Alex was rushed in an uncomfortable patient bed with fluorescent lights blinding her as she tried to make sense of the scene around her. An older woman who wore a white coat and matching hat decorated with a worn out symbol of a red plus sign screamed to clear the area while two younger men who wore a similar coat only a faded blue but lacked a hat, matched her urgency held the sides of the bed and hurried to keep the pace of the women. Alex was finally brought to a room only slightly bigger than her cubicle where she answered customer complaint calls. Several people in matching coats and masks hurried around her inserting her with every needle imaginable until the only thing audible was the beeping of the machines.
Alex fought to be heard over the intense sounds around her with each machine screaming for attention and in a faint voice said, “What’s going on.”
The woman in the white coat from before introduced herself as Andrea and spoke, “Hi ma’am, you passed out at work and your child is showing an irregularly high heartbeat. We are going to perform an emergency C-section. Your husband is on his way.” Andrea spoke calmly as if this was something she dealt with daily and nowhere out of the ordinary. But it wasn’t ordinary. Not for Alex at least. Alex was left shaking in her bed trying to process the weight of the doctor’s words while the others in the room continued without concern for the punch in the gut they had just thrown.
“But, um, my due date isn’t for two weeks,” Alex said, barely loud enough for Andrea to hear.
“Yes, I know,” Andrea said, still polite but slowly losing patience. “Babies don’t always follow our schedule”. Alex laid in bed accepting her fate as she heard a loud sound enter the room. There stood a heavy set man in orange fishing boots, a grey vest while wearing a bucket hat. He reeked of bait but Alex looked into his eyes with awe feeling secure for the first time. With him there she knew everything would be okay. With everything that had gone wrong in her pregnancy, from the unclear ultrasound readings, to the constant high heart rate, her husband, Frank, had been her rock. Andrea approached the couple asking them permission to use general anesthesia which would leave Alex unconscious during the procedure. The decision was easy, there was no reason to be awake through this mess. After Alex was put to sleep Andrea and the others in the room performed the procedure facing difficulties at every turn. It was almost as if the child wasn’t meant to be born.
Alex's eyes slowly fluttered open as she became semi cautious of her surroundings. A faint steady beeping took place in the background as she saw Frank talking to Andrea, and just in front of them a pale moving bundle, faintly whimpering. It was her baby. Overcome by emotion, Alex quickly became a whimpering mess of tears capturing attention from Andrea, Frank, and a nurse checking her vitals. After half an hour of procedural health checks, Alex was finally able to hold little Sadie.
“We have some news,” Andrea said cautiously. “Sadie’s abnormal heart rate is due to her being a deep North”.
Completely shook, Frank spoke out first. “What’s…what’s a deep North.”
“Well, as you know,” Andrea continued, “Everyone is born either a North or South to ensure correct soulmate bonding. For example, Alex, you were born a North and your soulmate, Frank, was born a South. We are aware of the distinction through the birthmark on the forearm. It is generally oval shaped, takes up around one fourth of the forearm, and is colored a pastel red for Norths and a pastel blue for Souths,” Alex’s mouth twitched to a slight smile as she was transported to the moment she had bonded with Frank. The nurse’s voice became distant over the sound of a Bart train hurling toward the station. Alex’s eyes always seemed to land on what to her was a mysterious man boarding the same 11:08 train she took to work. As the train approached Daly City she stood up and waited by the door, and was met by Frank. As they stood by each other they stared in awe as their tattoos shifted to a luscious purple. They locked eyes, and knew they had found their soulmate. “Alex. Alex. Alex, can you hear me?” Andrea questioned, her expression somewhere between concerned and annoyed.
“Yes, yes I’m sorry,” Alex replied, slowly coming back to reality.
“Well as I was saying, the distinctions are necessary to ensure opposites are becoming soulmates to balance each other out and maintain peace. When we were unable to get a clear ultrasound reading of Sadie being a North or South we had no answer as to why not. We now understand that this was due to Sadie being a rare deep North, meaning her signal was too powerful for our machines to process leading to an undetermined result,”.
“So, um what does this mean. Will she be okay?” Alex asks.
“Yes, absolutely. It generally means she will bond with a deep South. She may be overactive and generally more passionate and involved compared to her peers but there is no cause for concern. This happens, it’s rare but it does happen. In fact as fate would have it another deep North was born right across the hall, a little boy named Sam,” Andrea explained.
Alex and Frank were confused but felt that they should be relieved and left the hospital the next day buzzing from the lack of sleep and fear of taking a newborn home.
Sadie grew up exactly as the doctor’s promised. Overexcited, and passionate. She found it impossible to walk in hallways and libraries when she knew she could be running. The concept of an indoor voice was lost on her as she screamed her lungs out during even the simplest conversations. As a teenager Sadie brought her opponents to tears after carefully and brutally demolishing their arguments. When it came time for her to get her college degree, it was to no one’s surprise that she chose political science and quickly worked her way to becoming the youngest US senator. Well, at least by a couple of minutes.
“Sads, wait up,” Mark shouted from 10 feet behind her. Mark was another senator and Sadie and him had become close over the years. In a slight job to catch up, Mark spoke “Have you met any of the new people yet,”. With the end of midterms many new senators would take their seats in office.
“No, not yet, and don’t call me that” Sadie responded a tad annoyed.
“You may have a little competition,” Mark teased.
“What do you mean?” Sadie questioned, curious but not worried.
“You know Sam something from Minnesota,” Mark continued without waiting for an answer. “He’s 33 too, even born on the same day. He’s a deep North too. Don’t worry though you still hold your title by 2 minutes and 47 seconds,”.
“Oh, yeah” Sadie says, amused. “Nice, young blood,”. She and Mark turn a corner and enter a large room with men and women in horrible polyester suits and name tags as if they are in summer camp. At the back wall there is a table with cheap coffee and even cheaper Costco mandelions. Above it is a banner lazily made with the words Senator’s Mixer printed in plain black text. Sadie interacts with others half-heartedly, making no effort to truly get to know them. She keeps her eyes out for Sam but doesn’t see him. She doesn’t think too much of it and goes home to prepare for a meeting to create the legislative agenda for the next two years.
The next morning, Sadie drives to work with a flask of her black coffee, the only kind meant to be digested, and materials of agenda items she wants to bring up. She struts into the meeting room in a purple power suit, freshly blown out hair, and gold hoops. Sadie makes a point to arrive one hour early to every meeting and is used to being the only one there which is why she is surprised to see a young man in a navy blue suit and freshly shaved beard, sitting down and reading over notes. The man isn’t familiar so she assumed he’s new and she hadn’t run into him during the mixer.
“Hi!” Sadie exclaims feeling a short lived embarrassment for her peppiness.
“Hey!” the man says in a similar octave. “I’m Sam, I don’t think we’ve met,”.
“Oh, yes. I’m Sadie, your work twin” Sadie says.
“Sadie, wow. I’ve heard so much about you. It’s nice to finally meet you,” Sam extends his hand revealing his deep red North birthmark.
“Nice to meet you too,” Sadie says, extending her hand to shake his. As their arms make contact they feel a surge of intense energy pass through their bodies resulting in a shooting pain in their forearms. As they look at their birthmarks they find both their previously red birthmarks had deepened to become a blood red. It felt dangerous.
“What… what was that?” Sam asked while massaging his forearm in an attempt to ease the pain.
“I think we bonded. We’re soulmates,” Sadie said, not fully understanding the weight of her words. It was impossible. Two Norths have never bonded, it would disrupt the balance. She couldn’t reject the bonding either, it was clear they were soulmates. Sadie went into a panic. What would this mean for her career? Would she become an outcast? How would the relationship even work? They were too much alike, the scale would be too powerful on one end.
Other senators began to trickle in, causing Sam to whisper into Sadie’s ear. “Meet me outside after the meeting. Don’t tell anyone,”. Sadie nodded briefly, still in a state of panic. The meeting flew by with both Sam and Sadie not saying a word. After the meeting Sadie walked outside to see Sam pacing and muttering to himself. As Sadie grew closer, Sam looked up and said “We have to see a doctor,”. Without being given a chance to react, Sam pulled Sadie into an Uber and they took the 15 minute drive to the hospital. In the hospital they met a doctor named Andrea, who ushered them into a room. When Sam explained the situation, Andrea looked concerned, but not surprised.
“When both your mothers gave birth 33 years ago I was their gynecologist and a part of me knew this was a possibility. Your births were practically identical, and you were both deep Norths. A bonding has never happened in reality but it has been shown possible in theory. This was meant to happen. But you must be careful, your power will dominate those around you and you must make sure it doesn’t,” Andrea spoke.
Both Sam and Sadie exited the hospital in fear of what their new power meant. They walked to a nearby park and sat on a metal bench. “This is crazy,” Sam said overwhelmed “There is no reason for us to hide this power or balance each other out”. Sam’s tone was mocking but Sadie was confused. How could he think we could show this? “I mean with our joint powers and our position in government we are more powerful than anyone else. We don’t need a middle ground because we both agree on the extreme. We can show the world the extreme they need,” Sam continued passionately.
Sadie thought it over and decided Sam was right. Why should they hide this advantage that was meant for them? In the coming weeks Sam and Sadie devised a plan of what they sought necessary to change. They made plans to go to war, to end peace treaties, and segregate the country. Their power meant hate. Soon their plans went into effect as there was no way to stop a bonded pair so strong. They weren’t just bonded Norths, they were bonded deep Norths. Slowly their ideas spread to communities all over America. Some families decided that they were only going to bond with their own kind and restricted their kids from meeting others. This called for a push for schools broken up between Norths and Souths. Passed. Apartments only allowing either Norths or Souths as tenants. Passed. Slowly Sam and Sadie took a country where everyone met at a middle ground into two extremes, North and South. This forced the bonding methods to change as many would never get the chance to meet their soulmates due to segregation. Sam and Sadie sparked hatred that grew to a never ending fire.
In a matter of weeks a partyless nation became divided between the extremes of Norths and Souths. Citizens sulked at the thought of their children never finding soulmates but never brought voice to these thoughts in an attempt to uphold their pride. Uncertainty was building quickly, after no repeats of a North to North bonding occurred. Would this happen again? Could this happen again? As panic grew a third party emerged. They called themselves the “Intertwined”. A group of twenty somethings with a Bachelor's degree in Finance and no political experience, somehow created a platform a third of the country supported. Intertwined’s platform was simple. They would rebuild schools and communities that were integrated but promised not to remove schools that were segregated. Intertwined gave Americans a choice between division and inclusion. It certainly wasn’t perfect, not everyone chose to send their children to integrated schools or lived in integrated communities, but some did. Demographics quickly shifted leading the west to be segregated and dominated by Norths while the east was the same for Souths. Central America bloomed as a united place where both Norths and Souths lived. While the hatred Sam and Sadie created would never go away, as they wouldn’t let it, the love and balance would never go away either, as the universe wouldn’t let it.