Chapter 13

From that first day, I was awake for almost 20 hours a day and performing over a 100 rescues a day, some over in minutes, others requiring a lot more time. My worst ever disaster that year was a landslide in Asia. I tried everything to stop it, putting rocks in the way, but the only thing I could do was to STOP the whole thing, for nearly 2 hours while it stopped raining, then I moved it back up the hill, while the sun slowly began to dry it and the people escaped the area. I slept for 2 days after that, my brain was just too exhausted after putting all my concentration into averting disaster. That was six months after I started.

However, back to that first day, I got a chance to see the recordings that were made by Melissa a few days after. Melissa told me I was on every news channel. The internet was buzzing, and video footage and pictures were appearing everywhere. The next day's newspapers all had me on their front page. Now until I spoke publicly over a year later, not by mouth but through a single reporter. The headlines I read were really quite a shock. A lot were comparing me to superwoman, and believed I was an alien from another planet, and that rumor lasted until my interview. I got a lot of negative feedback in the first few months, except from the people who I had saved. So many people were scared of me. That even though I wore white, they thought I was the devil or something, just as Melissa had predicted. However, the more people I saved, the more thanks and praise I got.

About 3 months after I had started, a newspaper really helped change opinions about me, in a good way. For one week, they did a special article about me. Each day they described some of my rescues and published interviews with those saved. I still keep all the positive comments in a scrapbook. At the end of each article, they had a different poll, six of them, one for each day, Monday to Saturday. The first poll question was, do people think I was good or bad? The poll got 75% I was good, the result printed the following day.

Did they think I was here to do harm? No.

Should I be driven away? No.

Was I needed? Yes.

The percentages got better and better as people began to see the clearer picture of what I had done and how many people I had actually saved.

Friday's question was, should I be treated better? 99% said yes.

The final poll was the one that really got people behind me. What was my name? So far, I was nicknamed The White Devil. This was quite upsetting and almost a few times, I thought about quitting before that poll came out. Melissa was my anchor the whole time and told me that eventually people would change their opinions, it was just the media, and they had to get behind me first. Therefore, that one newspaper changed everything. The New York newspaper that had started it all, most particularly an A Carter, who wrote the article, had gathered so much interest from the media, all around the world. Therefore, when people were asked to pick my name, the entire media joined in complete unity. I later learned that millions of suggestions were made and the number one got the vote, thank god the name fit me.

Once the media was ready, and after a month of waiting, the world had finally decided on my name, something that the original newspaper said, "We will publish the results in Monday's paper". My name, I discovered would be known worldwide as The White Angel. Melissa was close to getting the name right, Guardian Angel reached third. Melissa said she would stitch a WA into my clothes, but I told her the suit was my signature, her design, and she should be proud of that, and she was.

We went out to dinner that night to celebrate, just the two of us and made a toast to The White Angel, happily the other diners in the restaurant joined in. The world, specifically the media, changed their stance towards me over night; I was someone good and here to help. I had fan clubs popping up all over the world. Fan mail was being sent to post offices around the world. America became the home base as they had the money and resources to store and keep track, until one day she appeared and collected it, and one day I would.

However, no matter how popular I became, I began to find it tougher and tougher to keep going, exhaustion setting in from not getting enough sleep. I was getting weaker and my mental state was deteriorating, due mainly to the lives I could see dying and could not save. As I have mentioned, one day Melissa hid my suit and stopped me from leaving the house. My parents were worrying about me so much, they could see me fading more and more. Melissa tired to explain that even though the business was hers, I was really trying my best as a friend to make it work and was working too hard. Melissa informed them it had gone too far, and said she was going to keep me off work for as long as I needed to fully recover.

"You need to stop Sophie. This is the most difficult thing I have had to do, and I need you to listen to me. For at least a few weeks, you are not leaving this house. You are going to switch off your warning system and then you are going to sleep. If I know your brain as well as I think I do, it will take at least a week before you reawaken. Now as luck would have it, I have a client who is getting married, thankfully, she is also a doctor, and I offered her, a free wedding dress designed by me and that I would pay for the whole wedding, if she would be willing to look after you for a few weeks. She has agreed to give you the best care and medication you need, until you get over this weight loss and fatigue. We need to get your strength back to normal. Then we are going to sit down, and together we are going to work out a new system, so that you get a normal life and that, you are not spending all your time saving people. You are going to reduce your saves per day, and then you are going to start getting a proper night's sleep, every night. Now don't argue with me, just switch it off and sleep."

I did not say a word and for the first time in a year, I switched off my instinct and slept, and as Melissa rightly predicted for a week. When I awoke, I was feeling much better. The doctor had been so worried about me and had never heard of anybody just going to sleep and not waking up for a solid week. Melissa was smart to say that, I had a few traumatic events and once slept for 3 days, as my medical records will state, it was my way of dealing with things. The doctor got a free wedding and I was certainly better. The doctor also provided me with a diet plan to help return me to normal. Melissa hired a chef to come once a day and help prepare the meals. She also hired a fitness instructor to help build my strength and get my fitness back.

"So now that I am rested and I do appreciate what you did, people are going to wonder where I am and I need to get back to them."