Retaliation Of Women

Alyssa puts that key inside the lock and pushed the door open. Alyssa was a black woman, in her mid-thirties. She was a calm and composed person. She was dressed formally in a well-pressed grey skirt, a white shirt topped with a grey blazer, and formal black shoes. Her hair was neatly tied in a high bun. She entered the house and drank a glass of water. She sat on the sofa silently, closing her eyes. Her phone rang. She picks up the call. It was Laila on the other side, Alyssa’s childhood buddy.

“Hello Alyssa, How are you doing today?”, enquired Laila

“Not much Laila, I am not in a good mood”, replied Alyssa

“Same here. Can I come to your home now?”, said Laila

“Yes, please”, replied Alyssa

There was a knock on the door.

“Laila, please hold the call, there’s someone at my door”, Alyssa said.

Alyssa opens the door to find Laila standing at the door.

“Oh! It’s you but you were on phone right now”, Said Alyssa

Laila grins as she pushes Alyssa aside and goes inside. She takes an apple kept in a basket full of fruits on the table and bites it. Alyssa stayed alone and Laila was like a sister to Alyssa. Laila was also in her mid-thirties. She was a colored woman with a bubbly personality. She was dressed in black house pajamas with a white sweatshirt. Her hair was tied in a messy bun and her beautiful black eyes were like twinkling stars on her colored face. Laila lived with her mother and younger brother. Her mother was suffering from Schizophrenia and her brother was in the eighth grade at his school.

“So you are going to start or should I start?”, asked Laila

“You can start, Laila”, replied Alyssa in a low tone.

“No, this time you look more worried, so you continue”, said Laila consoling her.

“I haven’t got the raise this time too whereas my counterparts had received appraisals twice this year”, said Alyssa lamenting.

“Have you spoken about this to the higher authorities in your office?”, asked Laila curiously.

“I’ve spoken Laila but that’s not going to change anything, anyway tell me what are you going through?”, replied Alyssa.

“I...I left the job”, Laila replied taking another bite of the apple.

“What? But Laila you need that job. How are you going to pay your mother’s medical bills and what about your younger brother’s education?”, asks Alyssa curiously.

Laila was a physics teacher and she had never expected that she would face such discrimination in a place of education.

After pondering for a while Laila responds, “I’ll find out some way but how can I work in a place where they recognize me based on my skin color rather than my work. Although their company policies prohibit any form of discrimination, it is still happening.”

“Lol! Even my company policies say that but I am always being denied of the raise”, said Alyssa

Laila said, “I have a plan”. She takes out two watches from her pocket.

Alyssa looks at her curiously.

Laila said, “We have to solve this problem from the root and for that, we have to go back in time when discrimination against colored women began. I’ve got something. These are not normal watches.”

“Then, what is it, Laila? Those watches appear completely normal to me”, said Alyssa.

“Time Travel watches”, replied Laila.

“What? From where did you get those?”, asked Alyssa in a shocking tone.

“Oh! You must have forgotten that I am a Physics teacher. I have developed these watches, one for you and one for me. I’ve developed it with the help of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity”, said Laila.

“Oh Come on Laila, don’t be so kiddish. Though I don’t know much about Physics I am sure such things don’t exist. It can’t be time travel watches.”, said Alyssa

“Ok, don’t believe me but at least try it once, for my sake, please”, said Laila

“What is your plan actually?”, asks Alyssa curiously.

Laila smirks.

“This is 2021 and we are going to the 1980s. Operating this watch is quite easy. Just feed year, date, and time. You cannot change the place because I was unable to put an option for that. We can always travel back to 2021 whenever we want.”, said Laila

“Are you sure about this? If something went wrong, then what are we going to do?” asks Alyssa hesitatingly.

“I am sure Alyssa, let’s try this. Trust me, nothing will go wrong and if something did, then we can always drive back to 2021 by pressing it in the watch.”, said Laila

Laila makes Alyssa put a watch on her wrist. Then, Laila puts the other watch on her wrist. As soon as the ladies put the watches on their wrists, the watches start flashing blue light. Laila becomes very excited but Alyssa is still skeptical. They feed the time, date, and year in their watches.

Soon a blue powerful light drags Laila and Alyssa inside the watch and they are thrown in the streets of someplace. There they see a bunch of women wavering placards, chanting slogans, and moving confidently. These women were fighting with the government for their voting rights. Laila tried to talk to them but she goes unnoticed. She tries again but the same thing repeats.

By now, Alyssa and Laila had understood that they can see the people but people cannot see them. A blue light pulls Laila and Alyssa again and they are thrown into a court where the accused was a woman. She stood there boldly. Her crime was that she stole the car keys from her husband’s pocket and drove the car on the streets where women are not allowed to drive. Many women were seated on the chairs inside the courts. 

The lawyer said, “She must be hanged to death so that no other woman can even think of driving in our streets again.”

A woman seated, gets up and shouts, “If she must be hanged to death, then we all must”.

Another woman gets up and says, “We all want to drive off freely. Who are you to stop us? Stop making yourself a superior gender.”

All the women present their revolts against the law that doesn’t allow women to drive irrespective of their skin colors, the way they look, and the race to which they belong.

The blue light pulls them inside and throws them at a village where a child bride is sobbing silently sitting beside an aged groom. They see a young girl in her twenties.

She shouts, “You cannot deprive her of basic rights. It’s not her age to get married. It’s her age to get an education, play, and grow like her male counterparts.”

One of the men from the crowd says looking at the young girl, “These types of girls are a threat to society. Girls are born to serve men.”

“Who made you a superior gender?”, asks a woman from the crowd. 

All the women in the crowd come together fighting gender bias and against child marriages, irrespective of their skin color.

The blue light pulls them and throws them at a hospital where they see a mother crying looking at her newborn. The nurse asks her the reason for her tears.

The lady said, “My name would not be included in my child’s birth certificate. I took all the pain of giving birth but my name is denied of being included in the birth certificate.”

The nurse looked at her and said, “And whom do you think is going to get you that right until you stand up for yourself?”

The lady rushes to the administration room of the hospital where the birth certificates are made. Alyssa and Laila follow her. 

The lady said, “I want my name on my child’s birth certificate.”

The man sitting there glances at her and takes his gaze away. He calls security to take her out of the administration room. She denies. 

The nurse standing there asks the man, “Why her name can’t be included in the birth certificate?”

All the women present in the hospital revolts irrespective of their skin colors, their religion, caste, race. 

Alyssa and Laila have pulled again and thrown to a place where they see all the women with the placards which states that they shouldn’t be denied education at any cost. 

The watch pulls them again and they are landed in Alyssa’s living room.

“Was that a dream or truth?”, asks Laila.

“That was the truth, Laila”, said Alyssa.

“I am sorry, Alyssa, my time travel watches were a failure, I guess. It didn’t have an option of place and I am unaware of the places it took us. I don’t know it took us to which place, which year”, said Laila.

“But your watches showed us something very powerful”, replied Alyssa

Alyssa continued, “We are all one, irrespective of our skin colors, the way we look, the race to which we belong. Every corner of the world is soaked with making women feel inferior, unaware that women can move mountains if they came together.”

Laila nods.

The next day Alyssa goes to her office, rushes to her boss’ cabin, and asks, “Why didn’t I get the appraisal even though I’ve done my job perfectly?”

Alyssa had never raised a question like that to her authorities. Before the Boss could answer anything, another lady overhears Alyssa and rushes in.

The lady says, “Why am I denied too of the appraisal?”

And slowly Alyssa comes to know that none of the women had been given appraisals irrespective of their color. Alyssa and the other women of the organization promise to settle the scores, hand in hand with each other. 

On the other side, Laila comes to know about the same thing that had been happening in her school. The women come together to settle the score irrespective of color, race, caste, and religion. They had realized that their unity is their strength and they are ready to move mountains now.