I DID NOT KNOW that I was pregnant with two huge twins; actually, one was huge and the other one was tiny, which is why no one knew there were twins in there.  The little one was hiding behind the big one. We were spending time in a perfect little apartment on the coast. A place that seemed Canadian, meaning the children played free in the street, the people loved and cherished the sea creatures that lived amongst them, and everyone was free with their bodies in a way that only people with universal health care can be.  I arrived there by accident. Washed up on the shore after escaping the threat of knowing too much information about a revolution. A revolution that was meant to be secret. A revolution that was fought in the air. People vs. Government – to the death. Fought above the heads of children and workers trying to squeeze food from rocks and water from machines. I was not supposed to see, or ask questions.  I was not supposed to be there, but I had to see what the rumblings and the screams in the night were, and I had to see where the father of my baby had gone.

 It was the greatest secret ever kept.  The poorest people on Earth were able to turn any vehicle into a flying weapon. The government knew it was important not to show the rest of the world what poor people could do.  They did not want us to see what could happen after generations of oppression and starvation. That a people so ignored could grow so strong in the battle for access to clean food, water, and air was truly astonishing.  I saw a young girl, a lifelong warrior, shot down from the sky. I saw a truck with no wings fly. I saw the man who loved that young warrior pull the pin high above the ground, engulfing himself and others in an explosion.  Writing this now, I am in danger.

I did not know I was seen. I thought I was hidden well. Maybe I figured no one would threaten a pregnant woman, or feel threatened by one. But, I was wrong.  I was followed out of the region. The government, as part of the war program, killed any outsiders who had laid eyes on the battle in the name of secrecy and world peace.  All external communication was blacked out. I drove, then traveled as a passenger hidden under an itchy wool blanket that smelled like smoke and feet. Then I walked. Then floated. And that is how I ended up here in this small apartment on the sea where the waves get big enough to crash over us at least twice a day.  

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Swim deep in this surreal world in SN13 | The Ides of March.

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