Human/Super

She looked up at the building; it was unstable but somehow still standing. She glanced at Farouk and shrugged.He smiled and put his earmuffs back on.

She took another deep breath and yelled, “Boom!”

The building shuddered and collapsed in on itself. Greta stepped back and leaned against the grill of Farouk’s dump truck as her coworkers stepped up to clear the rubble.

Henning Petersen’s blond hair stood on end as he closed his eyes and bowed his head. The pile of debris stirred and shifted as a metal beam rose from within it and hovered in the air. He turned toward Greta and the beam floated into the bed of the truck.

Waving his arms like a conductor, Anders Bendix lifted a chunk of stone from the rubble and deposited it in the truck. The two of them continued like this, alternating between stone and steel, until finally, several truckloads later, all that remained of the building was a heap of splintered wood, insulation, and other odds and ends.

///

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Marital status?”

“Single.”

“Any children?”

“No.”

“What’s your living situation?”

“I rent an apartment with my cousin, Jackie.”

“Tell me about her.”

///

Returning home after work, Greta fixed herself a cup of chamomile tea with honey to soothe her throat. She sat on the couch and closed her eyes, enjoying the silence.

She bolted upright as the front door slammed shut and Jackie stormed across the living room wearing her Tim Hortons uniform. She was ranting in English; Greta only caught about half the words, most of them profanity. Jackie disappeared into her bedroom and slammed that door, too.