Colleen sighed and sat on the ledge of a building opposite a
bustling coffee house. All she needed was a doctor, just one doctor,
ideally a doctor that specialized in mutants, but she would take what
she could get.
"I think, maybe, you don't need a doctor." Olivia said in her head.
"You would say that." Colleen mumbled
"Of
course I would, I'm right. If it's my voice in your head that worries
you, then you don't need a doctor, you need a psychologist. But a
psychologist would tell you that I am assuredly a person and not a
manifestation of your brain."
"I don't think so."
The
coffee shop was her best guess at a hope of running into a doctor,
doctors loved coffee, right? They must drink a gallon a day just to stay
awake through all that boring medical stuff.
Colleen
watched as a well dressed man approached holding a paper cup of coffee
with the coffee house logo half covered by his hand. She slid the glove
off her hand and as he passed by, she brushed her finger against his
hand.
Surprised, the man stumbled, and
spilled his hot beverage on his hand. "****ing bums" He yelled at her,
wiping his wet hand on his pants.
Colleen
ignored him and focused on making sense of the new information about the
man. He was not a doctor, but rather some kind of writer for a
marketing department and he had an unhealthy obsession with pop music
for teenage girls and eww.. Colleen banished the thought from her mind.
Silently
she reflected on what he had said to her. She wasn't a bum, sure she
was homeless, but it was a temporary setback. Sure, she was unemployed,
but that would change as soon as she found a decent place to live and
could start taking daily showers again. She didn't want to be
homeless, it's not like she chose this life, even if it was a temporary
one.
She just needed to see a doctor and
take care of her crazy then she'd get a place to live and then she could
look at jobs. It was an easy plan, a sure fire way to getting back on
her feet.
Colleen spied a woman in a white
blouse holding coffee headed her way. She just needed to find one
doctor. Colleen readied her ungloved hand and as the woman passed, she
reached out and-
The shock sent Colleen backwards forcefully enough that the window she had been leaning against was now a cracked spider-web.
Though
her head ached thunderously, Colleen looked to see what had happened.
The woman was in the middle of the street, stopped cars surrounded her
and horns filled the air. "Oh my goodness." Colleen whispered to
herself.
"What the hell was that?" Olivia roared in her head as she dashed to the woman to help her up.
"You stupid idiot." The woman growled at Colleen as she tried top help her up.
"I
didn't mean for that to happen, I don't think I even have that power.
But you must have-" Colleen stopped and understood. "You're a mutant
too!"
"Shut up! I'm not. But clearly you are! Just another homeless freak bothering normal people."
"But."
"Go away freak."
Dejected,
Colleen returned to the ledge she had previously occupied. A small
crowd had formed but now that the action was over it was dispersing.
"I didn't catch everything, do you really think she was a mutant?"
"She had to be." Colleen said at normal talking volume. "I don't have electric powers."
"Makes sense, but so much for your hopes of mutant community."
"Yeah."
