Lawless Letters

Written for the workshop Hindsight 2020 . Assignment: write a story in 1,000 words or less. Original prompt was from YeahWrite #457, "The main character sees someone about to commit a minor crime. Do they use their superpower or not?" # I was seven the first time it happened. The summer sun warmed my back as I lay in the grass behind my house, kicking my legs lazily, reading Wonder Woman comics and wishing I could talk to animals like she did. The peeping sound came from across the yard. I walked over to see what it was. A tiny baby bird, so young it barely had feathers, flopped pathetically in the dirt. Looking up, I noticed a nest on a tree branch ten feet above. I’d heard that if you touch a baby wild animal, then its mom won’t take care of it anymore. I sat there and I wished that the bird could return to its nest. In my mind, I pictured it rising off the ground and floating back up there. I blinked. The baby bird was two inches off the ground. Its little shad

Poseidon drew the short straw. Hera sighed. “Yes, they’re irredeemable. But I’ll miss those buggers. Their bridges, computers, M*A*S*H ... Genius.” The trident swung. The floodwaters flowed. The underworld gained eight billion souls. Hephaestus prepared the drafting table. “Okay. Humans 2.0.” Aphrodite nudged Ares aside. “This time, I’ll design.”