Sunday, November 22, 2009

Super? Human. (Oscar)

What follows is part 2 of the Super? Human. series. If you haven't already, I suggest you click here to read part 1.

Oscar

When Susan won $500 in the lottery, she wasn’t even excited. Oscar could fly, and that was so much better.

If she could fly, Susan knew she wouldn’t need the lottery. She wouldn’t have a car payment, or auto insurance, or rising gas prices to worry about. She could even earn extra money as one of those traffic reporters on the radio that tells everybody where all the wrecks are on the highway.

Her stupid brother had the power to fly, and he never used it – not even if he woke up late and there wasn’t any coffee and rush-hour traffic was a mess. He said it was too slow. He said he could spit faster than he could fly.

He was right. Oscar flew slower than a small child tiptoes past his parent’s room during the night.

When they were kids, Oscar occasionally took off in the front yard to show off for his friends. But when his friends started crawling under him to untie his shoes and tickle his feet while he lifted off, Oscar had an important revelation. Unless a neighbor’s cat was stuck in a tree and they weren’t in a hurry to get it down, his power was neither very useful nor very impressive.

What’s the point of flying, Oscar thought, if it’s not fast?

As he got older, his opinion didn’t change. Recently, when he got caught in traffic on the way to an emergency surgery, Oscar took his chances and took off. Four blocks later, he was passed by a butterfly.

Now, unless the puddles were unbearably deep, Oscar usually walked. And Susan hated him for it.

Oscar knew his sister was jealous of his ability, but he was thankful Susan couldn’t fly. His logic? There’s a reason animals in the wild walk on all fours, hiding their underparts. There’s a reason birds, who fly so unashamedly, don’t have external genitals. It’s the same reason women who only wear short skirts, women like his sister, shouldn’t have the power of flight:

Decency.

Nobody wants to look up and see that, especially in slow motion.

To Be Continued...

Click here to read Part 3

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just skipped two meetings and a lunch because I was so into your writings. That makes me feel like a half stalker/half voyeur, and 100% flakey to those that I abandoned for your writings today. But it was all worth it man.

Really enjoyable, keep it up.

Barrett

Sometimes Roads Diverge said...

Barrett, it's been far too long since I was properly stalked. If I had known you were watching, I would have flashed some leg.