The Bar Code Tatto

by Yuya Sayatika

This is mostly based on a GREAT book by Suzanne Weyn. Summery: Its every where. The bar code tattoo. Every one is getting it. It will make your life easier they say. But that goes to hell for a group of teens that believe that the bar code is something the devil itself made. A boy named Yusei becomes an out cast once he joins this group. But what will happen?

Outside, rain drummed across the window. Across the metal desk, the guidance counselor talked. Talked and talked. The light in his office was way to bright like he was on the sun it Self.

He absorbed the guidance counselor's bad news fifteen minutes ago. 'Time for you to shut the hell up now'. The teen thought. But the counselor kept on talking.

The counselor shook his head, full of sympathy manufactured for the moment. The teen didn't buy it as genuine concern. The counselor barley knew the teen. So how badly could he really feel?

"Sorry, Yusei," he said. "I have not seen a mechanic scholarship issued to a student weak in other skills for the last five years, definitely not since 2020. You should not expect to get one, or even to be accepted. That is just how it is."

Mr.Kerr tugged on his sleeve and the ravenette's eyes locked on the inch-long rectangular patch of straight black lines on the under side of his left wrist.

A bar code tattoo.

This was not the first time Yusei has seen one, of course. This year all the kids in his grade turned seventeen, the age when a person is qualified for a bar code. As soon as their birthdays came, the first thing they did was run out and get tattooed. Everyone-even adults- were getting one. Both of the teen's parents got one seven months ago.

It fascinated him to no end how people were getting coded like cereal boxes in the grocery store. Yusei wondered if people minded being branded like a product on a shelf.

Unaware of Yusei's gaze on his wrist, Mr.Kerr kept talking.

The rain outside kept pounding against the windows. The teen twisted in his chair to see it better. Rivers of water raced down the glass.

And then Yusei...

* * * * A jet zoomed by. It was low and he has never seen one that looks exactly like it. He was in the woods outside a great city. Tall white buildings spire to the sky. A thick shining wall surrounds the city, about 15 feet high someone else is with him standing behind, but doesn't turn to see. Near the wall people walk toward the city. Many people. His heartbeat quickens a low rumble like many voices speaking at once fills his mind. He smiles.

Yusei blinked hard. Mr. Kerr was no longer talking. The only sound was rain. The guidance counselor stared at him from across the desk.

"Sorry." he apologized to the counselor with a quick, stressed, half smile. 'What was that about?' he wondered.

"So you understand what I have been saying correct?" he asked.

The teen refrained from banging his head on the desk. He wouldn't mind a concussion right now. But alas he just nodded.

Apparently the world had no place for mechanics weak in other skills, such as reading or social studies.

That's what it amounted to, though of course, the counselor just had to keep fucking explaining the whole situation. Yusei lended half a ear but understood every little thing.

To him the explanation went more or less like this: Only a few of the most experienced mechanics were prized to be having a fortune. It did not matter of he was the best at doing mechanics, if he was not strongly skilled in other things than in other words he was screwed.