About half of the world has a unique superpower. These range from shapeshifting, to pyrokinesis, to mind reading. Those who have superpowers don't need to have them explained - they just instinctively know what they are, though extra training never hurt anyone.
You grew up watching superheroes on the news all the time. You'd heard tales of how they saved people, how they stopped natural disasters, even how some could bring the dead back to life.
Most children at that age still hope to have their own powers. They hope that they're just late bloomers and that they'll receive a life-changing ability any day. Those dreams usually disappear around the same time they stop believing in Santa Claus.
You however, never had any such dreams. Because you had a superpower of your own. Quite a unique one in fact, though no one would envy you for it.
Your superpower was that once in your entire lifetime, you could send a telepathic message to anyone on Earth. It doesn't matter who, or how many people you sent it to. And it didn't matter what language they spoke, the message would be translated into whatever language they thought in. But you only had one chance, and the message could be no longer than two minutes.
When people asked you if you had a superpower, you generally just told them no, or that you had an incredibly boring one - like having a more acute sense of smell.
You decided fairly early on that you wanted your message to be to every person in the world, all at once. But you had more trouble deciding what you wanted to say to all those people.
Would you send a kind message, full of warmth and support for those who are struggling?
Would you condemn those who used their powers for evil?
Would you thank the heroes for helping the world?
Would you condemn those same heroes for only looking for fame, even if they saved others while doing so?
There were so many options, so many routes you could take, and every time you seemed to settle on a single idea, another idea that was just as tantalizing seemed to overtake your mind.
When you were eight years old, you wanted to spread the kindness you heard so much about.
When you were ten, you wanted to thank the heroes of the world.
When you were thirteen, you learned about the injustices of the world, and wanted to draw attention to them.
When you were sixteen, you grew cynical and wanted to take down the heroes that only sought fame.
When you were eighteen and could vote, you wanted to share why the candidate you supported was the right one.
You had so many ideas and opinions over the many years, so many messages you could share.
And yet, not one of them seemed to be quite. . . right.
So, you stalled.
When you were in your middle age, you forgot about the message you wanted to share with the world so much. You got married - or maybe just found some lifelong friends.
You had kids - or maybe you saw your friends and family having kids that you helped to raise.
Finally, you were ninety-five years old. The friends and family you once had were gone, and you were going to join them soon.
You, for the first time in decades, thought about the message you wanted to send to the world. This was it. Your last chance.
As you lay on your deathbed, you came to your final decision.
All at once, every single person was brought to attention by a single voice in their heads. Friends, family, coworkers, classmates, strangers who just happened to be next to each other, and everything and everyone in between exchanged looks of disbelief as they listened.
And listened.
And once it was over, the people of the world shook their heads and went about their daily lives. A few news outlets covered the event, but most ignored it.
The exact words of the message were forgotten almost immediately, but somewhere in people's subconscious, an impact was made.
And maybe that subconscious memory would somehow be passed down through the generations.
And maybe someday, there would once again be a child born with the ability to send a message to anyone they please.
And maybe that message, that special ability was always doomed to be forgotten.
But maybe that was the point. Maybe the idea of the message would linger while the rest was forgotten.
Maybe all of those small passed along ideas would be strong enough to change the world, each in their own small way.
And maybe that ability isn't limited to just a choice few people with superpowers.
Maybe everyone has that same ability in their own way.
And maybe if everyone would send their message to the world, the world would change.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
