Ten Years to Go

**Ten Years to Go** is the first chapter of *The Power (Novel)*.

## Plot

#### Roxy

Roxanne “Roxy” Monke, a 14-year-old girl, is at home with her mother when two men she doesn’t recognize, “Tall Man” and “Short Man” (Tony), kick down their door. The two men are here to “deliver a message” to Roxy’s father, Bernie Monk, by hurting her mother. Roxy has heard the things people have said about her father before, that he’s a crook, etc. They try to lock Roxy in a cupboard, but Roxy knows how to get out. She bashes the door open, knocking over the Tall Man, and emerges to see that the Short Man has a knife to her mother’s neck.

Her mother urges her to run away. However, Roxy suddenly realizes that she has a power within her. She’s able to release an electrical jolt of energy with a twist from her hands that singes the Short Man, damaging one of his hand.

She tries to do it again, but is unable to. Instead, the men knock her unconscious. When Roxy awakes, she sees her mother’s limp body on the sofa. On her chest is a piece of paper with a “felt-tip drawing of a primrose”.

Roxy turns out to be one of the youngest and first to discover the power.

#### Tunde

In Lagos, Olatunde “Tunde” Edo, a 21-year-old guy, is doing laps in the pool in hopes that Enuma, a 17-year-old girl, will notice him. Enuma is visiting from Ibadan, and they’re with a group of friends who are sharing a summer house together. Tunde has been trying to pursue her without much success, so he made an excuse to end up alone at the house with her today.

When she gets up to get a Coke, he asks her for it and playfully wrestles with her when she refuses. When he grabs at her waist, she puts her hand to his and he feels a mild but unpleasant stinging sensation in his hand and forearm, causing him to release her. She then giggles, kisses him softly and runs off into the pool. He has no idea what happened or if it was something she did, but he leaves her alone after that.

A few months later, Tunde is shopping with his friend Isaac when he sees an altercation between a teenaged girl and an older man. The girl tells the man to get away but he refuses, and Tunde senses something is about to happen. He starts recording the two of them. As the man continues to bother the girl, she reaches for his arm with her hand and zap him with electricity. The man falls over, choking, and she runs away. Tunde watches the man thrash on the ground, and he realizes that Enuma could’ve killed him that day if she’d wanted to.

Tunde ends up posting his video online, kicking off people’s awareness of what comes to be known as the Day of the Girls (when girls all around the world started realizing they had these powers).

#### Margot

Meanwhile, more videos are getting posted online of women and girls sprouting electricity from their hands. Margot Cleary, the city mayor, discusses with Daniel Dandon, the state governor, whether or not they’re fake and whether or not the schools should shut down for the day. She reluctantly agrees to shut down the schools.

As reports of these injuries increase, she follows the news. Scientists from the CDC initially insist that this isn’t what people think, and the news desks don’t take it seriously. Then, some scientists from Delhi discover biological evidence (“strip of striated muscle across the girls’ collarbones”) of where this is coming from. Meanwhile, various schools separate out the boys and the girls to try to manage the situation. It appears that the power seems to be primarily afflicting girls around 15 years of age.

Then Margot hears from her ex-husband, Bobby, that their daughter Jocelyn has been caught fighting with a boy and injuring him. Jocelyn tells Margot that she’s had this power now for six months. Margot asks Jocelyn to show her, even though Jocelyn warns it will hurt.

She does, and Margot feels a jolt of pain that seems to spread throughout her body. She recalls a recent report from the CDC saying that these electrical jolts target the pain centers of the brain, making it hurt even more. Then, she feels something in her collarbone, and afterwards Margot knows she has the power, too, and “she remembers that maybe she has always known it and it has always belonged to her”.

#### Allie

Allie Montgomery-Taylor is a 16-year-old mixed-race girl who lives in Jacksonville, Alabama. Her adoptive parents took her in out of “Christian charity”. Her adoptive father owns number of meat-packing and meat-producing factories around the area. Her adopted mother, Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor, is a religious woman, fond of giving speeches full of fire and brimstone.

Allie has recently realized that she has the power and has been practicing how to use it. In her mind, she hears a voice — which she tells herself is the voice of her deceased mother, Annabeth MacDuff — urging her on. Today, she’s with two boys, Hunter and Kyle, in the graveyard where her mother’s tombstone is. They start to fondle her, as she sometimes lets them do. However, she’s not in the mood, and she zaps them lightly instead. They get mad at her from bringing them out there and zapping them, and they unhappily trudge off.

When Allie sneaks back into the house, Mr. Clyde Montgomery-Taylor immediately smacks her back-handed across the face, calling her a “whore” for being out with the boys. He the proceeds to rape her, as he has many times before. Allie knows that Mrs. Montgomery-Taylor knows what goes on and that she ignores it.

Within her, Allie knows today is the day to fight back. She jolts him, and he collapses, but is still alive. She then places her hand on his heart and does it again. A voice in her head then tells her to take the little crucifix hanging on the wall with her as she leaves.

## Trivia

*(e.g. observations, cross-references, 'useless knowledge')*