Fresh Ink 2022
Violetta’s Diary by Violetta Constantine Discovered by (...) Thelma Owoicho* March 14 My name is Violetta Constantine. These pages that you are reading now are an account of what happened to my village on March 2, 2050. I write this so that you will know the truth and hopefully somehow with this knowledge, you can save yourself the horror that we have gone through. I come from a small village in Iowa called Richmond Hill - population 1,283. We were an agricultural village, well supported by the government’s genetic engineering programs. I was a journalist for the local paper. I had a husband, Kevin, who was a doctor at Richmond Memorial. We had just moved to Richmond Hill twelve months before. I know I do not have much time left, as I sit here in my self-made prison. But if this account is the last thing I do in this life, I am determined to do it. I must go now. The light is failing. I must hide and wait. I hear them coming. March 15 I made it through another night. GenTech are to blame for this abomination. GenTech is the sole supplier of all of the genetically modified crops in this area. The farmers were given tax breaks if they planted the new “super crops” that would withstand pests and diseases and grew twice their normal size. Five years went by, and the crops got bigger and better, and no one thought that there could be any problem except for the excessive amounts of pollen produced every spring. That kept my husband Kevin busy at the hospital dealing with the increased number of people with allergies and breathing problems. GenTech decided to spray the new crops with a specially engineered chemical to reduce the pollen. Cells found in vampire bats were extracted and through a short round of experimentation was found to reduce pollen production. I remember the unease I felt seeing all those men in biohazard suits spraying everything with this man-made chemical. Wondering if we had gone too far trying to fight nature when we should know that nature always wins in the end. Spring came around again, and the crops were as big and as plentiful as before and the pollen went back 22
