All In A Day's Work

Monica has Tuesday afternoons off from work, which means she has time for superheroing with Micah. He can be surprisingly ungrateful about the whole thing from time to time.

“I don’t see why I have to be here,” he says as Monica reaches for the next branch.

Monica grunts, feeling the strain in her arms. “You’re not the one who has to climb the tree, " she replies. She glances down at him for a moment, before getting a momentary stab of vertigo. The tree isn’t that tall, really, but Monica’s never been good with heights. Thankfully, the bark is not that rough or that slipperly, and she did watch that show once, the one on the Discovery Channel about people who like climbing really tall trees.

But that may have been before her powers manifested. She’s not quite sure.

Above her, the cat blinks at Monica with bored eyes, and Monica feels a stab of resentment. She’s the one rescuing it. It should be more grateful.

“That next branch isn’t very good,” Micah says, before Monica starts to reach out. “Try the next one.”

“Thanks,” she says. They do make a good team. Over the past few weeks, they thwarted three robberies, stopped one bank heist, fixed twelve pieces of technology that Micah understands but Monica doesn’t, and on one special occasion, prevented a hacker from breaking into the Pentagon’s databases. That one was particularly bizarre, because they didn’t even leave the house. Monica simply watched as Micah typed incomprehensible jargon into the computer with his mind.

With Micah’s help, she does get up the next branch, right next to the cat. Its ears twitch. Slightly. “Hi,” she says to it. Below her, she can hear Micah boast to the nervous cat owner (Mrs. Layton from down the street) about how experienced they are.

“Here kitty,” Monica says, holding out her arms, and the cat reluctantly inches forward, close enough for Monica to get her hands around it.

Getting down is easier than going up, Monica learns, even as she’s being careful not to squash the cat tucked under one arm. When she gets to the bottom, Micah beams at her, which always makes her feel like she could do anything, like they could do anything. It feels good. Doing good feels good, and Monica wants to keep doing it as long as she can. Mrs. Layton gives them both hugs and promises to cook them dinner one night.

It’s getting late, so Monica pokes Micah’s shoulder and says, “Come on, kiddo. I’ll make you macaroni and cheese when we get home.”

Micah grins. He loves macaroni and cheese. “Okay,” he says, and they start walking back home.

The warm glow in Monica’s chest doesn’t fade. They rescued a cat from a tree today. Not bad for a day’s work.

From Veer.