Thank you 😊

After singing Happy Birthday, I began to cry. My tears blurred the flickering lights from the candles illuminating the cake. I could barely make out the blue icing before the lights disappeared; Happy 68th Birthday Dad.

“I’m still here” I hear as a hand gently touches my wrist and slides down my hand to take the knife shaking in my grasp.

“Sorry, I just need some air” I say as I move through the small group of family and friends towards the back of the room. I lean against the sliding glass door, pushing it to the side as the cool night air rushes into the house. As I step outside, I take out my phone and start typing in the search bar. Against the dark screen, I can see the subtle red reflection coming from the sky. I look up to see the 3 looming words

DATA LIMIT REACHED

It’s been 25 years since the day those words first appeared in the sky. Ever since then, everything has been challenging. In the following months, we learned it was due to the population reaching 10 billion. Unfortunately, this limit is heavily enforced by something. For every newborn that exceeds that limit, the oldest living person dies. We know this to be true by the nature of their deaths. Just a sudden cease in brain function.

Some governments imposed limits on birthrates while others did not. This caused an inadvertent power struggle across the world. Countries that regulated newborns saw a steady decrease in population as countries without were starting to expedite the death of the elderly. Eventually, limits were removed, and it became an all-out birth war. This caused a drastic shift in the age demographic of our planet. With the birth rate going unchecked, it started to directly impact our lifespan.

68 years, 2 months, 6 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes, 43 seconds

I stare at my phone to see the age of the oldest living person. Looking back inside the glass pane of the door, I can see my father passing around slices of cake. His eyes briefly met mine and then worked their way back to me again. He stares at me with a smile. I wipe away the streaks of tears slowly rolling down my cheeks. With a slight nod, he gestures me back inside. As I take a deep breath, I open the door to rejoin his last birthday.