Sitting in the quiet of his study, he thought for a moment, and then continued writing, “The force of the blow would have stunned anyone else, but WonderMan just shook his head, smiled strangely and asked, ‘Is that all you got, evil one? ' The second and third blows had no effect either and the frustration was starting to show on the face of the crook as WonderMan reached down, picked-up a broken piece of pipe, and held it in his strong hands, that same strange smile still on his face.”
From the other room, he could hear his son call out, “Dad, are you still writing? It’s almost time to go!”
Typing faster now, he continued writing, “The pipe was no longer just a pipe! In the hands of WonderMan it magically changed into a glowing golden scepter and the evil doer knew immediately what that meant! He instinctively backed up, his eyes darting from side to side seeking an escape route, but there was none! WonderMan had taken care of that.”
“C’mon, Dad, Mom’s in the car and she’s honking the horn. Let’s go! We’ll miss the start of the drive-in movie if we don’t leave right now, Dad!” his son implored.
The words came faster now, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he finished the story, “Backed-up against the dark stone wall of the cellar, the sinister adversary growled, ‘You think you can stop us, WonderMan? You can kill me, but there are thousands more where I come from. You’ll lose in the end, do gooder!’ The smile disappeared from WonderMan’s face as he moved very close to his prey, the golden weapon of good cradled in his powerful hands. ‘I’m not going to kill you, evil creature. In fact, I’m letting you go. You are free to return to your evil friends and your evil ways. But I know something that you don’t know.’ With that, WonderMan wrapped himself in his cape and amazingly disappeared, leaving the low-life evil one alone with nothing but wonder and the virus. End”
The boy appeared in the doorway of the study. He was looking at his watch and pleading, “Dad, please! You can finish that story when we get back! Let’s go!”
He closed his computer, moved his wheelchair slowly away from his desk, and wheeled himself towards his son in the doorway. The boy let his father move through the doorway before shutting off the light in the study. Then, stepping behind the wheelchair, he started to push it up the ramp towards the front door, and as he did, the boy leaned down a bit and asked, “Is it another WonderMan story, Dad? I love those.”
His father smiled and over his shoulder replied, “Yeah, and I think it’s a good one, too. WonderMan lets the bad guy go this time but infects him with a deadly virus which will kill the evil doer and all his evil friends. And the crook doesn’t know it!” As his son opened the front door, his father asked, “Whadda you think? Do you think I can sell this story?”
His Dad had never sold one of his cheesy stories, not one. But it was hope that kept him upbeat and cheerful. He didn’t want to think about what his Dad’s life would be like without schlocky old WonderMan as he answered, “Yeah, Dad, I think this just might be the one.”
End