part 9: day four

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

I was #5KJ^♠︎, a dental nurse in Freiburg (im Breisgau), because there is another Freiburg in Switzerland. One of my friends met his partner online who is from Freiburg and when they finally wanted to meet in real life… he went to the wrong Freiburg. 

I followed the story of The Pod intently and was planning to clear my off days to visit The Pod but I was always caught up with something else; my parents and brother discouraged me to go too, and my friends think it would just be a waste of time. My boss also thought it was a bad idea and even playfully threatened to cut my pay if I were to make the trip. Hmm I might be describing them as being toxic but they were actually just looking out for me, since I am probably the clumsiest person they know. So clumsy that a solo trip to Rursee that is less than 500 kilometres away could worry them. They do not trust me to drive there, since I for some reason always forget to turn on the lights and signal when I want to turn (it was a miracle that I passed the driving test). To get there by train, there are at least three train changes and after the incident in Italy two years ago when I had to sleep at a train station and nearly got robbed, that is also a no-go. And no one wanted to accompany me! 

So I had the livestream on at all times —— even when I was working or sleeping —— nothing much happened most of the time anyway, it was just a sphere-shaped thing and a lot of people. When That Man appeared… I was assisting a patient who had a very bad wisdom tooth infection, who was also crying because of the pain. My boss tried her best to console him while working to relieve the pain but the patient was inconsolable so I had to step in to distract him. Apparently he too was a Podder¹ and expressed an interest to visit The Pod (my boss winked at me; I blushed a little), then I went to retrieve my phone to give him updates on The Pod. I yelped because I saw the steam stream and the opened pod. The dental service had to then be paused for a bit while we went online to understand what we have missed because of his stupid wisdom tooth. There was a news site that provided updates every five minutes: 

Very informative. No one seemed to really know what happened and his mouth started hurting again at the disappointment, so we resumed work. He came back to the clinic a bit more frequent after that than he had to and we chatted a little more. He was sweet —— he got me flowers.

Then we had superpowers. He was a Levitator, and brought me to the top of the cathedral once at night; the view was magnificent. However, I then got sidetracked and also a little depressed because I did not have a super skill. I combed the SKK and checked if I could do the things listed on it; I could not. 

The day before I was invited to TCO, I finally discovered my superpower. I had to go to my bank advisor and the bank sports glass doors which I absolutely hate because I always knock myself into it; even though I visit my optician regularly to make sure my glasses are up to date with my eyesight. This time, it did not happen. It appeared that I could penetrate walls or any solids that could otherwise physically harm an average human person. I did have to “activate” the power because or else I would fall through the ground and come out on the other side of the planet, haha. 

Another advantage that came with it was that I no longer had to worry about forgetting my keys; which used to happen almost once every fortnight that my landlord gave me two extra sets of keys to pass to my friends/neighbours. The guy I was seeing turned out to be a delinquent and upon knowing my superpower, attempted to persuade me to steal money from a money vault. I broke contact. 

It sure was a bummer because it felt promising and I did grow fond of him, but is it not true that men always disappoint. Thank you, next. 

I did not have much time to contemplate a useful activity that I can contribute to the society. It was a Saturday, which means I did not have to work: so I called all of the locksmiths in town (I required their services in the past), explained the situation, promised them an eighty percent cut; and thus I was the better locksmith for a day. 

1. please see part 2; but we do not consider ourselves worshippers, just huge fans ↩︎

to be continued…