Chapter 13
The drive home was quiet and tense as Edward fully recalled everything he’d seen and heard about the ‘well baby initiative’. He remembered that screening had mandated by the state as compulsory. Ajna, however, had bought into the entire idea when the media began to appeal to people’s maternal side.
“What’s wrong?” Ajna asked.
“I guess I’m still having some problems about this screening,” Edward answered.
“I thought we settled this a few months ago,” Ajna said.
“There’s just something about it that doesn’t feel right,” Edward replied.
“But, you have to realize,” Ajna began. “There are a lot of parents out there who don’t give a shit about their kids. That’s why the government creates programs like this.”
“But we’re not like that!” Edward said.
“I know! But the government doesn’t know that!” Ajna replied.
“Do you know how many abused kids I see every month? How many people walk into the clinic who live in poverty?”
“I understand that we have to take of…the underprivileged, the destitute – whatever word you want to use,” Edward said.
“But we don’t fall into that category, do we?” “Have you ever heard of a philosopher named Hobbs?” Ajna asked.
“Uh…the name sounds vaguely familiar,” Edward answered.
“Well,” Ajna continued. “Hobbs said that it’s the job of government to protect the people from themselves. Someone has to give a shit. Now if the screening was just limited to people living in poverty I’d agree with you. But, that’s not the approach the state is taking.”
There was a brief silence. Edward was clearly frustrated with Ajna’s usual ironclad logic. She was, after all, a doctor whose expertise was firmly grounded in logic.
“How’s your American history?” Edward asked.
“Uh…pretty good, I guess,” Ajna answered. “Alright,” Edward began. “Well, did you know that at some point during the twentieth century about half the states in this country operated their own eugenics programs? Programs designed to sterilize men, women and children without their knowledge or consent.”
“They only targeted people living in poverty,” Anja replied. “And what does that have to do with screening everyone? The idea here is early intervention.”
“But why are they making people do this?” Edward asked.
“You wanna know why?” Ajna asked. ”It’s because people – most people – just don’t give a shit.”
“Yeah,” Edward said. “I think I’ve seen a bit of that recently.”
Ajna didn’t quite understand Edward’s last statement, but offered a proposal.
“So,” she said. “Can we just agree to disagree?”
Edward nodded his head in resignation.
“O.k.,” he said. “Agree to disagree.”
Another moment went by and Edward glanced over at her with a grin.
“Ya’ know, that logic of yours can be pretty annoying sometimes.” he teased.
“Can we talk later?” Ajna asked. “I’m all talked out and I need to lie down for a while.”
Edward turned toward her with a patient smile.
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” he said. “For now.”
Ajna looked back and put a hand on his knee.
“This time…,” she said quietly.
They pulled into the driveway. Ajna was still somewhat slow on her feet and quickly took Edward’s arm. He helped her up the front steps, noticing that she was starting to gain more strength and wasn’t stopping to catch her breath. Once inside, Ajna insisted on trying to climb the stairs to the bedroom. Edward, however, was more insistent that she continue to use the twin bed he’d set up in the living room. As Ajna lay sleeping, Edward sat on the couch with his laptop. In spite of Ajna’s airtight logic, he had continued to feel haunted by something that seemed amiss. Usually, these things were complicated by the political process and took weeks, even months to get through the bureaucracy, but, this ‘well baby initiative’ seemed to come up out of nowhere. It was generally the case that one could find information about what was going to the floor of Congress, as well as everything that had been passed within a certain time frame. But, as Edward searched the web he could nothing. He had even searched through the government archives for any health care issues that had been brought to the floor of Congress over the last year and still found nothing.
“Why would the government put something together like a healthcare program without leaving a paper trail?” he thought.
There were no proposals, no docket numbers or any shred of information that even hinted at a federally funded healthcare program. After hours of searching, he turned off his laptop with even more questions, as well as a feeling of confusion. He didn’t understand why anyone would create a program that was meant to benefit public health only to erase of it. Ajna was just beginning to wake up. Edward turned toward to her as she was slowly pulling herself into a sitting position. He rushed over to help her up, but she insisted on doing it herself.
“I have to start doing things for myself at some point,” she said.
Edward reluctantly agreed, but still remained close. She sat up and putting her legs over the side of the bed noticed that Edward’s laptop was open.
“Reading a few articles online?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a grin. “Just trying to keep my brain from turning into cottage cheese.”
Ajna knew when he was hiding something – it was in his voice, his gestures and the tense grin he made when he was trying to be convincing.
“Let me guess,” she said. “You’re trying to find information on the ‘well baby initiative’”.
There’s something that’s not right about this!” Edward said.
“I thought we talked about this,” Ajna said. “Are you becoming one of those conspiracy nuts? For God’s sake hon, give it up already!”
After a moment of hesitation, Edward tried to make his confusion clear to her in a last-ditch attempt to appeal to her sense of logic.
“It’s a federally funded program, right?” he said.
“Yeah,” sighed Ajna.
His argument was already having a draining effect on her as she lay back down on the bed.
“Alright, now… just humor me for a minute,” he said. “Any federal program has to go to the floor of Congress as a proposal, right?”
“Uh huh,” replied Ajna.
She was tired and in no mood for Edward’s wild theories.
“O.k.,” he continued. “So, it gets voted on and passed. Then it goes to the house for a vote and approved by the president. Long story short, it gets funding and then gets presented to the public as a workable healthcare program. And that’s after all the details are worked out.”
Ajna sighed with impatience and sat up enough to rest on her elbows.
“It’s just passing a bill into law,” she said. “Any school kid knows that. Remember the ‘School House Rock’ cartoons your parents used to talk about?”
“Yes…yes. I remember,” Edward said. “But there’s something different about this!”
“Was it proposed by a Republican?” Ajna asked sarcastically.
“No…I…really?” said Edward. “Could you please just hear me out?”
Ajna pushed her way back up to a sitting position. “Alright,” she began. “But this is the last time we’re talking about this.”
“I promise,” Edward said. “But just hear me out and I’ll never mention it again.”
Ajna motioned outward with her hands trying to be patient but also giving him five minutes to say his piece.
“Alright,” she said. “I’m listening.”
“O.k., so with all that red tape and all the documentation that gets generated by this process,” Edward said. “Why can’t I find any of it on the government’s website? I even looked through the legislative database. There’s nothing there and there’s in the legal archives that even resembles this ‘well baby initiative’. There’s simply no record that it’s been brought before Congress. Don’t you think that’s a bit odd?”
“I don’t know,” Ajna replied. “I mean, you that the government doesn’t do anything right and not everything makes to the web.”
“O.k.,” Edward said. “So where did the media get this from?”
“The state, I suppose,” Ajna said.
The conversation was beginning to tire her out. “Yes!” Edward said. “But it’s a federal program and if it works the way they say it should, wouldn’t there be some politician ready to stand up and take the bows for it? What politician in Washington wouldn’t want to take credit for a potentially revolutionary healthcare program?”
Ajna raised her head suddenly and making eye contact with him. “Mmm,” She began. “Something about all of that is starting to feel…rational.”
Then, her mouth dropped open in a state of shock. Edward flew to her side.
“What is it, hon,” he said. “Are you o.k.?”
She turned to him and playfully said, “Oh my God! You just said something that almost makes sense!”
“Ah…ha ha,” Edward replied. “Very good! Well done!”
His mood was becoming strained with frustration. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Ajna said. “It’s just that I’m too tired for politics and I really want to just sleep. Can’t we just let it go?”
Edward nodded his head.
“O.k.,” he said.
“No, really,” Ajna said. “Please, just let it go.”
He would later ask a few of his neighbors for their opinions on the screening process. He wanted to see if other people felt that maybe the government was infringing on their rights. But, he was only trying to justify his uncertain suspicions about the idea of being screened and the violation of privacy it implied. He would also try to find a way to ask his neighbors if they felt the government is attempting to exercise a degree of control over peoples’ reproductive habits. What he found was that some people thought that the program was, in fact, a good idea -- mostly for low-income families. He also discovered that other people just didn’t care. Edward found himself going door to door throughout the entire neighborhood only to find that people shared one or the other perspective. He concluded that the program was already a success. The state of Maine believed what they were told and people, in general, either bought into it or simply resigned themselves to it.
Ajna stretched back out on the bed.
“Hey,” she whispered. “Come on over here.”
“Hon, it’s only a twin bed and your ribs are more than a bit touchy.”
“No, I didn’t mean that,” she said. “It’s just been so long since we shared the same bed.”
“O.k.,” Edward said. “We’ll save playtime for later.”
He got up and walked around to the far side of the bed. Carefully, he laid down on his right side while Ajna inched over toward him. She then slowly turned on her left side and buried her face in his chest. Ajna quickly fell asleep as Edward put his left hand on her shoulder then moved it up to the side of her face. He noticed how warm her skin felt to his touch – how smooth and flawless her neck was as he pushed her black aside. He became caught up in a moment that was beyond description and it quickly engraved itself into his soul. This moment would never escape him.