Instead of having an argument with her, Beth was now teaming up with Daphne and the four young superheroes, not knowing exactly what each one was capable of.
Iron Man was her favourite and she would never miss any Marvel or DC movie but little did she know that she might be a superhero herself; she wondered if the filmmakers actually encountered some real-life superheroes, and if these movies were actually based on true stories.
“I want to know everything – What are your superpowers? Is The Command around and has any of you ‘heard’ it, and what about The Voice? Why doesn’t it contact me now? Do I really have a superpower? How do I know how to use it?” Beth obviously had too many questions.
It was a lot to discuss over a few cups of coffee, so Beth invited them over to her place.
Ideally, she would not have invited a set of complete strangers to her house, but nothing was ideal in this case and since her daughter Grace was at her ex-husband Rohit’s farmhouse for three days, she was ready to take a chance.
Impressed was an understatement, Beth could not believe how these twenty-somethings were absolutely fearless, brave and willing to risk their lives to save the world.
“Imagine playing I Spy – be completely aware of your surroundings and you can sense when The Command is around you. It cannot take form as such, but you can feel something move!” Dev roughly explained how she could ‘spot’ the evil power.
I Spy was the game Beth and Grace played together almost daily and almost everywhere:
“I spy with my little eyes something round and green,” Beth would say and Grace would spy all around the room to finally spot a green bead in the centre of the dreamcatcher.
“I spy with my little eyes something red with wheels,” Grace would always point at vehicles and trees while looking out of the window whenever Beth drove and she would always pretend as if she couldn’t spot it as she was driving!
It had only laughter and fun associated with it until that moment.
I don’t want to spy with my eyes something that I can’t see, something that I can’t hear yet, something powerful that would command me to do what I don’t want to do, damn but I will have to fight it – Beth was scared.
Imagination is a power we all underestimate and it was somehow the source of all the amazing things each of these four superheroes could do.
“I can get into people’s head, travel into their memories and change a decision they made in the past. It could be as small as skipping a meal to as big as a career choice. It changes a lot in their lives and everything that’s connected, but it can get really messy at so many levels,” Holly explained her power.
“If I really focus on my imagination, I can eat anything, any size – from a bullet to a lightning bolt,” Tim sounded excited until everyone joked how he could fart after that!
“I can change the form and size of things and animals, but I haven’t been able to change the complete form of anything yet,” Dev was very unsure about using his powers as it could be really damaging if not done correctly.
“I can sing to make anyone go into deep sleep,” Evelyn sounded a little embarrassed about her superpower as she continued, “That probably explains why the kids in my singing class yawned when I sang!”
It was amazing how the youngsters retained their sense of humour given the challenges they were about to face.
Introductions to their powers were thus done and Beth was told that The Voice planned to take her through her capabilities the next day.
Innocent youngsters in their early twenties are overloaded with so much responsibility and risk, Beth thought as she expressed concern about their safety and the fear their parents might be facing.
It was at this moment that Daphne somehow gathered the courage to share something that no one could manage to speak about – Beth was the only one to have a child after getting the powers so there was a chance that her four-year-old daughter might have genetically inherited some superpower and perhaps even attracted the interest of The Voice and The Command.
The story continues tomorrow in the next post. Did you notice that I managed to start each sentence of this chapter of the story with I, the letter of the day (I have managed to do the same from B to H posts)! This is my ninth post for this year’s A to Z Challenge (#atozchallenge). Head to my previous posts to read the entire story.
I’ll be posting daily except Sundays all through the month. Stay tuned. Read all my posts for the challenge in the A to Z links below:
A ➡ B ➡ C ➡ D ➡ E ➡ F ➡ G ➡ H ➡ I ➡ J ➡ K ➡ L ➡ M ➡ N ➡ O ➡ P ➡ Q ➡ R ➡ S ➡ T ➡ U ➡ V ➡ W ➡ X ➡ Y ➡ Z
Kids this age in 2022 are actually in a very different phase than those who reached this milestone in the pre-Covid era. These kids have mostly been at home without any exposure to playgroups, preschools, parks, birthday parties and more importantly spending lots of time with kids their age. I am writing from India, so maybe the situation is different in other places, but we went through huge number of Covid cases and never-ending lockdowns. So these kids are suddenly coming out of their home cocoon and I feel really bad that they missed the gradual transition i.e. exposure to the real outdoor world in a way we had.
Well, like some of my friends taking up the #AToZChallenge, I haven’t been able to chart out the entire month’s plan. But the theme will definitely be around Motherhood/Parenting. It won’t be all gyaan (like this post LOL) but will cover various things revolving around my life as a mother who loves to have fun with her child but also faces several emotional and physical challenges. The posts will be more or less like this:
MOM AND IDEAS 