March 4 - "Maybe A Superhero"

“Maybe A Superhero”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * (Okay) Science Fiction

A woman finds she is transforming into a machine, and this change has led her life in two different directions.

I know there is symbolism at work here with the woman turning into a machine – a robot, essentially – who finds different kinds of love from two different men, but I don’t know if I understand what I’m supposed to understand. In the end neither life was satisfying, and she ended up alone, sitting on a swing set, rusting in the rain. For as tragic as the story sounds – and it is tragic – there are some beautiful images, such as the beauty of defeated love and rusting robots. Sometimes I wish I were smarter, and not so easily distracted by the pretty pictures in my head.