“Oh Jesus” exclaimed Martha as a bike stormed by her side. She held her gown up and started walking swiftly. The Baraboo town seemed completely different , the Ringing Bros Circus was finally being shut down. Martha once visited the Ringling Circus with her family when she was a kid, innocent animals being put in the name of entertainment seemed extremely immoral to her ,ever since then she started hating circuses. Martha looked around her, she saw men wearing singlets , t shirts, shirts , jeans, shorts, colourful glasses. Women wore knee length dresses; t-shirts , jeans and shirts just like the men around.
Martha murmured cheerfully “The world is going to be amazing. People somehow have strange look but I see our great grandchildren living fancy -free.’’ Suddenly she noticed people staring at her as she walked through the road. She realized that it was because of her attire. She went to a jewellery shop, sold her diamond earring and bought herself the type of clothes she saw people wearing.
As Martha stepped in the changing room , took off her hefty gown and unfurled her corset a tear rolled down her cheeks and she whispered ,”The new world won’t make any woman ashamed her body” Martha smiled.
As per the plan she visited several places in the city to see how things would become in the coming time. Sammy Evans,
England’s Research team’s head scientist and also Martha’s fiancé had invented a time machine and Martha very delightfully agreed to volunteer in this experiment. While the research team desired to unfurl the future, imaginative Martha questioned if Women of the coming time will have a life of their own or not.
It was evening, Martha was done with her research work but she had sometime left before she returned to the then present. She decided to live the freedom which her grandchildren were going to live. As she walking down a street ,she saw a bunch of people with candle and placards in their hands ,black tape on their lips marching .As she went closer, she saw placards read, “Free the nipples ”,”my body ,my clothes ”,etc. All this felt very weird to Martha. She three ladies standing on the footpath who were also discussing about the scene and she asked them hesitatingly about what was happening .One of the ladies replied,”A 14 year old girl was threatened because of not wearing bra to the school, but she refused to agree and then she was raped by 4 of her classmates and seniors in her hostel room and then they killed her. These people are carrying out march demanding justice.”The ladies then continued chattering again. Martha was felt miserable. She started walking again.
As Martha turned left from the crossroad,she saw a women running hurriedly. As she ran,she kept looking back again and again. After a while she stopped and hid herself behind a tree.Martha ran and went to her.The woman asked,”Is he coming”.Martha replied ,”No,no one is coming”.The woman looked terrified,she was gasping,her body was full of bruises and she had tears in her eyes.Martha requested her to calm down and asked her what had happened with her.The woman cried,’’My husband will kill me.He beats me everyday.He locked me in the house,i have been starving since last 9 days.There has not been a single day i haven’t been treated like a slave. Finally i am out of his trap but he got to know somehow that i have eloped.I don’t want to die,I want to live.”The woman started lost consciousness but kept saying ‘’I don’t want to die’’Martha held the woman in her arms and sat.Martha
screemed,’’Help,Please help’’.The people living in the the houses nearby came out and the lady was taken to the hospital by the ambulance.
The police asked Martha to come with them to the hospital for the interrogation.Terrified by the incidents Martha went to the hospital with the policemen.’’You can sit outside,we might call you again’’ said the policeman after Martha was done with the interrogation.As Martha went outside the room,she saw a
women sitting next to her.Her face looked strange.Martha’s inquisitive look made the lady ask,’’What?The face?’’.Martha
replied,”Oh no,Nothing like that,I am sorry.What made you come here?”The women smiled and said,”A man”.Martha gave a a confused look.The woman said,”A man threw acid over me,I am here for my 90th surgery’’. Aghasted Martha asked ,’’But why?’’. The woman said,”He wanted to marry me,but I didn’t.I love someone else.I refused to marry him and he did this to me and now the man I love has refused to accept me with this face.’’Martha was dumbstruck,she felt terrible.She cried and whispered to herself,’’Is this the future of women ,even after 100 years,we will still be enslaved?’’ The women said,”Ok,I gotta leave dear,I am next for the surgery’’.The woman smiled and left.The inspector came out of the room and told Martha that herjob was done and she could leave now
With eyes full of tears and a wrenched heart Martha left the hospital .She realized it was time for her to leave.
“So how does the future look? How humans in the future look? How humans behave? What about the technology?”Martha was rained with questions like these as she returned to the present. Finally, Sammy, who knew Martha’s idiosyncratic motive for going to the future silently, asked her,”What about the Women? The women are just the way we imagined right. How are the Women of the future?” Martha looked at him with tears in her eyes cried, “They exist, but they still don’t belong”.