THE DATE ON THE DOOR

Joan was forty years old and that was her first pregnancy, which had not caused her partcular inconveniences.

The birth, instead, was complicated.

After three days of labour it was decided that the baby would be born with a caesarian section.

Joan knew that the newborn would be a little boy, so she had already chosen the name for him: David.

It was when the baby was about to be extracted from her belly, and she, exhausted by the long labour, was feeling more dead than alive, that she had that...that kind of vision.

On a white page, as large as a sheet, which suddenly appeared fluttering in front of her___it seemed hanging from the ceiling_David's fate was written in red letters :

1. This baby, David, is born a boy, but there was a gene combination error, this baby

should have been born a girl. This error will lead David feel like a female,and will induce him to change

sex, becoming a woman.

2. David, after the many difficulties which he will have to face in order to change sex, once he will have become a woman, as she should have been born, he__become she__will have a lucky life, he/she will be rich, everything he/she will untertake, will be successful.

After Joan had read these predictions a closed door appeared

on the large white sheet. On this dark door it was written, in red, :

4/22/ 2020

and, while the the door appeared, under the door , a written even was appearing, flashing:

Warning : read the date on the door!

Keep in your mind the date written on the door!

That day will be of crucial, decisive importance in the life of David

Remember, keep in your mind THE DATE ON THE DOOR !

Joan, exhausted by the long labor, as soon as saw the newborn, still attached to the umbelical cord, hugged and kissed him, her loved son David, who, for her, was unquestionable male, despite what that predict, which perhaps was not really a predict, had proclaimed. Yeah, Joan thought it could have been a hallucination.

I mean ...at the moment Joan didn't think about that revelation which had appeared to her. If she had taken

that prophecy seriously, ah, she would have been very troubled, very worried.

And not even in the first years of David's life did she happen to turn over in her mind that prophecy, to worry about it.

David was growing up healthy, cheerful. He was a child like all the others. He was lively, playful, greedy for sweets.

As David's years increased and he grew older, then Joan started often to come back to...that prophecy, if it had been a prophecy. She remembered as if she saw again that prophecy how it had appeared to her: it had been written in red...red like blood. The red in which had benn written the prophecy, then it seemed to her perfectly in tune with what the prophecy had announced: David was born male due an error in genetic combination, he had to be born female. With what would follow: David would have felt like a woman in a man's body, he would have changed sex, becoming a woman.

Joan trembled at the thought that the prophecy might have anticipated what really was going to happen to David.

But the little boy, whom she watched carefully, also asking him strange questions , such as : wouldn't you like

to wear a pink shirt? Don't you want a doll?

But David seemed to be a completely male little boy, yeah, he was happy to

be a little boy. He didn't not really seem to feel himself like a little girl.

As toys he preferred trains , cars, guns. His favorite sport was football.

When he was a teenager it was evident that he was attracted to the girls of his age and the young women.

Years passed, David, now a young man,married , at the age of twenty two, with Monica, who had been a schoolmate of his. He was certainly not rich, but he could live not badly.

He had a good job in a great insurance company.

David and Monica gave birth to three children, born within a short distance of each other.

Joan could be completely calm at this point: what the prophecy had foreseen, the day of her son's birth, had not come true at all. Ah, it must not have been a prophecy, it had been a hallucination.

In the meantime, however, the date, that date which had appeared , written in red, on the dark door_4/22/2020_was approaching , and Joan could not help but think about it. What will happen to David on this yet near day? The prophecy had said it would have been a day of decisive importance in his life. What could happen? Joan kept on wondering. Could a misfortune happen to him? Or could a stroke of luck happen to David?

It also occurred that Joan dreamed the door with the date written on it,

and in her dream the red in which the date was written was dripping from the numbers, it was dripping like it were blood.

Early in the morning of April 22 she phoned David to ask how he was, how his children and his wife were.

To his answer , which reassured her they were all fine, Joan then asked if he had any problems, perhaps concerning his job. David, almost surprised by his mother's insistence, reassured her that he had no problems, he had no worries, that it was all right.

David spent that day as every day at work, staying in his office from morning to evening, among paperwork to be done, client to meet, calls from his manager, talking with his collegues.

In the evening, however, during his journey to come back home, an unexpected event happened.

His car stopped on the country road which he had to travel to get home, after he had gone out of the city.

His car must have stopped, and he, after having tried in vain to restart it, must have come out of the car.

And then...then we would say, or imagine, that David was in front of that door, the door with the date __4/22/2020__written on it, which had appeared to his mother on the moment he was coming into the world.

From that evening no one knew anything of him. David was not found either alive or dead.

Only his car was found, parked on the road.