There is a young boy who often passes by my street and, every time he sees me, he points at my pregnancy and the only thing he says is: “You are carrying a serpent! Stop this pregnancy! Do not bring it into the world!”

Who was that child, really?

And more importantly…

Why had he said the exact same thing to Jordan and to me?

The next morning I woke up with a strange feeling in my chest, as if something invisible had silently changed during the night.

I tried to ignore my thoughts as I prepared breakfast for Jordan before he left for work.

Jordan noticed my silence immediately.

“Are you still thinking about that boy?” she asked calmly as she drank her coffee.

I tried to smile to downplay it.

“Of course not,” I replied. “He was just a strange kid talking nonsense.”

Jordan nodded, but his gaze suggested that he, too, had not completely forgotten the encounter.

After Jordan left the house, I decided to go for a walk to clear my mind.

The morning air was fresh and the streets were relatively quiet.

I walked slowly down the same street where I had seen the boy the day before.

Part of me hoped I would never see him again.

But another part of me felt a strange curiosity.

I looked around for any sign of that child.

However, there was nobody there.

Just a few workers cleaning the sidewalks and a couple of cars slowly passing by.