Female

32

When I was a kid my mom told me never to stare into the sun. So one day, when she wasn't looking, I did. Soon after the bandages came off I started noticing strange things, things that other people couldn't...things like monitor refresh rates and the little, flashing lights produced by an over-worked hard drive. After a while I was able to harness and develop my powers. I could sense the vibrations of a failing power supply from great distances and could see the colors in the SBC salesman’s aura change when he lied to me about an install date.
I knew there were powerful forces in the new economy that would want to use my gifts for evil. In a desperate attempt to blend in, I took a job at a coffee shop.
One day the cash register broke down. Without thinking, I fixed it with the old laying on of hands trick. Suddenly I was surrounded. They were everywhere, promising me huge personal wealth and an endless supply of snacky-cakes. I tried to get out of it: I played dumb; I swore like a sailor, I said terrible things about The Gap. But they had me, and we all knew it. I was going with them whether I liked it or not.
Soon they had me in their laboratory. They didn't understand my powers and were afraid of them. They always wore aluminum foil on their heads when they visited the lab because they weren't sure if I could work the same magic on them as I did on the machines. I thought this was especially silly and told them so often. I was their prisoner and should mind my p's and q's, they said.
As the days wore on they became more and more upset with me. It seemed that my endless banter was getting on their nerves. Eventually they promised me that if I gave them just one idea they'd let me go.
So I did. "I've discovered a new number," I said. This got their attention, as these were numbers people. "An extra digit between 6 and 7. Your marketing people aren't going to like it because it's difficult to spell and has an embarrassing shape, but with it you can prove that the sun is only 150 miles from the earth and about the size of a frisbee." I wrote the number down for them and then they let me go. They'll be looking for me again soon when they find out that the .com name is already taken. So I'm back to blending...laying low and waiting.