The Radiative Series: The girl with powers

2. It all started with a bang.

Jenna woke well after Dr. George had left and was a little upset at the world for taking her only source of communication away from her. She squinted, finding that the early afternoon sun had risen, and was glaring into her bedroom. Her mother usually came in around this time to twist the shades down a little, but she seemed to have decided against it while Jenna was asleep.
"He put me to sleep somehow! I am sure of it!" She mentally grumbled as she peered around the room and listened for any sounds of life in the house.
Silverware touching a plate, probably one of her parents eating lunch, was the only sound that her hyper-sensitive ears could pick out. For some reason, just like a person who had grown up with bad vision was forced to rely on natural movement to recognize an approaching figure, Jenna could tell that it was her mother and not her father who was in the dining room eating.
Just something about the lightness of her movements and the timing of each bite.
"I could really go for a burger right now." Jenna thought as she imagined eating again. Her body just felt... bland, as though it had lost all its memories of feeling wonderful things. "With a strawberry milkshake please." Jenna dreamed as she closed her eyes to block out the light and to focus on memories of having outings with her parents.
She knew that she was being fed through a tube in her tummy. A bland-colored fluid that was fed from one of the machines by her bed. Taste was something that she missed, that and every other sense like being able to smell a book or to feel the rain falling on her head outside.
"Books and rain are priceless. Hmmm... and hugs. Hugs and kisses are beyond priceless."
"I hope she will come in here and fix the shade once she is done." Jenna wished as the glaring sun interrupted her wonderful memories with its constant stare. She could close her eyes, but it was still just as bad as sticking your face in front of a car's high beams.
"Maybe my eyes don't like the light because I haven't used them in so long?" She wondered as her eyes watered while she tried to look anywhere that wouldn't be painful. The sun was just at that perfect angle that she couldn't help but have it beaming into her eye regardless of where she looked at the ceiling, window, or her covered toes.
She simply had to wait as she listened to her mother sigh as she got up and carried her plate to the sink before washing her dishes. A few moments later, probably filled with her mother admiring her nice kitchen once again, she heard her mother's slippers start to softly skiff against the floor as she headed in Jenna's direction.
"Finally! Please look in here!" Jenna begged as she forced her eyes to peer as far as they could to the right side where her mother would peer in at her.
The shuffling footsteps grew closer before they suddenly sped up and she saw her mother rush into view as she noticed that her daughter was getting blasted by the early sun. "Oh, sorry baby! I didn't want to wake you when I noticed that you were napping." She said as she rushed over to the cords to lower the shades and block out most of the bright light.
Her mother smiled at her and grabbed a tissue from the bedside to come over to dab Jenna's slightly tearing eyes. "I know you like to watch the birds in the morning, but we can face you in a different direction if you want, it is up to you." She said as she watched Jenna's eyes carefully.
Two blinks.
"As you wish, I can set the shades just a little bit lower every morning so that the main portion of the sun doesn't catch you if you want. That would still let you see the birds and most of the beautiful view."
Slow blink as though Jenna was considering it.
"Ok, we can try that until you decide if you like it or not." Her mother said as she leaned forward to kiss Jenna on the forehead, rustling her hair a little as she touched her daughter's head tenderly.
"Ok, today the schedule is me, grandpa, then your dad. Well, first is the radio actually because I need to go take a shower first. When I come back I will pick up where we left off in book two of The Chronicles of Narnia." She said with a smile.
One strong blink.
"Good, I will see you in a few minutes then my darling." Her mother said before lovingly stroking the side of Jenna's head and turning away to power on the bedside radio for Jenna. Fun upbeat pop music filled the air making Jenna blink rapidly in acceptance as her mother smiled at her before heading out of the room.
It was around that time that the dreaded bang slipped its way across Jenna's forehead and down in front of her left eye.
"Oh no! I am being attacked by my own hair!" Jenna thought as she squinted with one eye, keeping the strands from poking her cornea while still trying to enjoy the music.
She tried breathing harder, hoping to move the offending strands from their direct path towards her iris. When she failed to do that, only being able to slightly huff as she increased her rate of breathing, something that she didn't realize was a miracle in and of itself, she tried to blink it away.
Nothing.
If anything, blinking might have just made it worse.
All she could do was lay there with one eye barely open while her frustration at her lack of abilities steadily increased. Her cheerful spark of happiness was quickly being eroded by something so simple and easy to fix by anyone who could even slightly move.
Her mounting frustration built and turned inward rather than dispersing and gathering targets or people to blame for her troubles. This problem was something that Jenna needed to figure out how to solve herself. She just had to force her mind to reach out to her body so that she could move again.
While she lay there, wrestling with an invisible enemy that held her body motionless, the machines by her bed registered her heartbeat as it rapidly began to race. Her mind was calling out to anything that would listen and obey. Sparking connections that had long since become dormant from lack of use.
It was in those moments that something inside her mind heard her thoughts and accepted her will.
"Come on! Lift your hand and move it! You can do it, Jenna!" She mentally cried as she cheered herself on. Her eyes were closed tightly, and she was putting as much mental energy possible into imagining her hand rising from the bedside and brushing the strands away from her eye. Her imagination was so detailed and powerful that she could practically see her hand moving through her closed eyelids.
She felt the bangs move!
"Yes! Woohoo! I did it! I knew I could do it!" Jenna shouted in her mind as she quickly opened her eyes to stare at her right hand, expecting to see it being held aloft in front of her face.
It wasn't there.
"What?" Jenna wondered as she looked around and down at her body. Her hand hadn't moved an inch from her side. Nothing had moved.
"Then how did the bang move? I didn't feel any breeze at all." Jenna wondered as she blinked her eyes in bewilderment.
With every blink she found that her imagined hand was still there, waiting for her in the dark behind her eyelids.
"What? Why is my mind holding onto this image? It almost feels real." Jenna wondered as she moved the hand, peeking from time to time to see if anything was in front of her. She didn't see anything besides the occasional dust mote that seemed to move as though caught in a blast of a random movement of air.
"Huh..."
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! You are all invited to the incredible Mattress and Furniture Warehouse Emporium's blowout SALE!" Came a loud screaming announcement over the radio that startled Jenna, causing her to imagine her fake hand swiping at the little radio next to her bed.
The sound suddenly cut off, followed by a crashing noise as the little brown radio crashed against the far wall of the room, practically disintegrating from the speed at which it was flung.
Jenna's eyes popped open in shock as she peered around the room to try to see what had happened.
There was a small dent in the sheetrock wall to the left of the large window. Jenna couldn't see the radio body, but she could just make out the bent antenna peeking into her line of sight from beyond the edge of the bed.
"Jenna? Is everything alright in there?" She heard her mother cry from her bedroom.
"What on earth just happened? That was my grandfather's old radio!" Jenna panicked as she listened to her mother rustling in the distance.
"Please, please, please, I didn't want to do that!" Jenna cried as she tried to close her eyes and to imagine undoing her quick swipe. She hadn't meant to break her grandfather's radio and to scare her mom.
She could hear her mother quickly coming closer and she just wished that she could put everything back how it was a few moments ago.
Jenna blinked several times, not finding the hand anywhere for her to use.
What she did see with her eyes open though made her freeze in shock. The radio was floating up from the floor and putting itself back together right before her eyes. The broken dials, bent circuit board, and shattered glass display were rapidly repairing themselves while in motion. It flew back towards her bed as the case repaired itself, popping back together with a soft clicking noise. She hadn't noticed it, but the plug-in had been shredded as well, being secured behind the heavy stand by her bed. Strands of copper and plastic rewove themselves together as time seemed to flow in reverse before her eyes.
The radio returned to its place, just outside of her view, and turned on again as though it had never been interrupted.
"We now return you to three hours of the classics! Great music from the eighties, nineties, and today!" Came from the radio just as her mother rushed into the room.
"Honey? Are you ok? Did a bird strike the window?" Her mother asked as she rushed into the room while looking everywhere for the source of the noise. Her hair was wet, and it was soaking into her shirt down her back.
All Jenna could do was watch the small dent in the corner of the room as the plaster and sheetrock wall quickly reformed and repaired itself, her mother unaware.
What had just happened?