Wonder Guy (33 page)

Her hands moved from his shoulders to trace his jaw and face. She found the edges of his mask, the boundary between flesh and mystery. His breath grew harsh when she slipped a finger under the taut fabric shielding his features.

When he pulled away, she moaned a protest. She half stumbled, left colder for the lack of his warmth against her, opening her eyes as he lifted his hands to the golden mask.

He tugged the fabric away, up and over his head, revealing a handsome face under tousled brown hair. It actually took her half a moment to recognize him.

“Greg?”

Her mind reeled. Greg? Not possible. A flying man, okay. Giant mosquitoes, maybe, but this? No way. She took an unsteady step back, shaking off his reaching hand.

“Oh my God, Greg! What’s going on here? Since when do you dress up in tights and a cape? What is this?”

“I don’t wear a cape.” He held both hands up, looking as bewildered and defensive as the time she’d accused him of programming her computer for alien takeover. She hadn’t understood
SETI at Home
then, and still wasn’t totally clear on how it wasn’t a set up for aliens to take control of the internet, but he’d explained it all so earnestly. It was probably okay. But not this, not this time.

“I don’t care about any stupid cape. What are you doing dressed up in a costume? What are you doing kissing me?”

“You kissed me too,” he pointed out logically enough. “What were you doing, kissing a total stranger?” His tone put her on the defensive.

“You’re not a stranger.”

“For all you knew, I was a stranger.”

“You didn’t seem like a stranger. But, good heavens, Greg, you’re practically a brother to me! Oh jeeze.”

Shaking her head to get rid of the very idea, she turned away. It was too weird, so embarrassing. Greg was part of the landscape of her life. She thought she knew him. She didn’t know him. She didn’t know him at all. She refused to think of the familiar Greg in the same breath as those kisses.

“But, Gloria–” He put a hand on her shoulder.

She shook it off, spinning to face him again.

“How could you? You lied to me, pretended to be someone else, this superhero. You kissed me under false pretenses!”

“But I am this superhero.” His jaw firmed as he pulled the mask back over his face and shot into the air. He did a loop-the-loop, swooped back down, landing in the driveway by the garage. He put his hands under the chassis and lifted Aggie’s specially-equipped SUV over his head before setting it gently back in place.

“Oh, stop showing off,” Gloria shouted at him. Fumbling with her key, she got the back door to her house open and stepped in. “I’m not talking to you any more, Greg Roberts.” She slammed the door between them and leaned back against it, heart pounding in her ears.

Oh my lord.
It was true. Greg was Wonder Guy. One and the same. Greg had saved her from the elephant, saved all those people from dinosaurs and giant mosquitoes and stopped all those crimes they’d reported on TV. Had the world gone mad?

She very strongly suspected the world had gone mad. None of the old rules held true and everything she’d ever believed was now subject to doubt. And a good thing. Good because it meant none of this had happened. Jo hadn’t really died, she hadn’t really kissed Greg and he wasn’t really a superhero. There were no such things as superheroes.

If only she could believe none of it was true, but the world remained too real around her. Every familiar object combined to deny the happy theory that she’d imagined everything. The solid slab of the door at her back upheld reality whether she liked it or not. The familiar sight of the kitchen tiles beneath her feet–especially the cracked ones from when she’d dropped the roasting pan–declared the validity of her whole history.

But how could Greg be Wonder Guy? Greg, the nerdy, quiet, boy-next-door, practically-a-brother guy she’d known so long he seemed like part of the furniture. She’d never even suspected he had the potential to become someone like Wonder Guy. Wonder Guy, so handsome, tall, and strong, with his long, sleek-muscled form so well displayed in his skin-tight costume, rescuer of maidens in distress, adored by swarms of belly-dancers. She couldn’t get her mind around the two being one. So this is what they meant by cognitive dissonance. She needed an aspirin. She finally moved away from the door, headed to the bathroom medicine cabinet.

All she knew for sure was Greg had deceived her. He’d kissed her under false pretenses. Or just plain pretenses if not false ones. She wouldn’t let him get away with it. She couldn’t let herself think about the kisses. They’d never happened. She’d kissed the guy she imagined Wonder Guy to be. Not Greg. Never Greg.

* * * *

When the door slammed shut behind Gloria, Greg stood frozen in place. For how long, he had no idea. The world might have ended for how little it mattered now. The sun shone from the bare blue sky as the breeze stirred in the heedless trees, but neither sight nor sound touched him.

At last he shook himself, straightened his mask more securely over his face and shot into the sky, straight up and away from the earth. He’d see how high he could climb. Beyond the atmosphere maybe, to some place as sterile and barren as his heart had become. The moon might be nice this time of year. With Wonder Guy’s powers, he could probably survive without atmosphere. For a while, anyhow.

He soon crossed above the flight path of an airplane headed out from Minneapolis International Airport.

When he’d passed at least a mile above anyone’s earshot he finally let out a pent-up roar, a blast of sound torn from his gut, loosing anguish, frustration and a passion to deny everything that had ever gone wrong on the planet. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. It had all been for her. The costume, the heroics, the magic.

The sound of his voice faded away into the blue surround as if it had never been. He was an idiot. He should have known better from the start. If Gloria hadn’t loved him to begin with, none of this would change her heart. He’d been a fool to think anything else.

But it hadn’t all been in vain. A more sensible part of him fought its way to the surface of his mind. He, Wonder Guy anyhow, had helped a lot of people. One or more of whom would be dead now if not for the heroics. Who knew where Gloria would be if he hadn’t been there to save her from those mosquitoes? She might not love him, she might not want ever to see or speak to him again, but at least she remained alive and well, making the world a finer place for the bright spirit she brought to it. He couldn’t stand the thought of the world without her in it.

His fairy godmother’s scheme to win him Gloria’s love had failed. He’d at least take advantage of the powers he’d been given and keep doing what good they made possible for those who needed his help.

His upward flight slowed as the course of his thoughts brought him at last to a sense of resolve. He might feel for the rest of his life as if something inside him had died today, but that didn’t mean his hero’s work was done. He turned, angling his flight path back toward earth and home.

He still needed to deal with Professor Stevens’ scheme and find out the identity of the woman involved, and the fairy godmothers still had their enemy. The one Serafina had told him of must still be out there, dreaming up worse plagues than dinosaurs and flying bloodsuckers.

Chapter 20

The bath helped. Gloria scrubbed herself dry with her oversized Egyptian cotton bath sheet and wrapped herself in its folds. The magical properties of hot water had soothed away the day’s stresses and eased the troubles from her mind. She headed to her bedroom, shaking out the damp curls of her hair.

Now she felt sorry to have been rough on Greg. He was a sweet boy who’d always been a good friend. She wasn’t as much of a comics fan as Greg, and had never thought much about it, but superheroes probably had good reasons to keep their true identities secret. She’d overreacted to the deception. It wasn’t like he’d played superhero just to fool her. She was an idiot if she imagined this was all about her.

Gloria pulled on her favorite, much-worn jeans and a baby blue V-neck t-shirt. Wonder Guy had flown down and landed near her before he’d gone and revealed himself as Greg. It must be true. Greg. She picked up her hairbrush. She couldn’t get over it. Greg as Wonder Guy. Greg as the one who’d flown through the sky to rescue her, twice. Greg as the one who’d carried her up into the sky and the one who’d kissed her like a whole new world exploding into being between them.

Her mind skittered away, and the ringing of her phone spared her more time on the subject.

“Ms. Torkenson?” a woman asked.

“Yes?” Gloria answered cautiously, wary of the too-frequent phone solicitations.

“It’s Kathleen Pederson.”

“Oh. Hi?” Why would Kathleen be calling her at home?

“I’m sorry to disturb you on a weekend, Ms. Torkenson, but I’ve had some plans change and will be out of town next week, for a conference in Boston. I know you wanted those forms.”

“Oh. Yes.” It took Gloria a second to recall the mundane matter, entirely forgotten in the wake of giant mosquitoes and superhero neighbor boys.

“Well, I tracked them down, and if you’ll meet me this evening before I head to the airport, I can give them to you then.”

“Oh, of course. I’d appreciate it. I don’t have to be anywhere.” It felt pitiful admitting she had no plans for a Saturday night, but she had released Pete from Saturday night date service, and chased away the next contender already. She was pitiful.

“My cousin lives in Boston, and I have to get a couple items I was holding for her from my storage locker. Why don’t you meet me there? It’s reasonably close to where you live. South Minneapolis, isn’t it? Say, in half an hour?”

“Fine,” Gloria said. “It’s good of you to take time out for this. What’s the address?” She jotted it down on the notepad beside her computer.

* * * *

“Hey, Mom.” Greg entered the kitchen, pleased to find Aggie home safe as usual, no strange men in sight, tracing a design onto a swath of brown ultra-suede. “What’s new?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Aggie had a mug of coffee on the table before her and set aside her work to cup her hands around it, sparing him a smile. She gazed off into space.

“Try me.”

“Strangest thing–Oh, do you want some coffee?” She turned back to him, gesturing to the chair opposite her at the table.

He remained standing. “No thanks, but I wanted to borrow your computer.”

“What’s wrong with yours?”

“You’ve got a better graphics package. I have some photos I want to format, maybe print one out.”

“Oh, sure. The laptop’s on that shelf–just lift it down.”

Greg got the computer down and sat, placing it on the table before him. “What’s so strange you don’t think I’ll believe it?”

“Have you listened to the news lately?” Aggie nodded to the TV playing at subdued volume on its shelf.

“I caught a bit.” Greg turned on the Mac laptop, waited for it to boot up. “Something about giant mosquitoes. Some publicity stunt?” Asking a question for which he already had the answer wasn’t exactly lying. Aggie had done it to him all the time when he was a kid, asking whether the elves had been into the cookies or made the mess in the living room when she knew perfectly well he’d done it.

“Giant is putting it mildly.” Aggie took a sip from her mug, her gaze wandering off again. “I was there, but I can hardly believe it myself.”

“You were there?” He looked up from downloading the photos he’d taken yesterday. “Are you okay?” He’d wanted to ask earlier, but not to admit he’d seen her there.

“I’m just fine.” She shook her head. “Just shaken up. I was pretty scared there for a bit, I’ll tell you, but luckily a very nice man carried me to shelter.”

“A nice man, huh?” A man who’d saved his mother, but a man who’d held her too much like Wonder Guy had held Gloria. Greg studied his mother’s face more closely than he had in years. She didn’t meet his eyes. Her cheeks seemed pinker than usual. Was she blushing? “Exactly who is this nice man?”

“His name is Hank. You know my friend, Sue Luddell from the Senior Center? He’s her younger brother. We’ve been seeing a bit of each other lately...” she trailed off, apparently catching the look on his face.

Greg closed his gaping mouth. Of course, his mother would go out with a nice guy if she met one. He should be surprised she hadn’t met one before this.

“Wow,” he said, and managed a smile. “That’s great. I mean, I’m glad you’ve met someone you like, but you can’t know this guy very well.”