I woke up late the next morning with a bad hangover. After the hell those kids put me through, I figured I deserved a drink on my weekend. As if that weren't enough, today marked the sixth anniversary of the day my parents were murdered. They returned from a trip to Tahiti to find their home being burglarized by three Black teenagers. To make a long story short, the teens shot them dead, adding murder and burglary to their records on the same evening.
My phone started ringing as I was lounging around in my apartment, and the noise quickly became unbearable due to my hangover. As I stood to answer the phone, I noticed that it was my Captain calling. "Hello?" I said as I picked up the phone.
"Officer, report to my office within 20 minutes, or I'll have your head."
I knew at that moment that it would take nearly thirty minutes to reach the station due to midday traffic, and that I would not inform my captain of this information. "Yes, sir, I'll be there."
That day, fate must have been on my side, as I arrived at the station with two minutes to spare and entered the captain's office. There were two people in the office: the Captain and a Black woman in her late 20s who was dressed impeccably. The woman looked to be about six or seven months pregnant. "Close the door," the captain instructed.
I did, despite being put off by the captain's disapproving tone. He didn't say anything to indicate that I should sit down, so I continued to stand there. Suddenly, for some reason, I blurted out, "New secretary? That's about all they are good for."
The woman turned to my captain and stated, "I can see why I'm here. No, Officer," she said, turning back to me, "I'm not a secretary; in fact, I make more money than your captain."
Before I could respond, the captain asked, "Officer McLaughlin, do you recall our conversation yesterday about me not wanting any more complaints about you?"
“Yes, Captain,” I quickly replied.
“You falsely arrested the son of the governor's communications director, so I guess I didn't make much of an impression.”
Oh, crap, I thought as I heard that; so that's what Kai meant when he said his father worked for the governor's office. "I, Captain..." I began to say something before being cut off.
"I don't want to hear it, Lieutenant." The captain continued, his face crimson with rage, "What happens now is on your head."
The captain then gave the floor to the woman, who introduced herself by stating, "My name is Marilyn Howard, and I work for a company called Radeon Scientific. We offer a service to the public that helps people become their true selves by using advanced nanotechnology that can change everything about a person, down to the genetic level.
“That’s impossible,” I replied.
Marilyn gave me a look that inquired whether I truly desired to play this game. "Think so?" she said, looking at me. "Until last year, I was a white 18-year-old boy. I took a test at my school, and the results indicated that I should be an older African American woman to help fight for racial and gender equality."
“That's incredible,” I said, my tone a mixture of disbelief and astonishment. “What does that have to do with me?”
"Well, as your Captain stated, you falsely arrested the governor's communications director's son." She continued, staring at me, "He's agreed not to sue the NYPD on the condition that you experience firsthand what it's like to be a person of color."
My mouth dropped open as I asked incredulously, "How are you going to accomplish that, short of walking around in black face, which even I would never do?"
“The same way I became the woman I am today. You and three other officers with problems about people of color are about to become students of color yourselves.”
I was astonished to say the least, so I asked, "You're going to send me to college as a black man?"
"I'm afraid it's a little more than that, Officer," Marilyn replied, smiling as if she was looking forward to what was to come. "We're sending you to high school as a 14-year-old black girl."
When I heard that, my jaw dropped to the floor because I was convinced I was being punked. I looked from Marilyn's face to my captain's face for any signs that this was a prank, but I couldn't find any.
"This has to be a joke, and if it is, I give you both an A for creativity." After a moment of silence, I turned to Marilyn and asked, "Aren't you that union rep chick I hit on last week?"
Marilyn's expression was one of disgust as she stated, "In your wildest dreams, I wouldn't give bigots like you the satisfaction of even acknowledging you." She regained her composure and continued, "I can assure you, Officer, that every word I've said is the truth."
At this point, I felt compelled to sit down on the couch in the corner of the captain's office and exclaim, "But it can't be; this has to be something from a cheap science fiction novel." I added, after examining Marilyn, "Why would a white boy want to be a black woman?"
"I am a black woman because of people like you, Officer McLaughlin; how can I fight to end racial injustice in this country as anyone other than the woman you see before you? I'd be compared to Rachel Dolezal."
"You'd probably be seen as worse, actually," I said, recalling all the controversy a few years earlier surrounding the white woman who masqueraded as a black woman for years. Looking straight into Marilyn's eyes, I said, "Especially if people ever found out the truth about you."
Marilyn, adjusting her shirt to conceal her baby bump, stated, "There's little chance of that happening; the person I once was declared dead the moment the nanites entered my body." She continued in a solemn voice, "You have no idea what it felt like, being at my own funeral."
"Was it all really worth it?" I asked. "Giving up the life you once had for the one you have now?"
Marilyn took a few deep breaths and said, "I won't lie; there have been times when I've questioned whether I made the right decision, especially after being harassed by the police and by people in general due to the color of my skin." She then put her hand on her belly and continued, "But then I think of everything I'd never have experienced had I not gone through with it."
"I'm sure the baby daddy got to cross it off his bucket list, along with getting someone pregnant and fleeing to avoid child support."
"That's enough!" My Captain said, slamming his fist on the desk. This drew the attention of several of his fellow officers as he stated, "Get this man out of my sight before I do something I may regret, or even worse, something I may not regret enough."
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