I woke up this morning with a slight headache. December 21st. Maybe I slept awkwardly… so I stretched my legs, rotated my head to the left and right, and moved my hips to loosen any tightness, crooks, or stiffness. I’m over 40… shit needs a reset most mornings. I kicked my legs out of the covers and off of the edge of the bed and raised off the pillow as my toes simultaneously hit the cool floor. A chill hit me, as I stood up and slid my glasses onto my face. I walked that too familiar twenty step trip to the bathroom, and said aloud… “Warm weather, drinks in coconuts, and beaches please.” I blinked twice as I hit the bathroom threshold. I stepped one foot in…

***

And my toes sunk and my eyes popped open like Jack in the boxes. My head was tilted down, but still almost blinded by the light. I felt heat and a droplet of sweat along my forehead, and as things came into focus I saw my feet, my toes hidden beneath an expanse of light brown sand. I watched water bubble up around my feet and wash away the sand as I wiggled my toes. I look up and there was water as far as my eyes could see. Two people frolicked past me and walked into the water until it was waist high. I turned to my right to see sparsely filled beach chairs, kids pouring the same stand I stood on from one bucket to another. I closed my eyes again, and reopened them… and now the bead of sweat was running down my nose. I reached down, expecting to touch cold tile but my fingers sank into the sand, and when I brought my hand together and lifted it up, the sand escaped from between my fingers like brown sugar, but not sticky. I walked toward the water bubbling up along the shore, and when the water washed past my ankle, I realized I was awake… not dreaming… not even daydreaming. A woman with a kid in hand walked up next to me.

I turned towards her, “It’s so nice to be in errr uhh… uhhh, I’m having a brain fart.”
She smiled and responded, “St. Thomas… I get the islands mixed up too sometimes.”

Oh my God…

I waited until she walked past me, and I did my happy dance. Thoughts and places ran through my head like Carl Lewis. I said aloud. “I want to see the Coliseum.” I closed my eyes. I still felt sand, and opened one eye to confirm. Damn now how did this shit work before. “I want to see the Coliseum in Rome.” I did the bewitched thing with my nose… nothing. “I want to see the Coliseum in Rome.” I blinked once. Ohhhhh shit, I remember. “I want to see the Coliseum in Rome.” Two blinks.

***

Noise. Loud noise. I opened my eyes, and a Vespa whizzed past me. I looked down and moved my feet. I was standing on concrete. I could hear horns and talking, people going on bags, cameras clicking, and phones ringing. I looked up and the sign and read it aloud “Piazza del Colosseo”. I lifted my foot off the hard street… wear shoes next time… and moved my ankle around. As I put it back down, someone rushed past me and I hurriedly put my foot down to keep from falling…pain raced up my foot to my leg. I again lifted my bare foot to see a rock underneath. Next time DEFINITELY wear shoes Karyn. I bent down to pick up the rock, and as I rose I turned towards the street. My eyes surely lit up like Christmas and got as big as saucers, as before me, more monstrously large than my mind could ever imagine, three stories of carved arches, the mastery of its architecture…

“What did you get” I heard as I felt a soft breath close to my ear. I turned towards the voice. He was tall, dark, modestly handsome.
“Uhhh who are you?”
”Mark but I call myself Black Mask,” he opened his backpack and inside was, yep you guessed it, a black mask, “ This was in my hand when I woke up. I’m not totally sure what all I can do yet.”
“I can teleport.” I said as I looked down at my bare feet, “ but I clearly I need to go get my shoes.” We laughed, and when the laughter subsided I blinked twice.

****

I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Ma, are you going to the bathroom cuz I gotta go.”

I didn’t speak I just moved out of the way. He closed the door. Stop daydreaming. I felt something in my palm, and as I opened my fingers from their grasp, there was that rock I stepped on.

Oh SHIT! That shit was real. I can teleport!!!! I hit a few more happy dancess, and “Wow” escaped from my mouth. “You wanna see wow, watch this,” my son mumbled from the other side of the bathroom door. The door seemed to blur a bit, and I wiped my eyes. Now I’m seeing things?!? As my hand cleared my right eye, I shook my head and looked again as I saw feet and arms extended out of the wood until his body emerged fully through the door. “I’d have rather invisibility, but I’ll take it. This is gonna be a greater winter break!”

WTF… The kid too!!!!

As he walked through his bedroom door, he paused and turned to me, “Oh, I’m gonna go by Sir Atom, you gotta come up with a name. And tonight there’s a superpower party, and the invite says Dr. Sebi’s Smoothie truck will be there. Your invite is in your email.”

He then disappeared into his room.

A name… a name…. hmmmm. The ability to travel across the land, over the seas, and through thin air, in a blink. They call me Trinity Beam.

I can teleport. This dude is intangible. What superpower did you get? Naw don’t tell me now, just show me later. I can’t wait to get me a Dr. Sebi smoothie tho… see y’all tonight!