She had always wondered if other people had the same power, but was afraid to find out. There were scientific studies that proved humans were capable of massive overloads of adrenaline which allowed them to lift cars off from loved ones, or the ability to move impossibly heavy objects. She however, had on a regular basis been able to move things just because she wanted to.
Somehow, it never mattered what an object was supposed to weigh, or how gravity was supposed to react to the mass and aerodynamics of an object. Charolette had reasoned that since no one had told her as a child she could not be capable of these things, that somehow her body never knew it either.
School had never appealed to her, but as far as she could figure, the first object she had lifted was a tree log over 200 pounds. She was five. The laws of man stated that she would have to exert force upon that object far greater then a 75 pound 5 year old was capable of with shrivelly little arms and twiggy legs. But she remembered wanting to climb on it to look up through the garage window, so she picked it up, with some fair amount of strain, and carried it over slowly to the window.
She remembered to that she had been scolded for lying, and not telling her parents who moved it. After that, she realized adults were stubborn headed and limited in their ability to move heavy objects.
It wasn't until she was stocking the shelves at her first job in a department store that it was made apparent the people could not, and would not accept that she was capable of those things. She was fired for moving skids of materials with the forklift in the back store room. She once again tried to tell them the truth and been demoralized , embarrassed and called a liar.
Now Charolette lived a quiet life, far off the radar of anyone who could hurt her. For a while she debated whether or not she could become famous, or rich from her skills. After watching numerous Hollywood portrayals of how the government snatched up powerful people from their lives and forced them into an insidious job, she decided that maybe, she wasn't so special, and there were many others that had come to the same realization and kept it secret too.
As Charolette rearrange her living room furniture for the third time that Saturday, Tori Amos played 'Cornflake Girl' on the T.V. She had been alone for a long time, and decided it should be that way. Every now and then she would watch a romance movie and start to choke back tears, but then in outrage of the unrealistic portrayal of love, would wipe the stray droplets away and promise never to watch another.
It was a strange sunny damp day, the humidity just tolerable and the daybreak waking up the critters of the front lawn. It was that day she could no longer hide.
In a flurry of chaotic happenstance the toddler from a neighbor's house had been trapped in a collapsing house fire. She no longer hated herself, or her gift in that moment.
The small town newspaper applauded her courageous death, she had thrown firemen out of the way as she went through a smoke filled crack of the falling garage. The child told police that the woman had lifted the wall from over his bed and pushed her way through another to put him in safety before the flames burst in a hungry gulp of oxygen burning her to the ground with the house.
When her family wrote the obituary they put in her favorite mantra. "With belief the size of a mustard seed, you will move mountains..."
Somehow, it never mattered what an object was supposed to weigh, or how gravity was supposed to react to the mass and aerodynamics of an object. Charolette had reasoned that since no one had told her as a child she could not be capable of these things, that somehow her body never knew it either.
School had never appealed to her, but as far as she could figure, the first object she had lifted was a tree log over 200 pounds. She was five. The laws of man stated that she would have to exert force upon that object far greater then a 75 pound 5 year old was capable of with shrivelly little arms and twiggy legs. But she remembered wanting to climb on it to look up through the garage window, so she picked it up, with some fair amount of strain, and carried it over slowly to the window.
She remembered to that she had been scolded for lying, and not telling her parents who moved it. After that, she realized adults were stubborn headed and limited in their ability to move heavy objects.
It wasn't until she was stocking the shelves at her first job in a department store that it was made apparent the people could not, and would not accept that she was capable of those things. She was fired for moving skids of materials with the forklift in the back store room. She once again tried to tell them the truth and been demoralized , embarrassed and called a liar.
Now Charolette lived a quiet life, far off the radar of anyone who could hurt her. For a while she debated whether or not she could become famous, or rich from her skills. After watching numerous Hollywood portrayals of how the government snatched up powerful people from their lives and forced them into an insidious job, she decided that maybe, she wasn't so special, and there were many others that had come to the same realization and kept it secret too.
As Charolette rearrange her living room furniture for the third time that Saturday, Tori Amos played 'Cornflake Girl' on the T.V. She had been alone for a long time, and decided it should be that way. Every now and then she would watch a romance movie and start to choke back tears, but then in outrage of the unrealistic portrayal of love, would wipe the stray droplets away and promise never to watch another.
It was a strange sunny damp day, the humidity just tolerable and the daybreak waking up the critters of the front lawn. It was that day she could no longer hide.
In a flurry of chaotic happenstance the toddler from a neighbor's house had been trapped in a collapsing house fire. She no longer hated herself, or her gift in that moment.
The small town newspaper applauded her courageous death, she had thrown firemen out of the way as she went through a smoke filled crack of the falling garage. The child told police that the woman had lifted the wall from over his bed and pushed her way through another to put him in safety before the flames burst in a hungry gulp of oxygen burning her to the ground with the house.
When her family wrote the obituary they put in her favorite mantra. "With belief the size of a mustard seed, you will move mountains..."
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