There was a woman called Princess Gestation. Rumors filled the city about a large, beautiful, and silent woman. A man who had returned from a long journey, seemingly soulless, could only mutter the same words over and over: “She had two claws.” One day, while half-asleep, the man wrote something as if possessed. At that moment, the smell of burning flesh from an animal with two claws wafted from the neighboring house. The man drooled as if entranced, tearing the paper into shreds. Written on the paper were the following sentences:
The woman started gestation at the age of thirteen and did so once a month. When she realized her parents tried to kill her, she went to the mountains. Each time the moon waxed, she grew larger. The being she carried inside her was both singular and multiple. To make way for new life, the existing being had to be expelled within a month. There were always spectators who came to see her. These spectators often sought to become directly involved in her gestation. In exchange for offering her hole to the spectators, she gifted them the being she carried. The being, too, had a hole—a mouth that chewed and swallowed. In an instant, the spectator disappeared into the mouth of the gift. The being opened its hole and smiled, waiting for its flesh to grow. And the spectators, if they waited, would return again.