Last week on Facebook I happened to see the question you see below. And, as it happens, the color I would choose is orange. Running at the speed of light would mean that at a moment’s notice I could travel like this — <snap> — to spend a day in Paris or Florence or London or anywhere, and then return to my own best-bed-in-the-world.
World travel plus sleep in my own bed? Heaven! I get dreamy just thinking about it. Like, let’s say I have pending research questions for my next manuscript in the County Clare Mystery series. For example, I might need to know what the laws are around graffiti or what circumstance would require a garda (police) officer to take mandatory leave — <snap> — No sooner have I pondered the question than I’m standing in front of a garda station. I’m sure I’d pop in so often the sergeant-in-charge would roll his eyes. “Ah, Lisa, what are you on about now?” he’d say.
Novel research aside, I’d also use my superpower to visit ailing friends, go to family reunions, and pop in on writers conferences. It would be nothing to visit my favorite place in Paris, Place des Vosges, and eat a picnic lunch on the grass along with a hundred other Parisians. Any time I need a break from my life — <snap> — I’m gone.
I could try out destinations to see if they’re for me. I’ve always wondered about India, but will I actually go someday? Doubtful. However, if I could arrive in a millesecond, why not check it out? Or, say, if I had friends staying in Barcelona — <snap> — I could join them for a night of tapas and flamenco, no problem.
Most of all, no more TSA, no more aching knees because I’m too tall for those crappy coach seats, and no more freakish airplane germs.
If I were a science fiction writer, I’d have to create a scientifically plausible explanation for my superpower. If I were a fantasy writer, I’d have to create a cost because in the world of magic, the magic always comes with a cost. But I’m a crime writer, so of course I’m thinking about how such a superpower could be used for bad. In fact, I’m thinking how I might use my superpower for bad … Mostly I guess I’d steal stuff. Hey, I’m not perfect. See a fabulous dress (or lingerie) in a posh shop on the Rue Saint-Honoré? Appear, grab it, and disappear before the shop girls realize what’s going on. I can TOTALLY see doing this when I’m up for a literary award. I’d need something to wear to the banquet, and I hate shopping. What could be better?
And here I thought I’d have nothing to say on the topic of “orange”! Goes to show what fertile imaginations we writers have. I could write a whole story around a women who steals haute couture by using her superpower.
So, what button would you push? Why?
Ha! Orange made it through the week! I, too, would travel like a mad woman if I could travel at the speed of sound. Like right about now, to the Caribbean, and away from this damn cold.
Some sunny, open air cabana (complete with cabana boy), staring at the surf, notebook or laptop at my side … That sounds pretty fab to me!
Red– i.e., the ability to be invisible. I could live the novelist’s dream of being a fly on the wall. Or maybe green, so I could shapeshift into the fly.
Being invisible would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? Except I could see myself getting caught up in the game of wanting to hear what people are saying about me (it’s all about me :-)), but who really wants to know that? I’m sure it would make me bummed or pissed off sometimes …
I would choose RED because it would make it possible for me to be that fly on the wall that I have so often wished to be.