If I'm Superman, Where's the Kryptonite?

If I'm Superman, Where's the Kryptonite? 

Sometimes bad things happen to bad people. Sometimes it happens to good people, too. People like me. People like him. I’ve never really thought about death or the afterlife, so I have no clue how, in moments like this, when your life is in terrible danger, you manage to see your whole life and almost think you understand death, in less than five seconds. So I’ll tell you what happened. It’s only fair, right? It might happen to you. You can never see these things happening…

My name is Darla Marie Ann. It’s my dream to be a doctor. Right now’s it’s only about the second week of summer vacation. Mami had given me a day of freedom, so I wandered to the park. I was thinking when I saw, in the corner of my eyes, a black spark. No, it was like a bug in the corner of my vision. The speck was bigger than I’d thought and blue-tinged. It was followed by a rushing noise. I looked up and only saw a flash and heard the boom as it hit the ground. I ran after it, into the woods. The ground shook under me as it hit the ground. I ran faster. I came to a small clearing and saw the meteor to the side of it. The meteor had smashed its way through three trees and dug a furrow in the Earth. The meteor was about the size of a small dog. It didn’t glow, like on television, but it radiated heat. Then he came out from some bushes. His name was Casey Melbourne Walker and he had heavily gelled, messy, black hair with an easy-going face and a black leather jacket. His eyes were wide in shock. He faced me.

“What’s this? Who’re you?” His voice hardened to the grim, steel-edged tone I would learn so well. His hands kept tightening into fists nervously. I tried to keep my eyes off the meteor, but I wanted to get closer to it, to inspect it. Maybe in the back of my mind, I knew this was the most amazing thing that would ever happen to me. Maybe the rock already had its radioactive claws in me.

 “It’s a meteor. I just saw it fly out of the sky.” My voice was high-pitched with shock and terror. He turned away from me, hiding from an awkward situation. I backed away slowly, but for each step I took, he took a step closer to it.

“Don’t!” I cautioned, but I don’t think he heard me. I watched as he walked forward and gently touched the meteor. I grabbed his elbow, noting how I felt a twinge of jealousy that he could touch the meteor and I wouldn’t let myself. But wasn’t it burning just a few seconds ago? The meteor didn’t feel warm anymore. Nothing cools that fast, my scientific mind whispered to me. I felt like I was watching this from a movie, everything just happened. One minute I was holding myself back, the next, I had both hands on the meteor, feeling the bumpy, smooth, dried-lava-like surface. Suddenly, a branch from the tree above us fell with a snap and hit the meteor. That was how I found out that the rock was still burning, but neither of us could feel it. The branch was the size of my forearm and already dead. The branch hit the meteor and burst into flames. Casey and I stared at each other in shock then backed away quickly. He turned and ran, suddenly, into the woods the way he’d come. I turned and ran back to the park, cutting through it to my house. I threw open the door and slammed it closed, my mami looked at me in annoyance. I mumbled an apology and ran up the stairs.

“Hun, you okay? You’ve been in your room since morning, Chiquita.” Mami asked around noon, smoothing the hair out of my face.

“Mami, I feel sick.” I said truthfully. My stomach felt queasy and my head was killing me. Death-by-Headache. She felt my forehead and clicked her tongue.

“Baby, you do feel warm. Go to bed.” She left, closing the door quietly and I lapsed into a terrified, nightmare-filled sleep. The next day, I felt more tired than I had the day before. Mami came in. “You feeling better?”

“Yes, Mami.” I said obediently, not wanting to make her worry.

“Good. Then you can work.” My mouth dropped open at her reasoning.