After school that day, Dani set off on her walk home. It was the usual one. Markus and Raleigh with her. When they stop at Charlie’s, an American Diner they always go to on Fridays, Dani’s quiet. The world still reeling around her from everything that happened in the morning.

  Wait Charlie’s? I thought this was called Ben’s? She thought to herself. She held her head for a second. “Girl, what’s going on?” Markus finally snapped.

  Dani looked at the two. They were both concerned but seemed somewhat irritated. “You won’t believe me if I tell you.” She said, quietly. “Cmon. I just watched some mega-freak get his guts split open by Warden this morning on the news.” Markus laughed, Raleigh agreeing about seeing that as well.

  She sighed, and looked at them “Y’all sure you wanna hear it all?” They both nodded. So she told them. Every little detail.

  The air stood still for a moment. She thought they were about to leave. Or call her a liar. Or make fun of her. But instead she felt a soft hand rest on hers. “Dani I think you might be a Signalite.” Dani shook her head, “No I do not want that for myself. Not at all.” Dani twisted in disbelief. How could she have not thought of that herself? Some Signalites live and die in anonymity. That’ll be me. Anonymous.

  The world slowly started turning its gears once that reassuring thought came through. “I don’t wanna be a superhero or whatever. I just wanna be me. Dani.” She exclaimed. Markus looked excited though “But what if you’re like Jumper? Yknow, teleporting around the place? That shits cool!” Dani shook her head. “I’m Dani, guys. That’s all I wanna be. That’s all I’ll ever be. Not some moniker. I don’t wanna have anything to hide. Like I said, maybe it’s some rogue, hacked AI.” Raleigh scoffed “Then what the hell was that with Keener? Just an AI?” Dani put her head into her hands again, feeling her body tense up. “No.” That was me. “I don’t know.”

  Once our food was brought out to me, Dani quickly dug into her sausage egg and cheese bagel. So fucking good. “You guys see the new talk show my mom was on? What was it Heartland Mornings or something? Fuckin, that team, Union came on and gave her another donation.”

  Markus blinked then rolled his eyes “Again, dude?” Dani nodded. “Aaaagain.”

  “Union is weird. They all blink in unison dude.” Raleigh said.

  “Well that’s what happens when you share one mind.” Markus added.

  “Think they gotta queen or something? Like insects? I dunno.” Dani asked. “That’s a weird conversation. Kinda thinking about Union coming out of egg sacs now.” Markus said through the food in his mouth. A couple cops came out the diner, as the trio was sitting outside, under a table with an umbrella. The cops looked at the kids, there were two of them. They saw them every day. This wasn’t even the cops lunch time. It’s too late in the day, they just come here because they don’t do much else in this part of town, so might as well stop by a tasty diner. Ben’s, or Charlie’s was super good. Dani chose not to say anything about that confusion to her friends. Probably for the best. Their time at the diner was coming to an end for the day. Rather enjoy it. The cops had went on their business by now and left in their cruiser.

  When their time did come to an end, they said their goodbyes for the day. The ritual will continue Monday for sure. It always does. “My Signalite homie.” Markus said with a laugh. He always did like old slang. Raleigh and Markus went their separate ways. Dani looked around and saw that it was starting to get dark. She must’ve lost track of time how long they were at the diner.

  She grabbed her light backpack and started on her way home. It had started trickling in some rain, so she had her hood up. The rain began harder and started to stain wet spots on her hoodie. Surprised her mother hadn’t started freaking out wondering where she was, Dani checked her Linkup for any calls or messages. Nothing. Not even any pings. What’s new there. Her mother would have certain days she’d absolutely freak if Dani wasn’t home by a certain time that only her mother would determine and not run by Dani, and then she’d have other days where she almost forgot Dani existed. Honestly, most of her mothers attention went to her two siblings, Anthony and Maria. Both younger than Dani. And both a lot more normal.

  Something felt weird about the walk home. Dani wasn’t quite sure what it was if it was really anything at all. There’d been times in Dani’s life that felt like extremely vivid and real déjà vu. Everyone else said they get it but she never believes anyone got it the way she did. When Dani got it she genuinely, wholeheartedly knew she had been there and done that before. And it made her head hurt. She was having that now. But it was more confusing this time. Something in it was almost telling her to run. She looked around her, maybe someone was following her and this was just her brain giving her these warning signs. Instincts and all. Nobody. Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Her heart still started to beat faster and she heard it. With nothing different it made it worse. A lot worse. The world around her started to throb with her anxiety. She knew whatever she experienced earlier that day wasn’t just some AI, and now whatever is happening now has to be another manifestation of what was going on with her body and mind. Was she a Signalite? No Signalite has powers like what’s happening to me. Every known Signalite is on a public database and you’ve never heard of a story like this. Granted they were all different. Some were similar but never similar enough. If I am what I think I am I’ll be on some database. I don’t want that. I don’t need that. I just wanna be Dani. No more shit.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She looked up at a billboard that she usually used as a landmark, considering she preferred to walk home without guidance. The billboard usually advertises birth control. But now it is advertising… well. Nothing. The billboard is gone. Not like the ads aren’t there. The entire thing is gone. Like it blinked out of existence, she’d thought maybe it was just taken down overnight. Stuff changes all the time.

  It took her another thirty or so minutes to make it home. It was quiet, nothing more so out of the ordinary, although a disappearing billboard is pretty strange.

  Her house was built out of white panels, a black roof, and enough windows to grow plants, as that was one of her mother’s new favorite hobbies. Her mother was a good woman. Wholesome, but Dani figured a lot of these new hobbies were an avoidance of the fact that her husband of nearly twenty years has been gone without a single trace for two months. Dani’s mom’s car wasn’t parked outside, she must’ve been at work. Another late night, most likely. The babysitter’s car was there. Kailey. Kailey was in college, studying business or something along those lines. Something to do with numbers. She was pretty. Looks that Dani aspired to have but never thought she could ever achieve. Walking into the front door and into the living room, Dani saw her two siblings playing around with their toys. Anthony, a seven-year-old, he has been oblivious to most the stuff happening. Of course, he asks the question “Where’s Dad?” enough to make you wonder if he even noticed how long he’s really been gone. Maria was ten. But she was autistic in a way that made it hard for her to go to school, go out for extended periods of time or really anything that was away from home for more than two hours. But Dani loved Maria more than anything in the world. As soon as Dani walked in the door, Maria jumped up and into Dani, almost knocking Dani over.

  “Hey Dani! You should see what I’ve done today. I made the new RC car have a pink trim, I made Yoda look like he has big tiger claws, and I made it so that Yoda can drive in the RC car but the only issue is the big tiger claws don’t fit around the RC car’s wheel. Hm. Yeah that’s an issue I’m having.” Maria spewed out instantly. The warmth from Maria was nice. “Did you hear from Dad today?” Dani heard Anthony ask. It cut through Maria’s body warmth like nothing. Maria instantly turned colder. Out of all the lies that Maria could not keep, this was the one she could keep. “No, Ant, I have not. Where’s Kailey?” She said, trying to change the subject, keeping an arm around Maria. “She’s makin’ dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs. Mommy said she’ll be late tonight, her Lee-uutenant is keeping her late for some de-tective work.” Ant said. Maria was still quiet after the mention of Dad. “Alrighty, kiddos. Tell you what, I’m gonna go change and clean myself up. You guys make sure Kailey is taken care of. I’ll head back down here soon.” Maria let her tight grip loosen up and go as Dani went upstairs. The stairs were decorated with pictures their Dad went to in the Army just before the Fracture of the USA. He was an officer. Dani wasn’t entirely sure what rank or job. Just that he was an officer. He didn’t talk about his time in the military much. It was quiet upstairs, save for the occasional hoops and hollers from downstairs from the kids. She heard Kailey tell the kids to clean up for dinner. Kailey’s great. Cooks, cleans, and distracts the siblings. Takes a lot of stress off of Dani. And Dani appreciates it.

  When Dani stepped into her room, she let out a big, lung-emptying sigh. She flopped down onto her bed, her room adorned with band posters of all the concerts she’d gone to since she was a kid. Mementos of time spent with friends hanging, and even stains from the glow-in-the-dark adhesive stars she used to have. The pile of clothes she had in the corner of her room got a little bigger when she tossed the dirty clothes she had on in the pile. She got up and put on her usual house clothes, a big, oversized band hoodie and a pair of shorts. Comfortable, as always. That was her style, just comfortable. Dani stayed in her room for a bit to decompress. The thoughts of all the things that had happened in this day alone spun in her head.

  What was that in the bathroom?

  Did I make the, I dunno, air shake in the bathroom? Or was it just my head playing tricks on me?

  Who was that when I closed my eyes? It was me, for sure, but how?

  What the fuck happened to the billboard?

  Am I a Signalite?

  She tried rubbing her eyes to wipe away the images like rain on a windshield getting hit by the wipers, but to no avail. Those images persisted. And so did the fear. The fear of what was going on in her head. So she sat back down on her bad, and buried her head into her hands, and slowly bringing herself into a fetus-like position. She felt the tears well up in her eyes. She fought them, though. She had to keep herself together for the kiddos. Especially Anthony. He couldn’t know the truth of Dad being gone.

  After a moment, Dani heard the pitter-patter of little feet approaching her door.

  The door swung open, and Maria came waltzing in like Dani wasn’t even there. She came in looking for something, and Dani, irritated slightly said “Hey what do you need?” And Maria screamed.

  Dani ran over to her and held her close “What? What the hell was that?” Maria shook her head “You’re downstairs, wha- what are you doing up here?” Dani loosened her grip on Maria a little. “What? No I said I’d be up here for a bit.” Maria shook her head slightly, still scared and shaking. “No. You were talking to me downstairs.”