Murder Recall

Chips

The babies were registered as foundlings by Rayelle and Roger Wilson who were a couple pledged to remain together for life, officially ranked at the approved level of financial-social status, and therefore allowed to be parents. One of the babies they named Davine and the other, Cindy. The Wilsons assumed the babies were twins, however it seemed to them sometimes that Davine looked and acted older but not nine or ten months older which would be the minimum difference if they were not twins.

Photographs were taken to document how the twins were found early one morning crying, naked, on the ground outside the Wilson's front gate. It was overcast and a light rain was falling. The dogs were barking so Roger went to check and returned to his wife with the foundlings. Nothing was known about them. They had no chips implanted and so an appropriate chip was medically inserted onto each baby's skull, under the skin, where it would wirelessly connect to the brain's neurons. This was the law. Everyone was chipped. There was a scarce population of people living wild, so called primitives, and if any of these were caught, they were also supposed to be chipped and thereby acquire civility. This practice had been going on for decades. No one knew why it was originally started but everyone agreed it was for the best because the belief was that it resulted in superior human beings and consequently superior culture and society.

Children were extremely rare. There were no more civilized children conceived and born naturally; all were artificial from conception to birth, including incubation in an artificial womb, although the parents' chips were programmed so that they would believe their baby was born the natural way. World population was small and detailed records on all Earth citizens were kept. Material comfort was the measure of worth. Children were to be raised by the most worthy parents. If the standing of a couple raising a child fell for any reason, that child would be assigned to another couple of greater value to society. New chips would replace previous chips in the child and the new parents so that appropriate memories, recent and long-term, based on the current situation would be remembered from then on. Likewise a new chip would replace all inappropriate memories in the prior parents.

Davine and Cindy were happy children who, except for the occasion when they were found, were never heard to cry. They learned everything required of them early, quickly and easily. Before the girls were one year old, the Wilsons decided to move to the bustling town a day's journey hence. Primitives had been sited more often during the days before they reached this decision. A number of times a horrible-looking female had been seen peering into the windows of their house and had to be shot at to protect the family. Life in the town would be safer. Roger Wilson would be able to continue to earn the same level of living that he was currently. The girls would have access to better education. Rayelle Wilson had always wanted to be a mother and secretly hoped that time would stay still and the children could remain forever needing her care, but when they did inevitably reach the determined maturity, she could resume her work in the field of biology. The house in the country was sold and a new one bought in the town.

In the new house, the twins were each assigned a room of their own. The twins were almost identical except for one startling characteristic.  Davine's eyes were a deep green. Cindy's eyes were not both of the same colour. Gradually her left eye changed to pale blue while the other remained hazel-green. It was most rare, though it had been known to happen before. But Rayelle Wilson couldn't help feeling that it was a strange, ominous sign. Neither could she help preferring Davine to Cindy. She felt this way even before the change in Cindy's eye colour. Consequently Davine had the nicer room.  In fact, everything Davine's was nicer than Cindy's, not enough to be overtly noticeable but the twins could sense it, though it was clearly taboo to make any sort of acknowledgement of this. Cindy was not jealous of the extra attention given her sister; she accepted it as the way things ought to be. Due to the difference in the treatment given the twins, their personalities began to differ. Even though Davine had higher quality possessions than her sister and received more attention, Davine was jealous of Cindy.