"Kathleen, honey, are you alright?" Kathleen's mother asked in an anxious voice.
"No, I mean yes. Yes ... I'm fine, Mom."
She was standing on the doorstep. She had just returned from her gym class. Her mother had opened the door and had realised anyone that something was wrong.
"What happened, dear?" she asked, guiding her to the sofa in the living room.
"I'm just thinking about something, that's all," she replied.
"What, dear?" asked her mother.
"It was .... It was an accident. An old woman was hit by a car," she lied.
"Oh! Did she get hurt? Was she taken to the hospital?" asked her mother.
"She wasn't hurt that much. The car wasn't very fast," said Kathleen.
"That's okay then. How was your class?"
"Good."
"I bet you liked Mr. Tony. I've heard he is the best. Isn't he?"
"He's nice."
"How was ..."
"Mom! I'm tired. I'm going to my room. I'll talk to you later and give you all the details," said Kathleen.
"I was just concerned, that's all," said her mother.
"Don't worry, I'm fine, great, awesome, fantastic. Love you," said Kathleen quickly, and for once walked to her room swiftly.
Her mother noticed her swift movement and mumbled to herself, "she's getting better already."
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
One the eve of her fourteenth birthday Kathleen slept as a normal girl. She had the strangest dream imaginable.
She found herself standing in the middle of nowhere. There were several stumps of cut down trees and and few large stones. The otherwise bare sandy ground stretched beyond the horizon.
The sand in front of her raised up without any wind and started swirling. Out of the swirling sand appeared an old man. His silver beard and dark eyes were shining in the moon light. He handed her a packet and stepped back into the swirling sand.
She looked at the parcel and then at the fading figure of the old man. As soon as he disappeared, the sand fell down as if gravity suddenly started working on it.
She looked at the packet, trying to make something out of the whole episode, when blackness engulfed her.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and found herself safe and sound in bed.
She slept through the night and woke up at the sound of the 'Happy Birthday' song being played on her tape recorder. She guessed that her mother had something to do with the whole song thing.
She got out of bed, full of spirit, not remembering anything about her strange dream. Then she noticed a packet on the bedside table. She picked it up, thinking that her mother put it there. It felt very light. Suddenly, she realised that it was the same packet from her dream.
She opened it curiously and found only a single paper inside it.
It said:
Do as you are told.
Take deep breath though your nose and let it out through your mouth.
Close your eyes, relax, and let your mind go blank.
When you feel a strange sensation at the back of your head, then hold your breath.
Imagine that you are fading away.
Open your eyes and look at yourself, rather, look at 'nothing', in the mirror.
Kathleen snorted in disgust and threw the packet into the wastepaper basket. She did not believe in unscientific stuff such as UFOs, magic, ghosts, powers, etc. She thought that her dream was just a coincidence and that one of her friends had tried to prank her.
When she fell asleep that night, she found herself in the same place. The old man appeared, yet again; "Do as you are told," he said, and handed her the same packet. He vanished, as he had done the night before.
Kathleen woke up, amazed. She was astonished to find the packet in her hands.
She checked the wastepaper basket. It was empty.
She began to think that there might be something logical in her dream.
She took out the paper again and read the instructions. They were same as before. This time she noticed a small picture of of a hand, and on its thumb was a small symbol. Impulsively, she looked at her own thumb and saw a similar symbol on it. She wondered why she had not noticed it before.
She stood in front of her full length mirror and followed the instructions with a breath-takingly positive result. She was astounded by her performance. She was determined to find out more about her supernatural abilities.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
For the past two years, Kathleen had been working very hard to master her skills. She had, indeed, done a very good job. She could turn invisible in the blink of an eye. She could pass through any kind of solid matter. She could make any part of an opaque substance invisible and look right through it.
She regularly used her powers locked inside her room, she did not want them to rust.
She frequently checked the net to find something about the symbol.
She also wondered about her powers. Were they just a gift for an otherwise ordinary girl, or was there any special reason behind them.
She could not recall any incident related to her powers, in her childhood. It had all started suddenly. Did that mean it wasn't important?
But on the other hand, the old man who frequently visited her in her dreams, in his specified way, talked to her about stuff she couldn't make head or tail of. He made her think she was chosen by she-didn't-know-who, to carry a big responsibility of she-didn't-know-what.
"Kathleen! Dinner's ready," her mother shouted from downstairs. She was too lazy to climb all the stairs up to her room.
"I'm coming," Kathleen yelled back and hastily stuffed a bundle of papers in her desk. She opened the door and sniffed in the air, trying to guess what was waiting for her at the dinner table.
Mmmmm! Pasta. She licked her lips and ran to the dinning room.
She sat on her chair and noticed that her plate was covered. "Why is my plate covered, mom?" she asked.
"Today you are going to have a special dish. Go on, see it," urged her mother, when she made no move to uncover it, "it's exclusive food prescribed by Mr. Tony."
No pasta! Kathleen thought disappointed, and looked at her mother suspiciously before lifting the lid.
She looked at the uncovered plate with glasses and then without them. She tried to stop her feelings from getting expressed but in vain.
"What is this stuff?" she pointed to the green coloured goo on the plate.
"It's spinach. Try it. It will taste better than it looks," said her mother.
Kathleen pushed her glasses back on her nose, tasted the green goo and made a face.
"Did you even cook it?" she asked.
"Of course! I boiled it," said her mother.
"And you know I don't like these," she pointed to the peas on her plate. "And these too," she pointed to the lettuce leaves and broccoli pieces.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to them," said her mother in a consoling voice.
"What?" burst Kathleen, "I'll have to eat this green stuff everyday!"
"It's not that bad," said her mother.
"Look who's talking!" Kathleen gestured at her mother's plate.
It was piled with pasta, topped with sauce. Large pieces of chicken and potato were clearly visible.
Kathleen was fully aware from where she had inherited her love of food. But her mother constantly reminded her that she was was a young girl who looked like a woman.
She started her lecture again, "Kathleen, you are only fifteen ..."
"Sixteen," Kathleen interrupted.
"Whatever! The point is, you are too young to get fat."
"What can I do? It's inheritance," she mumbled.
"What did you say?" asked her mother sternly.
"Nothing," she mumbled again.
"Go on. Eat your dinner," urged her mother.
"I hope the dessert is good," sighed Kathleen, licking the goo on the spoon.
After the dinner, Kathleen poured over the newspapers to find any clue relating to her powers.
Her mother had been very surprised to find her suddenly interested in newspapers after her fourteenth birthday. She could only afford four different types of daily newspapers so Kathleen had to borrow three weekly newspapers from different neighbours.
She had only scanned three of the weekly newspapers when she heard her stomach rumbling. The dessert hadn't been any better. It had been a rusty-brown goo, which she had correctly guessed to be apple and banana mush.
When she could bear it no longer, she turned invisible and tiptoed downstairs, into the kitchen.
She opened the fridge and took out two chocolate bars, three mini rolls, a cheese slice, along with two slices of bread and a dollop of mayonnaise.
She had vowed to herself that she would use her powers only for good. She satisfied her conscience by thinking that it was for good, even if it was for her own good.
She sneaked back to her room, glad that her food loving mother had stacks of delicious food for herself.
She ate everything, only half satisfied.
She scanned another newspaper and started to feel sleepy. She stretched out her arm to grab a daily newspaper.
As soon as her hand touched the paper, the symbol on her thumb lit up for the second time that day.
She was suddenly wide awake. She drew back her hand and the symbol lit off at once. She picked up the newspaper and started reading it, ignoring the blazing symbol.
On the fifth page, she saw a picture of a good looking but serious boy with shiny eyes, under the headline:
"Boy missing from orphanage."
She read the whole newspaper three times, and puzzled over the fact that her symbol was blazing due to to an ordinary newspaper having no connection to her, her symbol or her powers.
She had no idea that she was ignoring the very clue she had been looking for, for the past two years.
Author's note :
What do you think? I could not update due to exams and stuff. Also, I took weeks to type this.
Writing isn't tiring but typing is. It takes a lot of time to type but none to vote. So please click vote even if you don't feel like commenting.
I really do need your support to update or else I get lazy. As soon as I get some votes on this chapter, I will update another.
So please vote and comment if you liked the chapter or if you want me to update.
And please tell me who is a fan of one direction. I'm not. No offense, but I don't listen to any kind of music, or songs.
Bye.