------ Chapter 22 ------
“Goodness, why would you want to do that, dear?” The shock in my mom’s voice was evident.
“I just really want to know what he was like. Or just anything about him at all,” I frantically spurted. I glanced back towards the living room to make sure Nina was still asleep. She was, and the sound from the TV seemed to be doing a good job of masking our conversation.
My mother sighed. I could tell it was a heavy subject and she wasn’t entirely ready to talk about this yet. “I guess I just don’t really know what to say, Dean. I mean, you’ve never asked about him before.”
“Mom, it’s really important. Please, please, please do this for me!” I begged. Questions were running frantically through my head. I had to have answers.
There was a long, long silence on the other end of the phone as she considered my panicked request. Finally, my mother’s voice lilted softly through the speaker, emotional and meek, as if she were on the verge of crying. I’d never heard her so broken up before.
“Dean dear, your father died a long time ago, at the time when you were conceived. It was a terrible accident honey, and something I never meant to have happen. I loved him tremendously, but I’m afraid I… I…” Her voice began cracking, her distress evident in her tone.
I felt terrible for bringing this upon her, but I could also fill in the blanks. The biggest clue was that commercial that I’d seen, specifically the part about a special warranty for a man if he “expired.” With that in consideration, I was fairly certain I knew exactly what my mother had accidentally done at the time when I was conceived. A woman that large, with that much mass… could do a lot of damage to the small frame of a man. That concluded one question I was having.
“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t help it.” I could hear her sniffling on the other end, so I wanted to console her. However, I still desperately needed more answers. “Tell me, what was Dad like? Where did you meet him?”
Mom got a hold of her emotions for a bit. “Well, we met at a Make-Me-A-Mom. I saw him there in the cage with the other men. He was so little and cute, and when I talked to him he seemed… better than the rest. He basically jumped into my arms, he was so affectionate. I knew then and there that I just had to take him home with me. He was the one for me.”
I could sense the warmth of nostalgia coming through her voice as she remembered, which was good because it meant she might keep talking. Therapeutically, I coaxed her on. “You said he was better than the rest? In what way was that?”
“Well, he just wasn’t as childlike as the other men. I know it’s the opposite of what most women would look for, but at the store I surprisingly enjoyed talking to him. I wanted a better life for him. He was regularly disobedient, sure, but I think I truly enjoyed his company and conversation. That was what drew me to him- he was more articulate than the rest, just like you seem to be becoming,” she beamed, pride filling her voice.
“So what you’re basically saying is that he was smarter than average?”
“Well for a man, yes, he was. But as I took him home and time went on, he seemed to become even more intelligent. Most women would hate that, but I truly didn’t. Even after a short while, after just a little exposure to something outside his cage, he was reading and writing and it’s hard to admit… but he may have even been on the same level as a woman. Blasphemy, I know. I also knew society considered him defective, and if anyone found out I’d be coerced into getting him corrected. But almost immediately I’d grown so attached to the man that I just saw him as someone special. He challenged me intellectually, and I found that despite everything I kind of liked that. I loved him just the way he was, and so I protected him and kept him, faults and all.”
“Society considered him defective?” I was almost afraid to ask.
“Well, yes Dean. Men are supposed to be meek, simple and submissive. That’s just the natural order of things. At those stores, they’re engineered that way, because if they aren’t those things, it creates problems in society. The engineering they do in those stores, for whatever reason, seemed to wear off for your father. In fact, I think over the past few days, you’ve been becoming a lot like your father was.”
“I am?”
“Well yes, Dean. Your father was uncharacteristically intelligent, and he only grew smarter as time went on. Where most women would have seen a defect, I saw a miracle. When you were born male, I also thought that was a miracle. Men are designed to be there to produce more daughters. Very few mothers would keep a son, but I loved your father, and the fact of the matter was he had given me a son. At the cost of his life, I might add. After all that, I couldn’t just let that go in vain. And so I kept you. I love you Dean. You are my little miracle.”
I gulped. My breath was becoming rapid and shallow as my heart raced. I had a feeling that I was finally going to unravel the mystery. But did I really want to know all this?
She continued, “And now, I’m witnessing another miracle. When you were born, you were just like all the other men- simple and submissive. In a small way, I was glad because that meant you were normal. But I was also extremely sad for you because I knew what a man could have had. But just like your father, you seem to be changing. I’ve noticed that over the past few days you’ve been becoming more and more articulate. Like your father, whatever they do to men in those birthing stores is wearing off. You’re getting smarter, Dean, just like your father did. This is such a wonderful thing for you!” Her voice became unintentionally condescending at the end, like when a dog successfully completes a trick.
My heart sank, and the color drained from my face. The adrenaline overload in my system made me feel sick and cold. The implications of what I knew combined with what my mother had said seemed to confirm a lot of things. The pieces began to fit together, formulating a more solid picture.
This reality, this woman’s world, wasn’t an alternate reality at all. It was the ONLY reality, and I was just now becoming aware of what it actually, truly was.