FICTION | SHORT STORY | FANTASY
The one who could see her path to the top!
A coming of age story about how Mylah Mahan found her purpose and her superpower!
Prologue ( for a short story!)
She turned 36 in Earth years and struggled to discover her power or the best ways to use what strength she had.
Oh, sorry, where are my manners.
Hello! I was referring to Mylah Mahan, and I am NaiNai, her emotional support animal. Cough..alien..cough. We landed on this wet planet when Mylah was just an infant.
Many of her peers who settled on this planet seem to have discovered one super power or another. At least they have carved a niche for themselves. Some became superheroes, some became supervillains. Yes, nothing much has changed. They just brought their rivalry down here to Earth as well!
Did you know there is a new crop of teenage superheroes these days!? All thanks to Neithu, who has a superpower to engineer and produce a super baby every third month!
Oh! I am digressing. Let me get back to our momentous walk around the park.
“What am I doing on this planet, NaiNai !? What is my purpose in life?!” Mylah Maaha questioned while peering into the sky and wistfully waiting for a response.
She tried out almost everything and is yet to discover her purpose!
During her time on Earth, she served in a couple of wars, just to be disillusioned by wanton destruction and loss of life.
She tried to make a change by entering the corporate world. But exited as fast as she entered.
They seem to be all about YoY profit in the name of changing the world, even if it meant selling your soul to the Jimarkodians (Ji-maar-kodians, the dreadful soul eaters). I didn’t know a soul could be sold until I came to Earth, and that too at such a low price!
“Now I am just selling coffee to pesky customers and walking dogs for Iraiva’s sake!” she said as we were strolling in a park and taking dogs from our neighborhood for a stroll.
“Woof Woof!” I replied, trying to convey my disappointment and not scare the other dogs.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean you NaiNai. What do you think I should do?”
“Wooof woof wooof woof!”
“Give it some time! Give it some time?! How much more time?”
“Wooof woff woof!”
“Oh yes, I can sense it too.”
Our discussion or introspection was interrupted by a few Earthlings aimlessly walking around staring into their goddamn devices attached to their faces.
One of them was a few steps away from bumping into an elderly gentleman who might land on the crosswalk face first!
Mylah could see that his fall causes some kind of butterfly effect. It starts off with a bus breaking off suddenly and trigger a chain of events that ends up with thousands of people losing their savings on the stock market and a collapse of a couple of buildings way down in Florida.
Oh! I forgot to tell you. Mylah has a nascent ability to see a chain of events.
To put it simply, imagine evaluating moves in a chess game before choosing an optimal one and adapting over time. Mylah can do that zillion times in a second. Well, not yet, though!
“Wooff woof aaooooooh….,” I tried to trigger that howling cycle to ask Mylah to intervene.
“NaiNai, stop it! The odds of that happening is only 1 in 1000. I should not intervene and let things go with the flow.”
“Woof woof,” now I urged the other dogs to join me and nudge her.
“Okay, I will do it!” she rushed in a hurry to intervene and prevent the elderly gentleman from the possibility of falling.
“Bless you, my girl! I might have ended up in a hospital if not for you.”
“It was unlikely, Sir. But thank you nonetheless.”
“Where are those superheroes when you need them?”
“They are busy rescuing the Universe, Sir. While they are at it, we need to help each other.”
“Even the friendly neighborhood ones do not have time to protect this neighborhood anymore. I wish there was someone who helps marginal people like me too! What is the use of living on the richest and most powerful planet in the Universe when I cannot afford to stay close to my grandchildren or stand in line for hours to get a prescription filled. What is ..”
He was about to continue with his monologue about how bad things were and how helpless he was when was interrupted by Mylah.
“Oh! By the way Sir, I think you need to choose 34, 36, 73, 21, 41, 12 when you are playing Powerball today!” she advised hoping it might help cover his financial woes.
“Okay, I will try and remember it! 34, 36, 73, 21,41,12, right? And you remember to look into the mirror at 8:00 PM today!” said the elderly gentleman as he walked away with an all-knowing smile.
“Woof woof?!”
“Mirror?! Yeah, it was weird!”
We continued with our business by letting the rest of the dogs do theirs on the way back home.
Epilogue (for a short story!!)
Two years have passed since that elderly gentleman won the Powerball draw.
And two years have passed since Mylah watched herself transform in front of the mirror.
She is 38 Earth years old now. Ever since she came of age, she could view and process zillions of chains of events and choose the most suitable one to achieve the final outcome.
After a long wait, she got the response to her question, What am I doing on this planet!? What is my purpose in life?
Two years have passed, and she became the first female President of the Unified Nations of Earth. She sat down at the table that had the Presidential seal carved on it and motioned the audience that included reporters, a few superheroes, and members of the public like the old gentleman who, by the way, was in the audience too, to sit down.
She signed a slew of executive orders and policies that were part of the chain of events she saw while looking into the mirror that evening!
After signing those orders, she shook hands with the audience, handed out those pens, and came over to give me a hug.
Yes, in case you are still wondering, I am stuck as the Presidential dog!
