SHORT STORY

Anthropological Notes on the Subject Jackson

It is often difficult to choose a subject to study. So many things go into that decision and so many things can go wrong: a bad selection on our part, an unexpected death of the subject. Ideally, we want to select a subject who will be interesting and have a long, healthy life. But that, of course, does not always happen?

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We chose our subject using several criteria based on parental traits: physical perfection, intelligence, creativity, and aptitude for success. A necessity since we must choose our subjects at birth. Just as important is physical attractiveness of both parents, since this feature, as well as the others, helps determine the subject’s maximum success.

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The subject we chose to study is called Jackson. He was healthy at birth, pink and plump. His father, Mason, was a highly successful male, with thousands of acres of land and several hundred females. When Jackson grows up, he will likely receive some of this land to help give hima start, though he will have to attract his own females. We have noticed parental benevolence does not extend to the male offspring receiving any of the father’s females. Attracting females is difficult at first, since males usually begin with only a small amount of land and are not as strong as, say, the father. Also, males just starting off have a lot of work to do before they make enough money to become famous enough to start a large collection of…