Anna the Powerful

9781483530710

Interview with Anna

Sitting on two round orange chairs are a pair of women. On the right side is the host of the talk show, a tiny older woman with white skin, massive glasses and very short hair. She has almost no chin and her mouth looks to be in a permanent state of being pinched. To the left is Anna, the subject of this interview. She is five foot one, has brown skin, a small, flat nose, a curvy body, long black hair and bright eyes that turn into slits when she gives one of her rare, toothy grins.

Minah: Hello everyone, and welcome to this very special edition of We Talk Live. I’m your host, Minah Herman. It might seem cliché to say that my next guest needs no introduction, but in this case it’s absolutely true. Recent studies have shown that she is easily the most well known human on the face of the planet. Children in the village of Hunduai, described as the world’s most remote area that is still inhabited, own pictures of her and can recount many of her adventures—this, in an area of the world that still does not receive running water or electricity. Her name is Anna. She is known as the world’s only superhero. Anna, welcome to the show.

Anna: Thank you. Thank you for asking me to come on.

M: Of course. Of course. You have to know what a thrill this is.

A: No, I don’t. (audience laughter) I don’t understand that thrill.

M: Well, you’ve been all over the world and have to know the reaction you get. What do you think causes it?

A: Well, first of all, I have to say that you can ask me anything. I understand that my team has briefed you about what you can and cannot ask. Forget all of that, all right? Just say what you want to say. Ask me.

M: I’ll do that.

A: OK, good. But as far as the reaction I get, that’s easy enough to understand. When I was younger I was thrilled to meet that actor who starred in—oh, what’s that movie? It had a dinosaur that came to live with a family, and the lead actor was so funny. From the forties. I can remember almost anything but I cannot remember the name of this movie. (laughs) Anyway, when I met him I just couldn’t speak. I just smiled like a dummy. I remember thinking it was unreal that this guy who I had known only from a movie had different mannerisms than he did on screen. It was just unreal. People react to celebrity like that. They just smile, or cry, or some faint.

M: A lot of them faint.

A: Yes. That’s strange. They just pass out and I’ll catch them.

M: This audience had to be hand-picked. It took us months to find a group who would not react so strongly. We hope. So far, so good.

A: Why? Why did you worry about that?

M: Well, we did not want to make you uncomfortable.

A: No. I’m fine. I’ve lived through much worse.

M: We can talk about that. I’d like to ask you about, well, not about where you have been and so much about what you have done but mainly about how you do it. I know it’s not so simple or understood yet, but, I wonder if you can walk us through what you are doing.

A: You mean when I’m out in the field? Working?

M: Is that what you call it?

A: Sure. It’s my job. I get paid for it. Well, the truth is that I can do whatever I want and I don’t need money. Money does nothing for me. I get or take what I want, if I wanted to. Who’s to stop me? But I get paid.

M: Who pays you?

A: Well, I don’t mind if you ask about this but it’s boring. It’s technical, you know?

M: I think I speak for everyone watching when I say we’re interested in whatever it is. (laughter)

A: Well, I’m American. I was born here, but I don’t—I don’t claim citizenship in only one country or area. I know it sounds silly, but in my case it’s absolutely true when I say I’m a citizen of the world. I can go where I want. But the American government takes care of me—but so does Europe. And South America. I take what I need when I do a job, but I just have no interest in taking more. I barely sleep, not like a normal person. I eat a lot, but I can avoid sleep.

M: That’s my question, really. How is this happening? I imagine that you are hesitant to speak about what you can do so no one can, so no one can take advantage of the information?

A: Well, no. I don’t mind answering those questions. For years now, though, no one wanted me to. They were the ones who were worried about that information getting out.

M: Can you expand on that? Who?

A: Well, there is a group of nations that all have members who sit on this committee. They consult with me, they give me information, make requests, get me what I need. That group is very paranoid. They have to be, of course, and I leave most of that stuff to them. I leave it to the ones who care about that stuff.

M: About information?

A: Well, who cares about what the public knows about me? That’s really why I wanted to do this. First, they couldn’t stop me. Second, I needed to do this. It’s therapeutic. They’re probably backstage right now freaking out. They didn’t want me to do this. A group of the most brilliant minds in the world—they, they are good at politics and are worried that if I tell you this information that somehow it will compromise my abilities or hurt me. I mean, it is dangerous to even be near me. You know this.

M: Of course. The audience has signed all of the appropriate waivers! (laughter)

A: Well the group offers me an allowance or whatever you want to call it. It comes from the people they serve, I guess. I don’t care, really. I normally donate the money or just stuff it away. If I adopt or have children one day, I’m sure they’ll be well off. So this group gives me the jobs or asks me for help in certain situations.

M: How many people are we talking about, by the way?

A: Oh, uhm, my staff. The rep group is around 420 or 430. My personal staff is around 150. I have four assistants.

M: And all of these people help you get where you need to be?

A: Well, they help point me in the right direction. I get there myself.

M: Oh, sure. Of course.

A: When I get that job or a request they essentially—well, at first I have to pick the job. On any day I can have hundreds of choices. The world is a horrible place. And although I can move very fast, I can only be in one place at a time. Well, sort of. (laughs) But once I decide, they will break it down for me. Like who am I going after or what I might be doing. So when I find that out, I grab my stuff and get going.

M: You fly there?

A: No. I don’t fly.

M: Explain that. Can you?

A: Explain not flying? (laughs) Um, well. That’s some of the information they would rather I skip, but the truth is that we really don’t know that yet. We’re still studying all of that. I know you’d like to hear it, but it’s really boring unless you’re into that. Essentially we think it’s a bit of magnetism but mainly a bit of air pressure and, well, particles. I can, well, I can make the air compact. Tight. I can create other fields. I can use them for almost anything. They protect me or protect what I want them to protect. Of course, they can also do damage. The fields are pulling from particles that are only here for a little while. It ... Well, see? I told you it can get technical. Honestly, I know a good deal about it but it bores me to talk about it.

M: So these fields fly you, or they transport you to the location that—?

A: Yeah. Yeah, I am protected when I am inside them. Heck, whatever is inside a field is protected. The closer the field is to the object or person or whatever, the more protected they are. For some reason. But I can do layers or can make massive fields or even fields within things. Within skin, or guts, or the brain or whatever. Like I said, it sounds very cool but it’s sort of boring. I’m more fascinated by a hurricane or the abilities of common birds!

So I can get the location, pop right up into the sky and right over to the area. I can be almost anywhere in minutes. When you take away the problems with drag or temperature or whatever, when my skin isn’t going to be hurt. I mean, the fields aren’t really moving, from what we know. They’re popping in and out. They’re sort of ... they move along the way by appearing and reappearing, not moving. So I’m at no risk of injury from flying objects or burning up in the atmosphere, so I can move as fast as I want. In fact, the real problem is not any damage that might be caused to me, but the damage I might cause to something else.

M: You mean in-air collisions?

A: Yeah, basically. Once I pick out where I am going the group used to have to scramble to get things out of the way. Air traffic, things like that. I slammed into a mountain a few times! (laughs)

M: You hit a mountain?

A: Basically. I was zipping along very, very fast. I was watching the GPS that tells me—basically it shows me a dot and I go to it. So I was looking at the GPS and it was suddenly very dark. I stopped, but the thing is you cannot stop making the field. That field is everything, so when something strange happens I used to have to remember to keep it going. So I kept it together and flew out until I came through the other side. There’s a huge hole in the Rocky Mountains; you can actually tour through it. The funds go to charity. Of course, now I just go really, really high into the sky and avoid almost everything. There’s a sweet spot, for sure. Space is not really a problem, but there are things like radiation I have to work on— am working on, I should say. Space is my next thing. It’s beautiful there.

M: You know, we don’t hear about this stuff, how you do what you do. This is a first.

A: Like me hitting a mountain? (laughs)

M: Well, I mean, seriously. Your PR department is very good. But how do they decide what they let out and what they don’t?

A: The truth is that pretty much all of this is out there. We have groups of internet activists who not only dig it all up but categorize it, talk about it, dissect it. One of the reasons I wanted to come out here and talk for three days is to clear up many of the myths or speculations.

M: Aren’t you afraid?

A: The truth is—oh, sorry.

M: No, go ahead.

A: Well, I tend to think that I sort of need to operate as much in the open as I can. I haven’t in the past, and the extent to which I will operate in the future, well, that needs to be decided. But even if I were to decide it, they control much of the information that gets out there. I want people to know what I do and where I go, who I possibly stop or hurt or help. But the government people have a very, very important point. If I get to know someone or fall in love or eventually want to form a family or whatever ... they are all a liability. I’ve literally been afraid of getting close to anyone because someone could take that person to use against me.

M: That can’t be fun.

A: Well, of course not.

M: We’ll get back to this, but could we stay on the topic of how you do what you do? It’s really one of the most popular topics in polls. Why is that?

A: Nerds? (laughs)

M: Well, that’s true in many ways. We can all remember being kids and talking about what our super-power would be.

A: OK, I get it. For the record, I didn’t talk about the superpowers I wanted. I mean, as a kid. (laughs)

M: That’s a good, a good jumping-off point. When did you first start using your abilities? Or when did you first discover them?

A: Oh, wow.

M: If you can remember something like that. You were born in, I think, 1928?

A: Yeah, April 4th. New York. We think. I actually have an incredible memory but only when it’s turned on. (laughs) I mean, and when I’m in ... when I’m away, I should say ... We’ll talk about that later I think? But, yeah, I can remember a lot of New York but I do not have memories about, like, specific addresses and all of that. I know that the groups have narrowed it down.

M: 873 West Highland. Every child in the world probably knows that!

A: Yeah, I’ve heard that. In, I think, Germany they’ve made up nursery rhymes with my address in it. It breaks down where I was born, some of the things I have done.

M: So when you were a child, did you just suddenly discover your ability? I’ve read that you fell out of a tree and they found you floating there?

A: Well, the facts are only about as accurate as—I mean, this was something that happened in, what, 1938 or '39? I’d disappeared at least once by then, so my original family was gone and this family had taken me in. I mean, this was a time when a family could sort of find a child and get away with not reporting it or turning me in. But the story goes that I fell out of a tree, and my caretaker—I guess you would call her my adopted mother—she heard me and came running and found me floating there a few feet above the ground. I remember falling out of a tree, sure.

M: You don’t remember floating or wanting to float?

A: I remember ... Hmm. I remember just falling and not floating, but it was as though I was just climbing down. Of course, memory is changed. Every time we remember something, we basically change it a bit, but I do remember the feeling of not climbing down but of just a natural series of events. I was falling. I stopped and got down. I guess it’s possible that I stopped myself, but it felt so natural that it felt just as natural as climbing down safely.

M: The story got out, from what I know, but there were so many stories in New York at that time. People are superstitious now, but they were more so then. You know what I mean?

A: Oh, sure. There are a lot of stories about me from that time but I can only hope that many of them are the result of people seeing something odd and attributing it to something else. There was a well-known story about me. This man says that I floated down to him—I was around fifteen or so, he said—and took him into the sky. We spent like four hours together.

M: Yes, I’ve heard that one. But the timing was wrong, wasn’t it?

A: Yeah. I could not have looked around fifteen then, around the time he claims he saw me.

M: You look 25 now! (laughs)

A: And I will for a long time, they tell me. For a long, long time. I have basically capped out age-wise. It has something to do with—well, do we want to get into that yet?

M: I could tell you yes, but for the sake of clarity I think we should stay on track a bit. Unfortunately your life sort of reads like a William Burroughs novel.

A: Pages or sections cut out?

M: Yes.

A: Well, let’s just say after that first memory that it’s possibly the first memory of using my ability, if that is indeed what I was remembering. After that, things were very confusing for a while. I had been away and that messed with me a lot. When I go away, after that I am sort of different. It takes me time to adapt and to remember what it’s like here. My abilities are such a part of me that I never have a problem working with them again, but ... But I want to say that I’m not saying that out of fear that some super criminal will hear that I am weak after I come back, and so they’ll wait for me to go and when I come back ... (laughs) You know what I mean?

M: You mean you’re trying to let us know that you actually can control your powers, even after an absence? That’s not PR-speak?

A: Exactly! That’s a great way to put it, by the way: absence. I like that. I really don’t disappear, not technically, so absence is more accurate I think. Sorry. I will warn you right now that I can be pretty hard to get a straight answer from.

M: So you travel to the location of your assignment, and then what?

A: Oh, you are good. (laughs)

M: (shrugs) Yes.

A: Well, I get there within minutes. The advantage of this is that whatever I am going there for has no time to adapt or move or run away. My speed means everything. That’s what started the citizen call-ins. It started organically.

M: For the record, you are talking about this citizen movement, that, they started to call in when they saw you fly over, if they did. They discovered that citizen information could help predict where you were going and that would help air traffic and things like that.

A: Yes. But of course my people do not really want people to know where I am going. But the information and safety it brought were so fast that even if the target found out they couldn’t move fast enough to ... to get away? I guess that’s the word.

M: Why is that? How do you know how to find them?

A: I can find anyone, basically. It depends, but I will find my target—I mean, once I am in the correct area. When I am within a certain distance, maybe? That’s why I use the GPS thing. But I could probably get to someone from across the globe, as well. I don’t mean that in an arrogant sort of way, but it’s true. I can just find you.

M: Is that something you can talk about as well?

A: More boring scientific stuff? Sure. I mean, if you knew what someone looked like, you could probably pick them out of a crowd. You’d have to be pretty familiar with them, of course, but you could do it.

M: Yes.

A: Well, I can recognize people in other ways. People feel different. My fields can sort of ... well, they can feel people. As in literally. Shapes, sizes. I can even tell male or female or tall or short or whatever.

M: How accurate is it?

A: Well, I need to know what this person looks like generally. And trust me, you’re not going to exist on this planet without someone knowing what you look like. I can even see a picture of you when you were younger and find you now. Pretty damn accurately. I think it’s similar to someone who loses their sight or hearing. They replace it with other abilities. Their smell, hearing, whatever.

M: So it’s like—

A: I can even taste people. (laughs) Oh, sorry. Again.

M: No, go ahead.

A: No, it’s just this ability. More abilities. But really they’re all connected to molecules and tiny particles. It’s funny how much I read old scientific theories and they are so perfect in explaining how I work now. It’s amazing.

M: So are you tuned into the molecules that—I mean, you are feeling others on a molecular level. Would that be accurate?

A: I think so. Yes, I feel that. I can feel everyone in this room now.

M: Can you stop it?

A: Stop feeling people?

M: Yes.

A: Yes, I think so. I just don’t, though. It’s on all the time. When I sleep, everything. It’s my heartbeat. It goes on its own. You know, it’s funny, I can actually remember the time before I could feel all of this. I was younger, probably a short time before I fell out of the tree, and I remember feeling my heavy feet and walking and picking up a heavy sack for my mother. I remember gravity, which is really odd. I don’t feel