June 25, 2008

• The challenge: Super Hero

  SUPER HERO

  The challenge:

  Imagine waking up one morning and much to your surprise you have developed a power that no one else has?  What would you do with this power?  Would you share it with your family, your community, the world?  Would you feel obligated, or would you simply keep it to yourself?  How would you use it?  For good?  For evil, for the betterment of mankind?

  How would you live your life?  Any ideas for names for who you have become?  Strategies for living your new life?  Tell us!

  And now, here are your super powers.  You will notice that they are listed according to the alphabet. . . you MUST use your designated superpower!  And you MUST use the letter that YOUR XANGA NAME starts with!  That is the hardest part of the challenge!  Please follow the rules!

  T through Z

  Your power is telekinesis!  You can move things with your mind!  With a mere thought you can finally retrieve that t.v. remote control you keep misplacing!

   

   

  I’m very young. I can remember that. I’m sure I was young. My second teeth are just coming in. I’ve lost my whistle and gained a lisp. I couldn’t even say what was wrong with me. Tela can ethisth.  She made me promise. Never tell anyone. Never! Terrible things would happen… to me, to my family, to everyone I love. It’s a secret; a forever secret.

   

  So, I remained silent and in time the memory began to fade. Until today. Today all the memories came rushing back. It’s a secret… a forever secret. My mother’s frantic insistent whispered warnings pound my brain. They will take you away and come for us all. Fear grips my stomach, tightening my throat, stealing the strength from my legs. The secret was no longer a secret.

   

  How long had it been hanging there, floating like a plump silver bee? A quarter slowly settled to the ground as my concentration waned. Hadn’t I just been thinking, probing my pockets for a quarter for the parking meter? I think nobody has noticed. No pointing, no screaming, no mother’s shielding their little ones from the abomination. I’m safe, for now. Surely the surveillance cameras aren’t that refined. I leave the quarter on the sidewalk for some fortunate bum to find.  

   

  I must be more careful. My freedom depends upon it. I’ve seen what happens to people like me; the bickering, the bidding, the branding. Whose Telk would I be? That’s easy, whoever has the most money. The pamphlets assure the populace of the exemplary care provided. Think of the good you would be doing, the service to the community… the reward. The Telk’s good behavior guarantees the safety of their family. Of course, they will all be tracked down and tested just in case other Telk’s are being harbored. Telk’s aren’t people, they’re commodities. Telekinesis, the bane of society, an uncontrolled Telk can rob you blind, circumvent the established rationing. Gain without work… upsetting the tenuous balance of equality of the common peoples … abomination.

   

  I’ve never been able to reconcile the reasoning behind the confinement. The Telk must never use their mind for themselves but only for the entertainment, recreation, profit of their ‘sponsor’.  Serenity slowly returns as I scan the electronic newsboard.  Another tragedy today… the read out flashes along the scrolling screen.  A fleeting smile dances across my lips and settles in my eyes.  Ten sponsors in ten months mysteriously dead.  All have been ruled accidental. How sad.

   

  Tomorrow the planning begins.  Again.

   

  • 12:06 AM
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