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Otherwhere

By Claire Bateman

By Claire Bateman, from her story in the fall issue of Mississippi Review.

In this realm, not only is it not in the least uncommon to find oneself “a little bit pregnant,” it is the normal condition of most sexually active fertile women. This is because the residents of the before-life want to keep their options open, & thus, they pay strict attention to every nuance & fluctuation of actual terrestrial existence. What’s the current heat index? How’s the stock market looking? Are there any good movies out this season, & if not, does the lack of them portend a long-term dip in the quality of popular entertainment? Are seat belts holding during accidents? How many vacationers have suffered shark bites in the last several months? Does this would-be mother like to play loud music at all hours? Does that potential father’s family of origin possess a history of nasty feuds? Compared to those who are trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to be born, the most fastidious curmudgeon is a model of affability. And thus, in the Realm of Vacillating Impendence, the pre-born are forever changing their minds—testing out the climates of various wombs, making their presence known, then retreating into the before-world in much the same way a cautious swimmer will dip a toe into a chilly lake only to pull it back. A woman can be pregnant just before lunch, & then not pregnant after, if the composition of her amniotic fluid threatens to change even the slightest due to her selection of hot-&-sour soup instead of sweet melon for an appetizer. One might think that this prolonged indeterminacy would annoy the women, but in fact most of them are not unsympathetic, being occasionally of more than one mind themselves about the prospect of hosting, painfully expelling, & then finding themselves wholly responsible for a complete stranger. After a birth does occur, the mother gazes into her infant’s eyes with deep tenderness, knowing that it has chosen to die to countless could-have-beens in order to take the plunge into a particular is.

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