Free Nobody Gets The Girl by James Maxey

weightless, but he didn't fight it. He peeked. They were
floating over the edge of the mall, down to the parking lot. People
were pointing at them. He began to feel disoriented, but he tried
to shove the feeling from his mind. They landed safely seconds
later, before he'd had time to really freak out.
    "Was that so bad?" she asked.
    "Landing was the best part," he said.
    By now, a dozen people had run up to
them.
    "Oh my God!" a teenage girl yelled. "You're
the Thrill!"
    An older man said, "Miss, my brother was in
Washington yesterday. You saved his life! Can I have your
autograph?"
    "Step back," the Thrill said.
    Everyone near her smiled and took one step
back.
    Sarah paused for a second to take out a
cigarette and light it. The crowd stared silently, anticipating her
next words. She blew out a stream of smoke, then said, "For the
rest of the day you'll leave me alone. You won't tell anyone you
saw me."
    The small crowd murmured in cheerful
assent.
    "Flying and mind control," said Richard.
"What kind of radioactive insect has to bite you to get that
combination of powers?"
    "It's not mind control," Sarah said, her eyes
narrowing. "People just like to do what I ask them to do."
    Richard thought it wise not to respond to
that. They went into the mall. It was about 11 A.M. on a Sunday,
and the stores were just opening.
    "I love getting here first thing in the
morning," said Sarah. "With all the chain gates clattering up and
all the different music coming on, it sounds like the warm-up of a
symphony."
    "That's an interesting way of looking at it,"
said Richard.
    "My sister never does stuff like this," Sarah
said. "She has a team of personal shoppers and wardrobe experts who
buy her clothes for her. I like to get down into the nitty-gritty.
It helps keep me grounded."
    Richard looked down. Sarah was almost
touching the ground, but not quite.
    "Your sister does seem a little...
restrained," said Richard.
    "My sister is fucking crazy, as is my father,
and my mother. I might be, too. The life I've lived, it warps any
sense of perspective, y'know?"
    "I'm not the best person to ask," said
Richard. "I went crazy about ten days ago and still haven't come to
grips with it."
    "I don't know," said Sarah. "You seem OK to
me. Kind of admirable, actually, given the crap Dad's put you
through. Oh, hey, let's get cinnamon buns."
    "Sure," said Richard. The cinnamon buns on
display at the nearby shop did smell wonderful.
    "Two of the big buns," said Sarah to the
cashier. "And two large lemonades."
    "That will be $8.70," said the cashier, a
skinny teenage guy who seemed very nervous.
    "No," said Sarah. "You'll just give them to
me."
    "With pleasure!" the kid said, smiling
broadly.
    "So," said Richard. "You use your amazing
gifts to take food from children."
    "With pleasure," said Sarah. "Besides, it's
not like I'm stealing from this geek. I'm stealing from a
corporation somewhere. Probably one my father owns, with any
luck."
    The kid gave her a tray with the buns and
drinks.
    "Anything else?" he asked.
    "Study hard and do well in school," Sarah
offered. She handed a bun to Richard. Tentatively, Richard tried to
grasp it. To his relief, he could.
    "I have a theory about how your powers work,"
said Sarah. "I think you'll do really well here in the mall,
because here most people are invisible anyway. Even if people were
looking right at me holding out a cinnamon bun to an invisible man,
no one would notice because no one really looks at anyone else in
the mall."
    "Maybe," said Richard. "But you seem to be
turning a few heads. I doubt a woman as beautiful as you ever
really blends into the crowd."
    "I don't know," said Sarah. "I try to fit in.
I sometimes feel like I'm fitting in. But I guess I'll never know
how the rest of the world sees me. That's Dad's superpower by the
way."
    "Your dad knows how the rest of the world
sees you? That's a superpower?"
    "He was bitten by a radioactive pollster,"
said Sarah. "No, really, Dad's like this super-telepath,