Juanita is the only legal child of her parents. The Linears are crowded to the point of bursting, and until something can be done, every resident is entitled to one replacement. Two parents, two children. If, however, Public Health officials aren't present for subsequent births- well, the child won't be legal, but Public Health can't stop them. Nita's parents believe very firmly that God is the only one who has any say in the size of their family, and so it's only Juanita, their firstborn, that Public Health knows exists.

Having illegal children isn't easy. Citizens are entitled to all the usual benefits- food, clothes, medical supplies- but Nita's siblings aren't citizens. Only Nita and her parents have the ID bracelets they need to obtain such things. They share their food, and hand down clothes, and buy vaccines and medicines on the black market. Money is always, always, tight. Both of her parents work two jobs, scraping for the untraceable chits known as floaters they need to keep their family provided for.

It works, mostly. Nita spends her days at home, watching her siblings. She learns to pretend to be stupid so 'she' has to retake classes with Teacher on the tri-d, and can let one or more of her siblings take over. Miguel in particular is fascinated by Teacher; he often borrows her ID bracelet to study all sorts of advanced subjects that are quite beyond her. She's equal parts proud of him and sad he'll always be so trapped; none of the interesting schools or jobs are open to illegals.

At least her parents care about their family, she supposes. They're illegal, but they're loved. She hears horror stories sometimes when she's out and about, of families in the lower Linears, desperately poor families who sell their latest child off every year just to survive. Nita always cuddles her siblings extra when she hears those stories. Illegal doesn't mean you're not a person. She can't imagine selling anyone, let alone someone in her family, to those... those... scum. Never. Never, never.

Everyone's hoping for the space station to be completed soon. There are stories about it on the tri-d sometimes; once the station is completed, they'll be able to launch colony ships. Whole boatloads of people, sent to settle another planet. No more crowding on Earth. No more restrictions on child bearing.

No more illegal children.

---

On this particular day, Public Health officials have been spotted in the Linear's market. It doesn't seem to be a crackdown- no one's actively searching for illegals, as near as they can tell it's a standard preventative vaccination run- but it's always best to be safe. Nita rounds up her siblings. There's a couple safe nooks they can go to, ducts in the back of the Linear where Public Health officials can't fit or don't bother checking. She always rotates which one she uses, so this time they head for the one to the east of the market.

As they weave carefully between the people in the hallways, fighting against the flow of the crowd to go in the opposite direction away from the vaccine tables, Nita's struggling. Miguel's gotten a printout of something or another, and keeps failing to watch where he walks, and Ana's carrying her old rag doll of a stuffed horse and it's "tail" is trailing on the ground when she's not paying attention. It's all she can do to keep an eye on them.

And then all of a sudden, everything goes wrong.

There's a pile of boxes outside this store- they're being guarded, of course, but the guards are looking for thieves, not at the boxes. And the hallway is busy, and someone knocks into a guard, and he catches his balance on the boxes, but it's unstable and the boxes fall-

-right towards Pedro, who has in his usual way wandered towards the guards to admire their fancy uniforms.

Nita shrieks. The boxes are huge, for all that they were poorly stacked they look heavy, and Pedro's just a little boy- she's running, but she can't reach him-

"No! No, no, Pedro!"

And then suddenly the lights are out and Pedro's in her arms, crying hysterically. Nita holds him close for a moment- he's here, he's okay, she doesn't know what happened but he's okay- before passing out unconscious on the floor.