Almost Home
“Is this your fault?”
I stand awkwardly, hip shot, clutching my purse in tight hands. “What?”
“I’m still alive.”
“I didn’t do it.”
“They brought me back. Again. I told those fuckers and told them, ‘don’t bring me back!’ but they won’t stop. They won’t stop.” He pulled on the tubes, rattled the leads, made the machines beep.
“I didn’t do it.”
“Did you pray?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I bet Dad did. Next time I just won’t let her bring me to the hospital. I was almost.” He finally looked me in the eye and whispered. “Almost there.”
Oh, man, are you guys pulling out all the stops today! Love those all.
Such a stupid stupid quandary.
I'm monkeying around with that superhero/alternate history book idea and coming up with characters. Some of these characters, natch, are variations on some recognized comic-book characters...there's a "Superman" guy, a "Batman" guy, etc. etc.
I have this whole thing about a "Captain Marvel" guy (the "Shazam" Captain Marvel, not the Dead of Cancer Marvel Comics Captain Marvel), but it's problematic because...I can't think of a decent alternate backstory.
In the comics, Captain Marvel gets his powers from gods, has a magic word and when he says said magic word he is struck by lightning and transformed. That's kinda primal, man, the lightning thing. Lightning has this deep-down Jungian-type resonance as a transformative force. I want something like that, but, for obvious reasons, I would prefer it not be lightning.
I am blanking big time. Anybody have any other ideas for a natural or pseudo-natural force that has some transformative resonance?
500kv transmission line
"I need my powers! Where's a power substation?"
Water. There's a whole baptism thing there.
Sunlight! Photosynthesis!
