Chapter 123
The Children with Forms
The children stood in a line.
Each held a form with a blank signature line.
“What do you want?” Claire asked.
The first child said, “I want my mother to stop speaking for me.”
The second said, “I want my father to remember he is my father.”
The third said, “I want to be allowed to forget something.”
The fourth held up a form with no words.
“I want to choose my name.”
Aster knelt beside her.
“What name?”
The child whispered it.
The hospital system wrote it on the form.
One by one, the children signed.
No parent or witness could sign for them.
Claire watched the forms gather into a new archive.
“This is Room Twelve,” Mara said.
“The room after the court,” Daniel answered.
The hallway lights turned red.
Everett Bell appeared at the far end.
He looked older now. His face no longer held one identity.
“You are teaching children to reject protection,” he said.
Claire answered, “We are teaching them to define it.”
Everett lifted a file.
Inside was Claire's first witness order.
“You cannot erase the beginning.”
“No,” Claire said. “But we can stop calling it destiny.”
The children turned toward Everett.
Together, they said, “No.”
The hallway doors opened.