The Transporter

He could never remember how it all started. Despite trying to recollect really hard, he could not pinpoint the exact date and time. It was sometime in the last summer. He had just split with his wife of 6 years and moved out to a new apartment. He was walking/jogging to a job interview. As he was running late, he just wished he could go faster without sweating through his shirt. He did not want to appear ragged in the interview.

He just wanted to get to the interview in the next minute or so. He had five minutes to get there but Maps showed it was a 10 minute walk. He did not want to rush, but he had to rush. He still cannot fathom what came over him, but a tiny voice in his brain said 'Try teleporting'.

'What??' he asked himself.

'Just try'

A moment later.

'Ok, I tried. Nothing happened'.

'Try again, but this time, just imagine you cross the next 100 meters'

He decided to try. He closed his tight. He imagined. Only this time, he really focused on the destination. A moment later, he opened his eyes.

He was at the end of the street. Definitely a lot more than what's possible in an instant. He checked the time. It was just a couple seconds. He was confused. Did he seriously teleported to the end of the street? Was it exactly 100 meters? Was he dreaming? There were so many questions. He looked at this watch. The interview was in 10 minutes. He had 12 minutes of walking to do. He looked at the map on his phone. Turn left. Walk 300 meters.

Ok, attempt #3. Close your eyes shut. Imagine the end of this street. As he had been on this street before and knew the vague outline of this area, it was not hard. A moment later, he had crossed 300 meters!

How the hell did that happen? He was too excited to answer. At this moment, all of his mind focused on getting to the building. He had to do the same thing a few more times. He reached the building in less than 2 minutes. He had over 7 minutes left!

His confidence was through the roof! The rest of the day is a blur. He did not get the job, he was too overqualified or underqualified, he could not remember. But he could not forget the excitement of that day.

On the way back, he decided to experiment again. He teleported to the end of the street from the building; In a second. Now he decided to kick it up a notch.

How about the entrance to the station? It was a 11 minute walk away from where he was. Eyes shut tight. When he opened his eyes, he was in front of the station. He almost fell back in surprise. He could not believe what was happening. He slapped and pinched himself a couple of times.

He shut his eyes again and imagined being back home. His actual home. The one he grew up in. The problem was, it was 1300 miles away. He shut his tight and imagined his home. His whole world swirled and and he felt his head spinning. It was an eternity opened his eyes. He was still in front of the station. He looked at his watch. Just a few seconds had passed. Maybe he could not do it. He tried the interview building again. He was able to do it. But not his home.

For the next few hours, he tried various things. Ok, he could go to other streets. He can cover areas. But only those that are at least vaguely familiar. He could not cross cities, heck he could not even go from one end of the city to the other. He could only do as much as 10 miles. And the longer the distance, the longer it took him. He could do a 8 mile teleport but that required intense concentration of almost 48 seconds. After a lot of experimentation, he was spent. And hungry. He decided to grab a burger on the way home. Tomorrow is a new day after all.

In the next few days, with trial and error, he began to understand how it worked. It was a matter of slowly dialing up the challenge. What was 100 meters on day one became 10 miles on day 10 and within a couple of months, he was regularly doing the 1300 mile trip back home in a matter of seconds.

He wasn't hurting but it certainly tired him out. Especially if he did the 1000+ mile trip back home more than once a day, he was exhausted. He quickly began to ration his trips. Every day one trip to his work and back. A trip home once or twice a week. Especially when his parents needed him around to do some heavy lifting around the house. He cleared out a weekend and tried different things.

From what he could gather, He could teleport anywhere he had previously been to. If he did not know the location or even remember the details very well, he could not do it. He decided to use his powers for good. He helped the patients of the nursing home down the road by either running their errands or helping them visit their children. He soon became to known as the Transporter. Not a bad name, he thought. He even appeared in the local papers before deciding to lay low for a while. Too much publicity was a bad thing.

He was careful not to be caught in any cameras that the local kids were wielding everywhere. It was becoming difficult, but he had so far managed it. He was vigilant not to get caught in those things. Internet virality was the last thing he wanted. He still could not work out how to do bigger things with this power. He knew there was something he could do, but it always gnawed at him that he couldn't figure it out. For the moment, he decided to keep a low profile. He was surprised to notice that most people walking around did not notice him disappearing/reappearing. He could not work out how or why. Word spread only because he decided to help some elders in the locality.

One sudden morning, as he was getting ready to teleport to work from his home, he heard a noise outside. There was a car alarm going off and some neighbors were yelling. He decided to check it out. As he put on his coat and walked outside the gates of his own house (he had even forgotten how to open the gate as he had not done it for months now), someone in a fur coat and top hat brushed past him. As they did, he noticed something heavy fall into his coat pocket.

'Hey', he called out.

Before he could work out who they were, the figure disappeared. It looked like a woman, but he couldn't be sure.

'They were just here a moment ago!' he said to no one.

The neighbors were going in and the car alarm had been silenced. He decided to go back inside. He noticed his garden overgrown with weeds as he walked in. He had forgotten many things in his life since his newfound powers, and the garden was just one of them. When he checked his coat pocket, he found an archaic cell phone. The kind that was used 20 years ago, the one with a flip and a small antennae sticking out. He flipped it open.

One message received.

He clicked on open.

'Spencer Plaza entrance, 4pm'.

The message had only 4 words.

Who could it be? He had no idea but he knew exactly what they wanted. But why would they want to meet him? Are these one of the robber gangs wanting to use his services? He had once wanted to be part of a cool gang, but that was 20 years ago. At 37, all he wanted was to be left alone. He had tried to keep a low profile after the feature last month, but someone somewhere had noticed. He did not want to go, but he did not see any other option. They obviously caused the commotion just to get this message to him. Did they, or was his brain overthinking as usual?

Anyway, he decided to go check himself. At 4 pm, he appeared at the entrance. He looked around, there was no one he could recognize. A lady in a coat similar to the one worn by the cell-phone dropper walked by. He expected a message but she walked on.

Another lady in a biker jacket, came up to him and said, 'Come with me'. He silently followed. He was more curious than anything else to figure out what was going on. She stopped at a coffee place and bought them both coffees. She did not ask him what he wanted, simply ordered and handed it to him.

When they were both sat, she started.

'So, you are wondering what this is all about'

He simply nodded.

'We have been following you. And your antics. It caused quite a stir last month. We just wanted to make sure you could handle before we brought you in.'

'I don't understand'

'Every year, we find tens of people with extraordinary powers. But they are never able to make full use of that. Lots of them continue living without ever realizing their own potential. But not you. You were an exception. You learnt to control your powers in the time it takes people to realize their powers can even be controlled.'

'So you're saying I'm special?'

'Kind of, but don't let it get to your head. We have a bunch of people like you. We just wanted to ensure you are not off going crazy with it'

'Are you saying there is a group of people like me?'

'Mm Hmm'.

'Great, when do I get to meet them?'

'Not so fast, sweetie. First, we'd like to know if you can use them properly.'

'What do I got to do? I can take you anywhere you need to be right this moment.

He decided to show off. In an instant, he reached the counter, picked a couple of sugars and came back to the bench.

'Woah, woah, no need to jump around. I know what you can do, I've seen it. I just need to know if you are really worthy'

'Worthy of what'

'You'll see'

'Okay, I'm getting tired of speaking in riddles'

She paused. Looked at him for a moment. Drew a long breath. Continued

'Look I just came to tell you that there will be some tests in the coming days. Just don't get overexcited. Do NOT use your power until the tests happen.'

'Ok, when will the test happen?'

And she was gone. Just like that. It felt so natural, she was here one moment, gone the next. He did not even see her disappear. It stuck him then. So THAT's how he's been getting away. No one notices and it feels like the most natural thing.

But what's this test about? And not using his powers until then? He hoped the test would come sooner rather than later, because he could not go too long without using his powers.

That's when he realized how much his life had changed since he got his powers. It was a few months now but it felt like he had always been like this. He could not remember how it felt to be normal again and he could never take any mode of transport anywhere. It sounded stupid. He decided to take the bus home. It felt boring. But its important to pass the test and meet these other people. Who knows what is possible when he met a group as powerful as him? He decided to wait.

He reckoned the test will come soon. It will come soon, right? There was nothing he could do but wait. Unlike Schrodinger's cat, there was no box to open and see. The only problem was, he was told not to use his powers. He hadn't gone a day without doing so for months now. And to live like a normal person now, seemed so.....boring.

What turned out to be a few hours, turned into days, into weeks and before he knew it, a month had passed by. Looking back, the first month was the most difficult of all. The first week was torture. He had to walk to work, walk to the shop, carry his groceries back and worst of all, everyone on the way smiled at him as if they knew him forever. He was so grumpy about everything.

At the end of 5th day, he lost his patience and tried to teleport to work. But something stopped him. He couldn't understand it. Nothing stopped him before. He felt like something was trapping his powers. It was like an invisible wall around his house. He almost started teleporting but something around his home held him back. It pushed him back to where he was. And when he tried to do it outside, he simply couldn't remember how. It was really strange. Nothing stopped him before, but ever since the lady asked him not to use his powers, it seemed like his powers had been stripped away. Which made him even more grumpier.

He was morose the next few weeks. He felt like his life was finally achieving its purpose and suddenly whatever made sense was stripped away from him. Without warning. He just couldn't make sense of it. He did not know how to get his powers back. He looked for the lady everywhere to try and talk to her. But no luck.

He hated losing something as good as his powers even before he learnt how to properly use them. He was ready to be trained but the test never came. After a year had passed, he had almost forgotten how it felt using powers. He was a normie now. Struggling to keep his job as ever, he couldn't even think of anything else other than getting his power back. He got into drinking and smoking to forget the pain. That lasted another few years. It was only when he lost his job for the third time, it became a wake up call.

He started seeing a therapist. He told her everything. At first, she looked at him incredulously. Then she scribbled in her notepad furiously for a while.

'I'm sure you think I'm crazy'

She just looked at him.

'I mean I could prove it to you, if I could have powers back.'

'What made you lose them?'

'I don't know'

When did you lose them?

The day the lady spoke to me. From then on, I stopped using them and have never been able to use them.

'And how does that make you feel?'

'Useless. Like life has lost its meaning'.

She continued scribbling. Over a couple of years of therapy, he slowly started to work on accepting that the powers may never come back. He started living normally. Stopped using the term normies. Stopped relying heavily on alcohol and substances to keep him happy. It took 4 years to finally return to who he was before the power came to him. He even started helping at the hospice nearby. Due to his unshaven look and greying hair, the folks did not even recognize him from before. A couple of years passed. He started forgetting that he once had powers. Life was becoming normal again. He even met a nice woman and went out on a few dates with her. Things were going well.

The lady reappeared. As he was sipping his morning coffee at his local joint, she appeared out of nowhere and sat in front of him. He did not flinch. It did not surprise him.

'We think you are ready.'

He looked at her.

'What do you mean?'

'We want to induct you into the league.'

'But I thought there were going to be tests?'

'This was the test.'

'What?'

'To see if you can live normally without using your powers. It took you 6 years, but you're finally here. You are not dependent on them. You are not drunk on them. You have your powers and can use them when needed but otherwise continue living normally. That's exactly what we need.'

It made sense. But he had made his decision.

'Thank you, but No.'

'What do you mean, no? She looked bewildered now.'

'The last couple of years made me I'm better off without my powers. Joining the league would mean an adventure maybe, but maybe for some other time or someone else. I hope you have a good life!'

He walked out and disappeared into the crowd.