Freaks

13 Years Later

Hattie was now 31 years old. It was now in 2002. Her life was messy. Jane, her roommate since college was always telling her to stop working and to take a break, but she never listened. Jane was always trying to set her up with

guys, which she politely declined. Hattie wanted to focus on her career. She was making comic books, designing art, and making stories as she'd always dreamed. She'd written two successful comic book series and was working on a third one. She rented a small workspace in a Chicago building where she spent most of her days. She had a white fold-up table surrounding the walls of the room. She had papers and ideas scattered around the tables and walked from table to table every thirty minutes to work on something. She was a busy, creative woman and she loved every minute of it. One day, she was drawing, gripping her pencil tightly. Everything was fine until her pencil felt light.

Very light, almost as if it were escaping her grip. She let go of it and watched it slowly float upwards. Her tables noiselessly lifted from the ground with all her papers, ideas, pencils, and colors rising in the air. Hattie sat in her chair at the center of the room.
"Took you long enough", she said, as a wide smile unfurled on her face.