The First: EVO Uprising (42 page)

Bored again, she started working on their neighbors’ homes, taught herself to do automotive work, learned to speak every language in the known world, and read every medical journal she could get her hands on. After upgrading her parents’ entire block within a span of two months she set out every morning at eight to test her other limits. She traveled to different countries; some of them war torn. At five o’clock, she would return always with a souvenir for her parents, eat dinner with them and talk about her day.

 
The only time her mother had real fear concerning her was when Sophia finally mustered the courage to fly into space. The combination of boredom and lounging around watching the old Christopher Reeve movie made her attempt the feat. Wearing just a thick black insulated wetsuit she purchased for her deep diving adventures, she remembered the Friday she took off into the sky and kept going straight up.

Five seconds before she was supposed to break through the atmosphere she almost lost her nerve the second she started to see stars.

Her desire to brag about being the first woman to fly into outer space under her own propulsion made her stay the course for those last five seconds.

Sophia, still to this day, could not determine what overwhelmed her most. The fact that she possessed the power to fly into space or that she could survive within its harsh atmosphere without the need for air.

Returning with smoking burn marks on her diving suit from the reentry, she acted as a child who had just rode her bike for the first time without training wheels. So caught up in her tale she did not realize until the end the fear her mother fought to hide with a smile.

Mrs. Dennison was used to the fact that her daughter was a superhuman; they were all over the news and on television. At that moment, it set in that her daughter was beyond a superhuman level. She also saw recklessness in Sophia’s eyes that day. She feared what this near godly invincibility would do to her.

It was on that day Sophia decided to make plans to set out and live on her own once more. She did not want to see that fear in her mother’s eyes again.

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As she sat down at the granite island, in the sun-yellow colored kitchen, she watched with a sentimental smile the older woman she was forged from. Her coco brown African skin and slightly broad English nose came from her mother, while her once curly brown hair, light brown eyes, and Latin features were a gift from her father.

At sixty-two years old, she could not find a speck of gray hair on her mother’s head. She found it amusing how her parents became a mesh of each other just as she was. Growing up she thought both her parents were Jamaican. The truth was her mother came from Kingston, Jamaica while her father was first generation born from Belize City in Belize. She started as a bus driver, eventually getting a position as a secretary in a major purse and luggage company until promoted to office manager working there until her early retirement. Her father opened his own chain of barbershops, learning his skills from his father passed on by his grandfather. Her brother, Anthony, took over the chain five years after graduating from college. Her father continued to cut his personal clients and friends from time to time until his right knee went out on him due to the constant standing. Sophia performed the operation to replace it and helped him with rehabilitation herself.

Aside from their children, they shared a love of music, a love of God, and a deep love for one another, even when they bickered.

Two minutes later, they ate early dinner together. Her mother filled her in on who passed away, who got married, who was pregnant, and who was asking for her. Sophia shared the goings on at her island, and she briefly talked about the events at Times Square not wanting to bring up any gory details at the table. She rolled her eyes when asked if she was still single.

She was maneuvering through the trenches searching for an opening to drop the bomb on her mother that she had been a grandmother in regard to her for the past ten years.

Finished with their dinner, her mother made peppermint tea, while Sophia cleaned up, throwing out the scraps and washing the dishes.

She sat down again as Mrs. Dennison placed her hot piping tea in front of her along with some sweet milk. She sat down as well, opting to put honey in her own tea.

“
Oh! I before I forget,” Sophia said, slowly stirred the milk into her tea, “you’re a grandmother.”

She braced herself while fidgeting in her seat.

“
Say it again?” her mother asked. “Me hearing not too good dese days.”

Sophia knew her hearing was perfect, she just wanted to hear her repeat it again.

“
You have… a granddaughter.” She emphasized each word.

“
You’re pregnant?” was her mother’s first and obvious question.

“
No.” Sophia lowered her head running her finger in a circle pattern on the table. “I never miscarried during the trial. I gave birth, and Charles helped me to fake her death. She was adopted by a family in Boston.”

Awkward silence held the kitchen captive as her mother tried to process what her daughter had just said.

“
Why?” was her mother’s next question, encompassing a series of questions.

“
I did it to keep her away from the General,” she sighed, beginning her explanation. “I knew he would try and take her even if I left her with you. I didn’t want him to do to her what he did to Robert. Then those bad people who killed Robert that I told you about also killed the adoptive parents and kidnapped her, because she’s just like me. Actually, she’s the reason I am still alive. She’s the first superhuman, not me. Somehow, when she was in my womb growing inside me, I inherited her powers. She’s the reason I survived the lethal injection chamber and everything else.”

It was far more complicated than that, but her mother was a simple woman who did not need to hear the technical jargon, just the truth.

“
I hate dat man.” Mrs. Dennison scowled her face. “God forgive me, you not suppose fe hate, but I hate dat man for what him did to you, us, and his own family.”

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Sophia slowly nodded in agreement. Although she and her family had survived and recovered from events that took place almost ten years ago, the General’s actions shattered the Matheson legacy he tried so hard to build and protect along with his family. Alexis, after her final tour, left the army with no desire to deal with anything military again. Her relationship with her husband, who was still a Navy Seal, had not been the best because of it. Mrs. Matheson went into a deep depression rapidly increasing her Alzheimer’s. She passed away in her sleep a day before her birthday in 2010.

The General also appealed his case for only four years and was executed via hanging at Leavenworth.

She never attended his execution but, three months after the death of Mrs. Matheson, she went to see him. The warden, with full knowledge of who she was and what she was capable of, did not stop her visit. She remembered the General shuffling in with head bent and eyes to the floor. The once proud Marine General was a broken down terrified old man in her eyes that day.

They sat there for almost five minutes not uttering a word to each other.

She looked at him with evil thoughts running through her mind. He just looked at the floor.

“
Look at me.” Sophia grinded her teeth.

He did not obey as he continued to look at the floor. Her voice made his body violently quake. He uttered a whimper shifting in his seat.

“
Look… at… me!” her voice boomed while her eyes blazed.

A now teary eyed and sweat drenched Matheson raised his head gazing on the consequences for his actions.

In Sophia’s glowing eyes that poured with tears, he saw rage, hatred, hurt, and sorrow. He saw his loss and his shame.

“
Was all of this… worth it?” her voice quivered, fighting the urge to tear him apart. “Was it?”

“
No,” he broke down. “It was not.”

She stared at him for one more minute, making sure her image was burned into his final memories. She left not uttering another word, as he sobbed controllably at that table.

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“
Where is she now?” her mother asked.

 “
With me now, before that she was staying with a friend in Washington,” Sophia sighed. “She didn’t know I was still alive until a couple of days ago. Not until an accident activated her abilities and she got stronger. I stayed away from her because I wanted her to have a normal life, and I didn’t tell you until now because if people found out who she was they would come looking for her, which would put you and everyone I know and love in danger.”

“
Okay,” Mrs. Dennison said, leaning back in her chair, “so what now?”

“
Aside from finally telling you the truth,” she shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“
Of the three of my children,” her mother began to speak, “you were always the most independent and intelligent. Not dat your brother and sister are stupid. But where Anthony and Gemma would give me a one word answer, you would go into detail and say, ‘Well, Mom, I think you should do dis and dat for dis reason.’ I use to call you Miss professor.”

Sophia nodded as she waited to hear where he mother’s story went.

“
I pray daily for good things for all my children,” she continued, “but for you I knew I did not need to pray too hard, because you were destined for great things. My one fear is that your independence would keep you from looking to family for help.”

Sophia, now annoyed, half rolled her eyes not liking where this story was going.

“
Mom,” Sophia sighed, “with all due respect, I had no choice in my decision. This was the General we’re talking about, an extremely powerful man with a lot of influence, and I highly doubt a prayer group session would have stopped him from taking my child from you. This wouldn’t have been some normal custody battle. This was a man with the power of the United States government in his back pocket, and who was creating death squads.”

“
Yeah, and normally you should be dead,” her mother let out.

Her comment stunned Sophia. She waited for her to take what she had just said back.

“
Yeah, I said it,” she scoffed. “Wha you gonna tell me? A science save your life? You can say it if you want, but I know it was a praying mother and father bowing and scraping to the Lord every day and night that released...”

“
Oh Lord, another sermon!” Sophia threw up her hands. “I get it. God is good and hallelujer! Why are you even going there?”

“
Okay, you don’t want a sermon.” Her mother clasped her hands together placing them on the surface of the island. “Then tell me what you want me fe say.”

“
Nothing, Mom.” She leaned back in her seat huffing, “Nothing.”

“
Alright, you did what you did to protect her,” Ms. Dennison nodded, “I probably would have done de same ting. But what happen dese last seven years? Where was she?”

“
At the Armitages’,” Sophia lowered her head.

“
Tu rass.” Her mother shook her head. “All dis time? Why?”

 “
I wanted her to have a chance at a normal life, Mom.” Her frustration came out again.

“
And we’re not normal?” her mother leaned back.

“
I’m not normal, Mom!” she snapped.

“
You betta shut ya mouth before me throw dis tea inna ya face!” Ms. Dennison barked back. “Ah, me give birth to you! What is not normal about you? Huh? You have de same head, same skin, same nose, five toes, four finger, and a thumb. What’s not normal about you? Because you’re taller, ya eyes have a glow? Because you can fly? So what? Enough of you is out dere flying, running, and breakin up tings! So don’t tell me about not being normal!”

“
You done?” Her eyes began to glow as she sneered at her. “Because, trust me, you can’t make me feel as bad as I already feel. You want me to say what I already know! I screwed up! I made a judgment call and it was wrong. There is nothing you can tell me that I have not already heard from my own little girl! I thought I was giving her a chance at something that was taken away from me, but the truth was I abandoned her and left her alone! So don’t think you can make me feel more shitty then I already am!”

“
Ya betta watch ya mout,” her mother warned her. “I am still ya mada!”

“
Yeah, you are,” she nodded, “and I apologize for using that language around you. But don’t think you know anything about me anymore, what I’ve been through, or the weight I have to carry. In this world of humans and superhumans there is no one like me. No one has had to endure what I suffered and went through, no one. If I told you in detail what really happened to me… inside that mountain.  What it felt like to be in the heart of a nuclear bomb! You would fold, crumble, and die.”