow the best career path. The principal was sympathetic. He
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put them in touch with the career transition center, which would
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advise the parents on how to steer John into his new career.
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John was told just what he wanted to hear. He was given a test result
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sheet that stated his optimal career would be in professional sports,
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or in construction, civil defense, or as an airplane test pilot.
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A month latter and it was June, and school was out for summer. John
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spent the first few days in total relaxation. He would play football,
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or basketball, or just kick the crap out of his enemies, down on his
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old grade school grounds.
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Every day began in the same way, his mom would wake him at 8:00 am.
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She would fix him breakfast. Secretly, she slipped powerful drugs
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into his orange juice each morning. This would delay the onset of
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puberty for him.
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Meanwhile, his father and the career center scheduled an operation at
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the hospital for June 15th. One the 14th, John's mom was nervous. On
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this morning, the contents of his juice would be different. On this
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morning, the juice contained a timed-release powder. She stared at
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him as he drank it. It made her wince. She knew the juice would hurt
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him, but the doctor had assured her it would only cause some temporary
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pain. Anyway, there was no other way to get John ready for the rest
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of his life.
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Late that day, John came down with bad stomach cramps. He was rushed
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to the hospital, and given an X-ray. Little did he know, his parents
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had planned this well in advance. His surgeon-to-be was working the
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emergency room. The radiologist knew about John's fate. When the
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x-rays came back, there was no debate. John had appendicitis. He had
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to have an operation right away.
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You can guess what happened to john during the operation. They didn't
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even touch his appendix. The just removed his testicles, and placed a
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drug-delivery system in his abdomen.
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After the surgery was over, they gave him an I.V. of L-gynomuta, a new
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type of drug called a receptor oxidant. In the bloodstream, this drug
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attacks all the male hormone receptors in the body. Intravenous
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treatment for a day would not have much of an affect. But after a
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week of intravenous delivery, treatment was complete: the drug
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destroyed all the androgen receptors in John's body. Even if he
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wanted to, he could never be male again. His body could only respond
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to female hormones. He had been turned into an androgen insensitive
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male.
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Of course, after the operation, John might find a way to have the drug
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delivery system removed. Then, he would be neutered, with a slight
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predisposition towards femininity, because he had lost his androgen
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receptors.
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But there was one catch, that wasn't known to John, his doctor, or
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even to his parents. It was the company that supplied the
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drug-delivery system. This company happened to be the fastest growing
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medical enterprise on the Federal Stock Exchange. You see, they had
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found a perfect way to get repeat customers. All their drug delivery
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systems contained an array of genetically engineered hormones. To the
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carbon atoms of each hormone molecule, they attached narco-addictive
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molecules. This meant that their patients would not only get a
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soothing feeling from the hormones, but they would also quickly become
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highly addicted to the hormones. So addicted that, they would die if
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forced to undergo withdrawal. That way, once a customer, always a
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customer. Now, John would always be a customer.
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After the operation, John was very sick. For two days he was very
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groggy, almost paralyzed, and sleepy, from the anesthetic. After the
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anesthesia wore off, the new hormones kicked in, and he was nauseous
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for nearly 6 days. He was barely able to move during this time. The
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ceiling was swimming, and John didn't know what had happened to him.
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The doctor took John's parents aside and told them what to expect.
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John had just barely entered puberty. His bones were still growing,
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and his voice hadn't changed yet. They had brought him in for surgery
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just in time. His voice would never crack; his hips would swell
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enormously, his breasts would develop normally, and he would stop
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growing at a height of only 5.5" or 5.7". In two or three years it
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would be impossible to distinguish him from any other young teenage
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girl on the street. One more surgery could be performed to allow him
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to have sex. By the time they scheduled the surgery, John would be
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begging for it. The hormones would have reprogrammed his brain and
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made him complacnet and accepting of his fate, and he would already be
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dating, like it or not, the doctor said.
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There was hell to pay when John regained full consciousness. He
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flailed around a lot in bed when he found out what had happened; the
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details were pretty sad.
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His parents told him he had no choice. Social services had arranged
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to reissue the birth certificate at the hospital where John was born.
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John's parents had thought of a new name, and had applied for a social
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security card using the name they had chosen. The whole new identity
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would belong to a girl named Susan.
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Susan came home from the hospital to an empty house, a house being
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packed up, with boxes everywhere, for they were going to move to
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another state at the end of the summer. She went upstairs to her
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room, and slowly approached the dresser. She was wearing blue jeans
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and a skin-tight unisex knit top, clothes given to her at the
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hospital. Her hand trembled as she pulled open the dresser drawer.
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It was true. All the old underwear was gone. Sitting there, in the
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top drawer, were ten new pairs of high-waisted cotton panties, and
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seven training bras.
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Her mom's voice wafted up the stairs. "Susan, I want you to come with
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me. We are going grocery shopping. And, I won't let you go out
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without putting on some of your new underwear. There are going to be
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a lot of new rules that you will have to follow from now on. You
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won't get to stay out late any more. You will have to dress
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appropriately for school. You are going to have to wear a bra
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whenever you go out in public. You may not need it now, but in a year
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or too, you'll fill one up, and by that time, you'll be glad you
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started today."
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One hundred miles away, in a different state, at the Sharp-Culligan
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Testing Center, a programmer was inspecting the test-grading software
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he had written. "Why was that variable an integer?", he thought. He
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couldn't remember why. "Could someone score so high in this area,
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that the variable would wrap around and become negative?"
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He didn't think so. It probably had never happend. But he changed
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the variable to a long integer, just in case.
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THE END
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