I don’t understand. I don’t understand how my country works. It`s all very mysterious, why everything happens the way it does? And most of all, who comes up with all this shit?

Okay, so let me start up with a little explanation. I’m Thomas Baker and I lived my whole life in fear and I still am. You see, my country has this very weird regulation, when someone is born, that baby is grasped out of the parent’s hands. And for the first five years the government takes care of the baby. It is very strange how they always blame it on the pollution and how the outside air is too brutal for a newborn baby. They claim that it’s only fair for a child to have a good background with equal resources within these five years so that when they grow up, they will be better humans and this will reduce suffering to a certain extend as well.

What’s worse is, no one questions! The parents don’t even put up a fight because it is government protocol and they just go home and prepare for the child that had already arrived, to come back to them.

I guess I understand why they allow it to happen. Our country is already the number one in peacefulness and

this method has put some positive changes in the population. And no child remembers what happened to them during these five years. Parents are allowed to visit them twice a year and even my parents have told me stories about this facility where they keep all the babies.

But you see, one thing is different for me. This makes me live on edge and in fear of not only the government but also the people around me and specially my parents.

I remember. And I’m sure as hell, these aren’t my parents.

Written by K.A. Namasha
Illustration by DRG