Another Way

by Gangsta Shota

An 18 year old boy is thrust into a world where every year for one month in the spring men are encouraged to make love to women. The thought of safe sex was disputed and pregnancy is viewed as a gift. But after a child is born the mother is left to die. It's a system of checks and balances. One that mixes pain with pleasure. Hope with forsaken. Life with death.

1

When the purple lilacs start to bud you know that's when the posters will start to show up. On the sides of buildings, tucked under a front door, handed out by government officials on the sidewalks. I hated looking at those posters. They would cover the streets like a blanket and occasionally one would blow into your hand and your eyes would be forced to look over that piece of paper. Every year there was something different illustrated on it, but the message would always be the same: Have Sex Now Save Human Population. I find it revolting, but I was told by my father and countless other men that it was my duty to keep the human population growing and if I couldn't do that much, I should be dead.
I once asked my father why I didn't have a mother. He responded plainly that women weren't meant to live full lives. It didn't answer my original question and had left me with innumerable other inquires, but I kept my mouth shut. It turned out I didn't need my father to relieve me of my curiosity because all his knowledge consisted of was that of the bottom of liquor bottles.

It was today, on my way home that I saw my first bloomed purple lilac. Tonight the posters would start to be distributed. Brothels would open up their doors for men to take beautiful women, or as the government called it, saving the human population. This year I turned 18 and that meant it was my turn to make love to a woman. Impregnate her. Save the damn human population. The only thing was

I didn't want to.