Gifted (1) The Street Corner
My fingertips are frozen and my nose wants to run. Breath puffs out in a little white cloud that makes me laugh, picturing spectral cold spots. I stamp my feet in place even though I’m standing in slush and all it does is splash it onto the hem of my jeans. I just finished my second cigarette in twenty minutes and my lungs harangue me with a fit of coughing; it’s a necessity, so I light my third. Shit, it is cold.
Though they slide left and right, my eyes never leave the darkened doorway. I have the peripheral vision of reptile; I can look straight ahead and see almost behind me. This is extremely helpful for a lookout and why I am generally chosen for the position.
I poke my thumbs through the holes in my frayed hoodie cuffs and pull the sleeves down, cup my hands to blow warm air into them. I capture it there, an invisible ball of warmth that will tide me over for a few moments until I become distracted and it poofs away into nothing.
Dav has the ability to regulate his body temperature so that he rarely feels the extremes; he claims that it’s a learned skill and not a Gift but I haven’t been able to figure it out.
The job for the lookout on this particular mission is to let the people in the basement of a building behind me know when the people in the basement of a building in front of me leave to go home. Simple.
Evolution has brought me here, to this particular street corner. Evolution of the world we live in, human beings in general, me. I smile to think of myself as evolved; it seems cute.
A glimmer of light flickers under the door that I’m watching. I flick my cigarette to the side, shaking my hand and cursing like I’d burned myself. I hunch my shoulders and start the walk back to camp.
It’s not some post-apocalyptic new world camp. It’s just kind of how parts of the world have become. The Gifted have mostly formed their own societies; not necessarily on the fringes of the normal but definitely canted off at an angle.
I find myself smiling again. I love it, wouldn’t want it any other way.
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i’m actually a little excited by the ideas that started fleshing themselves out as i began writing this with no direction in mind and hope very much that the cast of characters that i see continue to talk to me 
listening to adele, which is a little incongrous for the story but i’m feeling a tad wallow-y and her voice makes me feel all smooth and mellow if a bit melancholy…
I sincerely hope you come back to this. I’m intrigued!
~whoop~ I’m not sure there’s a higher compliment for a beginning than ‘I’m intrigued’
I woke up this morning and they were all still standing on the street corner waiting for me, so I think so far, so good
I would clamor for more, but I know there is a second part that I haven’t read yet. So assume that I am demanding a third one in advance.