Olu held his husband’s sweaty hand tight outside the birthing suite. Their babies were about to be born, this was the day they’d been waiting for, their small family would now be four. Mary had been the perfect surrogate and even looked a little like Olu. 

It had taken almost two years to get to this point, a wish he had never thought would come true. He had dreamt of being a father and he wanted it more now than ever before, nothing else mattered. Mark had needed some persuasion, but they knew it was what they both wanted. 

The door to the suite opened and a worried looking midwife in theatre scrubs caught their eye, stood ringing her hands, she motioned them over. 

‘Is something going on, what’s wrong?’ He looked at her and then at his pale husband, and held his hand tighter. 

‘For goodness’ sake what’s happened…...?’

‘I’ll take you to the relative’s room and ask for the consultant.’

‘Is it the babies are they ok, is it Mary?’ 

‘They’re all fine, however not what we expected.’

Perplexed and frustrated they were ushered into the room; the consultant followed them. 

‘Gentleman the good news is that we have two beautiful healthy baby girls, the other news is that they are blonde with blue eyes?!’. 

They stared in disbelief, was this some kind of joke?! Mary was from Nigeria and the boys were from the Caribbea. Was this a con? Had they been tricked? It couldn’t be… he wouldn’t believe it… he had been so sure. He knew that these freak things happen from your DNA diluted somewhere along the way, a throwback to distant blood… there must be some mistake. 

The consultant continued, ‘Not to breech confidentiality, but this has been a bizarre day for us all. Every delivery today has been a baby with white, blonde hair and blue eye. All identical! That’s twenty-five babies today. We have no idea what’s going on, we’re waiting for instruction from NHS England. All the babies and new mums need to remain in hospital and the place is on strict lockdown. 

Olu’s phone pinged in his pocket, more messages from the family and friends no doubt, but sandwiched in between was a news flash, ‘THE MYSTERY OF THE BLONDE BABIES’. 

Across the world, all babies were born identical – blonde hair, blue eyes. Every country, every hospital. Home births. Street births.

Staring in disbelief he lowered his phone to see all the others reading the same headline story. Was this the twilight zone? 

'I want to see our babies!' Olu cried. Silence, the rest speechless as they digested the phenomenon. 

Across the globe similar stories were unfolding. Shocked disbelief. Was this Armageddon? Independence Day? The reckoning? Headlines of mass suicides, babies being murdered and people going mad with the sight that beheld them. Tests were being carried out; the infants were perfectly fit and healthy, but all shared the same DNA. Scientists and experts were desperately seeking an explanation. 

White supremacists who believed in the Great Replacement Theory were astonished. Who was replacing who? Was this their dream coming true? How could they now point the finger at dark-skinned races?

In Heaven. God looked at the calendar. April 1st, 2027. He started mixing his black and brown pigments for April 2nd.

Craig Binch