I Was Right!

I'm almost one hundred percent sure our new next door neighbor has super powers.

She seemed pretty normal when she moved in last week, but yesterday I saw something that made me think there's something weird about her.

Yesterday was only a half-day at school because it was the last day before summer vacation, and when I got home I went out into the back yard to shoot my Nerf gun at the bullseye I taped to the fence.

I heard the neighbor's cat meowing really loud and when I looked up I saw it was really high up in a tree in her yard. I think it was stuck and couldn't get down.

That's when the weird thing happened.

I saw my neighbor fly up and get her cat down from the tree. I'm serious. She was flying.

When I told Mom she laughed and said our neighbor was up on a ladder and I just didn't see it from where I was standing. But I know what I saw. Our neighbor flew up to get her cat down from the tree.

Right now I'm helping Mom make cookies for our new neighbor. It was my idea. Mostly it's because I want to be nice but also I sort of want to see her house and try to find proof that she has super powers.

"Let's make the frosting while these cool down," Mom suggests as she pulls the tray of sugar cookies out of the oven and sets it down on the counter.

"Can we make the frosting bright green?" I ask her.

"Sure. Whatever color you want."

When the cookies are all frosted (I mixed yellow and green food coloring so they're really bright) Mom arranges them on a plate and covers it with plastic wrap.

"Okay. I'm going to wake Lily up from her nap then we'll go meet our neighbor. Get your shoes on."

Our neighbor's car is in her driveway. I guess she doesn't have a job yet since she just moved here.

Mom rings the doorbell.

Our neighbor opens the door. I think she's a little younger than Mom. She has wavy blonde hair with a bright pink streak on one side. She's wearing a yellow dress with pink and white flowers. It doesn't look like a Super Hero outfit, but maybe those are her alter ego clothes. Her smile is pretty.

"Hi," she greets us.

"We're your next door neighbors," Mom tells her. "We just wanted to introduce ourselves and greet you to our neighborhood. I'm Linda, and this is my son Marcus and my daughter Lily." She holds her hand out.

"We brought you cookies," I add, holding up the plate to show her.

"Oh, that was nice of you! My name's Nicole, but you can call me Nikki." She shakes Mom's hand and invites us inside.

Lily squirms against Mom's hip, trying to get down out of her arms. She's only three and she's really annoying.

Nikki takes the plate of cookies from my hand.

"Oooooohhh, these are pretty!" She says. "I love the green."

"They're Kryptonite," I tell her, even though they're really not. I just want to see if she reacts.

"Kryptonite, huh?" She peels back the plastic wrap and takes a cookie, biting into it. "Well then, you'd better not offer one to Superman."

"Do you know Superman?" I ask her.

"Of course I do," she answers with a smile. "Everyone knows who Superman is."

"Mama, down!" Lily whines, squirming in Mom's arms again.

"You can put her down," Nikki tells Mom. "I don't think there's much trouble she can get into. Why don't you guys sit down?"

Mom lowers Lily to the kitchen floor and pulls out a chair at the table. I sit down too and take a cookie from the plate.

"Marcus, those are for Nikki," Mom frowns.

"It's okay. He can have one," Nikki says. "Do you guys want some apricots to take home with you? There's a huge tree in the back yard that's covered with them. I can't eat all of them by myself."

"We'd like that, thanks," Mom tells her. "Apricots are my husband's favorite."

"Is that the tree your cat got stuck in yesterday?" I ask Nikki. "I heard him meowing and I saw him up there."

"Yeah," she replies. "She climbed up there and couldn't figure out how to get back down. Sometimes I think she's not a very smart kitty." She dumps some apricots from the bowl on the counter into a plastic bag and sets it down in front of Mom.

"How'd you get her down?" I ask.

"Oh, I had to get the ladder and rescue her."

"Can I come visit you sometimes?" I ask Nikki as Mom, Lily and I are getting ready to go home.

"Well sure," she says with a smile. "It's okay with me if it's okay with your mom."

"It was very nice meeting you, Nikki," Mom says.

"It was nice meeting you guys too," Nikki replies.

"She was lying about the ladder," I tell Mom when we get back to our house. "I saw her flying." Mom just smiles and shakes her head.

I haven't seen Nikki flying or doing anything else weird for a few days. Just normal stuff like planting flowers in her yard. She talks to me over the fence when we're both outside, and yesterday she gave me another bag of apricots.

"Can I go visit Nikki?" I ask Mom after lunch.

"I don't want you bothering her, Marcus."

"I won't. She said I could visit her."

"Okay, but only for an hour or two. And if she's busy come right home, okay?"

"Okay."

Nikki doesn't answer the door the first time I ring the bell, but she does when I ring it a second time.

She has her hair back in a ponytail today and she's wearing a pair of leggings and a T-shirt with a picture of a neon green llama on it. Definitely not Super Hero clothes, but I'm not fooled.

"Marcus," she greets me with a smile. "I'm sorry I didn't hear the doorbell at first. I was vacuuming."

"Oh. Are you busy?" I ask her.

"Not at all. Come on in."

I follow Nikki into her house.

"I'm just going to finish vacuuming," she tells me. "Go ahead and help yourself to a snack in the kitchen if you want. I have Oreos in the cupboard above the toaster."

After I grab a handful of cookies from the package I stand in the kitchen doorway to watch Nikki vacuum the living room.

She has her back to me, so she doesn't know that I can see her pick up the couch with one hand and hold it up in the air so she can vacuum the carpet under it with the other hand.

When she switches off the vacuum and turns around to see me standing here watching her she looks startled.

"How'd you do that?" I ask her.

"How'd I do what?" She questions. "Vacuum the floor? Doesn't your mom vacuum?"

"How'd you pick the couch up with one hand like that?"

"Of course I didn't, silly. The couch is way too heavy!"

"But I saw you! And I saw you fly up to get your cat out of the tree. You didn't use a ladder. I saw you! You have super powers. I know you do!"

Nikki giggles. "Of course I don't, Marcus. But you obviously have a super imagination. You want a glass of milk to go with those cookies?"

Mom and Dad think I'm making the whole thing up when I tell them at dinner.

Even my best friend Devin thinks I'm making it up when I tell him. He says people only fly and have super strength in movies or comic books, not in real life. We kind of get into a fight about it. He calls me stupid and jumps on his bike to ride home.

"Uh-oh, friend trouble?" Nikki questions over the fence, making me jump. I didn't even know she was outside in her yard.

"You heard that?" I ask her.

"Well, I heard you arguing. What was it about?"

"Movies and stuff," I fib.

"You want to come over and help me set up a table out front? I'm going to have a garage sale this afternoon."

After Mom gives me permission I walk next door.

There are four cardboard boxes full of clothes and books and stuff sitting in Nikki's driveway.

"You're selling all this?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I figured moving to a new town was as good a reason as any to get rid of some stuff I don't need anymore."

"Why'd you move here anyway?" Mom probably would have gotten mad if she'd heard me ask that. She's always telling me that I shouldn't ask grown ups so many questions.

"I didn't really fit in with the people in my old town," Nikki answers with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Why not?"

She doesn't say anything for a long time, just stands there looking at me with her arms crossed and her head tilted to one side. I can barely breathe. Is she about to admit that she has super powers?!

She finally shrugs her shoulders again and says,

"I don't know. I guess I was just a lot different than them. I think I'm going to like it better here, though."

It's obvious there's something she's not telling me, but I don't push her. I already know what her secret is.

I help her set up the folding table at the end of her driveway, then we start taking things out of boxes and putting them on the table.

"What's this?" I ask as I pull a long red silk cape out of a box and hold it up. I know exactly what it is. It's proof.

"That was part of my Halloween costume a couple years ago," Nikki replies. "Fold it up nice and put one of those orange three dollar stickers on it."

On Monday I stay home while Mom and Lily go to the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping. It's extra boring.

I'm out in the back yard trying to fly the remote controlled helicopter my parents gave me for Christmas last year, but I'm not very good at it. I've already crashed it a million times.

Now it crashed up on the roof and it's stuck there.

Our tall ladder is leaning against the side of the garage. It's not really that heavy, but it's kind of awkward and hard to move. I have to struggle with it, but I finally manage to get it where it needs to go.

Mom would have a fit if she knew I was climbing up the ladder without an adult here to supervise me. But I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm almost twelve.

"Hey Marcus, what are you doing up there?"

I glance down from the top rung of the ladder into Nikki's yard. She is holding her hose in one hand and watering her apricot tree. Her other hand shields her eyes from the sun as she looks up at me.

"My helicopter got stuck on the roof. I'm getting it down," I call to her.

"Be careful."

"I'll be care..." before I can finish my sentence my foot slips off the top ladder rung.

I don't even have time to cry out. One second I'm falling, then the next second I'm flying over the roof of my house clasped like a baby in Nikki's arms.

She makes a turn in mid-air and flies back over my house to land on her feet in my yard.

"That was close," she comments, setting me down on my feet.

"Yeah," I gasp. "Thanks!" My heart is beating really hard.

Now that I'm back on the ground and safe I am able to understand what just happened.

"I was right!" I exclaim. "I was right the whole time! You can fly! You do have super powers!"

"Of course not, silly!" Nikki laughs, giving me a wink.