Preview
“Chloe … Chloe … Earth to Chloe!”
My college professor’s voice pierced my stupor, and I focused on him instead of the summer’s day outside the window.
“Sorry, Dan! What did I miss?”
The class laughed as Dan feigned annoyance.
“I was asking the class what they aspired to be. Everyone’s been sharing, and it is your turn.”
“Gotcha! Well, I want to be a mother.”
“A mother, aye? Care to elaborate?”
“Well, you know, I want to find a nice guy, get a nice house, and start a family … two, maybe three kids.”
A few chuckles echoed throughout the class, but I didn’t care – becoming a mother was everything to me.
“Okay, that’s as good a goal as any. Let me ask you a follow-up question: what would you do if something stopped you from having a family? Say … infertility, for example.”
“Well, someone would fix it, wouldn’t they?”
“Someone?”
“Yeah, you know … doctors or … baby people.”
“Yes, baby people …,” Dan said with a smirk, prompting another burst of laughter.
“You wouldn’t try and find a solution?” he added.
“Why would I when other people are doing it for me?”
“And if someone else wasn’t finding a solution for you?”
“Like that’d ever happen!”
For a moment, Dan’s expression hardened, his lips pursing and his eyes narrowing, before relaxing again as he said, “And that class is a classic case of misbelief.”
The classroom jolted, but not a thing in the room moved.
Pause simulation, I thought, knowing it was me that’d moved. As the world around me froze, I stared at Dan’s face. If only he could see me now, how stupid he’d feel seeing me alive and well, and an expectant mother to boot.
But that would require the university to be standing and Dan to be alive … neither of which were true anymore.
End simulation.
The world around me started disintegrating, breaking apart pixel by pixel, illusion giving way to reality. The warm summer’s day was replaced by harsh, bright desert light, and the classroom was swapped out for a grim, barren wasteland. My heart sank every time I saw this place, knowing what it had once been and then having to see what it had become.
