Flabbergasted By Jake Vannicola

It was a one-way no-stop trip to our new home in Cleveland, Ohio. I was a little scared, very upset, and not at all happy about the trip. We were moving from our old home in Arizona because my mom wanted a new “pace of living.” We drove over two-thousand miles and it took us over thirty hours to get there. My dad looked like a zombie when he got out of the car because of all the sleep he did not get. The movers seemed fine, but I guess that they are used to not getting that much sleep. My mom took the boxes that were mine and put them in my arms. She said to me, “Marvin, pick a room and unpack.” Since I did not really care what room I got, I just opened a few doors and picked a room that did not have a toilet in it. I took out the stuff that I had packed away the day before and started to arrange it in my new room.

I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around and saw a box. “I do not remember seeing this box before,” I said to myself. I looked at the box and it said Marvin on it. It did not look like any handwriting that I had seen before. I started walking toward it-when it moved a little. I was amazed, interested, and scared all at the same time. The box moved again; this time I was extremely curious and had to see how a box could do such a thing as this. When I took a step toward the box, I saw a dim glimmer of light showing from within it. I took another step, and the box flew open as a bright light surged forth. I paused-then stepped closer, ever so carefully, cautioning myself to whatever the box might do next. I got on my knees and peered over the side. I felt a force that started to pull me in. It caught me off guard, but I realized what was happening in time to attempt to resist. The force became stronger, and I became weaker. Eventually I was conquered and sucked into the box, not knowing where I was or where I would be. I thought I was dead, or at least about to be.

When I came to, I was in my room, it was the next day. I scurried around trying to figure out what had happened. I ran into the kitchen where my mother was making breakfast. I asked her if she noticed anything strange yesterday, and she said, “The only thing that I thought was weird yesterday was that you slept for the whole day, I just figured that you were tired from the ride over here, so I just let you sleep.” I agreed, ate some breakfast, then returned to my room to ponder. I wasn’t quite sure what to ponder on. I know what happened, I just could not figure out why or more importantly… how.

I did not know what to do, so I decided to sleep on it. While I was sleeping, I dreamt that I was some kind of second-rate superhero. I could do all these things like fly, travel at supersonic speed, see tremendously, listen extraordinarily, and lift items of incredible weight easily. When I woke up, I was in my room. The only difference was that I was floating in my room. Floating around the room scared the pants right off of me. After putting my pants back on, I managed to get down from being airborne so I could get on my feet again. I went to open the door, but the doorknob got squashed in my hand. “Whoa!” I thought to myself, “This is exactly the kind of stuff that occurred in my dream.” I did not know how my parents would take it, so I declined to tell them. I just grabbed some money and ran to the hardware store to get a new doorknob. Since I did not really know where the store was, I ran all over the place trying to find one. I never did find a store that sold doorknobs, so I did not know what else to do but to run back to Arizona with my supersonic speed. I knew where everything was in Arizona, so I could certainly find a place that would sell me a couple of doorknobs. I ran there, got a doorknob, ran back, and installed the doorknob in my door, all before my parents called me down for breakfast. When my parents wanted me down for breakfast, I moved as carefully as possible, trying not to do anything that would give away that I had acquired these abilities. When I got into the kitchen, the light started to hurt my eyes. I tried to focus my vision, but it was not working. I finally just got tired of it and just opened my eyes as wide as I could. It was so painful at first, but after a second or two, my vision got back into focus. There were so many levels at which I could see things now, from seeing the table to seeing the atoms in the table. I ate some breakfast and then went outside where all of these diverse sounds started coming at me all at once. Things soon quieted down to where I could focus my attention into one specific area. I used my newfound abilities all day. When it was getting late, my mother told me to go to sleep. I figured that I should, since I could do some more stuff tomorrow.

While I was sleeping, I had another dream. There was a really old guy standing in front of me. He said, “Marvin, you have a duty to uphold. The powers that you were granted are not to be taken lightly. The gifts you were given today were only a test run so you could familiarize yourself with them. You shall be given the same gifts in future events, when they are needed. You have an obligation now to use these talents wisely. Remember, with immense might, comes immense accountability.”

I was about to say something to the man, but I woke up. I was in my bed, lost in thought on what the guy had said. I got out of bed and tried to fly, but it failed to work. Then I tried to run into the kitchen at supersonic speed, but when my parents saw me, I just looked like an idiot trying to run into the kitchen at supersonic speed. I just put my head down and ate breakfast. My mother started talking to me and said, “Today is the first day of school; how do you feel?” “I feel ok,” I said unenthusiastically. When I got to school, it was entirely different from my other school. All of the teachers were strict and the stuff we studied was weird. We were taught stuff like politics, government revisions, and business ethics. yuck! Due to a little of my persuasion tactics, I learned that the school was run by a corrupt politician who was also the principal. I learned that he wanted to see nothing more than little lawyers running around his feet, thanking him for his ways and teaching methods.

I went home and was instantly tired from all of the stuff that we were forced to learn for the day. When I fell asleep, all I could think about was hearing, lifting, and running, using all three for a common goal. When I got up in the morning, I had my extraordinary hearing, my supersonic speed, and my lifting of incredible weight back, but nothing else. When I had arrived at school, I saw the principal talking with someone. I tried to focus my hearing on that conversation, and learned that he had planned the termination of a train full of opposing voters in 2 minutes. I rushed to the train station (which took me a while since I did not quite know where it was at first) and ran along the railroad tracks until I found the train. I found the train, but I didn’t know what I was looking for on it. I ran alongside the train and used my hearing to discover a bomb ticking beneath it. I grabbed on to the side of the train by creating grooves on it for me to grab onto with my fingers. I slowly climbed under the train to discover the bomb. I ripped it from underneath the train and made my way from under it. I went and threw the bomb somewhere into Lake Erie where it exploded with no one in harm’s way. I know now what that guy in my dream was telling me now. I will get my powers back, but only when I absolutely need them. I should use them to the best I can be and when I can. I do not know why I have these abilities, but it’s my gift, my curse, my responsibility.