1000 Callings

Vivian Kilnsman

They say when you change your name it's like being a new person. They say that no matter what you did or where you went, no one will ever know. They told me that it wouldn't matter what I did because nothing would happen to me now.
I was sixteen when I lost my first name. Back then I didn't know what it would mean to lose my name. I though it was a cure all, a fix all. I didn't think I'd need it though. I thought I'd be just like my mom; I thought I'd go my whole life with just one name. Unfortunately, I did something wrong and I'm stuck with my now seventh name Vivian Kilnsman. It's not a bad name, but it wasn't the cure all I wanted. When you are assigned your new name, you are not just "like" a new person, you are one. They get you a new background story: school and even small crimes, they pay for plastic surgery, you are deported far away from anyone who knows you and the secret service don't allow any kind of contact.
I would kill again to see my mom. What do you think I spent name three, and four on? What did you think? I would be the innocent, kindhearted, naïve, do-gooder heroine your used to? Sorry, this is 3084. There are no more  do-gooders in this world: at least not in the 75 Provinces of New America. Almost everyone in New America has committed at least one murder.
Then there is the pop star of the century. He sings. That's the one thing left that the government won't change. He's gone through so many names no one knows how many or when he lost his first name. His face can no longer be altered so now he simply wears a mask.
His voice is wonderful and his songs sooth the guilt of the nation with its sweet, sweet acceptance. His tolerance is what feeds his sin.
He calls it a world tour. It was something singers used to do back before the calling law. Really it's just him singing wherever he lands at his next deportation.
He doesn't ask for money at his concerts, he only asks for his audience to yell his new name a thousand times, the government pays him thousands to change his unchangeable face and he pockets the money and goes to his next destination. Though he has, of course, never admitted to any crimes, he has committed every imaginable crime. He sings songs of tolerance and lives the life that he wants. He has too much power. He will not be the last. I spent my third and fourth names on my lost family. I spent my fifth and sixth on him. It will be Vivian Kilnsman who finally finishes what I started so long ago.