Sunday, March 29, 2015

#142 Roadworker 2

The next morning my brain didn’t feel quite so overheated anymore. I lay in bed, trying to see the map in my head again. I could remember it, each road a shining thread, some thick and bright, some faint and wispy, all of them woven together and spread out like a blanket. But I couldn’t really see it, not the way I had yesterday afternoon when I was biking home from my friend’s house.

I kept trying, all the time I was making my bed and brushing my teeth, trying to find all my homework, and packing my lunch. Part of me was thinking it had all been my imagination, that I’d just been daydreaming and suddenly found myself in front of my house, when I’d been at least twenty minutes away only a second before.

Nah, I’d checked my watch. Something had happened. This was real.

I was still thinking about it as I wheeled my bike, a piece of toast in my mouth, down to the curb. As soon as my foot hit the asphalt, a faint glimpse of the map flashed into my head.

I froze, and it disappeared.

I took another step on the road, and there it was again, the map, very faint in my mind. It faded a little as I hopped onto my bike, then grew stronger as I pedaled. The faster I went, the brighter the road threads shone.

It was giving me a headache.

I pushed the rest of the toast into my mouth, gave a few chews, and swallowed. I was ready to try teleporting again. I gripped my handlebars hard, and found the place on the map where a road thread passed right in front of the school. Trying to remember what I’d done yesterday, I took hold of it with my mind and bent it toward the place where I was pedaling my bike.

It bent a little, but then snapped right back into place. Pulling on it hurt my head, like using a sore muscle.

Maybe the school was too far away. I looked for a closer spot, something easy, and settled on the end of the street. I reached out, gave the road thread a little tug, and whoosh, the whole street flew by.

I slammed on my brakes, my head throbbing. No way. What good was having super teleporting powers if it made me feel like I’d bashed my head into a wall? It hadn’t hurt like this yesterday.

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