I see ill people: A Scary SuperPower
A reality told with fantasy words
In the last couple of weeks, I've realised I have developed a supernatural ability. Of course, it came not without the bite of a spider. I went through some kind of evolution process, but at the time, I couldn't imagine I would turn out to acquire a real superpower.
My first encounter with the SuperPower was at work. Unexpectedly, I met an acquaintance of mine: a middle-aged man who some time back had helped me with a project. We said our hellos and he invited me and another worker for a coffee. And all of a sudden, my world changed. It came as a strange feeling, and then, just like a soothsayer, a vision came to my eyes and cleared my mind with details of a hidden reality.
I heard his heart aching telling me in a whisper how much it struggles to beat. Then, his skin glowed in a yellowish tone letting me know there was light trying to get out. Something told me to pay closer attention and so I focussed on his words, on his movements. He, a coffee-lover, was refusing to have a cup, and instead chose a cold refreshment. Instead of doing his dynamic style walk, he seemed to stumble at every step. I eventually came to a conclusion: he must have a cardiac condition that is giving him trouble.
But what a rude question would that one be! I could not ask him up front. So I just went around it inquiring about other stuff until he finally confessed it. Yes, I was totally right, and in fact, they were recent news to him. He had just found out about it, and he was soon going to be surgically intervened to remedy any worsening.
After that, I had other situations in which my mind offered me more pictures of a nearby future, and sometimes, the past. Like when I was talking to this neighbour of mine, a hardworking woman, who had a full-time job and took care of her house and her old auntie all by herself because, and I quote, "my husband has enough with his job". She told me about this while baking a traditional cake and brewing coffee for another two people who were sitting at the table. Again, my superpower revealed itself, and felt a tingling in my body right before I saw the shade of cancer in her face. I was trying to shake it off when she went on with her monologue and told me she was never the same since she had a mastectomy due to the breast cancer she fought a few years ago. I shivered, scared of myself and this new power.
The last episode was last night. At a party I attended I met this man who knew my mother when she was little. I noticed he felt very comfortable with a superficial conversation but incredibly uncomfortable when I opened the wrong door and asked him what my mother was like when she was young. At his awkward reaction, I remember having thought that it seemed as though he was about to take off. There was some mist originating from his feet and creating a little cloud in which he appeared to float.
It was obvious he couldn't bear to touch the floor, especially with one of his feet. He kept on changing his weight from hip to hip and lifting it in the air inflating his lungs above the natural capacity. At this point, a smell arrived in my nostrils and gave me the message I was soon going to decode. A demon was struck on his leg and it was casting a sulfuric odour. You can not be taken seriously in our world with this kind of magical explanation, so my power granted me a more sensible one: this man had to have an infected vascular ulcer.
Having never met this man before last night, I dare not to question about the matter. However, someone else did comment on the fact that all the standing he was doing, was quite likely going to become an issue the following morning for he had a "bad leg".
The answer to the mystery of this new ability is in West Africa. A couple of years ago I underwent a severe episode of mental illness. A terrible experience in which my mindset shifted significantly. At first, I believed I was bitten by a spider that gave me this superpower but it turned out it was some energy from far beyond getting through my body so I could be reborn as a healer. Or that is the shamanic view of mental illness, at least.
"The person going through the (mental) crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm" says Dr. Somé (West African Shaman)
Imagine my surprise went I realised I was chosen by the spirits to fulfil such a role. I feel fortunate for it but I regret the heavy toll it imposes on me, as I see the illness in people but I do not have any actual magical power to heal them. I often found myself in gloom because I spent too much time surrounded by the sick. To see through the layers that paint this world and be able to catch the truth from behind, I must feel the pain they endure. This undesirable side effect, I must admit, often endeavours to hold this power as much as penitence as it is a gift.
In other more believable words: The knowledge I collected during my ten years in the work field of nursing, plus the recently acquired consciousness that having overcome a mental illness has providedFollow my stories! me, have resulted in the capacity to use the excess of empathy to read those small details that give so much information. The benefits of the sensitivity that today I enjoy thanks to my practised awareness come not without sensory overload consequences that reduce my tolerance to the healthcare environment I used to frequent. Nevertheless, I am glad I can see better and hopefully use it in some other way to aid our world.
Follow my stories! Follow my imagination!
