The Other Woman

In a dystopic alternate reality, I was still in love and together with my ex-boyfriend Paul. There was an authoritarian government that imposed gruesome punishments for things as simple as kissing or holding hands in public, and I wanted to run away with him to somewhere else, hide or somehow try to live without fear of the government. I still wanted to live with him, but away from all the violence and atrocity. He didn’t want to leave his family: he was very close to his mother and brother, and he loved his job. But the terror and the violence of the regime made me really sick, and our relationship reached a crucial point: we wanted different things.

Now this is where things get crazy: we were still together when I got pregnant. Then it became more urgent than ever that I got away from the city and went into hiding. I left Paul and went to a place in the middle of the woods. It was a kind of hippie resistance against the government and its violence, and I started to live there. I made many friends, but even there I lived in fear, for the world was going through a fertility crisis. That meant that I and my unborn child were targets of kidnapping attempts. I was finally captured and taken to a secret facility where tests and experiments were conducted on humans by nameless and faceless doctors. There were there other people with “special powers” as well. Apparently, being able to conceive a healthy fetus was an extremely rare capacity nowadays, and I didn’t know how to protect myself and my baby without causing damage to ourselves, for if I tried to fight to escape, I could hurt the fetus or end up hurting myself and consequently cause damage to the baby.

But I couldn’t just do nothing! I was desperate. Time went by and I was already pretty far along in the pregnancy, which made any attempt of escape even more difficult. One day, locked in my metallic-walled, windowless and cold room, I noticed a noise from the outside: the scientific experimental commission had come for me. I had no way of knowing if they were my allies or not, until I opened the door. It was a risk that I took, because the door was usually locked from the outside, but not today. I sneaked and peeped through the door gap and saw a group of scientists with weapons coming in my direction. I managed to lock the door right away, but they threw the door down. I looked for weapons in my room but couldn’t find any, but there was a pot of hydrating lotion in the bathroom. It was large, and I put it inside a sock and I decided I would shove that up the ass of those evil scientists as revenge, even if I were caught.

But before that, my body and mind separated, or I separated myself into two different persons. I kept holding that improvised weapon behind the bathroom’s door to catch the scientist unawares – that was my point of view. But my body was also standing near the room’s door, with an expression full of hate, and my point of view suddenly changed. I realized then there was some dark magic going on, because the pregnant woman fighting her captors would never be me: I would never have the courage for that, risking two lives. So I realized my most reckless personality traits had been left in the pregnant woman’s body. The other woman (the one near the room’s door and who wasn’t pregnant) was now the real me, but my appearance changed completely. However, the baby was still my daughter, and I never forgot her. I couldn’t do anything to have her back, but I could observe from a distance. Paul’s family didn’t understand a thing, of course. All they saw was me disappearing while pregnant, and another woman (still pregnant) showing up, so they decided to just accept this new woman as Paul’s new girlfriend and assumed I had died.

But I was right there, praying so that everything turned out alright. I didn’t have my belly anymore, because through some scientific procedure (or dark magic) this new woman became a surrogate to finalize the gestation of my daughter. Finally, she was born, very well and healthy. Everything seemed alright between this woman and Paul, and she looked like a good mother. I decided the best thing to do was just observe from afar, because I didn’t want to disturb my daughter’s family life, and they really did look happy.

Meanwhile, I became an investigator for the hippie resistance: I wasn’t afraid of anything, because I knew the people I loved were safe. Time went by and I found a video of many events in the life of my daughter on the internet, like birthdays and other celebrations. But there was nothing very recent and it looked like Paul’s new girlfriend (the surrogate woman) had gone off by herself. I was desperate, because I couldn’t find my daughter: she had also disappeared. My only option was to go after Paul’s family, for they loved the little girl very much and would certainly protect her.

I found Paul’s mother inside a big bank hall – she worked for the new regime, just like Paul. The new regime was extremely authoritarian, but protected children above else. Paul’s mother guaranteed that Isabela (my daughter) was ok. She was hidden in a city called Little Vale on an isolated farm and protected by a special branch of the new government, for there was still a lot of violence and death around, even though the old government had been replaced. Still at the bank, I saw Paul coming straight to me and we hugged like it was the last time we could ever hug each other. I asked him for forgiveness for having disappeared while pregnant and he asked for forgiveness for not having come with me. I asked what had happened with him and his new girlfriend, and he said she didn’t want to stay with him anymore and just left. He said he stayed with her just because he wanted to give our daughter a safe and familiar environment to our daughter.

It was very strange, because he knew the baby was MY daughter with him, not the other woman’s. I was so relieved, but still very anxious about Isabela. It had been Paul who had managed to find a safe place for her through his government contacts. Paul swore me eternal love and we kissed in the bank’s lobby in front of everybody, which was forbidden. Paul’s supervisor saw it and wanted to fine him, with a large amount that would be deduced from his salary. But I didn’t know about this rule and interrupted the supervisor, and said it was my fault and that she should punish me and not him. But she only made the fine smaller, and applied a bigger fine on someone else who was also doing something that was not allowed.

I was desperate to see Isabela. We couldn’t  just turn up at that farm house because we could be followed and compromise her safety, so we devised a plan on how to get to her in secret, to visit her at least, and take her away with us somewhere safe, if possible.