The day I threw away my career, a woman with a son had asked me about fairness.

It was the tone of voice that reminded me we hadn't yet eradicated the conviction of a mother, and pulled me back into the moment. In reality, she hadn't asked me about fairness. She told me it wasn't fair, and I asked myself the question.

Working at the clinic was everyday walking against a stream of people who needed my help. Since the privatization of gene editing, my job became a game of dangling people's lives before them then telling them to go home with less than they'd come with — robbed of any lingering hope. Those with chronic pains and illnesses, begging for that simple transaction of genetic code were steered away to make room for the cosmetic alterations of the elite. Everything moved so fast I couldn't even begin to question if it was right.

I remember when the technology was a promising sprout, an idea for a world where there were no limits to what we could achieve. The eradication of cancers, genetic diseases, disability. And that was the intention, for a time, once we'd refined the technology. But when you purge all limitations from the greediest animal to walk the Earth, you'll see how fast the dream ends and the nightmare begins.

But when did it go wrong? It started so pure, but the world changed when we perfected the art of avoiding everything that we are. When it became a commodity for the wealthy.

I would turn my head and see the powerful corrupt crafting like some god, artless fingers drafting the fates of customized children. Healthy babies turning in their little beds, mothers picking the eye colours.

Why are we powerful enough to rework the coding of our bodies, but not powerful enough to grant everyone a painless life? Who gets to pick and choose the recipients of this power, or how it's used? Could they cure the woman with a son who I turned away from the office this morning? I knew we could save her. She knew it too.

"It isn't fair."

The day I threw away my career, the tenuous strand that bound me to this system broke. I cried curses to every lab rat and doll-haired client, and I walked. And I told the ill woman with her ill son to follow me.

CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2174. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.

Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by middle-grade author Basil Sylvester.

They are the co-author of the middle-grade novel The Fabulous Zed Watson and the recently published second book in the series, Night of the Living Zed.

Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each winners' school libraries will receive 50 free YA books.

Last year's winners were Christian A. Yiouroukis for his story Where the Maple Leaf Grows and Bee Lang for their story One Question.

The winner will be announced on CBC Books on June 12, 2024.