I woke up naked this morning, so I called Ryan right after I took a shower.
"Hey, Molly," he said. "What's up?"
"Hey, it happened again. Any reports about 8th Wonder last night?"
"I haven't heard anything. Let me check and I'll call you back."
"Thanks, Ryan."
I hung up the phone and got dressed. When I was standing in front of the mirror, I noticed the scar above my hip wasn't there. I pulled on a shirt and saw that the scar on my elbow was gone too. "What...?"
The phone rang.
"Hi, Ryan."
"Hey. No sightings. Nothing about her from last night."
"Okay, thanks."
"You're welcome. Was that all?"
"Well, something else came up. Can I meet you somewhere?"
"Yeah, cafe on the corner of Liberty and 10th? I can be there in five minutes."
"Great, I'll see you there."
I went down to the cafe and Ryan was sitting at a table in the back corner.
"Hey," he said as I sat down. "So do you remember anything from last night."
I shook my head. "Not a thing."
A waitress came and took our order. Coffee and an apple danish, fine. I'm freaking out. I pulled up my shirt sleeve.
"Ryan, look."
I pointed to my elbow. My perfect-looking elbow, except it wasn't always like that. "I used to have a scar here." I traced a line from the tip of my elbow up my arm two inches. "Nasty bike accident when I was twelve. Didn't break anything, but my arm got cut up badly."
I rolled down my sleeve. "This morning when I was getting dressed, I noticed the scar had disappeared. I had another scar above my hip from when I had my appendix out. That's gone too."
Ryan nodded and whispered. "And you think 8th Wonder has something to do with this?"
"Well, she came last night and apparently there weren't any accidents or disasters to fix. So yeah, seems she was fixing me." She's fixing me. I didn't realize how creepy that sounded until I said it. But yeah, that's exactly why I was freaking out. This energy thing we don't know much about is changing my body.
"Well, it's not uncommon for people's bodies to change when they have an ability." Ryan kept his voice low and steady. "Muscles become more defined. Asthma suddenly goes away. A bad knee isn't bad anymore. I know it's strange, but it's not a bad thing. 8th Wonder wants you to be healthy."
"Not to have a mark on me?" I knew Ryan was trying to make me feel better, but it wasn't helping. "She's changing things about my body and there's nothing I can do about it. I understand making sure I'm not hurt when we're out, but this is different."
Ryan shrugged. "We still don't know where 8th Wonder is from, how she thinks. If she can think. Maybe it was automatic. Fix any damaged skin."
"Well it freaks me out. What if she's changing other things about me? And I have no idea it's happening."
Ryan reached his hands across the table to hold my hands. "Molly, look, I'm sure 8th Wonder isn't going to do anything to hurt you. She healed your scars. It's a superficial fix. I don't see why 8th Wonder would need to do anything except heal injuries." He relaxed back into his chair. "How are your sessions with Link going?"
"Okay. Meditating and more meditating. It's supposed to be preparation for me accessing the psychic link."
Ryan nodded. "So Link can show you how to do it?"
"Yeah, he thinks I'm nearly ready."
"Good. I think if you can communicate with 8th Wonder, you'll feel better. I know it's scary when you don't have control over what's happening, so having that connection will help."
I nodded. I always thought superheroes had exciting lives. Cool things happened to them. I never thought about what it's like to be that average person suddenly in the center of strangeness. It's scary being singled out like this, even if other people have had similar experiences and I know they came out okay in the end.