Past, Present, Future

You’d think that having super powers would be the best thing in the universe, right? Ever since Tak Industry accidently released the Omega gas into the atmosphere, we’ve had people running around with the powers of Superman and Captain America, but unfortunately not all of us are as lucky. My friends are literally the Justice League, with Robert having superspeed, Sarah can fly, Janet has heat vision, and I can win a spelling bee. Let me explain a bit. We don’t really have a name for what power I have, but it’s pretty much the most pointless thing I’ve ever heard of. I, the magnificent Thomas Vaint, have the ability to visualize the spelling of words that people say. To put it even simpler, I have the closed captioning turned on in the real world. Sometimes it can become helpful, like when I can’t hear someone, at least I can read what they say, but most of the time it’s rather lame. That is, it used to be rather lame.

That Saturday was like any other. I woke up at roughly nine in the morning. Groggily made my way to the bathroom, splashed some water onto my face, and brewed some coffee. After breakfast, I got a call from Robert asking me to come out to the bar with him and Janet later. I agreed and took a shower. I figured that I would try my luck at meeting someone as is most people’s goal in this world.

See, in our world we each have our own powers, however when you find your “soulmate,” your powers get enhanced. Basically, love is the overdrive switch. Ever since we found this weird exploit, everyone has been stepping up their game. More marriages were ruined with the release of Omega than with the creation of social media. People started to know who their true love was and they wanted nothing else but to have it. Robert and Janet are soulmates, which allows Robert to vibrate so fast that he can ignite his arms and chuck fireballs, while Janet can shoot beams faster than the eye can see making her a deadly quickshot. Sarah just recently found hers but she’s not willing to say who it is yet, possibly due to embarrassment since she takes self-image very seriously.

I had not found mine, and it’s not from a lack of trying. I guess that something about a potential date constantly being distracted by reading isn’t a very attractive trait. However, even after all the rejection, I had kept myself hopeful. Mostly because I didn’t want to be a spelling bee champion for the rest of my life.

Later that night, I met Robert and Janet out at the Sneaky Spidey bar. We sat at a table towards the middle of the bar and talked about how our weeks had gone. As I was telling my thrilling tale of being a speech transcriber, I felt a sudden surge of energy shoot through me.

“Yo, Tommy, you alright there?” Robert asked. He leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder. I couldn’t believe it. Was this what being around your soulmate feels like?

“Yeah, yeah, just thought I saw something.” I tried to hide the intense emotion flooding in me. I started looking around me to see if I could pinpoint where this energy was coming from. That’s when I saw her.

She was a short, fair skinned brunette. Our eyes locked and we nodded in acknowledgment. She had eyes the color of a darkened emerald that seemed to pull me in towards her like a siren’s song. I needed to get over there and talk to her. I needed to meet her.

“I, uh, need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.” I stammered, trying to sound as casual as I could. I’m sure they knew what had happened. It’s not hard to tell when someone has found their soulmate. I didn’t care, I needed to know.

I looked over at her, and she was now turned towards the bartender, seemingly ordering another drink. I walked up and tapped her shoulder. When she turned around, it was almost as if time had slowed to a crawl. This must be how Robert sees things, I thought to myself. She was even more beautiful up close. She had a small face, but a nice warm smile.

“Hiya stranger.” There was a hint of a southern drawl attached to her honey voice.

“Uh, Hi. I’m Thomas. Very nice to meet you.”

“Very nice to meet you too, Thomas. My name’s Amanda, but for you, you can call me Mandy.”

“Mandy? That is a really nice name. So um I feel like we should talk about the elephant in the room. Did you feel that too?”

“You mean how you’re like a walking battery for my precognition?”

“Wow, precognition like seeing the future?”

“Sorta, hun. More like I can see things most can’t. Like your friend over there is about to spill his beer if he doesn’t shift his elbow a bit to the left.”

I turned around just in time to see Robert swivel his chair to the right and send his glass straight to the floor.

“Woah, that is a really awesome power! Mine’s actually super lame. I can 'see' the words people say. So basically living life with subtitles. You’d think this power was designed for someone deaf but nope. I can still hear the terrible music of today.”

That got a laugh out of her, and it was the most innocent laugh I had ever heard. It literally melted me as if Janet had just shot me with her heat vision. It’s weird to think about love at first site, but in our world that’s just a little easier to believe. I was sure that I was in love with this girl. I was in love with Mandy.

We kept chatting for a little while and exchanged numbers. I made my way back to Robert and Janet as they were still cleaning up the mess from the spilled beer. I sat down at the table and smiled.

Suddenly, a huge barrage of images and words started flooding my vision. I started feeling very dizzy and the world started spinning. What is going on? I thought. What is all of this? I tried grabbing one of the images in my head and realized it was a memory. Robert’s memory.

I was watching him learn how to drive a car. He’s sixteen, sitting in the driver’s seat of a 1993 Buick. His dad’s sitting next to him, angrily giving him directions. Robert’s starting to get mad, saying something about why does he need to drive if he can just run to wherever he needs to and probably faster. His dad says something but abruptly stops. His hands shoots up to his chest and he starts panicking. Robert stares in awe, and doesn’t react for a couple seconds. He finally snaps out of it and picks up his father and zooms to the hospital. The memory started to fade at that point. I didn’t need to see it to know what happened next. His dad had a heart attack and died in the hospital. Robert never gave up the Buick. He still drives it to this day.

That’s when it hit me. I had just read Robert’s past. My enhanced power was to read people’s memories. That explained why I could see words, I was visualizing the words that popped into their heads as they spoke! I suddenly felt super excited and wanted to share my new discovery with Mandy. When I turned around, however, she was gone. My heart sank a bit, but I knew I’d see her again. After all she was my soulmate.

Sure enough, days went by and we met for lunch, then weeks and we were meeting for dinner more frequently. We started to fall for each other in every way we could. I found out that she had recently moved here because of her job as a house inspector. Her increased perception and precognition allowed her to look at a house’s structure and determine if it was safe or not. She was also a huge fan of the Simpsons, Futurama, and Glee. Along with that, she also loved singing karaoke, which I made a point to use as a future date. She wouldn’t tell me what her enhanced power was while we were together, just that it increased her ability to “see.”

After two years of being together, we had moved into an apartment together and lived a very nice comfortable life. On September 17th, 2037, I decided to pop the question. This was also the day that I found out about her enhanced power.

As I approached the apartment’s front door, I could hear what sounded like crying. I opened the door quickly and searched for Mandy. I found her in the bathroom crying. It seemed as though she was brushing her hair. She turned to me, tears in her eyes, but a smile wide on her face.

“Yes, Tommy, yes I will. I will!” She clambered through her sobs.

My heart skipped a beat. She said yes! She said yes, before I even asked the question. She can see the future. She knew I was going to propose but I didn’t care. I was the happiest man alive. Mandy and I were going to be married.

A few months later, we were married. We had decided on a small wedding, just our closest family and friends. Mandy looked radiant and beautiful in her wedding gown. Enough to make any man cry. Robert was my best man and he gave one of the best speeches I had ever heard him make. Although, I already knew the speech from seeing his memories of him writing it. It made me cry nonetheless. Overall, it was the most perfect wedding I could have ever imagined.

We were happy for a while, about two years to be exact. It was then that Mandy had her most vivid, and disturbing vision she had ever had. One night, she woke up sobbing. I sat up quickly and turned on the light. Mandy was sitting on the bed, holding herself while rocking slowly. I reached over and pulled her in close.

“Hun, Mandy, what’s wrong?” I tried getting her to talk a bit.

“I saw something. I saw someone.”

“What did you see? Come on, Mandy. You can tell me.”

“No, no, no. I can’t. He. He. Our son. He…” She started to trail off. I knew she was exhausted. She started falling asleep in my arms. I just let her settle in and pass out. I, on the other hand, could not sleep. I was too confused. Our son? We don’t have a son. I thought about it all, but none of it made sense. She had seen something from a future, very distant from now. Something that made her so scared. I had to know.

It was hard to convince myself to do it, but I felt like I had no choice. I wanted to help Mandy through this. I focused my power and combed through her memories. I saw our first meeting. First kiss. The first night in our new apartment. The wedding. The day before. Finally, I reached the vision.

We’re at the hospital. Mandy is holding a little bundle of blankets. I make out the figure of a small baby. Our son. He looks so beautiful. Tyler. We name him Tyler. Suddenly, a doctor barges into the room along with an armed soldier. Mandy seems confused and scared. The doctor says something about Tyler. He has a power. A new power. Something about going nova. Like a star? He’s going to explode if he meets his soulmate. If he does, the world could be destroyed. They’re going to take him. Experiment on him. Mandy doesn’t want to give him up. She’s fighting. The soldier threatens her. I stand up and put myself between them. He hits me with the butt of the gun. The wind’s knocked out of me. I can’t breathe. The soldier takes Tyler and hands him to the doctor. He then turns and hits me again in the back of the head. My body falls limp and he turns the gun around. One pull. Mandy starts crying, screaming for help. The soldier turns the gun to her. Another tap. Everything went black then.

I woke up the next day with a pounding headache. I tried passing it off as a bad dream, but I couldn’t shake it. I knew what I had seen. What Mandy had seen. Our son was going to be taken, and we were going to die. Mandy was still asleep in my arms. I just laid there, staring at the ceiling.

“Thomas? What are we going to do?” She said, on the verge of tears.

“I. I don’t know hun. But we’ll figure it out. I promise.”

“Thomas?”

“Yeah, Amanda?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I love you so much. We’ll get through this alright. For us, and for Tyler.”

“Thank you, Tommy.”

That day we decided to move out of the city. We started moving around the country just looking for a safe haven where Tyler could be born without a problem. One day, Tyler was born. And the doctor came into the room. But we were ready. We were going to save our son. We did save our son.

Tyler, no matter what happens, we love you son. Don’t be afraid to live and love. You are special. You are so special. We love you so much. Good luck out there.