A Different Kind of Power

She was at it again. I turned over in bed and tried to get back to sleep as I heard the occasional clunk of something bumping into a wall somewhere in the house. Something else made a bumping sound. You would think a telekinetic would have some better control.

As a third bump sounded through the house I sighed and opened my eyes. Clothes were floating across the room, out the door, and down the hall. I sighed again and threw the covers aside before standing and stretching only to have a shirt fly into my face. I pulled it to the side grumpily and it floated on. I wondered if she even noticed the resistance as I made my way out into the hallway in between the floating pants, shirts, underwear, and other garments that were headed toward the laundry room.

I walked down the hall, past the few pictures hanging on the wall and entered the kitchen. It wasn’t that big, just a stove/oven with a microwave above it, and a fridge to the side. Coffee had already been brewed, and I found the reason for our locating clothes and the bumping sitting in a chair that was currently floating a few inches above the ground as a broom swept under her.

Cynthia, or Cyn, had blonde hair, cut short, she was still wearing her pajamas; baggy shorts and an oversized shirt as she sat in the floating chair, a book hovered in front of her as she sipped on a cup of coffee. Her face was scrunched as she read the book.

“Not liking what you’re reading?” I asked as I came in.

“Not really,” she said back, “there’s too much cliche romance stuff. Nothing ever happens like this in real life.” She pantomimed swinging a sword at me. “Have at thee, and should thou best me in a contest of might, yee may have the fair maiden’s hand.” I smiled as she pretended to thrust her blade into me and I let out a groan as I clutched my imagined wound before collapsing limply. I felt force catch me before I hit the ground and floated slowly over to Cyn.

“Fear not!” she said with a smile on her face, enjoying the game. “I shall save you from the dastardly dungeons. Come to me, and we shall live happily ever after.”

“But yet I seem to have no choice,” I said back. “Some foul sorcery has me bewitched, and I am unable to resist coming toward thee, what form of black magic are you using?” I smiled back at Cyn as, still wrapped in her power, I settled onto her lap and wrapped my arms around her neck.

“Although,” I said, letting a thoughtful look cross my face. “You’re not half bad looking. I might just let myself be captured by you.” I pecked her on the lips and Cyn giggled, letting us drift back to the floor with a gentle thump and letting my full weight settle on her lap.

“And what,” said Cyn, still keeping the game going, “would I do with a princess on a Saturday such as this? With no obligations, and nowhere to be.”

“Hm…” I mused. “ We could always have a picnic on the ceiling.”

“Ugh, no thanks,” said Cy, her face turning slightly green at the memory. “Last time we did that I was throwing everything up by being upside down for so long.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, how about a ride around the neighborhood?”

“That sounds more like it,” said Cyn, perking up. “Which one should we take?”

“The red one,” I said eagerly. “I want the option of some speed today.”

“My feeling exactly,” Cyn replied as she bounded up and set me on my feet.

It only took us about ten minutes to put some actual clothes on; jeans and t-shirts mostly, and added some leather jackets and goggles for the wind before heading out to the garage. Cyn and I went over the bundles against one wall and unrolled a light-weight, but strong, smaller red rug and laid it on the floor as the garage door lifted open.

We sat down and Cyn wiggled her fingers at the carpet as we lifted a few inches off the ground and began to glide into the sunshine. I sighed and leaned into Cyn as we drifted a bit higher and the garage closed behind us. A few feet off the ground we flew slowly out over the road where some neighbors saw us and waved. We waved back and turned down the street, slowly drifting higher.

As we got above the trees, and then the power lines, Cyn started us accelerating, the ground becoming a blur under us and the wind picking up as it started to drag at out clothes. Cyn threw up what she called her ‘windshield,’ an invisible wall of energy that protected us from most of the wind as we went even faster. We never measured, but I guessed Cyn could get us up to 100 mph without breaking a sweat at this point.

It didn’t take us long to leave the city behind, and soon we were flying over the open countryside, fields and s a few farms passed by underneath us and I tugged on Cyn’s arm.

“Could we stop and get some fresh strawberries?” I asked. She smiled and we turned, headed toward the strawberry fields.

It was sometime later that we returned home, strawberries in hand. I nibbled on one as the carpet rolled itself up and leaned up against the wall.

“I love that you can do all this stuff,” I said as I made my way inside.

“Yeah,” said Cyn as she followed me.

“I mean, think about it, if you didn’t have that power, we’d be having to do som much more work around the house and it would really suck,” Cyn grunted and I glanced over at her. She had sat on the couch and had a faraway expression on her face. I came over and sat next to her.

“What’s up?” I asked gently, knowing if she didn’t want to talk it wouldn’t be a good idea to push her.

“I was just thinking,” she said.

“Uh-oh,” I said teasingly, “that’s always a bad sign.” Cyn smiled a little, the corner of her mouth twitching up. “What were you thinking about?” I asked, more seriously.

“I was thinking about how we may not have met if it wasn’t for my power, and… and I’m not sure we would have worked out if I didn’t have it.”

“I don’t think thas true,” I said back. There was no way I was letting her go down that line of thought. “If you hadn’t floated my hat off to get my attention, it would have been something else, like just grabbing it, or something else.” She seemed to brighten a little at that line of thought. 

“Besides,” I continued, a little quieter this time, “I had been trying to work up the courage to ask you out anyway, so… you know.”

“I didn’t know that,” Cyn said. “Were you really?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “So you see? It would have worked out either way. And as for the chores, we wouldn’t even know what we were missing out on if you were telekinetic, so can we stop this line of thought here and go make dinner?” She nodded and I kissed her before pulling her to her feet. “Come on, I’m thinking tortellini.”

“Hey Sal,” said Cyn, grabbing my arm as I started to walk away toward the kitchen. I turned back to her.

“Yeah?” 

She kissed me again in our living room, harder this time, putting effort into it, trying to communicate something.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You may not be able to crash through walls or control fire, but you have power all your own, and I love it, and you.” She stared into my eyes for a moment before I kissed her back.

“I love you too, doofus,” I said as I pulled back, “and don’t you forget it. Now, let’s go get some dinner.”