“Deletion”

I am trying to get used to the idea of dying, to resign myself to it, but thoughts of the last minute before I depart — of falling into the darkness — preoccupy my mind all the time.

I am not bothered that I cannot leave my house without informing the health ministry, or that the concept of freedom, as most people conceive it, no longer applies to me. The government guys at the local health office monitor my movement, and I have wondered if they have a hidden camera and watch me when I bathe. My paranoia has made me end my habit of sleeping naked and leaving the light on when I am in the bathroom.

My right arm is strapped up in a metallic band with a blue indicator light blinking every three seconds. If I move beyond my front door, the indicator will turn green. If I attempt to cross the perimeter of an invisible circle that extends past my front entrance, an electric pulse from the armband will shock me, and if I get too close to the boundary, a yellow warning light

will come on. The invisible circle encompasses most of my neighbourhood but stops just short of the estate gate. I am a prisoner in my own home, but that is the least of my problems.

I used to go by the name Gbanke Kalu, emphasis on used to. Gbanke was my given name, the name my family called me. Among my circle of friends, I was GK. In the government files — they keep one for everyone born or living on Earth — I am Citizen 100012. I used to think of myself as GK, like my friends did, but I no longer hold on to a name because in a few weeks, I will not exist. I am now practising being nothing; less tangible than air — a ghost.

The world is already forgetting that I exist. I remember when the beeps I got on my Alincom were addressed to Gbanke, Gbanke Kalu or GK; the name choice telling me who the sender might be before I clicked the Read button. These days, most of my correspondences are marked to “Citizen 100012”.

I became Citizen 100012 after a random blood test indicated the presence of the Deletion Virus in my bloodstream, and my birth name was replaced by the number in the government database of free citizens — that’s how the virus got its name. 100012 is not a random number; rather, it signifies that I am the 100,012th person in my country to show traces of the Deletion Virus.

You don’t know much about Deletion, do you? Well, I don’t either. There isn’t a lot of information on the subject, but what I could find on the internet suggests that the virus is alien, brought to Earth by accident. Like many viruses, Deletion is fatal. And I, with symptoms that indicate the virus is three weeks old in my body, have six weeks to live, give or take a few days.