Flash Lady exits her house. She carefully holds the heavy front door so it doesn’t throw off her fragile balance. Her spotted hand grips the handle of a wheeled shopping bag. From her fan of fingers sticks up a gold ring with a large dark stone. She squints toward the horizon and sets off shuffling toward the bus stop. She’s headed to the clinic for a varicose vein checkup. That day, like any other, will prepare a series of tests for her.
Don’t throw that there, Mrs. Thompson, they said it goes in the black one. Already at the corner, she prevents contamination of the yellow bin with polystyrene at the last minute. Immediately she uses her Flash power for another intervention. She leans forward slightly and starts talking to a dog. You’re a beautiful dog and you can see your master takes good care of you. Such a little nut. Did you read what’s happening in those puppy mills? They wrote about it in the Pets section. She softens the local weirdo, who stops staring oddly and contentedly scratches under the neck of his grizzled dachshund.
On the bus she meets an old paranoid acquaintance who watches too much Crime News. Did you hear about that actor (81), his wife (58)? Apparently he had to put her in the psychiatric hospital. Such a beautiful woman she was, and now she doesn’t even recognize her husband. She announces on the bus, thus saving her old acquaintance from the onset of depression. Premature health ailments work almost as well as premature deaths. Old age then doesn’t seem so terrible when you consider what the alternative is.
Finally in the waiting room. She calms other patients whom an assertive nurse is trying to strip of their remaining dignity. That actress in General Hospital (30), pretty girl. But she wanted two restaurants! In the end her husband (38) left her. No one can handle girls like that.
Flash energy sends heroes and heroines among us who hold our world together. Their codebook is an inconspicuous paper diary disguised as ordinary tabloid newspapers. Flash has done more for society than all politicians, sociologists, and social support programs combined. It’s a regular infusion of norms into our tested social order.