The one

diary

Dear Diary, 

I wanted to see if there was a third child living in the Sports Family’s house. One day I went sneaking to the Sports Family's house. The moment I stepped outside, my hands began shaking and drops of sweat started falling down. I was so worried. I kept thinking about what to do and how to get to their house. I kept wondering about what I’d do if someone saw me. I quickly ran back to my house, and i was afraid that what if someone saw me. I decided that I would go tomorrow but it turned out that days had gone by, and I never went. This kept going on and on.     

         One day I actually went to the Sports Family's house. When I entered into the house, I heard noises from upstairs. Suddenly, I heard a buzzing sound, the alarm! A girl knocked me down to the floor. She asked me why I was at her house and that she had called the police. I was worried that the Population Police would come and find me, so I accidentally mentioned this to her. Hearing this, she stopped the alarm and told the police not to come. She asked me who I was. I told her I was one of the shadow children. 

“What’s your name?” she asked me. I told her my name, Luke Garner. I asked her name. Her name was Jen. I asked her if she was a third child. She told me she was on of the shadow children like me. While we were talking my hand got cut and there was some blood dripping from it, and onto Jen’s carpet. Jen was worried about what to tell her parents’ about the blood on the carpet. So, she scratched her hand on the tv and got a deeper cut than me. Some of her blood dropped onto the carpet too. I told her I had to hurry, my brothers and my dad would be coming home soon for lunch. As I was leaving her house, she handed me a pile of books. 

Some of the books such as Population Disaster, talked about how in the past there were too many people, and not enough food for everyone. Many people died, and this is why the Government created the Population Police. Other books and articles were about why the Population Law wasn’t a good idea. Luke hid the books from his family and read them secretly. When he went back to Jen’s house he asked which of the books were right. Jen told him that some of the authors who wrote the books were paid by the Government. The other type of books/articles that talked about why the Population Law isn’t a good idea, were written by authors who took a risk to share their opinion. Jen said they were right.