Superhuman Nature

by Brandon Overall

  Witnessing something in clear violation of the laws of physics amazed him. There was no outside force acting on the can. It was just sitting there in midair, just as easily as if it were resting on his hand. Neil stared at the can intently, amazed by what he was making it do. Just then he heard a snapping sound behind him. His concentration was broken, and the can fell to the ground.

  Neil turned toward the source of the noise, which he had now automatically identified as a snapping twig on the ground. About 30 feet behind him was a dirty looking old homeless man with unkempt white hair and what appeared to be an animal fur coat.

  “Hey man, neat magic trick. Are you a magician?” The man asked.

  He was carrying a backpack on one shoulder and a plastic bag filled with berries. His raspy voice gave the impression of someone who smoked too much reefer and spent a little too much time trying to bring down ‘The Man’ in his youth.

  “Yeah,” Neil said hesitantly, “I had a string attached to it and I was just testing out a trick I saw on YouTube. What are you doing out here?”

  “Just chillin’, dude, collecting berries and listening to the winds. It’s peaceful out here. Hey can you show me that magic trick again?”

  “Sorry man, I have to go home, but here, you can have this bag of fruit.” Neil tossed him the bag and started walking away.

  As he walked away, the homeless man shouted out to him.

  “Thanks dude, you’re a good kid. You’re going to be famous some day. You’re going to change the world.”

  Neil stopped as he was walking away to consider what this man had said. They were nothing more than the ramblings of a crazy hermit, but there was a strange amount of confidence in his tone. He decided there was no point in looking too much into it.

  “Thanks, have a good day now”.

  Neil walked back to his car and searched for Best Buy on his GPS. He still had to go buy that TV for Bryan or he would never hear the end of his bitching.

  On his way to the store, Neil’s heart started racing at the thought of the things he had done that day. It felt surreal to him. He couldn’t help but wonder what changed in the past couple of days that made all of this stuff start happening. He wasn’t bitten by any bugs, hadn’t rolled around in any radioactive waste, or looked up at any full moons. None of the stereotypical comic book answers were of any use here.

  He started wondering, if this was happening to him, was it happening to anyone else? Was he the only person in the world like this, or were there others? Could there have been a whole group of people like him throughout history that managed to keep it a secret? There was no way for him to know the answers, but that didn’t stop the questions that kept flowing through his mind.

  He arrived at Best Buy and picked out a decent TV to replace the one he shattered with his mind. He thought about telling the cashier what happened as a joke, but decided it was best not to. As he was paying for the TV, the cashier opened the register.

  The sight of the cash gave Neil a troubling, but tempting idea. He thought about super villains in the movies and how they would use their powers to rob banks and commit crimes to get rich. He wondered how easy it would be to command the cash from the register to float over into his hand. The cashier would be in disbelief, and he could just walk away like nothing happened.

  “Are you going to steal this?” The cashier asked him, and he was knocked out of his fantasy.

  “Wh-what?”

  “I said, are you going to sign this?” She pushed the receipt forward towards him.

  “Oh, yeah, sorry.”

  Neil signed the receipt and took the brand new boxed TV back to his house.

  It was going on 8:00 by the time Neil got back to his place. He carried the box into the living room.

  “Delivery! I have a giant box of dildos here for a Mr. Bryan Slater”. Neil heard movement upstairs, and saw Bryan come running down.

  “Oh damnit, they got the order wrong, it was supposed to be an EXTRA giant box of dildos. What am I going to do with just a giant sized one?” Bryan joked.

  “Sir, I’m sure your boyfriend won’t even know the difference.” Neil said in his fake delivery man voice. Bryan fist bumped Neil on his way to the mini fridge in the other room.

  “Hey Hitchenator, set up that TV and start pre-gaming, we’re going over to Tyler’s this evening. He bought a keg.” Bryan tossed Neil a cold beer from the fridge.

  “You mean CADET Ross? First names don’t exist in the Army. If he’s got a keg, what is everybody else going to drink?” Being quite the big guy, Ross had a reputation for being able to drink like a fish. Not just any fish, either. A fucking beluga whale could drink less than him and get drunk quicker.

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll have mojitos or some other faggy ass drink for you.”

  After drinking a few beers and completely setting up the new TV, Bryan and Neil left the house and started walking towards Ross’s place. Everything was within walking distance around campus. It was quicker to drive, but they knew no one would be in any state to drive back.

  “Hey Neil, where have you been all day, man? I tried calling you to go get lunch but you never called back, and you were gone since morning.” Bryan asked on the way to the party.

  “Oh, I was in the library doing research and I fell asleep in a chair for a couple of hours. I missed your call. My bad, dude.”

  Neil quickly came up with a believable story. He was a pretty convincing liar, but he felt bad whenever he had to do it. Neil was always more comfortable telling the truth, especially to his close friends.

  “The library? Why the hell did you need to go to the library to do research? That’s what Wikipedia was invented for. And what the hell were you even researching? We did all of our programming assignments already for this week.”

  Maybe Neil’s lie wasn’t so concrete. Bryan seemed strangely interested in what Neil was doing all day. Neil thought back to the previous night, and wondered if Bryan still thought he was crazy.

  “Ok, I was out applying for jobs as a male porn star, since this college thing isn’t working out. Jesus, why do you care what I was doing?” It wasn’t fair to lash out at his friend that way, but Neil was just trying to get Bryan off his back without asking too many questions.

  “Fine man, I’m just worried about you is all. You were acting pretty weird last night.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that, I think the stress from exam week coming up was getting to me. There’s nothing to worry about, I’m better now. I found a job this week, and they said as long as I’m willing to deal with midgets and octopuses I can start next week.” Bryan laughed and didn’t press the topic any further.

  As they neared Ross’s place, the pounding of the music became louder and as they rounded the corner, they saw the huge crowd of people on the porch holding red cups, smoking joints and talking too loud. They walked through the door to the living room and saw Ross standing in the middle of the room shirtless, carrying two pitchers of beer from the keg. Ross always found an excuse to take his shirt off when there were attractive ladies around.

  “SIR, CADET HITCHENS REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR” Neil stood at attention and jokingly saluted his clearly drunk, shirtless friend.

  “Heyyyyyyyy man, welcome to the party!” Ross gave Neil a ‘bro-hug’ while still holding the pitchers of beer. Some of it splashed all over his shirt. “Ohhhh shit man, my bad. Here, you can drink the rest of this. Cups are on me tonight!” Ross handed Neil one of the pitchers and directed him toward the stack of red cups that people were using to fill up from the tap.

  Most of the people at the party were people that Neil knew from ROTC. He was enjoying the comfortable atmosphere, telling stories, and drinking cheap beer with his friends. It didn’t take long for him to become clearly intoxicated.

  The inside of Ross’s house was hot and stifling from all the people, so he stepped out onto the porch to get some fresh air. Outside he saw the profile of a slim blonde haired girl leaning over the railing lo
oking out into the front yard. Since she was by herself, and since Neil had liquid courage coursing through his veins, he leaned on the empty spot next to her and stared off into the distance.

  She noticed Neil standing next to her, and turned her head.

  “Tired of the party?” She asked.

  “Not exactly. I just couldn’t stand looking at Tyler shirtless anymore without turning gay. I’m not gay, by the way. I love the vag.”

  ‘Smooth,’ Neil thought. Luckily the girl laughed. Neil turned to face her, and noticed that she had stunning green eyes. Something about her looked extremely familiar. Neil realized where he had seen her before. She was the girl from his dream - the girl whose skull he had almost -

  “Emma.” She said, as she stuck out her hand for him to shake.

  Neil stared at her awkwardly for a couple of seconds and then snapped back into reality.

  “Emma, sorry, I zoned out for a second. I thought you looked familiar is all. My name’s Neil, I’m in the Army.”

  Neil realized how drunk he was at this point. He never mentioned that he was in ROTC without one of his friends bringing it up first, because truth be told he wasn’t really in the Army until after graduation.

  “The Army? That’s pretty cool, you must know most of the people here, then. I’m studying to become a nurse. Have you seen me somewhere or something? You were looking at me pretty weird just now.”

  “Oh, no, only in my dreams.” Neil thought about slapping himself in the forehead. He couldn’t believe he had just said that.

  Emma chuckled, “Wow, that has got to be the lamest pickup line I’ve ever heard. You’re funny. Why haven’t I seen you at any parties before?”

  “Oh, you know, the Army has me out doing some pretty rigorous training on the weekends so I don’t get to go out much. I was top of my class on the last one, so I got to skip it this weekend.” Neil was impressed with his smooth lie.

  “I see, so why are all of your classmates here then?” Maybe it wasn’t so smooth.

  “Ok, you got me, I just don’t like parties. It’s too loud and there are too many sweaty people everywhere. I just came to get drunk and try to get some pus – party. I came to get some party.” Neil was sure he had ruined any chances with this girl by now, but he was too drunk to care.

  To his surprise, she smiled.

  “Well it looks like you can check one of those things off of your list. You’ve obviously successfully gotten drunk. If you decide to give up on the second thing, let me know, and maybe we can go get some McDonalds or something.” Neil was dumbfounded that this amazing looking girl was asking him to go hang out with her, despite his complete lack of any kind of game whatsoever.

  “Y-yeah, that sounds pretty chill. This place is dying down anyways, let’s go get a bite.” Neil was never very good at talking to girls that he was interested in. For some reason, he could talk casually all day with the girls in his ROTC class or Computer Science program as long as he wasn’t attracted to them, but as soon as a pretty face came along, he sounded like a bumbling idiot.

  Neil left the party with Emma, without saying goodbye to his friends. They were probably already too drunk to notice anyways.

  The two walked down Grand River Avenue towards McDonalds while joking and getting to know each other. Neil learned that Emma was a senior just like him, and that she had lived in Buffalo for most of her life.

  Her mother had divorced her father and married another man when she was 8. Work brought her step-father to Michigan a few years ago, so she went to Michigan State to live with them and to see what it was like to live somewhere besides the city.

  She told Neil the story of how her older brother was killed in a mugging when she was younger. He bled out in the hospital. Emma blamed the loss of her brother on the incompetence of the hospital staff. That was her inspiration to become a nurse. She decided she was going to make sure no one else had to lose someone due to sheer incompetence the way she did.

  Neil told her his life story – how he decided that he was going to join the Army but didn’t know why, how he went to Michigan State for no reason at all, and how he wanted to study computers because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

  “Wow, sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.” She joked.

  “Well, I never really decided to do any of the things I’ve done. They just kind of happened. Almost like it was fate or something.”

  “So what, are you a Buddhist or something?”

  “No, nothing like that. I have just always felt like there was some big purpose for me, and that sooner or later I would find out what it was. Especially lately.” Neil could tell he was starting to talk too much.

  “What do you mean? Why especially lately?” She sounded very curious. At least she was actually paying attention to what he was saying.

  “Oh, nothing in particular. I just feel like I have more control lately, and everything is falling into place, you know? Graduation is lined up already, I have a job, and I’m discovering more about myself every day.” For some reason, Emma was really easy to talk to. Something about her eyes made her easy to trust. It could have also been the 8 or 9 beers he drank at Ross’s party.

  “That’s great! Having control over your life is the secret to happiness. I had a pretty…rough childhood, but being here at school has given me a lot of independence. I’m a lot happier here. It seems like the people here are a lot nicer too, like you.” She looked up at him and smiled. When she said that, Neil’s heart started fluttering, and he felt his face get bright red.

  They finally arrived at McDonalds, and the mood that was built up from their earlier conversation was broken by the long line of drunk college kids waiting to get food and being obnoxious. One guy was giving a drunk sorority girl a piggy back ride around the restaurant while she slapped him on the ass and yelled “Faster, faster!” until he tripped over a seat and they both fell over. His friends thought it was hilarious. She didn’t.

  After the commotion and the line died down, Neil and Emma ordered their food and sat down at the least messy table they could find. They spent a few minutes making jokes about the crazy people around them. There was a lull in the conversation, and the awkward silence made Neil try to think of something to say. Neil wasn’t sure what he was thinking, or why he decided to say it, but he started to tell Emma what had happened to him.

  “Can I ask you something, and promise you won’t think I’m crazy?” he asked.

  “Oh, crazy doesn’t bother me. I grew up around crazy. What’s up?” Her open-mindedness made this easy. That was probably a bad thing. He could tell he was making a bad decision, but it was too late.

  “Have you ever done anything, but you didn’t know how you did it, and you couldn’t explain it?”

  She looked at him curiously.

  “I don’t follow. What did you do?” He told her about his weird dream, the shampoo bottle, the water fountain, and the clock. He left out what happened to the TV and what he did in the woods after realizing he was starting to sound insane.

  “That is strange. I’d probably think I was going crazy too if that happened. Weird stuff happens to everybody. It’s probably just a coincidence. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just…it’s been on my mind all day. I guess I just wanted someone to talk to about it.” Neil wanted so bad to tell her what happened in the woods. He just knew that she would believe him. Something about telling her what had happened was comforting.

  Emma looked at her phone to check the time, and Neil did the same. They both started speaking at the same time.

  “Well…” Emma continued, “I should get headed home. I have a lot of studying to do this weekend. Let me know if you want to hang out some time. I’m on Facebook. Emma Snow, look me up!”

  Neil didn’t want that night to end, but he was getting groggy from the alcohol, and there were too many things on his mind to be able to entertain her for much longer. They walked togethe
r back to her house.

  Emma lived in a nice neighborhood quite a ways off campus. Her father apparently worked for the University as a professor, so she lived with her family. By the look of the house she lived in, her father must have been doing pretty well for himself. Their two story house had an almost unnaturally green lawn and a cobblestone walkway leading up to the door. Even in the dead of night, he could see that it must have been worth at least half-a-million.

  He wondered if it would be creepy if he tried to kiss her, decided it definitely would be, and wished her goodnight.

  He walked back to his house alone. Bryan was sitting on the couch asleep with a video game controller still in his hand. Alex’s car was gone. Presumably, he had gone home to his parents’ house for the weekend. Neil turned off the lights, went upstairs, and climbed into bed.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Hitchens!”

  Neil heard his name in the distance, but his eyes were closed. He didn’t know where this sound was coming from.

  “Hitchens, wake up! They’re coming!”

  Neil realized his eyes were closed because he was asleep. He opened them to find a figure over him, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. As his vision cleared, he could clearly see that the figure was a man who was wearing an Army uniform with a Kevlar helmet and protective vest. He could also see that he was not in his bedroom anymore. He didn’t know where he was, but he sensed the urgency in the man’s voice, and knew that they needed him.

  He got out of bed and found himself fully clothed in a uniform as well. He did not have a vest or helmet, but he somehow knew that it did not matter. They were not necessary.