The Accidental Construction Superhero

As soon as Dave reaches the construction site he works at, his boss starts shouting at him. The boss yelled, "Where have you been all morning? Do I pay you to come this late?" 

Dave replies, "But it's only been 20 minutes, boss; my cycle was… " The boss did not let him finish and shouted vigorously, "I am not taking your bullshit excuse every day." This is your last warning. You come late tomorrow, and you are done here. He continues, "Look how much work is left here." For now we need at least 4 men to carry this tile to that corner. 

Dave gets a little shocked; he thought they might have been joking with him. He asked 4 persons? Just to move 1 tile, sir. I know I am late boss; please don't be sarcastic with me. The boss gets angrier and screams, "Are you joking with me?" You think less than 4 people can pick up this tile? Some of his colleagues were not on good terms with Dave. They also shouted at him and told him, “Sober up before coming to work next time, or else you will waste everyone's time and energy.”

Dave says, "Yes, sir, I alone can pick up this tile. The boss yells again, "Enough of your shenanigans." If you cannot pick this up right now, you are fired on the spot. Now Dave gets a little frightened; he thinks this must not be any normal tile, this must be some new heavy material, or some trick must be behind this. He really needed that job, so even though scared, he takes steps towards where the tile is located. Some coworkers laugh, while others look at him in amazement that he is even trying to pull that off. Dave reaches the tile and picks it up like a normal human would do, but when he looks around, everyone seems awestruck. One of his colleagues asked him, How did you pick this up so easily? "What trick did you use?" Dave , still in shock, asks, "What are you talking about? This is just a normal shower tile." Everyone can pick it up easily. I can even pick 5 and 6 together and put them there. All of you guys, please stop joking with me. Now his boss speaks again, but this time not in an enraged way. He asks Dave to demonstrate what he has just said.

 Without waiting a second, Dave bundles 6 tiles and picks them up and places them in another corner of the room. His boss loses it and screams, "This must be a miracle." He says, "Dave, were you hiding your true strength all along? It is something superhuman." He asks again, "Are you some kind of superhero or metahuman?"  Before answering, Dave sees everyone around him clapping for him just for picking up 6 normal tiles. Now he suspects that something is wrong; not everyone around him is acting, and even if they were acting, Dave could easily understand their bad acting. But all the expressions were real. Everyone was astonished by this simple act of strength. The boss praises Dave and says to him that for putting 6 tiles along the room, his daily work has already been completed. He can take early leave and rest a bit. Before leaving the site, the boss tries to flatter Dave and asks him not to forget him when he becomes something big or some kind of superhero. Dave smiles and leaves, scratching his forehead, still having no clue about his newfound strength. Dave walks slowly towards home as he sees every normal thing looks different now. 

He visits his regular coffee shop and sees there are no large orders on the menu, people are struggling to get pennies out of their pockets, and everyone is either moving slower than usual or struggling to do some daily chores. As he walks the footpath casually, everyone looks at him weirdly as he is walking at a much faster pace than everyone else. Understanding this, Dave slows down a bit and also starts enjoying his coffee a little bit slower, looking right and left, watching the unusual surroundings around him. As he reached home, another surprise was waiting for him, but this was not pleasant at all. 

The night before—

On a wintery night of December 21st, where daylight diminishes earliest of the year and the night prolongs its wings the furthest, at 3 o'clock at night a resplendent light shimmers across the globe over many countries altogether. Nobody knew the source of it, as it stayed in the sky for 7 seconds and vanished along with the memories of those who had seen it happening. The light was bright, beautiful, and in a constant turbulence. It had tentacles spreading across mountains and cities, some reaching the ground and some touching the sky. 

Dave, while being drunk, went to pee and watched the light spreading its arms and kept looking at it. One of its glimmering arms reached Dave through the bathroom ventilator, and he collapsed on the ground immediately as it touched him on the forehead. When he woke up after 5 or 10 minutes, he thought of it as a hallucination and told himself to stop drinking for the night.  

The morning after the miracle light—

The alarm rings for the third time in a row. It's Monday morning and already 8:30. Dave jumps from the bed, rushes to take a shower, and changes into his uniform to go to work, which starts at 9 o'clock. He was with his girlfriend, drinking and making out all night long before the incident happened. He is already late and realizes his bike is broken too; it was a minor accident yesterday, but he can't take the bike to work. He kisses his girlfriend Eva goodbye and runs as fast as he can. But something weird is happening around him. He sees people cycling, skateboarding, or even running around him are visibly slower than him. He thinks how lucky they are, that they have no rush or urgency to go to work. And here he is, struggling to pay the bills and survive in this unfair world.