I jolted awake to the sound of light rain hitting against my bedroom window. I sat up on my bed and looked around at my dimmed room. My husband, Axel, lay sound asleep facing me. He probably changed the outside setting on the Setting Changer Remote to light rain to help me sleep peacefully. I smiled at him and ran my fingers through his silky soft brown curly hair, kissing him on the forehead. I turned over to my bedside table, the clock reading 1:12 am. I let out a deep breath and made my way to the bathroom bumping into everything in my unfocused sight; I bumped into my vanity chair on the way there let out a silent yell, trying not to make noise. Ahhh estupida, I whispered. I looked at my tired reflection in the mirror and rubbed my eyes. I need to sleep now, I thought. I have a meeting with the New York Fetus Department in the morning to see if Axel and I are eligible for a child. Ten years ago, having a child the natural way was banned in order to lower the population since we have surpassed our population limit. Ever since I lost my brother 3 years ago, who I mothered like a son of my own, I have always wanted to have a child of my own, but Axel and l were never able to do so. I closed my eyes and sighed as I opened my medicine cabinet. The sparkling clean mirror creaked annoyingly and I looked through each row. A bright blue container yelled out my name and I grabbed it. I took off the plastic film and opened a new container of NSP; hopefully to numb my body and shut down my mind to get a good night’s sleep. I had gotten them prescribed from my insomnia and was only recommended to take one—but I shook two out of the bottle. An extra one no me hará nada, and I downed them with a hard swallow. I walked back to bed and instantly felt my body feel light and my eyes heavy. I knocked out as if someone had pressed my Turn Off Switch. “Despiertate! C’mon you need to get up already we’re going to be late,” filled my ears and I woke up. Axel was in my face, buttoning his light blue dress shirt. That was my favorite shirt on him. “Oh, finally, I thought I had to electrocute your power box again,” Axel said as fixed his shirt collar. “What time is it?” I asked, half asleep.

“6:07. Our meeting is 8 so we need to leave at 7:20 ish so levantate y apurate.”

“Can we stop for Ringers please? The blue sour ones? Se me antojan.”

He walked over to me and kissed my forehead. “Sure. But that’s only if you get up and get ready. You always make us late to everything because you take laks to get ready so hurry.”

“Shut up,” I replied and threw his pillow at him. He caught it and threw it back to me.

“For real though, get up.”

I tossed the body warmer off of me and made my way to the bathroom. There was a beautiful long sleeve bodycon dress hung on the door. The silky red material slid across my fingers as I looked it over. Axel must have gotten it for me and paid at least 324 starlings for it. I smiled and took the hanger off it. Suddenly, a wave of nausea and dizziness came over me. It is probably because of that extra pill I took last night, I thought in my head. I jolted to the toilet next to me and poured my insides into the toilet water. The door opened up and there I saw Axel, quickly running over to me. “What’s wrong are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I managed to reply and continued to spill. “It’s probably because I took my insomnia pills last night.”

“I thought you had stopped taking them,” he said as he held my hair.

I grabbed the sides of the toilet as my tears watered and I put my head down on my arm.

“Let me call and see if we can reschedule. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“No, no, no. I’m fine. This is very important to me and I don’t want to blow my only shot. If we get taken off of the list, it’ll be years for us to get back on it.”

I stood up and turned on the faucet. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and got changed. I quickly did my hair and makeup and grabbed my purse and black Louboutin heels on the way out. Axel and I made our way down from our hole and got into our cars. “Hello Axel and Yahayra. Where to today?” our Betty asked us.

“To the New York Fetus Department Building,” Axel replied and the car began moving.

Axel tuned towards me touched my cheek. “If at any point you don’t feel well, let me know okay.”

I smiled and nodded. “I will.”

Thirty minutes later, we arrived. The building resembled a slender sardine. We stepped outside and our car drifted off in the parking area. Axel took a hold of my hand and looked me in my eyes. “How you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Seriously. No te preocupes.”

Axel opened the door for me and I walked in. Nervously, I looked around. The office appeared to be an ocean; enormous and mysterious. Pictures of genetically modified babies and diagrams of how they worked were hung up everywhere. It was brightly lit and was entirely the color of silver. The whole building smelled of alcohol and rubber. We walked up to the front desk and were greeted by a young lady. She had her black hair slicked back in a bun. Dark maroon lipstick hugged her lips and was wearing a bright white top. “Hello welcome to the New York Fetus Department. How may I help you?”—click click click—as she tapped on her new Iglasses and looked off in the distance. “Yes, we have an appointment today at 8 am.” I looked at the hologram of the time on the wall. We were 15 minutes early. She began typing into the holographic display on her desk. “Axel and Yahayra? Please sit down until you are called,” she said as she sent our confirmation paper to our phones. We walked to the waiting area and our phones chimed. At this point, my dizziness was calming down but it was still there. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. My palms were sweating and my legs were moving with anxiousness. Axel turned at me and hugged me tightly. “Calm down, we’re going to get approved. I just know it.” I looked up at him and took another big breath. A few minutes later, another lady dressed in the exact same outfit and the same hairstyle called us up. “Yahayra and Axel?” she said with a huge smile on her face. We stood up and followed her into a short hallway, which had an elevator at the end of it and we stepped inside it.

“To the 50th floor please” the lady called out. “Going up the 50th floor in 3..2..1,” the elevator replied back. The elevator suddenly shook—bang bang bang— and I stepped back.

“Oh sorry about that. I forgot to warn you about the rapidness of this elevator,” the lady said as she grabbed onto a metal pole. “Right this way,” and she led us into another huge room, closing the door behind her. There was a huge multicolored glass mosaic behind her. “Axel and Yahayra? Nice to meet both of you. My name is Alycia Berchtold and I am the director here. Well let’s start shall we?” Will you please grant me access to view your info?” she asked. We nodded and each placed our thumbs on a small glass screen in front of her holographic screen; this allowed our identity and personal information to stay safe. She took a few minutes analyzing our information—moving her head side to side as she read. All of a sudden, another wave of nausea came upon me. I looked around trying to look for the nearest trash can and found one at the side of Alycia’s desk next to Axel. I looked over at him and covered my mouth as he swiftly passed the trash can to me, pushing my hair back. I hurled into the trash can and felt my throat burn. My eyes watered and I felt as light as a feather. Alycia looked at me stunned. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah um where’s your bathroom?”

“Walk straight and take a left.”

I nodded and tried to pick myself up from my chair—and grabbed my purse on my way out. I shut the door and walked down a narrow hallway and looked to the left. A little further, I heard a huge commotion. Curiously, I walked down the hallway and encountered a silver door made of metal with a small little door at the top. I stood on my tiptoes and from the blurred out window, could make out a huge metal truck. People dressed in all black with a silver badge on their shirts were unpacking huge boxes wrapped in plastic. “Oh shit!” One of the guys yelled out as he ripped through his rubber gloves to open a box and watched it fall to the ground. Pregnancy tests spilled everywhere on the floor. “Wow, I have not seen one of those in years,” I thought in my head. One of the workers approached the door and I hurriedly moved to the left, crouching behind a plastic crate. He swiped his card and the door swung open, making a loud buzzing sound. He walked by and kicked the tests on his way out, one flying in front of the crate. I crawled around and snatched it, putting it in my purse. “If I’m seen with this, it’s all over for me.” I waited for the guy to come back and shut the door before I jogged back to the bathroom. I closed the stall and opened up the box. “Here goes nothing.” I washed my hands and place the test in my bag. Making my way back to the office, I checked my phone and saw that I had 10 notifications: 3 missed calls and 7 messages from Axel. I’m fine. Omw back, I replied back to him. In front of Alycia’s office, Axel was standing there on his phone. “She rescheduled to next week since you weren’t feeling well. She said all of our info was great and is looking very well for us to qualify,” Axel said excitedly.

         “We have to get home now. I have something to show you,” I said and walked towards the elevator.  When we got home I impatiently walked inside and took the test of out my purse. Axel ran in behind me in confusion. “What is goi—” He stared down at the test which read “positive.” We both stood there in silence.