What Would Mama Say?

“How did I end up with a daughter like you?” she said as she shook her head at my latest findings.

Grinning while I raised the scruffy, odd-looking bones I had scavenged out of old Manny’s abandoned shack, I winked as I responded.

“You know I am the perfect daughter for you, Mama. Admit it already.”

She failed to hide her smile as she rolled her eyes and wiped her hands on her polka-dot apron. Then she turned to the range to continue stirring the mouthwatering gravy that I was already salivating over.

She raised her face upward like she was talking to the water-stained ceiling. “Remind me why You couldn't have let my daughter be obsessed with things like playing house and dress-up? Why is my little girl so obsessed with digging things up and running after that funk-head Manny?”

Manny was our retired archeologist neighbour. He was the one who gave me my first tool kit on my birthday. I have had quite a collection since then.

My grin widened as I wrapped my hands around her. I answered cheekily, “Because soon enough, my dear mother, your daughter would soon become a world-famous archeologist who would make every mama jealous.

She smiled as she laddled some of the gravy for me.

“You had better.”

*****

Thirteen Years Later

As I lay in the throes of whatever that damn object had done to me, I wondered what Mama would say.

“Am I going to die?” I wondered as I twitched madly in the grip of the tingling sensation running through me since I had touched it.

I have not even managed to become famous yet nor have I made her rich like I always promised. What with the school loans and mortgage I am still paying off. I am going to die and she would be right after all.

I should have played house and listened to her.

I can feel it pulsing within me. Another heartbeat different from mine. When our organisation sent my team and me to the Kiribati enchanted fortress, I didn't think I would be lying flat on my back feeling another heartbeat inside me.

I should have known when we saw the three-foot-tall crystalline orb emitting a faint, pulsing glow in the cave that it was trouble.

My team had wanted us to document it from afar and turn right back but I have never been one for sloppy jobs. How could I have known that the strange energy of the orb would fuse with mine? A thunderclap sound was the last thing I heard before I was flung here. I don't even know where my…

“My team!” My mind screamed as I thought of what could have happened to them.

“Dr. Ray!” I heard faint voices as I surprisingly was able to move.

I saw Murphy running ahead of the others. Oh, great, they were okay.

Then I saw him back away as I stood up. His eyes widened as Claire comically skidded to a stop behind him.

“What?” My voice sounded strange to me.

“You…you…” Claire in all her brilliance couldn't say more than that as she pointed at me, then pointed downward with her head bobbing up and down and her eyes as wide as saucers.

My blood ran cold as I looked downward and saw what the problem was.

I was standing…but I was not standing!

My feet were two inches off the dirt-packed ground.

I was… floating?!

Not only that, my whole body was haloed by that strange glow!

The same one coming from the orb earlier!

An unbidden scream erupted out of my chest in a guttural sound.

*******

She had taken it more calmly than I did. I still think it was because I was panicking enough for ten people. She was the strongest person I have ever known. My Mama.

She called me her hero and even sewed me a cape.

While the scientists were racking their brains to know what had happened to me in that fortress, she coerced me out of my despairing mood.

“You can see this as a gift or a curse. Which is it going to be?” she said.

She supported me when I said I wanted to use my newfound powers for good.

Not only could I fly but my strength had doubled as well. What hurt others didn't hurt me and I have not fallen sick in over a year that I have had this.

Instead of sitting around like a lab rat waiting for when the researchers would come for more samples, I got back to work.

Then I did more. I had a sort of agreement with the cops too.

Me, a crime fighter, can you believe it?

I still didn't accept the label of being called a superhero, yet as I caught up to two robbers taking the cops on a goose chase, I damn well felt like one.

“Hey, park up nicely, gentlemen,” I said in a bored tone as I landed on the hood of their car.

The shock of my appearance made the driver lose control and that was more than enough time for the cops to catch up with them.

As I flicked my cape behind me while watching the cops cuff them, I realised that Mama was right after all. I am a superhero and I shouldn't forget that.

I called her on my way back to my brand-new, mortgage-free house.

“You always know the right thing to say, mama”

I said the moment she picked up the call.