Heroes
It was the summer of 1985 and I was eight years old. I was with my mother and we were waiting for a friend of hers at the bus station. The said friend's bus was running late, so she decided to go to the news stand to buy the week's edition of the National Enquirer. Being as young as I was, I decided to follow her and wound up in the comic books section. I looked at all those colorfol covers and picked one up randomly. The title of the comic book was "Daredevil". I asked her if she could buy it for me and she said yes. As we kept on waiting for the bus to arrive, I plunged myself completely into the universe the said comic book hero. By the time I was done reading that comic book, one thing was very clear in my mind: when I was going to grow up, I would become a hero myself.
It was the beginning of the summer of 1989. I was about to go outside to play when my father came in with the mail. My report card had just come in. He asked me to stay for a bit before going outside. I was afraid that my grades would be bad and that he would not let me go out and play with the other kids. He opened a beer, then opened the envelope in wich my report card was and looked at it intently. He eventually looked at me and smiled. "These are good grades, son. You proably could be able to do anything you want to do in life if you keep on studying hard and keep on getting grades like these. Do you have an idea what you want to be when you grow up?" I took a breath and told him that I wanted to be a hero when I was to grow up.
He looked at me and sighed.
"Don't be stupid. In the world we live in, there are no more heroes. The last one died a long time ago."
I looked at him for a little while and then left our appartment to go play with the other kids.
It was the beginning of the summer of 1989. I was about to go outside to play when my father came in with the mail. My report card had just come in. He asked me to stay for a bit before going outside. I was afraid that my grades would be bad and that he would not let me go out and play with the other kids. He opened a beer, then opened the envelope in wich my report card was and looked at it intently. He eventually looked at me and smiled. "These are good grades, son. You proably could be able to do anything you want to do in life if you keep on studying hard and keep on getting grades like these. Do you have an idea what you want to be when you grow up?" I took a breath and told him that I wanted to be a hero when I was to grow up.
He looked at me and sighed.
"Don't be stupid. In the world we live in, there are no more heroes. The last one died a long time ago."
I looked at him for a little while and then left our appartment to go play with the other kids.