If someone had told Emeka that one day he would wake up with a superpower he would have asked them what they were smoking.
Nothing exciting ever happened in his life, He lived in Abuja worked an office job spent half his life in traffic and the other half complaining about data prices and electricity bills.
So when he woke up that Tuesday morning and discovered that he could hear people's thoughts, his first reaction was not excitement, It was panic.
The whole thing started when he got on a bus heading to work, and a woman sitting beside him suddenly looked at him Smiled politely, at the moment Emeka heard a voice.
"This guys shirt is nice, My son would like something like this."
He turned immediately, the woman wasn't speaking, She was looking out the window.
Emeka frowned, Then another voice appeared.
"I hope this bus does not break down today."
This time it came from the conductor. Emeka nearly jumped from his seat.
Within ten minutes he realized something, He could hear everyone's thoughts.
"Omo " he whispered to himself , "What kind of problem is this?"
The worst part was that people thought strange things, by lunchtime he had heard secrets to last a lifetime,
One colleague who always acted friendly was secretly planning to resign, Another was pretending to like his boss while mentally insulting him every five minutes, Even the office security guard spent most of the day imagining himself winning the lottery.
By evening Emeka was exhausted, When he got home his younger sister Ada noticed immediately.
"You look like somebody that saw a ghost."
Emeka sat down heavily.
"I think something is wrong with me."
Ada laughed.
"Have you finally gone mad?"
"I can hear peoples thoughts."
She laughed harder, Then she stopped laughing when he accurately repeated what she had been thinking five seconds earlier, Her eyes widened.
"Wait... How did you know that?"
"Exactly."
The next few days became a nightmare, At first Emeka thought the power would be useful, then reality arrived, imagine hearing every opinion people have about you, every criticism, Every insecurity, Every hidden frustration, It was too much.
One afternoon he met his friend Timi at a restaurant.
"Guy you look stressed " Timi said. Immediately Emeka heard:
"He really looks terrible, Did this guy stop sleeping?"
Emeka sighed.
"You see? That is the problem."
"The problem is what?"
"Nothing."
Because how do you explain that you are tired of hearing things people never intended to say?
The real trouble started the next week, His manager called him into the office.
"Emeka I need you to stay today."
"Okay sir."
Then Emeka heard the managers thoughts.
"He is probably the person here I can trust with this project."
That surprised him, The manager rarely gave compliments, gor the time Emeka realized something important, Not every hidden thought was negative, Sometimes people appreciated others without saying it, Sometimes they cared without expressing it, That discovery changed how he viewed the power.
Then something happened that changed everything,
One evening while waiting at a fuel station he heard panic in someone's thoughts.
"Please don't collapse, Not now Not "
Emeka turned, An elderly man was standing nearby looking uncomfortable, the thoughts kept coming.
"My chest hurts."
Without thinking Emeka rushed over.
"Sir are you okay?"
The man forced a smile.
"I'm fine."
Emeka knew he wasn't, Minutes later the man collapsed, Thankfully because Emeka had already noticed something was wrong help arrived quickly, the man survived.
That night he sat outside with Ada.
"So maybe this power isn't completely useless " she said.
Emeka nodded.
"Maybe."
"What would you do if you could keep it forever?"
He thought about it carefully, the truth was that hearing every thought wasn't fun, It was exhausting, people carried fears they never shared, eorries they hid behind smiles, Pain they covered with jokes, For the time, in his life Emeka understood how much everyone was carrying.
The next morning he woke up and everything was silent, No voices, No thoughts, Nothing, The power was gone, strangely he wasn't disappointed.
When he met Timi that day his friend asked, "Why are you smiling?"
Emeka laughed.
"No reason."
There was a reason, For one week he had possessed a superpower, What it taught him was something simple.
Most people are not as okay as they seem, everyone is just fighting different battles nobody else can see, maybe the real superpower is not reading their minds, maybe it is treating people with kindness even when you have no idea what thet are going through at all.
[image Generated with Chatgpt]
