Superhero Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t call out on.”
    A male voice from inside shouted, “Is that Jack?” A man with orange hair and a matching beard came out, his shirt tucked into some Dockers. He thrust out his hand and Jack shook it. “You look skinny.”
    “Haven’t been eating well.”
    “We’re gonna change that,” his sister said. “Come on, come in.”
    Jack walked into the family home he grew up in and a sudden sense of peace and sadness filled him. Peace because there was nowhere in the world he felt more at ease, and sadness because, after eleven years, he was a stranger here.
    “Autumn,” his sister said as she led Jack by the arm into the living room, “this is your uncle Jack. You used to call him Unkie ack. Do you remember that?”
    The child smiled but looked confused, unable to pull up the memory.
    His sister sat down next to him and Hank and Autumn sat on the sofa across from them. Jack noticed that Hank had gained at least thirty pounds, and the beard was new. He looked old and Jack wondered if time had aged him too but he just hadn’t noticed.
    “So tell us everything,” Nicole said.
    He smirked, tousling her hair. “You know I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “How long are you here for?”
    “This is it. I’m done.”
    “What’dya mean?”
    “I mean I’m done. I resigned from the DEA.”
    She threw her arms around his neck again. “You mean you’re home for good?”
    “As long as the city’ll have me.”
    Hank smiled. “It’s good to see you, Jack. To be honest, I was forgetting what you looked like.”
    “I know,” he said, smiling to Autumn. “I’ve neglected what’s important for what’s trivial. It was a mistake. I’m not going to be making that mistake again.”
    “Does Mom know?” Nicole interrupted.
    “No, I came straight here. Well, after the car dealership.”
    “Don’t tell me that red penis mobile at the curb is your car.”
    “Hank,” Nicole said, laughing.
    “Just kidding. I’m mostly jealous.”
    “I bled for that thing, Hank. I don’t think it was a fair trade. How’s my room?”
    “Oh you have to go see it,” his sister said. “We kept it the same. Hank wanted to turn it into a billiards room but I knew you’d be back soon.”
    Jack leaned down and kissed his sister on the top of the head, feeling emotion swell up inside him as he heard her cell phone dial a number and his mother’s voice come on the line.
     
     
    Jack was stuffed by the time dinner was over. His entire family was at Nicole’s house, over thirty people including kids. Two of his brothers were arguing about the Democratic Party’s stance on the Second Amendment and Jack used it as an opportunity to sneak away and head upstairs to his old room.
    The photos in the hallway upstairs hadn’t been changed. Him in his martial arts uniforms, boxing, wrestling…and some of his father, who had passed four years ago. Jack had been on assignment in Japan and wasn’t able to attend the funeral.
    “He’s already gone,” he had told Nicole over the phone, “it won’t matter if I come back.” But, somehow, he knew it did matter. He was the eldest son and his not being at the funeral was a disappointment to his family.
    His siblings weren’t as athletic but a few photos featured Nicole at chess tournaments throughout California, something she gave up when she got married. He wished they had taken down the photo at the end. It was of him at three years old, sitting on the steps of St. Catherine’s Youth Home, waiting for his biological parents to pick him up. He didn’t remember what they looked like now and he was grateful. His family was here; in every way that mattered, this was his family.
    But he still thought about them. He remembered his mother in a white laboratory coat smiling and kissing him though her face was blank now. Faded with the sands of time. He wondered if she looked like him. He figured she must’ve been some sort of professional though he didn’t remember anything about his