THE MOMENT
"Is your daddy a Superhero?" Caroline asked the young girl floating beside her with a smile. She was an elderly woman, still mentally fit and as independent as she could manage. It was only a short walk to the corner grocer, but she overestimated her strength. She was taking steps at a time, setting her bag down for a breather in between progress when a girl with dusty blonde hair asked if she wanted help.
She was still trying to assert her independence and didn't want to trouble a stranger. She tried begging off by insisting it was too heavy for the girl. Instead of arguing, the girl picked up the bag and levitated off the ground to prove it wasn't an issue. Caroline accepted the help and started walking, when she asked about the girl. Her name was '23', apparently, and she seemed perfectly pleasant. Then, at Caroline's latest question, she erupted into a fit of giggles.
"No way," she laughed. "But, I think he was a Supervillain for a little while. One of his friends mentioned it, but I didn't ask anything else at the time," she shrugged.
"If he's not a bad guy anymore, I'm sure your birth had something to do with that," Caroline replied. It was the type of comment she didn't mean anything by, but could land horribly wrong without knowing anything about the girl's home life. The world had changed around Caroline as she aged, and now she had to consider aspects she never imagined growing up. She didn't want to come across as insensitive, and she hoped the girl's home was as normal as she seemed to be kind. In the past, people were more willing to default to reading goodwill, and lately, it felt like many took any excuse to be insulted.
"Eh, Supervillain was just a title," 23 replied with a hint of coldness in her voice. And, Caroline couldn't help but notice she didn't say anything about him no longer being a bad guy.
"So is 'Superhero'," Caroline said. "Do you want to grow up into any of those titles?"
"Nah," 23 shook her head, but her voice sounded warm again and her smile blossomed. "But, I am thinking of a different title, maybe 'Magical Girl'," she laughed and Caroline had to laugh too.
"You know, that used to be my dream when I was your age," Caroline sighed as she recovered from the laughter. Her hands were free and she reached out to examine them. "So long ago..., today's my 80th birthday," she said.
"Oh no way!" 23 said. "Taking the cake to a party, huh?" she added as she nodded down at the pink cake nestled in the cloth shopping sack. "Happy Birthday!"
"No, no party," Caroline shook her head. "I'm old, and I chased my dream a little too long. I would've been a Magical Middle-aged Woman by the time I gave up on all that stuff," she said. She didn't necessarily want to be dumping everything on the helpful young soul, but she was lonelier than she wanted to admit. And, she couldn't stop herself.
"Too late to meet someone and make a family. So, I just lived a good, quiet life, and I'll be celebrating that."
"Oh, that's kind of sad," 23 replied. Caroline didn't have any children of her own, but she'd worked with them in the past. She heard the clear empathy in the statement without any of the judgment an adult might've added. She genuinely appreciated it. "So, would you still want to be a Magical Girl now?"
"Not at my age, dear," Caroline shook her head. She lived in a world with Superpowers and a certain level of magic that she'd never been able to access. She somehow got the feeling that it was a sincere question. And, instead of getting her hopes up, she quickly made peace with the situation. "That kind of danger is for younger bodies that can bounce back."
"What if you weren't your age?" 23 asked. "I can do some cool time stuff too, if you want to be younger again. You can be my age, or maybe older, whatever you want. It'll be my birthday gift to you!" she said.
"You're serious...," Caroline stared at the girl eye to eye. The girl was hovering in front of her, she was short at her age, but not that short.
"Yeah," 23 nodded.
"You can make me young again, and I can be a magical girl?"
"That's just the beginning," 23 grinned. "I'm going to take you on a tour of the multiverse, and by the end of the day you'll be any age you want to be, as a magical girl on any Earth you want to do the job on. And, don't worry, multiversal travel is super easy, you can come back to this one any time, or even still live here." The girl landed and reached a hand out. "You don't have to pick one, you can try out different ages to see how you feel; how old do you want to be?"
They'd covered most of the distance already, and Caroline's apartment building was a couple of doors down, while her home was three floors up.
"This is happening a little too fast," Caroline said. She reached out and pointed at the building where she lived. "For right now, I started this journey at 80. Let me finish it at 80 and catch my breath. Then I'll think about being younger."
"Well, okay...," 23 nodded as she lowered her hand and took to the air again. She wasn't showing off, it was a pacing strategy. It was easier to move slower in the air than taking tiny steps. "But, making you young again and showing you the multiverse is your birthday gift," she said it with a surprisingly stern voice. "If you want me to waste more time here, you're going to need to share some of this cake," she said.
"That's a deal," Caroline said.
"I know," 23 grinned.