K Breese - Future Imperfect

Tonight, in the parking lot, I call out to this moron blocking our way. “Hey,” I say. “Need something?”

I am not stressed. If anything, I’m kind of giddy inside. Vaux is too. It’s the way she’s squeezing my hand.

“Yeah,” this guys says. “I heard your girl there, that she might be…”

“You heard what?” Vauxhall asks.

This guy sips his beer and laughs. “You know, looking for some.”

“Some what?” I ask.

This asshole’s eyes narrow down, his face puckers, he says, “Look, dickwad, I think it’d be best if you just stepped back and let me have a conversation with your bitch here.”

And he steps forward, trying to spook me. Vauxhall touches his hand, just lightly, almost like she’s pushing this dude backward, only she isn’t. The touch is sudden and then she turns to me and smiles, says, “Ask him about his dog.”

I look to the dude. “Tell me about your dog.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, son?”

Vauxhall says, “Ask him to tell you about how he lost his dog. About how he’s really broken up about it and worried his mother might find out about how he used to kick the dog.”

Still looking at the dude, I say, “That true? Did you kick your dog?”

The guy is confused. Stumbles forward. “What?”

And I let him hit me. He’s sloppy and just barely connects. I don’t move, not even a hair, and his loose fist smacks up against the side of my head. Ear stings a bit, is probably red, but it’s what I wanted. After he hits me, I say to Vaux, “About six feet to the left and in front of the driver’s side door. Quick. And I’m guessing a broken nose.”

“Ouch,” Vauxhall says, cringing.

What happened over the past few months is that my ability changed, just the same as Vauxhall’s did. And then the both of us, we got even more powerful. It’s like the ability knob got turned up to eleven. The longer we’ve been together, just having our souls near each other or something, the more boosted our abilities have gotten. Vaux, now she can just touch someone and see everything in their past, not just the dark stuff, not just the hidden shit. And me, I can do the same only in reverse. Someone touches me, even the slightest contact or in this case not so slight, and I can see a person’s whole future. Every inch.

Even better, for both of us, it happens fast and it happens clean.

Best I can compare it to: like downloading something. I click and it’s here, in my head. Vauxhall clicks and it’s there, ready to be used.

Standing in the parking lot outside Celebrity’s tonight, this drunken ass swimmer throws down his beer can and it goes skittering across the asphalt. Then he stomps out his cigarette and puts his fists up like he’s in a boxing movie.

Vauxhall says, “Dog’s name was Rusty. Super original, right?”

The dude shouts, “Shut up! Come on.”

He motions for me to fight. I say, “Just move over a few feet. You’re not in position.” And he actually moves. When he’s there, I tell him to stop. Then, his fists still pumping in the air between us, I tell him that it would really be a good idea for him not to try and fight me. I say, “This is just going to end up embarrassing for you.”

The dude yells an expletive.

Vauxhall says, to me, “You warned him.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

That’s when the guy makes his move, he throws a punch at me and I move right out of the way. He stumbles forward and that’s exactly the time I knee him in the nose. His nose splits and the blood scribbles all over the asphalt. He falls on his ass right where I expected him to, about six feet to the left of the passenger-side door of my car.

As we’re leaving, I say to Vauxhall, “You should totally bust out that Negative Woman costume again. The two of us, you in the past, me in the future, we’re going to be the next Doom Patrol.”

Vauxhall, her face dials up a mischievous grin. “We defeating evil?”

“Definitely,” I say.

“We helping orphans?”

“Of course.”

And we kiss like the soon-to-be superheroes we are.

What Vauxhall sees, she doesn’t mention.

And what I see I don’t let her know either.