Tommy had prayed that night that he might have a special power. He didn't ask for anything specific. He only wanted to feel special and hoped any gain from his prayer would be something of value to the world. He did not recognize his short sighted view of life and the implications of his actions. A wish for something given without effort is truly a lazy concept. Sometimes prayers are answered as a way of teaching a lesson. However, not all lessons are learned correctly.
Tommy rolled out of bed the next morning hoping to find he could fly or was impervious to pain. One leap into the air without catching himself proved both hope incorrect. Rubbing his forehead, he walked into the bathroom across the fall and began to brush his teeth. Staring at his reflection, he also lost his potential for invisibility. An attempt to break his toothbrush in half with his super strength resulted in a toothbrush flung into the toilet and toothpaste sprayed across the room. No super power would save him from a grounding if he didn't clean the mess up.
Reaching under the sink, he grabbed the cleaning rag and a bottle of glass cleaner. The bottle read SHAZAM in big bold letters with a cartoon genie flexing a monstrous bicep at him. Tommy's mother had found that this alone made it easier to get Tommy to clean around the house as he enjoyed running around yelling "Shazam!" as he partially cleaned windows around the house.
With the cleaning rag in the one hand and the cleaning bottle in the other, Tommy pointed to the mirror and yelled, "SHAZAM!" His left hand began to tingle as the rag began to spark and flash with light and electricity. The bolts began stretching down his left arms raising the hair to full attention before the yellow glow flashed across Tommy's chest and hit the cleaning bottle. The sparks transferred through the air from his left hand to his right hand before he realized his left hand was empty where the rag had been.
The light on his left began to fade and only the spray bottle in his right hand was still glowing until that too began to fade. As it faded, Tommy noticed the firm plastic texture of the bottle had softened and now felt like the cleaning cloth. Back at normal light levels, Tommy now held nothing in his left hand and only a rag shaped like the bottle now becoming saturated with the cleaning fluid before it over took the cloth and began drip freely all over the counter.
Frightened by the bottle trick, Tommy threw the wet bottle shaped rag into the sink and curled on the floor crying until the door opened and his mother came to his rescue.
Friday, May 16, 2008
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