The Mysterious Woman

Su’ganni Tiuza

No one knew her like how I knew her. There were so many layers to her that even the most shrewd couldn't accurately conclude who she was. She was a spy, no, a master spy. She had no name nor any loyalty to any country. At the end I named her G.I. Jane Doe.

One day I snapped a picture of her, showing both of her faces. The innocent liberal professional and the sociopath Intel gathering murderer. If I didn't capture that moment, I would have second guessed my revelation of G.I. Jane Doe. Perhaps, I would have never seen her coming until it was too late. Me, laying on the ground with three bullets in my chest gasping for air. Her, standing over me with her firearm pointed at me with her Joker like smile. Seeing the real her saved my life.

That night, I studied the picture I took of her. Her innocent liberal professional face was that of Swedish or Norwegian descent. Blonde hair, green eyes, and that square like forehead. The fire in her eyes, smooth skin, and full rose lips made her dangerously seductive. Her style and clothing at first look, seemed eccentric yet fashionista.

G.I. Jane Doe was wearing snake skin material for a scarf to wrap her thick ponytail. Her pink leather jacket had three big eyeballs for buttons. This incredible high end sweater -- that hugged her -- had unicorn monograms on it. I had no idea that she was really dressed to kill.

At a closer look her clothing and second face showed who she really was. She was a monster with one big yellow eye, devilish smile, and the whole right side of her face was dark pink. The three big eyeballs for buttons -- on her jacket -- were actually three hidden cameras for the three secret police agencies she worked for. The snakeskin scarf was actually two real snakes. I quickly planned my escape that night.

Not making a sound, I gathered all the important things I needed to quickly get away. My passports, money, documents, and side arm. After I broke my phones, I left the apartment like a thief in the night. As I climbed out of my apartment window, the slight summer breeze tickled my face. Like a ninja, I disappeared into the night never to be seen again...

On the plane ride to Lagos, Nigeria I continued studying G.I. Jane Doe's photo. At that moment, seeing her standing near my six different vases, it occurred to me that I outsmarted those bloodsuckers again. However, I understood they were going to send another agent again, so I casually slipped into MY second face...

Interview by L. Valena

August 12, 2022

Can you start by describing the prompt that you responded to?

There's a lot here! It's an image of a woman, and initially it looks like she has a cell phone, but it's not a cell phone. This is a woman who's up to something. It looks like she has multiple faces, like many of us do. We have a professional face, a mom face, a dad face… But it seemed as if this woman was too clean and too polished. It really looked like she was working for a secret police agency or something.

Where did you go from there?

At first I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. Would I write some poetry, or a short story? But as I was looking at the picture, all I could imagine was that she was looking right back at me! So I decided that maybe I'm the target of her investigation, maybe because there are certain things I disagree with when it comes down to certain ways that people work for the government. The man that I am, and some of the things I'm involved with, are kind of contrary to the status quo of what our government is doing. This woman is here and she's watching me! And she has three eyes on her jacket. These aren't really eyes, they’re audio/visual recording devices. The three eyes made me think -- why would one secret police put three different cameras there? Because she works for three different agencies!

Then I looked at the snake, and thought maybe this is some eccentric fashionista thing going on. How I broke it down was into two faces. The first face was this professional woman who's working in a cubicle. It’s not like the traditional cubicle of the 80's and 90's, but more of a liberal space, like how Google has theirs (because of how she's dressed). That eccentric fashionista is part of that first, professional face. But then, with the second face, these are real snakes and they're actually crawling around! There are actually recording devices on there. She's actually a murderer! She's an intelligence-gathering murderer.

A lot of this is allegorical. In my mind, I'm thinking that snapping a picture of her is seeing her for who she is. This is something I actually do: at night I think of all of the conversations I had during the day, all of the people, how they looked and their body language. To get a clear mental picture of what that person really said, what they really meant, and who they really are. This process of being able to snap a picture is allegorical in a sense. To sit back and analyze, I saw that she slipped. For her to slip, it means we had a personal relationship. She came in, and I was able to penetrate her mind so her guard was down, and she showed her true colors. Had I not paid attention to that, the result would have been me laying on the ground, gasping for my last breath. Had I not paid attention to who she truly was, and what she truly came to do.

I think this whole idea of masking, and people saying one thing but meaning something else, is really deep and important stuff to talk about. It's confusing when someone says one thing, but means something else. I think everyone would like to be their authentic self, but in a world where so many other people are not doing that, it can be difficult to find our way.

It is tough. Absolutely.

In this story, do you think the protagonist showed his true face to G.I. Jane Doe, or do you think he was showing a false face as well?

I would say I had my first face on, because I wasn't really sure who this person was. Since I felt like I couldn't trust this person, she didn't see the actual me. But then, me slipping into my second face, going into Nigeria, means that here I am, a guy having to constantly blend in to survive. Going over there, I still couldn't show who I actually was. I had to blend in there, too.

The idea here is being interchangeable. Not necessarily being a chameleon, but being that dynamic person who's kind of a jack of all trades, in the sense that you change your hat. I'm the mortician, the mayor, the merchant, the enforcer... this and that. This character has many hats, many faces. So even going into Nigeria, this person has to put on a face. It's not that this person isn't authentic, but he's blending in. Casually slipping into my second face could be the way I dress, the way I act, the way I move and who I'm moving with. That's all incorporated into the second face, the third face, and the fourth face.

Is there anything else about your creative process that we haven't talked about yet?

For me, a lot of the creative process is about having the right music on. Having a clear mind, getting everything that’s outstanding out of the way so I can focus. Those are the two main things for me.

Do you remember what you were listening to when you wrote this piece?

It went from J. Cole to old school R&B like Rick James and Smokey Robinson. Atlantic Starr, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Really good mood-setting music.

Now that you've been through this process, do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Everybody's different. I'm a writer -- I just do what I do. So that's my advice -- whatever it is that you do, just do it. Have some fun.

Call Number: M53VA | M55PP.tiuMy

Su'ganni Tiuza is a 37 year old man, who is a writer, activist, and warrior. His passion is building a better and safer world for LGBTQ+ people in America and abroad. Su'ganni is a family and community man, who is blessed with a great circle of relatives and friends.