Welcome to the Top

© Eric Maier 2020

Twenty-Four Minus One

Tomorrow was Aaron’s twenty-fourth birthday. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. Everything would be different tomorrow.

He stood at the window. Three floors down, he could see his car in the parking lot. A few kids were playing on the tiny, token playground provided by the apartment complex. His apartment was small, but one bedroom was plenty for him. The walls were bare, save for a slightly crooked picture of a sunlit, flowered, forest glade, and a calendar. His faded three-cushion couch was accompanied by a tall floor lamp and a glass-top coffee table. He had a television along the opposite wall and a computer tucked in beside it on a narrow desk. The kitchen was defined by a tile floor, separated by a hard line from the living area’s tan carpet. He had a four-person table squeezed into one corner. Only two of the chairs were accessible.

He watched the kids without really noticing them. He was thinking about tomorrow. No one knew exactly why the TOP started happening. It was known, however, that it had started just over two and half decades ago. As soon as someone turned twenty-four, twenty-four years from the minute they were born, they underwent the TOP. The Time of Power gave each person a superpower, or magical power, or whatever you wanted to call it, for an entire year. At the end of the year the power would disappear again. Most people only got small powers, but some got great ones like flying, invisibility, or super-speed.

Aaron had recently dated a girl who dumped him just before she underwent the TOP. She told him that she could do better, that she wouldn’t be held back by a powerless “child”. She was quite hateful about the whole thing. Aaron felt a lot better about it after she found out that her superpower was only heating water, and not even to boiling. The disappointment she felt was revenge enough for him.

But tomorrow was his turn. What would the TOP feel like? No one ever talked about the actual moment, or exactly how they discovered what their powers were. Most people just said that they had a “feeling”.

Aaron always wanted to fly. Maybe his power would be flying. Or maybe he’d be able to breathe under water, then he could explore the depths of the oceans. But even if he got something smaller, like jumping higher or changing the color of his hair, at least the wait would be over. He’d eaten more chocolate in the last few weeks alone, due to stress, than he’d eaten in the previous five years combined. He’d probably gained ten pounds. His belt definitely felt tighter.

He hoped to get a major power, but he’d reconciled himself to a lesser one too. At least he wasn’t a jerk and hadn’t just broken up with someone. Admittedly, he wasn’t dating anyone, but it was still true. Maybe a beer would calm him down, or better yet, a joint. He didn’t have one at his apartment right now but he knew who probably did. Jessica, the blonde who lived down the hall, was holding most of the time. He wondered if she was home.

He went down the hall and knocked on her door. It opened and Jessica peered through the crack. A discolored brass chain was stretched across the opening preventing the door from opening further. “Hey, Jess, how’s it going?”

“Hey, Aaron, what’s goin’ on?”

Aaron glanced around the hallway but didn’t see anyone. “I’m turning twenty-four tomorrow, and I need to calm down,” he told her.

“No shit.” She looked impressed. She closed the door briefly and he could hear the chain being removed. She opened the door wide and a waft of recently burnt marijuana caressed his nose. “Come on in,” she said.

Her apartment was a cluttered, lived-in space that appeared to have no plan. It was a bedlam of loose piles of disorder. There were books piled haphazardly on a bean bag chair, a pile of lace bras and underwear on the arm of a worn couch, and a half-eaten plate of pizza on the coffee table next to a bong and a lighter.

Jessica shut the door and stepped into his arms, kissing him full on the lips. That’s just how she was. “So, twenty-four tomorrow, huh?” she said after breaking away. Jess was twenty-six. Her superpower had already come and gone. For a full year she could phase through walls, one of the better powers Aaron had seen. That’s how they had met. She had walked through his living room wall, lit a joint, and sat down to talk. They’d been friends ever since. When she had turned twenty-five and lost her power, he had consoled her. Since she had been expecting it, she got over it fairly quickly. She had always been a free spirit.

Jess took a hit off the joint she was holding and put her lips to his again, shot-gunning it directly into his mouth. He breathed it in and blew it out his nose. “Thanks,” he said.

She shrugged and sat down on the couch. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know,” he said, “Give me a few minutes.”

“All right.”

They sat in silence, passing the joint back and forth. He could feel his shoulder’s loosening. “Thanks. This is just what I needed,” he said.

“No problem,” Jess nodded. She was always comfortable and easy to talk to.

“The thing is,” he started, “I’m not sure how I’ll feel if I get a minor power. I mean, I won’t cry over it or anything, but I definitely want a major one. Yours was a good one, so you lucked out on that, but what if I can only call a bird or something?”

She was staring at the well behind the television. “Calling a bird would be pretty cool. I’d like to call a bird.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, but let me tell you this, you can’t do anything about it one way or the other so don’t stress about it.”

“I know, but still… you know?”

“Yeah. Hey! You know what’ll help?”

“No, what?”

“You want another shot-gun hit?”

“Sure.” This time, she stuck her tongue in his mouth as she exhaled.

In the morning, she rolled over and slid her fingertips over his bare chest. He could feel the warmth of her naked body next to his and her breasts pressing against him.

“You’re right,” he said, “that did help. Now I only have a few more hours to go, and I am definitely more relaxed.”

She smiled and rolled her body on top of his. “A few hours, huh? I’ve got that covered.” She kissed him.

About an hour before Aaron’s birth-time, they disentangled themselves and Aaron went home to take a shower and brush his teeth. He could see that there were nine new voice-mail messages on his phone but he ignored them. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. He’d rather be alone at the big moment. After he cleaned up and grabbed a bite to eat there was nothing to do but wait, so he sat on the couch and tried to watch TV to distract himself. It didn’t work.

Then there were only ten minutes to go. Then five. Then two. One. Thirty seconds. It was time.

Twenty-Four

He didn’t feel any different or unusual. He thought he was supposed to feel something. Didn’t most people know right away? Should he try to jump out his window to see if he could fly? No, that was a dumb idea. He was on the third floor. He was glad that he had stayed sober for this. Some people got wasted and did stupid things. He could jump off his couch though.

That didn’t work. Neither did walking through walls, or making plants grow, or turning invisible, or anything else he tried. He even, cringing, tried heating water. After several hours of failures, it occurred to him that maybe he didn’t get a power. It had happened once that he’d heard of, but that could just be an urban legend. He didn’t remember seeing it on the news. Once he thought of it, though, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head. He needed a break.

He poured himself a bowl of Raisin Bran with milk. It was the middle of the afternoon but he liked Raisin Bran. As he crunched his cereal, he decided that he should exercise for a while. He could’ve gone back to Jessica’s, but he wanted to be alone when he discovered his power, plus he was a bit ashamed that he couldn’t figure it out and didn’t want to admit it to her.

He had a simple workout bench in one corner of his apartment. He adjusted the weights on the bar and did a few sets. Then he did some crunches and squats. After forty minutes, he was sweaty and had mostly forgotten that it was his TOP birthday. Mostly. Like the hum of a ceiling fan, it persisted subconsciously in the back of his mind.

After a hot shower, he wrapped himself in a towel and stood in front of his mirror. He always felt buff after a workout and, although he knew it was silly, he liked to make muscles to himself in the mirror. He felt like it connected him better, mentally, to his body. He wiped the steam from the mirror with a hand towel, and eyeballed himself.

He did a double take. His muscles were huge. When had that happened? Then it hit him – his power? Maybe he was super strong? He rushed to his weights and tried lifting some. He did feel stronger but not super strong. He went back to the mirror and watched as he prodded a bicep with his finger. It felt real and wasn’t an illusion. He took off his towel and studied the rest of his body. His stomach looked tighter, there was almost a six-pack there now, and his legs were more toned too.

Maybe his power was being healthier, or, at least, looking better physically? That would be an okay power. It wouldn’t be his first choice, but he could live with it. A thought struck him – if it’s a power, maybe he could control it!

He thought for a few seconds. He’d always wondered what he’d look like with a mustache. He’d never had the patience to let one grow in for more than a few days. He concentrated on growing one and stared in repulsed fascination as the hairs under his nose lengthened, first into wispy strings, and then twining together, and then morphing into a full mustache. It only took a few seconds. He squeezed his upper lip between his fingers, feeling the bristly hairs. He studied his face for another moment, decided he looked like a creepy stalker, and willed it to disappear again. It grew smaller until the hairs pulled back into his skin where they had started.

Excitement coursed through him. He could change himself to look like anyone! He was suddenly hit by another epiphany. What if he could look like any “thing” he wanted? He was actually shaking in anticipation as he willed himself to change into a hummingbird.

The mirror quickly rose above him as he shrunk. In seconds, he was a rainbow-colored hummingbird standing on the floor. He flapped his tiny wings and zoomed into the air. He fluttered around the room, pausing to look at himself in the mirror. His wings were going so fast that he could barely see them but it took him almost no effort. Intuitively, he realized that, although he retained his own mind and thoughts, he had gained the hummingbird’s reflexes and abilities. He changed back into a man and stood naked before his mirror.

The next hours were awesome! He transformed into hundreds of different animals. He tried a turtle, fox, ostrich, monkey, spider, butterfly, house cat, hamster, ferret, and many others. He enjoyed being birds the most. His favorites were the hawk, the bald eagle, and the cormorant. He was even a horse briefly. It was cramped in the bathroom but he wanted to see himself in the mirror.

He experimented with other things too. He tried changing into inanimate objects, like a chair or a table, but that didn’t work. Apparently, he could only transform into living things. He changed into a woman. That was interesting and a bit disconcerting. He tried mythological creatures too, just for fun. He was surprised when he was actually able to become a unicorn, and a griffin. He decided against attempting a medusa since he wasn’t sure if she was immune to her own power. Also, he could alter individual parts of his body. He could make his hair different colors or lengths or styles, and he could elongate or shrink fingers and other parts.

Partway through the afternoon he realized that he’d been naked the entire time. He tried it with clothes on, and, fortunately, while he had no idea where they went, they disappeared and came back with him. He couldn’t affect the clothes by themselves though, and nothing metal would make the change. Rings, necklaces, glasses, silverware, and even his belt loop fell to the floor and remained behind. He destroyed one of his best work belts figuring that out.

A curse and a blessing, he took on some of the properties of each thing he turned into. When he was a snake, he got cold and sleepy, and could taste his surroundings through his forked tongue. When he was an ant, he could pick up things that weighed a lot more than him. When he was a housefly, he could see in every direction at once. That was confusing. He probably wouldn’t do that one again. When he was a dog, his senses of smell and hearing were excellent.

The TOP had given him a gift greater than anything he could have imagined! He could fly as a bird and soar on the winds. He could become a fish and explore the oceans. He could swing through the trees as an orangutan. He had wanted a major power, and this one was about as major as they got. He’d never even heard of anyone having this power before, and the news covered almost all of the major powers.

Ideas for the upcoming year flashed in his head, swirling in droves over each other and jumbling together. He was unable to focus on any particular one. He’d need to take some time to really think about it. Oh, the adventures he would have this year!

He was famished. He checked his watch. It was just before 8:00 PM. No wonder. He’d been testing his power for over five hours without a break. He checked the fridge but nothing looked good. He wondered if Jessica wanted to order a pizza with him.

It was a nice day outside and he already had his window open. He changed into a blue jay and flew out into the bright sky, singing happily. He flew to Jessica’s window and landed on the sill and sang at her. Her window was closed. He could see her inside. She was watching a movie. She couldn’t hear him.

He tapped on the window with his beak. The window sill was narrow and he stumbled off the edge. He flapped his wings and managed to stay on. He tapped the window again.

Jessica looked over from the TV. She stared quizzically for a moment and the smiled. “Well, hello there, little guy,” she said. “What are you doing?” She moved slowly to the window.

Aaron sang at her, smiling to himself. This was going to be great!

Jessica stopped just inside the window. She glanced at the lock as if she were deciding whether she should try to open the window or not.

“Come on, Jessica,’ he thought, “Open the window.” He tapped the window again, a little harder. Once more, he slipped backwards off the edge, his wings flapping frantically.

Jessica made a small “eh” sound and reflexively reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into the room. Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened in a silent “O” as she realized what she had just done. She had phased through the window outside of her TOP year.

Aaron flew to the carpet and changed back into himself. Jessica’s eyes went even wider and she gasped in surprise.

Aaron grabbed her hand and tested it with squeezing. He looked back into her eyes. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah,” she said.