Every Woman

I looked through the kitchen window of my house and saw my little sister out in the backyard sitting in a weathered lawn chair staring at the sky. Normally, we don't go out there much unless we are cooking something on the grill, but there are rare occasions. Evenings like this, where the colors of the sunset are too hypnotizing to move from, we tend to take a few minutes to sit outside and admire Mother Nature. It's been a while since I spoke to her anyways. You would think we talked more only being a floor away in the same house but we are seven years apart and are both lone-wolf type females. I moved my mother and my sister in with me a few years ago, so that it can be easier to keep them safe. We just recently found our balance and were getting kind of close again. It felt good. 

“Hey you with the face!” I yelled as I busted through the back screen door. I startled her but she played it cool. 

“Wassup sis. I'm just chillin’. It looks incredible outside.” She pointed to the sky from her chair. “Look at that red and the sun…” She stared at the sky as though it were speaking to her and lowered her arm. “I'm just glad I caught it before it was too late.” 

“Yea, it's pretty amazing.” I stared at the sky and for a moment, I felt at peace. Then I began to remember all of the errands I had to run tonight: the gas station and Walmart, just to start.  Between fighting crime all day and getting these last minute back to school items, I'm exhausted . Oh and I just remembered I have to see Professor Sadowski tonight because last night my mom forced me to watch 90 Day Fiance with her. Ok, maybe not so much as forced as I asked her 1 question, 1 question turned into 8, and now we have a set date to watch the next episode next week, but that's a different story. Hey, at least she gave him an extra day. She's an angel, even when she doesn't know it.  

Damn, it's going to take me 3 hours to get to my destination in Canada and don't even get me started…

My thoughts froze when I realized there were no clouds in the sky. Just space and color. “Damn, it's worth every second, isn't it?” I looked down at my little sister. 

She looked back up at me and said “yea sis, these moments are priceless.” She smiled like she did when we were young. “Maybe one day you could take me flying like you used to do? The view is much better from up there.” She gave me a mischievous smile. 

She knew I couldn't take her up there. I wanted to but  it is illegal. The police banned me from flying around with a “guest” ever since a lady I saved from a fire sued me for misconduct and assault a while back. I might be a superhero, but I still get annoyed at my job when I deal with rude customers, just like everyone else. To tell you the truth, I think the world is full of assholes and I'm just here to clean the shit they make. They should call me America's janitor. 

So I sensed a fire from 7 miles away and when I burst through the window 5 minutes later, I found an unconscious 48 year-old white woman. When I approach her, I can smell the lingering scent of tequila and cigarettes.

 I guess she didn't drink responsibly, I thought. I looked at her and her surroundings as I examined the best way to exit the premises while saving this woman's life before she suffocated to death. This lady was having a hell of a night. She was fast asleep like a baby while her house was full of dancing flames. 

The party is over now ma’am, I thought while shaking my head disappointingly. I screamed at her to wake up and she didn't move an inch. She already looked like a corpse, a 220 pound corpse, at that. Time was running out. I rolled my eyes and knew what I had to do. I picked her up and made sure I had a secure hold on her before flying out of the back of the house through an opening in the roof caused by the fire. Unfortunately, that's when she woke up. This crazy bitch started to scream and fight and kept telling me to put her down. We were 700 feet in the air for one minute before I started to look for a safe place to land this plane-sized woman. The more she fought me, the more my grip tightened so she wouldn't fall and plummet head first into earth causing an 8th wonder of the world. I was able to bring her back to safety at the hospital and rush back to take out the fire myself. Little did I know, I left some small sized bruises on her arms and the lady had a horrendous fear of heights. Also, she had agoraphobia and hadn’t left her house in over 17 years …ever since her daughter and husband died… on a fucking airplane. I went to court and the jury wasn't stupid but the lady had an orchestra of small violins, so she got to live another day and I was penalized. 

When I got back home from court, I told my mother and my sister the verdict. My mother was relieved. I don't know why she was worried, what are they gonna do? Send me to jail? I wish they would try something like that, I would destroy the entire courthouse with one bat of my eye. I may tolerate the law, but I am more powerful than any human. I have eagerly waited to remind the world how thin their vail of freedom is, how spoiled they are, how cruel and unfair life truly is, but I love my mother. I just play this game so my mother won't be upset. It would break her delicate heart to know who her daughter truly is. It's best that I stay Every Woman in her eyes. Although, she is the one who is really saving this world. 

I gave my little sister one last flight around our neighborhood on Long Island that night. I waited till night and I flew her over the water. I made sure to wear my cape so no one would see her. She was smaller then, so if you looked up at the sky, it just looked like I gained a bit of weight. She laughed and yelled with joy as I zig-zagged and twirled through the sky. It was nice to be able to show her what freedom really felt like. She belonged in the sky with me.

“Mom would kill me and you know that.” I said as I chuckled and brushed a fallen leaf off of my right shoulder. I gave her a kiss on the head and turned around to go back inside.

“I love you sis!” she yelled after hearing me open the squeaky back door. 

“I love you too!” I yelled back while making my way to my room to pack up and get out of here. 

A few days ago, my sister opened up to me about this guy who assaulted her.  A professor. He did things I do not want to remention. She didn't want to tell me sooner because she knew I would put him in jail and everyone would know it was her fault because she would have to go to court and I am her sister. She didn't want to ruin her reputation at school and her opportunity to become an actress in the future. I told her I would cover it up, take my name off of everything, no one would have a clue, but she told me to just drop it. I agreed, but held on to it real tight. He needed to be stopped. How bold do you have to be to try and rape the sister of a superhero? He lacked fear and someone had to hand it to him. His fate was death as soon as we ended the conversation. 

I watched the creep for 3 weeks straight. He was tall and built like a swimmer. He looked slimy. He had a confident stride about him but his eyes were kind and humble. I knew that trick. I read his mind and it was filthy. He was a professional at keeping his vulgar behavior diguesed. With every day my fury grew.

Today was the day. He was planning a trip to visit his parents in Poland for the next couple of days, so I figured that was a perfect time to disappear. He was all packed up and driving to the airport when I lifted his car off the Belt Parkway and planted it in Canada somewhere in the La Verendrye Reserves. My sanctuary is what I call it. I ripped the door of his blue BMW 3 series and I threw it on the ground. I toar his seat out of the car and placed it in front of me. I told him to take off his pants. He yelled at me. He was my 14th victim so this was nothing new. The last guy called me a bitch in front of my daughter after I wouldn't allow him to light a cigarette next to her at a Yankees game, so I cut out his tongue. He’ll never do that again. This world is full of assholes.

“Are you insane?! What the hell is wrong with you!! You c…” I broke his ankles by twisting his feet to the back before he could finish the word cunt. By the time he got to T he was screaming in blistering agony. I told him to quiet down before I did the same thing to his head and he became taciturn. He cried and squeezed his lips shut to murmur his painful groans and whimpers. Music to my ears. I continued to torture him. He took off his pants and I wasn't impressed. 

“Professor please, profanity is the language of the ignorant. We are more civilized than that, aren't we?” He looked at me with pure loathe in his eyes. 

“Do you know Tina Hudson?” I gazed back at him with kind and humble eyes. 

“No.” He lied so I peeled the skin off of his knee caps and put him down on his knees. 

The professor was not talented at looking oblivious. His job was to teach and when he knew something, you could tell. Now was his time to learn. I pulled him down further so he put his hands on the ground to support himself, putting him in a crawl position. 

“Sit boy,” I told him. “It's time to teach an old dog some new tricks. 1. You speak when you are spoken to. 2. You tell the truth. 3. I ask and you answer. If you say anything not relevant to my questions, you will reap the consequences in pain.” He was furious but knew if he spoke something else would start hurting. He was still holding in his cries and literal steam was coming off his head. I don't think the position was doing anything for his twisted feet. 

“Now that the rules have been made clear, Marcin, do you know my sister, Tina Hudson?”

“Yes.” He was able to push out the word while exhaling through his gritting teeth. 

“Good boy!” I clapped and patted him on the head. I looked around as if I were searching for something “I would give you a treat, but I'm all out.” I laughed. This was getting fun. 

I kneeled down towards him and asked him quietly “Have you ever done anything to her?” He looked down. I placed my hand on his left shoulder and said sternly “Dont lie to me, Marcin.” 

He was shaking at this point, and yet he still had the impertinence to contemplate the idea of lying to me again, even though I already knew everything. Even though his fate was already sealed. This coward deserves to die. 

“No, I- I don't think so, no. I was just trying to-“ 

“Trying to do what?” I stood up with genuine curiosity.

“Look, I was just trying to be a good professor, I think she just grew feelings for me and things got misinterpreted…” He lied again. He knew better than to lift his head and say that to my face, but he still needed to learn. 

“Misinterpret this.” I walked behind him and slammed my elbow onto the top of his skull. He was hard headed but I seemed to get through to him by the stream of blood coming from the back of his left ear. I punched him about a dozen times. My fists swinging his head left to right like a pendulum. His head was cherry red now. I wiped some blood off of his cheek and sucked it off my finger. It was sweet. My favorite flavor of asshole. 

I licked my lips and confessed, “My sister told me what you did and you are a bad dog. Do you know what I do with bad dogs, Marcy boy?”

His eyes were almost closed shut by the swelling to his face but he could hear the Grim Reapers footsteps. 

 “Please Every Woman, I beg of you, I will never do it again. I won't tell anyone about this. Please just let me go, I have a family too. A wife and a daughter. I -”

I kicked him in the gut. My mother gave me my superhero name: Every Woman. It's all in me, she always says. God made me with incredible strength, speed, flying abilities, telepathy and an ass Jennifer Lopez's surgeon wishes he could recreate but He never hands out perfection. Balance is key. Yin and yang. My mother is never wrong, but when it comes to good ol’ fashion love, in some cases, I don't got it. 

“I will consider your family as you considered mine.” I broke the stick shift from his car and slowly jammed it up his ass as I sang Liar, Liar, pants on fire!

When I was done it looked like he had a tail. He was really a dog now. I giggled at the thought of him growing ears and barking. The image humored me. I saw him kneeling in his own pool of blood. He looked pathetic. No more strides across campus now. I remembered the look he gave his students all of those weeks, the look he probably gave my sister. Even his eyes are liars. I levitated into the air, just a few feet above him. 

“Look at me dog.” He acted like he didn't have the strength to lift his head, but if he had the strength to bend my sister over, a heavy head should be nothing for him. 

“Com’mon Marcin, I just want you to look me in the eyes. No questions. No answers.” I said in a soft voice. “You can do it, boy!” I started patting my thighs and whistling.

He gradually lifted his head and looked at me, at least I think he was, his eyes were swollen shut and too puffy for him to see through. I centered my eyes on him and a red beam came from eyes and landed on his eyelids. I stared at him until I saw the lights on my lazers on the other side of his head. He screamed until he didn't. I smiled the whole time, I wish he could have seen my face. His body fell to the ground. I still wasn't done. 

I ripped off his right arm and buried it. I picked up his body and flew another 20 yards north. I ripped off his right leg and buried it. I jetted to go 2 miles east and planted his left leg. I took the rest of the body with me on my way back to New York. I ended up stopping somewhere in Vermont to drop off his head. I used his left arm to wave it goodbye. I threw the rest of the body in the air and let it plunge into the body of water I flew over. I'm actually making good time, I could get 4 to 5 hours of sleep before I have to get my daughter up. She is definitely getting cereal tomorrow morning. 

My eyes glistened when I saw my home. I just imagined my king sized bed and its welcoming comforter. I used my superspeed to dispose of my bloody clothing, make my daughter’s lunch, and clean the kitchen so my mother wouldn't feel obligated to do it in the morning. I kissed my mother, my sister and my daughter on the forehead, like I do every night when I return home safely. I'm just grateful I can keep them safe. I crept into my bed and closed my eyes. Before I went to sleep, I decided to take my sister out for a sky ride tomorrow night. What the hell, right? If the police haven't noticed me dropping body parts all over North America by now, I think I'll be fine. I also thought about my mom and decided to take the ride over the water only, just in case. Don't want to push my luck. 

Another fun filled night, I thought as I drifted to sleep smiling. 

“Damn!” I yelled in my room as I swung up from bed. “I forgot to go to get the damn gas and go to Walmart!” I got up and with no hesitation I got dressed and got on the road.  

I'm every woman, it's all in me.