Twenty three year old Amanda Sheridan was alone in her family’s summer home at the Craciun House in the eastern portion of coastal Maine. Amanda had majored in American Literature in college. This summer, she would begin pursuing her master’s degree at Acadia University. The Craciun House had been handed down to her family through seven generations. Amanda wanted to spend time preparing for her graduate studies and working on her first novel. The Craciun House had suffered minor damage during the winter. Water had leaked in through the roof, damaging an old plaster lath wall in the guest bedroom. A portion of this summer’s trip would be spent in replacing part of that wall. This house was also where her distant cousin and namesake, Amanda Craciun Taylor had written a novel during the early twentieth century. Amanda Craciun Taylor’s stories were the first stories of their kind. The novel, an early form of science fiction, was based on reports of a superheroine named Atlanta. Amanda Craciun Taylor had cast herself in the lead role. There had been only one printing of the novels, only proof copies of the books. They had not sold. Amanda’s family still had those copies. Amanda had read the entire series of novels during her childhood. She asked her parents why Great Aunt Amanda’s novels were unsuccessful. They explained that the concept of such a being was too far ahead of its time. Amanda wished that her great aunt’s literary career had been successful. Had that been the case, her family might now have more here on the Maine coast than this old house. That morning, Amanda had carried some tools up from the basement. She placed them on a wooden table in the guest room. She then began to tear down water damaged wall. It was slow, hard, dusty work. As she broke down the wall, Amanda realized that she had broken through into a previously unknown room. She shined a flashlight into the room. In the small room there were several books on a shelf. Each book had the word “Atlanta” as the title. There were also some papers and several large journal-like volumes. There were also several large envelopes. There was a small wooden box. There was a big white canvas bag that looked like it was being used to store clothes. Amanda was a little excited now. She certainly hadn’t expected to find any antiques while she was starting to work on the repairs to the water-damaged wall. Amanda spent a few minutes breaking down the wall. She stepped into the small hidden room. She began to peruse the items that she had found. Amanda unbuttoned the clothing bag and looked into it. She was surprised to find that it held several identical, authentic looking Atlanta costumes She opened the clothing bag and removed one costume from it. The costume was a medium blue and white jumpsuit with a wide white belt around the midsection. Each had a long cape, boots and gauntlet style gloves. The belt, the letter “A” on the left side of the chest and were flat white. The garments were made of canvas sailcloth. She placed the costume on the bed. She returned to the closet and carried out the rest of the artifacts. She carefully placed them on the bed. She began to look through the journals. She looked through the large envelopes. They held documents and photographs. She realized that some illustrations and some sections in the novels had been copied from them. Amanda picked up the wooden box and looked inside. The box held a small, black, glassy, rough surfaced rock. Amanda remembered some of the passages that she had read years earlier. Her hands trembled as she opened the first volume of the Atlanta novels. In seconds she found the part where Amanda Craciun had first touched the meteorite that had given her Atlanta’s powers. “…Only a Craciun woman could acquire the abilities and then only by touching the meteorite that her grandfather had found years earlier…” She picked up the wooden box with her right hand. She opened the lid. What if it’s true, Amanda thought. If I touch the stone, will I become…? She tipped the box up and dropped the meteorite into her left hand. Amanda felt a warm sensation flowing through her left hand, flowing through her body. She drew her breath in a gasp. The dust in the room and the curtains by the windows blew toward her. “IT’S HAPPENING!” she exclaimed. The house shook with the sound of her voice. Amanda placed the meteorite on the bed. She picked up the hammer. The steel hammerhead squished like clay in her hand as she squeezed it. The blade of the sheet rock knife crumbled like paper as she pushed it against her palm. She could see the trees outside as she gazed at the wall. She ignited a scrap of paper by staring at it. She gently pushed herself upward with her feet. She hovered above the floor for several long seconds. Then she floated back down to the floor. She took off her glasses. She could see clearly without them. She picked up the Atlanta costume that was lying on the bed. She stepped into it. Despite its age, it was still in good condition. She picked up the photograph of her second cousin. “You were actually her!” she said. “You Great Aunt Amanda, you really were Atlanta!” Amanda turned and looked into the mirror. “And now I am going to be Atlanta!” she said. She liked what she saw, the pretty blonde girl in the nineteenth century super heroine costume. She looked through the walls of the house, ensuring that no one else was nearby. Then, Amanda walked down the hallway and opened the window. She leapt through it. Once again, Atlanta the superheroine flew over the coast of Maine.
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