Friday, January 11, 2008
The Day She Discovered Her Superpower
July 4th 1984 started like all the other 4th of Julys she had experienced in her 14 years. Flags were proudly displayed on every lawn, dogs barked in yards and kids played on the sidewalks. They were heading to the parade that morning and then going over to the O’Malley’s for a bar-b-que and swim party. The parade was fun and she got a huge bag of candy. At 14 she was just on the verge of being too old for parades and bags of candy but for this one last summer she was still a kid that was until she discovered her power that afternoon at the pool party. It all started innocently enough. She realized as she was changing in the bathroom at the O’Malley’s that she had forgotten her t-shirt that she always wore over her swimsuit. Her mother who had always thought it strange she would wear a t-shirt to swim in told her to get changed and forget about the t-shirt. So that is what she did and when she walked out of the bathroom that day it was the first time that anyone in the last three years would see her without a bag shirt and they were surprised. The body in the swimsuit was that of a woman. At 14 she was still embarrassed by her shape and had tried, successfully since developing to hide it all behind large shirts. But in her swimsuit she was exposed and embarrassed, but the embarrassment went away quickly when Tommy O’Malley asked her to join his team for water volleyball. Tommy was the eldest O’Malley boy and at 17 with his beach blond looks he was popular with the girls and he had never in the 8 years she had known him ever given her the slightest acknowledgement, but today was different. She was different and she quickly realized the power she had been hiding behind that t-shirt. Over the next several years she would use that power without thought, she became very popular with the boys and liked the attention she got when she wore a low cut top. As the years passed and she got older and wiser she realized that the true power of her weapons was in knowing when to use them and when to conceal them.
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12 comments:
Those years around the age of 14 are hard for a girl. Everything changes so fast. I remember all too well.
Very interesting time in a girl's life - I think that boys probably experience similar changes - glad you learned how to use your wiles, or not! Nice post!
Nice take on the prompt ... the transition from girl to woman is such a critical one. In that period of change, it is important to teach our girls how to adjust to the "power" or new tools they have at their disposal. Hope your weekend is going well. Cheers & peace, JP/deb
Hmmm...some photos would be helpful...;)
Nice post. You write beautifully.
That was a delightful read.
God, I remember thsoe T-shirts! What power and freedon to take them off!
the true power of her weapons was in knowing when to use them and when to conceal them.
I wish someone would candidly tell our fashion, sex-crazed young women today that it ain't sexy to show all your goods all the time. Revealing at the right time with the right person is sexy and empowering.
at14 life rocks in a bathing suit...well, for some...that was empowering....amen...
Poor Tommy, smitten by the big guns. Man, I know exactly how he feels.
I forgot to say, I liked the protagonist too, BTW. Powerful, yet judicious. Good qualities, both. Seems like the sort of character I could enjoy getting to know a lot better...
O.K., final thought: your story sort of reminds me of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, an old cold war notion that most of the power of nuclear weapons derives not from their actual battlefield tactical use, per se, but rather the prospect that they MIGHT be used--a thought too horrible even to contemplate.
The same may be said of the power behind this superheroine's weapons too, in a way, although with the crucial difference that the greatest aspirations of the "enemy" in this case are to promote, rather than avoid, a degree of escalation such that the weapons would be unholstered and put to use in direct hand-to...well, uh, whatever...combat.
“Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts”
Mao Tse-Tung quotes
Weapons can often be used to subdue and not destory.
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