Never Believe the News

“Margret, I need that article tomorrow, you hear me?” I roll my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow”

“Good. See you tomorrow.”

“See ya!”I say, waiting for my boss to get into the elevator before twisting my chair to face my best friend Cassy.

“Can you believe her? It’s not like I have powers! I am not the flash. There’s no way I’m going to finish by tonight.”

“You know Margie, you have been working on this since last week…”

“Yeah, well…..It’s a long article.”

“Well then, you better hope you get superpowers tonight cause Boss’l have you skinned alive if you don’t have the article to her tomorrow.”

“Honestly, if I could wish for powers, I’d just want to be able to read minds or something to see what goes on in that thick head of hers.”

“Cut her some slack, she works really hard for the company.”

“Really Cassy? You’re defending her? She spreads lies for a living!”

“Says the person writing the main articles….”

“Well, I’m only following directions…”

“Mmhmm, whatever, I don’t feel like arguing with you. Pass me a doughnut, will you?” I laugh and shake my head while grabbing a powdered doughnut from the box and handing it to Cassy. 

The latest article my boss wants me to write is about people ‘having powers’. Apparently it’s a big story, some kid found flying in his backyard or something. 

I put my phone back in my purse and sling my jacket over my shoulder before making my way to the elevator.

“Bye!” Cassy says.

“Buh-Bye!”I reply, just as the elevator door shuts close. 

I honestly cannot believe my boss. People with powers? As if. I’d be more likely to grow a second head or something. Sure would be nice though. Imagine running as fast as the speed of light, or better yet, being as strong as 100 men. 

The thought of powers is still fresh on my mind as I unlock the door to my house. My husband greets me seconds later, pulling me into a bear hug and carrying me to the couch.

“Yeesh, Owen, I was only gone for a couple hours! How can you carry me anyway, only yesterday you were struggling with the groceries!” Owen laughs as he puts me down softly on the couch. I set my purse and keys down on the table.

“I must be getting powers too then, just like that boy.”

“How’d you hear about that? We were supposed to be the first news station to publish that story!”

“It’s all over the news! Some guy says he saw his neighbor flying or something like that.”

“You don’t actually believe that stuff do you? I mean, I know I’m one to talk considering I work for a news station myself, but never believe anything you see or hear online.”

“Nah, I’m just messing. What about you?” his blue eyes pierce into mine as he awaits my answer.

“I don't know…. I guess there’s just not much evidence, you know?”

“Aren't you writing the article covering it?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, then, why are you writing about something you don’t believe?” I sigh.

“I don’t really have much of a choice.” Owen frowns and plops down beside me on the couch.

“For the record though, it would be pretty cool if we could have powers, no?”I laugh. Owen always knows how to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, it would be.” We watch TV for an hour or so and then I make my way to my ‘office’ upstairs and open my laptop. A blank doc seems to stare at me, daring me to write. 

I imagine the words writing themselves, everything I know about the story coming together in amazing words. I close my eyes and imagine structured paragraphs forming, with sources listed at the bottom. It’s my ritual, to do this. It helps me form words in my head that eventually string into sentences that I actually type when I’m done. 

When I open my eyes though, I’m greeted with a surprise. My document is now 6 pages long. It’s fully formatted and even has sources at the bottom. 

It must just be another article I opened on accident. But I glance at the title that reads ‘Boy With Powers:What’s Next?’.

Wait, what?!

I read through the entire thing, to see if it sounds like my writing. 

From the dry humor to the rhetorical questions, this was definitely written by me.

I take a deep breath. 

Okay. So. I could have possibly lost any memory of writing it. Or….. I might have just actually finished it at work without realizing it? Or maybe-

“Mage! You okay up there!? You’re normally loudly clicking away on the keyboard by now!” Owen. Am I okay?

“Yeah, I’m fine! Just, um, figuring out what to write!”

“Okay!Just making sure! You know, I told you it would be hard writing about something you don’t believe in!”I sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”It’ll be no use to tell Owen. He’ll either tell me I’m stressed, or start going on and on about some conspiracy theory. He’d probably say I “got powers like that boy”.

Wait a second. 

Powers. Like that boy. What if….

Nope. What is wrong with me? I shake my head to clear the thoughts.

But, it wouldn’t hurt to see if I do have powers, would it? I could just try and do something else and if it doesn’t work, then I’ll know for sure I’m just going crazy. I’ll try, just for the sake of proving a claim. 

Okay. What should I do? With the article, if that was even done with powers, all I had to do was imagine myself doing something and it was done for me. So….

I close my eyes and imagine the popcorn in the pantry going into the microwave, completely popping without one kernel left unpopped. I imagine the butter evenly spread everywhere, and the popcorn hot enough to taste fresh, but not hot enough to burn my fingers.  

I take a deep breath and start making my way down the stairs to the kitchen. 

I can already smell the butter. I open the microwave door. There, is a bag of popcorn, perfectly popped. 

“Owen! Did you make any popcorn?” I ask, my fingers trembling as I hold the bag. 

“No, but I can right now if you want!” Owen says, coming into the kitchen.

“Oh.” he says,”Why would you ask me if I made any popcorn if you already made it?”

“Well, um, I’m just making sure we didn’t waste two bags.” I say unconvincingly. Owen narrows his eyes.

“Why are you making popcorn anyway? Did you finish your article?”

“Almost, I just need to edit.”

“Okay, cool. I’ll find a movie for when you’re done.” I nod.

Owen leaves the kitchen with a bounce in his step. I know he notices how weird I’m being, but it’s been ages since we had a proper movie night. Sure we watch TV during the day, but we rarely ever watch movies with popcorn anymore ever since I got my job at the station. 

I open the popcorn bag and taste a kernel. It has the perfect amount of butter and is the perfect temperature, just like I imagined. 

I slowly make my way upstairs and back into my office. I do actually need to edit my article, but first, I need to figure out what’s going on. I obviously have some sort of power. 

But what is it? Can I just imagine anything and it’ll happen? There’s got to be some limit. This makes no sense at all. How come I have powers? How come Owen doesn’t? Am I supposed to do something with my powers, like save the world or something?

Deep. Breath. Let’s see...What can I do…. I close my eyes and imagine my nails turning a bright pink. I quickly open my eyes and glance at my hands. It worked! Now, to take it a little further, I imagine my brown hair turning blue. When I open my eyes, I bring my hair around my neck so I can see it, and it's bright blue. I gasp. 

I wonder….Can I do it with my eyes open? I imagine my hair going back to it’s normal color, all the while staring at my hair. At first nothing happens, but a mere second later, from the bottom to the roots, my hair begins changing color to brown. 

Wow. That’s enough testing for today. I open up my laptop and begin reading through the article I supposedly wrote, fixing small grammar and spelling mistakes. I guess even if I write by magic, it’s still not going to be perfect. When I’m done, I close my laptop and get up. Time to change into something comfy for the movie!

Better yet, why don’t I do it with my power! 

I imagine my yellow sweatpants and white T-Shirt on myself, and a second later, that’s what I’m wearing. My old clothes are on the floor. Oops. I picture them going back exactly where they belong and make my way downstairs where Owen is sitting at the couch.

“Hey! You’re done, good. I found 3 movies, you choose which one we watch, okay?” I smile and plop down next to him on the couch.

“Sounds good to me!”

***

The Next Day…

I walk into the elevator. I’ve been trying to pick the right nail polish shade all morning, but nothing seems to fit. I settle with a light orange color. It looks too bland though, so I imagine my ring fingers golden. 

Perfect. 

I’m greeted by my boss as soon as I step out of the elevator. 

“Where’s the article, I need it.” I smile.

“Emailed it to you yesterday, didn’t you get it?”

“Oh.I’ll go check right now.”

I make my way to my desk.

“So, did you finish it?” Cassy asks me as I sit down. 

“Yep. It’s a miracle, really.”

“Did the Gods answer your prayers and give you super speed to complete the task?” Cassy says dramatically. I roll my eyes. I didn’t tell Owen, and I’m not telling Cassy.

“Yeah, you guessed it,”

“Good job though, seriously,”

“Thanks,”

I smile and get started on my next article. The new story I have to write is about some kid seeing Bigfoot on a camping trip. I sure hope that isn’t real….

The End