If ever there had been a time where it might have been useful for her to be able to hear as well as a bat, or be able to run at supersonic speed, or to fly, or to turn invisible, it might have been now, but it probably wasn’t. Neither May was in any mortal danger, nor was anyone around her. Though it would be incredibly entertaining to jump out of the window at this point, it would serve no other purpose than to be exactly that, entertaining. May and Andree both agreed that using superpowers just for that sake was hardly a just reason.

They had talked about this for hours. “If you had a superpower, what would it be?” asked Andree during a routine lie in the grass behind a row of trees near his house. It took May longer to answer than she thought it would. Usually she might have answered flying, but that would just be difficult, she decided. Flying between high buildings, getting bugs in your teeth, risking colliding with an airplane or a helicopter, people would think she was committing suicide. Other times she could have answered, hear as well as a bat, but when she thought about what that would mean, and what she would hear, she decided against that. Invisibility just seemed pointless to May. So she just shrugged in answer and posed the same question back.

“Hyper-intelligence!” Andree burst out with out thinking. -Damn, I wish I had thought of that.- “Honestly, wouldn’t that just be great, I mean, not that I really need it, but still…”
“Do you think anything would change for us if we got superpowers? I mean really?”
“Of course, I could finally do some real good in the world.”
“Yes, and I could finally set some of my evil plans into affect, but do you think you would do anything? Even though you don’t have any superpowers you still pick up trash, you still protest what you think is wrong, you’re involved in school and community organizing. Even though I’m not super-strong or super-smart, I am still evil, I still make plots, I still …”

Andree was silent. “…I’m not sure, but …” Her point was a good one, her point was a very good one.

They sat in silence for a long time, staring at the sun and the clouds and the birds and the planes that passed over their heads, thinking about what would change. They swatted at mosquitoes who tried to land on their skin, missing them for the most part.

After a while Andree said “but if you could have a superpower, what would it be?”