Superman.

She wouldn’t really come across as being anyone. Just another nobody. 

Definitely not a Lois Lane.

She used the same benches as everyone, ate the same junk as everyone else. Sat at the same spots in the quadrangle, used the same stairs, moved along the same corridors, used the same lecture halls and pews and tables and chairs. No exceptions.

Yet she was a tiny world within herself: a world within the world. A breathing organism of talking thoughts and screaming feelings. She would come across as nobody yeah, but you only had to look into her eyes to know you couldn't have been more mistaken. Couldn't have been more blatantly tricked.

For there is a bug of coiled emotion at permanent abode in her programming center. A bug that just wouldn't listen to the chidings of her brain cells, the admonishing of her heart. A bug that chooses to glow dim or bright of its own choice. Unfortunately, Mortein® hasn't come up with a debugger for pests of this kind yet.

As with most things in life, only a small trigger is required to set links in motion. You never know which domino is  strategic in the line till you knock it over, unleashing a torrent of happenings -  the domino effect of destruction and construction intertwined.

A swoosh and she looks up to find him walking by. She is frozen mid-step, mid-sentence with her friend. The instant is frozen as her Superman passes her by. Her throat constricts and she realizes quite consciously that she is holding her breath. But she is afraid that exhaling might blow the  quantum-light moment away. Crackers go off in her brain and a string of fireworks is unleashed. She squeezes her eyes shut for she is not sure how to respond to the scenario. To him. She looks away pretending she hasn't noticed but the damage has been done. The chain has been set in motion and she can already sense how the day ahead is going to be.

It is over. He has left.

She sits on a bench to bring her knocking knees under control. Inhales. Exhales. Deeply.

Why does he always have this effect on me, she asks herself. On her the Nobody.

Random snatches of a milieu of songs play in her head. She finds herself wondering how it would all end, were her life an actual movie.

In a movie she wouldn’t be caught off guard every single time. Wouldn’t be thrown off the very balance of sense and sensibility just by a casual glance.

In a movie all this would happen just once; you are never shown those infinite moments between magic instances like life jumps in hops from drama to drama. You are never shown how the characters spend their time in the 'in between' moments and minutes and hours and days. You are never shown how they fall into the abyss every day and have to struggle hard just to face the world normally. Every single day.

In a movie a pinnacle would be reached. The director knows how it will all end. The characters know how it will all end. The viewers know how it will all end.

The gentlest fall and the slightest whisper as the curtains fall over the theatre.

She doesn't know how anything will work out or end or even start any more.

She presses her knees hard together and sends up a silent prayer. Looks toward the sky and that door wishing God is listening to her heart.

She smiles to herself.

And continues to wait for Superman to come pick her up.

For the red cape to engulf her and block everything out.

*Inspired by US singer Daughry's new single - Waiting For Superman