"I'm telling you, Nancy," said John to his wife. "Our son's lost and has no sense of direction and we oughta fix that while we're still able to. We're doing this for his sake, don't forget that."
Nancy could only sigh and gently nod in response. "I know that. But it's still hard, John, we're about to make a decision that's going to change his life without him ever knowing about it."
"Mr. and Mrs. Knightler?"
A neatly-dressed woman called to the concerned parents, motioning them to follow her to her office. The three took their seats, and without delay, the woman addressed the elephant in the room.
"Our records say that your son, Mike, had quite the history," she spoke, "A poor academic performance, petty crime, anti-social behavior at school."
The woman turned her gaze from the monitor to the parents. "We've worked with plenty of parents who feel like they could've done better, that if they had another chance, their children could turn into the best versions of themselves, and we have the technology to make that happen."
"And how exactly is your technology gonna help Mike?" John asked.
The Consultant grabbed a dozen or so files, shoving them forward within the parents reach.
"Take a look at these."
Each file was labelled under a different name and designated number: "Max 7952", "Ian 3442", "Kevin 3453".
Nancy grabbed the one under the name Max to find an elaborate document, listing the details of this 7-year-old named Max, his height, what color his hair was or even how he styled it, even detailing his hobbies, such as baseball and watching cartoons. "What's all of this?"
"They're what we refer to as 'prototype identities', people your son could relive his new life as one of them. They're preset personalities that are designed to be less prone to anti-social behaviors and the like. You'll find that the majority of them are aged between 6-10; we find that parents are able to have a good head-start at re-raising their children yet still retaining a degree of autonomy that makes them easier to work with then an infant."
"Hmm," John wondered, "and you're saying all we have to do is pick one of these identities and our son's going to turn into whichever boy we want him to be?"
"More or less. I'll save you the technical details, so all you have to know is that you're going to come back to your home to find your teen son transformed into a boy you'd be very proud to call your own. Just pick one of those names."