Chapter 4
Topher still couldn't believe it. A minute ago he was in his gyms parking lot, and a few past and then he is in Seattle, looking up and seeing the Space Needle. Now that he was in a bigger city Topher knew he would find some crime to stop, and since it was in a another state he wouldn't have to worry about being recognized. He got rid of the risk of being pulled into the police station and being questioned if any of his potential thugs he stopped decided they wanted to tell the truth of how a superhero powered individual stopped them. Topher thought to himself it was a perfect plan.
Topher just started walking down streets through out the city, and was peering through dark alley ways. If the police saw him it would look pretty suspicious, but luckily there were no officers on patrol that he could see. Topher saw a lot of other people instead. He spotted the obvious tourists who were navigating the city by smart phone, the normal Seattleites who walk down the street ignoring all traffic signals for pedestrians and drivers alike, and a slew of homeless holding signs that said, "Why lie I need money for booze and weed :)". Topher laughed and cried a little bit at the same time due to their honest bluntess. That's when he heard the sound that meant he had to spring into action. Topher heard the screaming siren of a fire truck, and was going down Fifth Avenue with lightening speed. So fast no human could catch up, well no regular human Topher thought. Topher immediately went running after it to assist the other heroes, the firefighters in whatever danger they were about to walk into.
When Topher was following the truck he noticed where the smoke was billowing into the sky, and therefore didn't have to follow the truck to its destination anymore. Topher raced ahead to get a jump on the situation before the authorities showed up and it would be even harder to accomplish what he had planned, helping people in need. When he got to the fire he saw what looked like an apartment complex engulfed in flames all fifteen stories of it. Standing outside standing all in terror and fear was the group of people just like in the movies. Just like they do in the movies Topher thought. Topher looked up and saw different bodies in windows, or hearing life fearing screams coming from the building. Topher knew long falls and knifes didn't harm him at all, but he wasn't sure about fire, or extreme heat but there was only way to find out, so Topher headed towards the back of the building so there were less witnesses.
Topher found the back of the building and found a back door, looking at the knob he noticed it was glowing red hot, Topher touched it, and didn't feel any pain in his hand. Topher than without one hesitation kicked the door in with a swift kick, shattering the door to pieces. Topher felt like a total badass after seeing himself do that, got a shot of adrenaline in him. and rocketed up the stairs knowing he had no time to lose. He stopped on the second floor because that was the first floor he saw where people were still stuck when he was watching the front of the building. He stood at the start of the hall and yelled as loud as he could the only thing that he thought logical to say, "Is there anyone here on the second floor!". Topher mentally facepalmed himself after hearing himself yell that in a burning building. The only sound Topher heard for the next few moments were the obvious sounds of a building being burned down. Flames crackling, walls and floors falling down, in short sheer utter destruction. But then he head a faint scream over all the sounds,
"Help! If anyones there help! We are in room 215!" Topher without thinking ran as fast as his legs could carry him to room 215, and kicked the door in. In the room there was a single mother with two children clinging to their mom's leg in pure terror, and in the mom's arms was a nine month old infant Topher guessed. "Save my kids!", the mom screamed at Topher, the only thing a mother could think of while being in this situation, and told her children to go with him. Topher had the ten year old son grab his baby sister in his arms. Topher then motioned for the kids to come closer and he bent over and picked up all three kids in his arms. The mother such in shock had no idea what to say at this amazing sight. In the blink of an eye Topher was out the apartments door, and back out front with all the other spectators. Topher handed the kids off to a neighbor who gave all the children hugs, and ran back to grab their mom. In seconds mom was reunited with her kids. Hugs and kisses all around, but Topher knew there were more trapped in side and he was their only hope, so he headed back around the back and went back inside. The mom didn't even time to tell Topher thank you.
Topher ran up to the third floor and yelled the same thing as he did before, but there was no success this time. He hoped they all got out, and went straight to the fourth floor. Topher didn't need to scream this time because he heard the blood curdling scream of a boy begging for his father to wake up. Topher then ran down the halls just punching doors into he found the boy and his unconscious father. When he found the right room he saw a little boy crying starting at his father, who was encircled with a ring of flame, and a beam on top of him. Topher was praying to god the father was still alive. Topher felt for a pulse, and found one, a small one, but still there was a pulse. A pulse meant hope. Topher jumped through the flames and lifted the beam with one hand and grabbed the boys father from under it with the other. He hunched the father on his back and jumped back through the flames back to boy. Topher turned to the boy who looked a lot like his son Parker at home and said, "Hi my name is To...Defender. I'm here to save you and your dad, but I need your help. Will you help me?"
The boy in shock over the man who didn't look like a fire fighter saving his dad made the only other logical connection in his brain. "My name is John, and that's my dad Ron. I'm usually not allowed to talk to strangers, but I think super heros are ok. And you must be a super hero, because you are not a fireman, but you are saving us", John said to Topher.
Topher smiled at John and grabbed him and Ron and turned to go out the front door of the apartment. Just then the entire floor by the front door collapsed. Topher knowing that white men can't jump far, or at least Topher couldn't had to think of a plan B, and quick. He ran to the window and saw empty deserted ground. He survived two stories last time he thought. He tried opening the window, but it wouldn't budge so he just punched it instead sending shattered glass everywhere. Topher said to John, "Close your eyes buddy!", and jumped through the window with Ron and John slung over his shoulders. The fall seemed longer, but at the same time shorter from when he jumped off his own house the other day. A combined weight of over 500 pounds landed on the concrete, and all what was the result of the fall was tiny little crater that they made. No broken bones, and three live bodies, perfectly fine.
John looked at Topher wide eyed and thanked him, "That was totally awesome! I wanna do that again!." Topher let out a laugh, and shook his head. Topher laughed because he thought John's comment was funny and typical of a ten year old boy, but also because he survived a jump from the fourth floor of a burning building, and was alive to talk about it. Topher dropped John and Ron back off at the front, and noticed the fire trucks and para-medics have arrived now. Which was going to make his job a lot harder to do.
Topher sped through the sixth through ninth floors since there was no one trapped on them. He silently thanked God for that one. Topher thought he had everyone out until he hit the last floor, the tenth. Topher called out his ritualistic help beacon, and for once wasn't greeted with silence, instead it was eight different distinct voices begging for help. Not knowing how to react at the swell of people he had to save Topher just screamed, "What rooms are you in?!". He swore he heard 1005,1010,1016,1014,1030,1006, and 1020. This will be a true test Topher thought because he had no idea how many people were still in each room. Topher came up with the plan that it might be safer and faster to gather them into groups to get them out. He ran to the first four rooms and gathered the first batch of people. A mixture of elderly, children, and scared middle aged adults. He ran the elderly and children down first, because they would need the most help to get to safety on account of age, and the adults followed as fast as they could behind him. After Topher got the children and elderly to safety he returned to the stairs to give the others a helping boost to safety. When the first four groups were down he headed back up to save the last group of four rooms. He saved the whole building with no casualties. Topher thanked God again for the obvious assist.
Topher went back to the front and watched with all the other spectators, who by this time have whipped out their cell phones to film the horrific scene, and recording fire fighters enter a doomed building. When Topher overheard a fire fighter yelling into a walkie talkie, "TONY ANSWER! TONY! ARE YOU STILL ON THE SIXTH FLOOR!! DO YOU COPY!! TONY!"
Topher remembered how bad of shape the sixth floor was in and took off running not caring who saw the man disappear in a blink of an eye. He ran up the six flights of stairs pushing himself to near exhaustion. He ran to the end of the hall on the sixth floor, because he heard the yelling of the walkie talkie coming from that direction. Topher saw why Tony wasn't answering as soon as he found the walkie talkie. Tony was stuck under a wall fully engulfed in flames, and underneath him were the flames eating away at the floor. Topher knew Tony would not survive a drop to the fifth floor with all that weight, and whose to say the fall would end on the fifth floor. That is when the hunk of flaming debris gathered a voice out of shock that there was a man standing in front of him, and it wasn't Death himself. "Get out man and save yourself!" Topher in shock that Tony was still alive ignored his pleads, and pushed the wall off of Tony saving his life. Topher noticed the fallen wall was not kind to Tony's legs, and look like they have been crushed and would have no chance of being able to work at all. Then Topher heard another sound that scared him. Topher heard a group of firemen in shock asking who that guy is standing over Tony. Topher unsure how to respond acted without caring about the consequences and ran as fast as he could straight ahead.
Paul was standing outside with all the other crowd outside filming the building with his camera phone, banking on selling it to a t.v. station for amateur video footage of the fire. Little did he know that he was about to capture the first video footage of Defender. Paul was in shock staring at the man flying out the window of the sixth floor, and falling to his obvious demise. Paul felt bad for the man who just died, but then smiled when he thought of the paycheck he would receive for his video.
Topher landed face first on the street below. Topher peeled himself off of the street and walked down an alley to disappear from the fire. Knowing he just saved a handful of lives, he knew he did good, and it felt good. He took a five minute breather and started running home. When Topher made it back to his car he was fully exhausted, and could barely keep his eyes open. He got into his car and turned the ignition noticing the time, 1:00 in the morning. To his wife it looked like he just spent four hours at the gym, and she would never believe that. But if she asked at least he had the body to prove to her that the gym is actually working.
The three firefighters ran to the window that the man that came out of nowhere sprinted like a bat out of hell to. They looked down expecting to see a pool of blood and guts, but looked down and saw nothing. The three firemen went back to Tony and made an oath that they saved Tony, because no one would believe them if they ever told the truth.
Topher woke the next day, and looked at his phone, which has become every persons routine when they upgrade to a smart phone. A phone that has your entire life on one little plastic electronic device. Brad his best friend, who moved to Washington in the past year, posted on his Facebook wall a link to an article telling the story of the fire last night in Seattle.
""Last night a ten storied apartment burned down. There have been no
casualties reported at this time, and only a few minor injuries have
occurred. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but there is a bigger
mystery. Some called him a guardian angel, but another eye witness
has another theory. " A superhero saved him and his Dad is what John
has told reporters, but wouldn't tell us his name...
Topher scanned the article in shock all while the whole of last night replayed in his mind soaking in all the details.
Another part of the mystery involves an amateur video that was shot on
Paul Fisher's cell phone last night. The footage looks like glass shattering
out the side of the building, and what looks like a man falling six floors.
Authorities went to investigate but they found no evidence of a body...
Topher then clicked the video and watched himself jump out of the window. And then he watched it again. And again. And again. Topher watched the video of himself over ten times, and each time he swore all the smells of last night were coming back to him, almost as if he was still in that building. He then noticed he fell asleep with his clothes on from last night, and if his wife woke up he would have no chance at an explanation of why he smells like he was fighting a fire last night. He hopped in the shower and put his clothes in a bag to get rid of at work, because he didn't want in the laundry which would cause questions. To many questions Topher thought. Topher grabbed his clothes and headed out the door.
Topher made a stop at DB coffee on the way to work. Corey the manager and Topher's three favorite girls were working this morning. When this team was working the coffee always comes out perfect Topher thought, never burnt. "Toph!", Corey yelled to Topher over the blaring techno music. "What's happening my man!", and gave Topher a high five.
"""""Long night man! Long night! Definitely need your coffee today!", Topher said to Corey. Topher came to the realization that DB coffee must put crack in their coffee, because he was addicted after his first cup, and no other coffee comes close to being as good as DB. Topher looked at his cup when Corey handed him his coffee. Dig life the lid said. Perfect for the day after the night he just had.
Topher goes for his wallet to take out his debit card to pay, but Corey shakes his head and stops him. "You know what, today it's on me because you look like you went through Hell last night, and really need this today!" Topher high fived Corey and told him thanks. Topher also made a mental note to bring him cookies the next time he baked. Topher gets work with half of his coffee drank already and walks in the door. Yay, my Tuesday Topher thinks to himself. He walked to the back and noticed the dishes that were piled in the sink from the night before. He looked at the salad bar bowl and saw all the utensils just thrown in with no sign of order or separation making his life easier when he opens salad bar. Went through the walk in, noticing that there was no cheese left which meant he had to shred cheese once again, and counted out how many trays his kitchen opener James would have to roll out because it was Friday. Topher counted out thirteen trays.
Topher got into the office to check parties and saw there was a day care organizational booked that would have up to fifty children accompanying them at 11:00, and also a birthday party for Sophie that would have up to twenty children and fifteen adults joining them for the celebration. Topher was about to go out to the showroom to check to see if he still had to setup those parties, when his phone vibrated notifying him about a new text message. Early morning text messages are never good news. It was his kitchen opener James calling in sick. Topher screamed out at the top of his lungs, "F.A.I.F!" Freaking A It's Friday!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Chapter 4: Teaser!
Here's a sample of chapter 4 so far. Hopefully I will have the rest posted on Tuseday!
Chapter 4
Topher still couldn't believe it. A minute ago he was in his gyms parking lot, and a few past and then he is in Seattle, looking up and seeing the Space Needle. Now that he was in a bigger city Topher knew he would find some crime to stop, and since it was in a another state he wouldn't have to worry about being recognized. He got rid of the risk of being pulled into the police station and being questioned if any of his potential thugs he stopped decided they wanted to tell the truth of how a superhero powered individual stopped them. Topher thought to himself it was a perfect plan.
Topher just started walking down streets through out the city, and was peering through dark alley ways. If the police saw him it would look pretty suspicious, but luckily there were no officers on patrol that he could see. Topher saw a lot of other people instead. He spotted the obvious tourists who were navigating the city by smart phone, the normal Seattleites who walk down the street ignoring all traffic signals for pedestrians and drivers alike, and a slew of homeless holding signs that said, "Why lie I need money for booze and weed :)". Topher laughed and cried a little bit at the same time due to their honest bluntess. That's when he heard the sound that meant he had to spring into action. Topher heard the screaming siren of a fire truck, and was going down Fifth Avenue with lightening speed. So fast no human could catch up, well no regular human Topher thought. Topher immediately went running after it to assist the other heroes, the firefighters in whatever danger they were about to walk into.
When Topher was following the truck he noticed where the smoke was billowing into the sky, and therefore didn't have to follow the truck to its destination anymore. Topher raced ahead to get a jump on the situation before the authorities showed up and it would be even harder to accomplish what he had planned, helping people in need. When he got to the fire he saw what looked like an apartment complex engulfed in flames all fifteen stories of it. Standing outside standing all in terror and fear was the group of people just like in the movies. Just like they do in the movies Topher thought. Topher looked up and saw different bodies in windows, or hearing life fearing screams coming from the building. Topher knew long falls and knifes didn't harm him at all, but he wasn't sure about fire, or extreme heat but there was only way to find out, so Topher headed towards the back of the building so there were less witnesses.
Topher found the back of the building and found a back door, looking at the knob he noticed it was glowing red hot, Topher touched it, and didn't feel any pain in his hand. Topher than without one hesitation kicked the door in with a swift kick, shattering the door to pieces. Topher felt like a total badass after seeing himself do that, got a shot of adrenaline in him. and rocketed up the stairs knowing he had no time to lose. He stopped on the second floor because that was the first floor he saw where people were still stuck when he was watching the front of the building. He stood at the start of the hall and yelled as loud as he could the only thing that he thought logical to say, "Is there anyone here on the second floor!". Topher mentally facepalmed himself after hearing himself yell that in a burning building. The only sound Topher heard for the next few moments were the obvious sounds of a building being burned down. Flames crackling, walls and floors falling down, in short sheer utter destruction. But then he head a faint scream over all the sounds,
"Help! If anyones there help! We are in room 215!" Topher without thinking ran as fast as his legs could carry him to room 215, and kicked the door in. In the room there was a single mother with two children clinging to their mom's leg in pure terror, and in the mom's arms was a nine month old infant Topher guessed. "Save my kids!", the mom screamed at Topher, the only thing a mother could think of while being in this situation, and told her children to go with him. Topher had the ten year old son grab his baby sister in his arms. Topher then motioned for the kids to come closer and he bent over and picked up all three kids in his arms. The mother such in shock had no idea what to say at this amazing sight. In the blink of an eye Topher was out the apartments door, and back out front with all the other spectators. Topher handed the kids off to a neighbor who gave all the children hugs, and ran back to grab their mom. In seconds mom was reunited with her kids. Hugs and kisses all around, but Topher knew there were more trapped in side and he was their only hope, so he headed back around the back and went back inside. The mom didn't even time to tell Topher thank you.
Topher ran up to the third floor and yelled the same thing as he did before, but there was no success this time. He hoped they all got out, and went straight to the fourth floor. Topher didn't need to scream this time because he heard the blood curdling scream of a boy begging for his father to wake up. Topher then ran down the halls just punching doors into he found the boy and his unconscious father. When he found the right room he saw a little boy crying starting at his father, who was encircled with a ring of flame, and a beam on top of him. Topher was praying to god the father was still alive. Topher felt for a pulse, and found one, a small one, but still there was a pulse. A pulse meant hope. Topher jumped through the flames and lifted the beam with one hand and grabbed the boys father from under it with the other. He hunched the father on his back and jumped back through the flames back to boy. Topher turned to the boy who looked a lot like his son Parker at home and said, "Hi my name is To...Defender. I'm here to save you and your dad, but I need your help. Will you help me?"
The boy in shock over the man who didn't look like a fire fighter saving his dad made the only other logical connection in his brain. "My name is John, and that's my dad Ron. I'm usually not allowed to talk to strangers, but I think super heros are ok. And you must be a super hero, because you are not a fireman, but you are saving us", John said to Topher.
Chapter 4
Topher still couldn't believe it. A minute ago he was in his gyms parking lot, and a few past and then he is in Seattle, looking up and seeing the Space Needle. Now that he was in a bigger city Topher knew he would find some crime to stop, and since it was in a another state he wouldn't have to worry about being recognized. He got rid of the risk of being pulled into the police station and being questioned if any of his potential thugs he stopped decided they wanted to tell the truth of how a superhero powered individual stopped them. Topher thought to himself it was a perfect plan.
Topher just started walking down streets through out the city, and was peering through dark alley ways. If the police saw him it would look pretty suspicious, but luckily there were no officers on patrol that he could see. Topher saw a lot of other people instead. He spotted the obvious tourists who were navigating the city by smart phone, the normal Seattleites who walk down the street ignoring all traffic signals for pedestrians and drivers alike, and a slew of homeless holding signs that said, "Why lie I need money for booze and weed :)". Topher laughed and cried a little bit at the same time due to their honest bluntess. That's when he heard the sound that meant he had to spring into action. Topher heard the screaming siren of a fire truck, and was going down Fifth Avenue with lightening speed. So fast no human could catch up, well no regular human Topher thought. Topher immediately went running after it to assist the other heroes, the firefighters in whatever danger they were about to walk into.
When Topher was following the truck he noticed where the smoke was billowing into the sky, and therefore didn't have to follow the truck to its destination anymore. Topher raced ahead to get a jump on the situation before the authorities showed up and it would be even harder to accomplish what he had planned, helping people in need. When he got to the fire he saw what looked like an apartment complex engulfed in flames all fifteen stories of it. Standing outside standing all in terror and fear was the group of people just like in the movies. Just like they do in the movies Topher thought. Topher looked up and saw different bodies in windows, or hearing life fearing screams coming from the building. Topher knew long falls and knifes didn't harm him at all, but he wasn't sure about fire, or extreme heat but there was only way to find out, so Topher headed towards the back of the building so there were less witnesses.
Topher found the back of the building and found a back door, looking at the knob he noticed it was glowing red hot, Topher touched it, and didn't feel any pain in his hand. Topher than without one hesitation kicked the door in with a swift kick, shattering the door to pieces. Topher felt like a total badass after seeing himself do that, got a shot of adrenaline in him. and rocketed up the stairs knowing he had no time to lose. He stopped on the second floor because that was the first floor he saw where people were still stuck when he was watching the front of the building. He stood at the start of the hall and yelled as loud as he could the only thing that he thought logical to say, "Is there anyone here on the second floor!". Topher mentally facepalmed himself after hearing himself yell that in a burning building. The only sound Topher heard for the next few moments were the obvious sounds of a building being burned down. Flames crackling, walls and floors falling down, in short sheer utter destruction. But then he head a faint scream over all the sounds,
"Help! If anyones there help! We are in room 215!" Topher without thinking ran as fast as his legs could carry him to room 215, and kicked the door in. In the room there was a single mother with two children clinging to their mom's leg in pure terror, and in the mom's arms was a nine month old infant Topher guessed. "Save my kids!", the mom screamed at Topher, the only thing a mother could think of while being in this situation, and told her children to go with him. Topher had the ten year old son grab his baby sister in his arms. Topher then motioned for the kids to come closer and he bent over and picked up all three kids in his arms. The mother such in shock had no idea what to say at this amazing sight. In the blink of an eye Topher was out the apartments door, and back out front with all the other spectators. Topher handed the kids off to a neighbor who gave all the children hugs, and ran back to grab their mom. In seconds mom was reunited with her kids. Hugs and kisses all around, but Topher knew there were more trapped in side and he was their only hope, so he headed back around the back and went back inside. The mom didn't even time to tell Topher thank you.
Topher ran up to the third floor and yelled the same thing as he did before, but there was no success this time. He hoped they all got out, and went straight to the fourth floor. Topher didn't need to scream this time because he heard the blood curdling scream of a boy begging for his father to wake up. Topher then ran down the halls just punching doors into he found the boy and his unconscious father. When he found the right room he saw a little boy crying starting at his father, who was encircled with a ring of flame, and a beam on top of him. Topher was praying to god the father was still alive. Topher felt for a pulse, and found one, a small one, but still there was a pulse. A pulse meant hope. Topher jumped through the flames and lifted the beam with one hand and grabbed the boys father from under it with the other. He hunched the father on his back and jumped back through the flames back to boy. Topher turned to the boy who looked a lot like his son Parker at home and said, "Hi my name is To...Defender. I'm here to save you and your dad, but I need your help. Will you help me?"
The boy in shock over the man who didn't look like a fire fighter saving his dad made the only other logical connection in his brain. "My name is John, and that's my dad Ron. I'm usually not allowed to talk to strangers, but I think super heros are ok. And you must be a super hero, because you are not a fireman, but you are saving us", John said to Topher.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Chapter 3!
Chapter 3
All that Topher saw when he opened his eyes was the brightest light he has ever seen before. He knew it wasn't the light to heaven, because dead people can't smell, and he smelled a freshly laid dog poo about six inches from where he landed. Well not really landed more like jumped off a roof in an attempt to fly and belly flopped to his almost demise. Topher didn't even have one second of flight, instead he somehow flipped in the air and landed on his back directly under the sun and opened his eyes directly into it. Butters Topher's golden labrador came up to his owner and gave him a kiss. A kiss that if dogs could talk would probaly be followed, You jumped off the roof, I don't know, but I'm a dog, and I still love you. At least that is what Topher thought the dogs kiss meant. Topher also didn't know how we would of explained to his wife if she came out and found his body on the ground either dead, well if he was dead there would be no needed explanation really, or completely paralyzed. He thought he can lift heavy stuff, run fast, the most logical thing that would he be able to do also would be fly. Super-dude does it. So why can't Super Topher. He then scratches that name at how absurd and egotistical it sounded. He got up with not a scratch on him, just a little soreness from the fall. Looked down and saw his body imprint on the lawn. He had no idea how he was going to explain that to Anne, but when the time came to he would of think something fast, or just blame it on the kids. The second option usually works.
Topher went into the house with a tiny limp to think of costume options or possible names, because he thought that would be the most logical thing to do after finding out you have super powers. First test them to see what you have, your limitations, and the powers you don't have would be the most logical 3 steps of part 1. Part 2 would be think of a name that would strike fear in criminals minds, but at the same time instill hope in the people who need saving. Part 3 would be make an awesome costume, Topher was thinking something in orange because that was his favorite color, and possibly sleveless to show off his massive arms he has now. And finally part 3 would be of course go fight crime and make a name for yourself. But make sure to not step in the line of bullets until he was sure it wouldn't kill him. He didn't want to hold the record for world's first superhero, and also the one who has the shortest career because he didn't know he could stop bullets.
Topher went and got some printer paper and his kids crayons. He was pretty sure this isn't how most superheroes designed their costume but you have to start somewhere. Topher was not the best artist, in fact he wasn't a good artist, to be honest he could barely draw a straight stick figure. But he did what he always does and just tried. He first drew a basic body and added massive arms to it, in fact it reminded of an anorexic person who had massive arms because he was on steroids. He drew a cape on his hero looking person and a little mask to barely cover his identity. Topher thought to himself that will work for now. His next step would be figuring out a name for himself. He was thinking maybe Captain Awesome but thought that might sound way egotistical. Then he remembered the time when he called himself Leviathan but then remembered the beating he was handed last time he called himself that, and even let a little tear come out when he was haunted of those painful memories. He then remembered why he wanted to become a hero in the first place, to be a voice for the voiceless, be able to stand up for those who were afraid to stand up for themselves, and to always defend the little guy and who ever else needed. That's when the name came to him out of the blue, Defender. Defender he thought to himself has a heroic tone to it, and also a hint of danger to strike fear into evil. He smiled because he came up with the perfect name. He wrote the name Defender under his stick figure person, and underlined it for good measure. He colored his cape a dark orange, and wrote a big block lettered D on his chest, after he added a triangular chest to his drawing. He was so in tune to what he was designing he didn't hear his come down the stairs.
"Were you on the roof? I could of swore I heard something pacing on the roof a little bit ago?", Anne asked her husband. Topher was not prepared to have to answer this question so soon. In fact he was hoping the grass would grow over the body indent he just made in the lawn so there would be no questions asked, because Topher sucked at lying. And his wife always saw through his lies, and that's why he always just told the truth instead. He ponderded whether to make his usual smart ass remarks which might make his wife even more upset, or act like she was crazy and say he didn't hear anything since he was down here with his headphones in for a little bit trying to drown out the dogs barking while he was drawing. But at that thought he looked down at his drawing and realized that was a drawing to be proud of, and his kids could whip out a better looking one in less time and in full color as well. He opted for a plan A, being a smart ass.
"It might of been Santa practicing for the winter on peoples houses. I heard he chooses random house where he knows kids are in school so they won't see him in the daylight to practice his rooftop walking. You remember that movie the Santa Clause, well I heard that was based on a true story, so now the elves make Santa practice three times a week on random houses through out the year to make sure he doesn't fall down again", Topher said to his triumphantly on the spot. Trying to hide his smirk he just wanted to let out and his sudden moment of sarcasm and intelligence. Topher had no idea how his wife would respond to this absurd comment. He waited for fury to be unveiled, or a laughter of how insane it sounded.
Anne just looked at Topher dumbfounded at what her husband just spurted out of his mouth, and responds out of sheer anger and amazement of how stupid her husband just sounded. She hits him really hard on the shoulder and says, " You are so full of shit!" She shakes her hand and realizes it feels like she just punched a wall, and then said, "You also need to stop going to the gym so I can punch you, and not be the one in pain." The pain and the ridiculous answer her husband made her forget about what she asked in the first place and just changed the subject entirely instead. "Let's go pick up the kid's now so I can get an iced tea because I'm thirsty, and a little snacky, maybe some fries too."
Topher completely amazed how easy it was to get out of that one smiles and grabs the keys to his wife's car and heads out the door with her behind him. They sit in silence for most of the car ride there, except for when they had to order the teas and fries. When you have children in the car ninety percent of the time the most two common things happen one you get a headache from hearing the kids scream and yell at the top of the lungs of who's touching who or they are in the sun. The other side is yelling at them to be quiet, or attempting the many failed attempts at starting the quiet game which barely lasts ten seconds before a child says something. So Topher and Anne were enjoying each others company in the silence why there still remained some in the car, before it was replaced with chaos and screaming. Also the fact Anne's running on maybe four hours of sleep, and when she doesn't get any sleep she's grumpy, and Topher doesn't like grumpy Anne, so he just drives letting his mind wander due to the lack of conversation.
They pick up the kids and there's the sudden flurry of information though out the day. Only a child can cover eight hours of a day in an incomprehensible five minutes or so, and will get mad if you one don't understand what they are saying, or two answer the way they didn't want you too. The second Parker shot out of his classroom he instantly started telling his dad about his day, "Dad guess what! Today for snack we had something I didn't like so I didn't eat it. It was chocolate. I go out of control with chocolate don't I dad. And then at first recess I fell down on the slide because James pushed me, but I'm ok. And at second recess I was running around and tripped and scraped my knee. At lunch Damian hit me because we were sitting next to each other, but I'm not sure why because we aren't supposed to sit next to each other we were supposed to sit with our class, but there were no seats left. And at art we painted a picture for you, its you wearing a cape riding a skateboard, I called you Skateboard Dad. Is that cool Dad! It's cool huh. And then we went home!" The only thing Topher could do was nod while trying to digest what his son just said. He knew if he said the wrong answer Parker would get mad at tell on him to mom that he wasn't listening. He gave his daughter a hug after the giant explanation which gave him a few more seconds to pick and choose the right words to tell his son about his day.
Topher decided to tackle on each event his son told him one by one so he could gauge how he was reacting to each of his very carefully chosen words. " I'm sorry you didn't like your chocolate snack, but I'm glad you were a good brother and gave it to your sister instead." Topher than offered a high five to his son which he happily gave. "Did James say he was sorry for pushing you? It was an accident wasn't it." Parker nodded both times. Two for two Topher was on a roll. Topher than kissed Parker's knee to address the skinned knee. because that's what Topher thought was all that was needed. Now the tough one involving Damian. "Now Parker being a big kid requires you to be able to sit other aged kids and behave as well. I'm pretty sure Damian just didn't hit you for no reason, and I will talk to him about it when he gets out of class." Parker just nodded his head knowing he just tattled on himself during the process of ratting out his brother. Topher knew he had to bring it home with the art picture. This was the make or break moment of the whole entire conversation. "That is awesome bud! I would totally have a skateboard like that! And that cape is rad!" Topher sat back waiting for the aftermath of his attempt at having the right answers for the day. Topher thought he had a victory in this column, but the only true judge of that would be Parker, his son.
Parker just looked at his dad with a quizzical face and says, "What does rad mean?"
Topher counted this one as a win because the only thing Parker got from that whole spiel was, what does rad mean? "Rad is just another word for awesome buddy", Topher tells his son triumphantly. Parker then tells his dad he's going to go play on the playground while they wait for his brother to come down. Since second grade is one of the bigger classes they are always out for some reason. And like everyday Damian is the last kid out. The reason is because Damian stays behind to make sure the chairs are tucked in, the wipeboard cleaned off, the floor swept, and all around the classroom is clean before he can leave. The funny thing about that is Damian at home could care less about that kind of stuff. It's true what they say your child is different at home, then he is in school. Almost every parent is told that their child is so well behaved, polite, and so caring, and then you look at them like they are crazy and say simply he's faking. All the kids pile into the car and the chaos begins once again.
"He has my book." "He won't give me a chip." "She hit me!" "His head is on my shoulder" Are the constant things Topher and his wife heard being yelled from the back seat. All the voices meld into one when there is that many things being screamed at once.
Anne turns around and gives the kids her angry look, the one that even scares Topher some times and says, "Not a word from either of your mouths, or if I hear one peep coming from anyone of you I will throw all your toys away! I mean it! I want quiet! Mom has a headache and didn't get much sleep, and you are just making my headache turn into a migraine. So be quiet or else!" Short and to the point Topher thought. The silence than began, but Topher knew it wouldn't last long, seeing they were his kids and they don't know how to be quiet for anything over thirty seconds. The silence lasted for about fourty five seconds, and then there was a tiny peep from the back seat. The typical car ride in Topher's mind.
When bed time rolled around it was time for the nightly ritual in Topher's house. The bed time battle as he called it. The constant bickering of who didn't want to brush their teeth first, what pajamas they were allowed to wear, who was going to get a bath first and a whole other batch of useless things that didn't matter to the average adult mind. But when you are a kid it makes a huge difference. Topher tucks his kids into bed after reading them a story, using silly voices of course. Also attempting to try to change the names of the characters to his kids names, but they had none of that and complained about it. Loudly. He lays in bed and not a second goes by before Parker comes bursting into the bedroom. "I have to go poopy!", Parker says with a smile.
Topher looks at his son, "Well you know where the bathroom is." Topher then points his finger out the room motioning for his son to get out of his room and head to the bathroom instead. Topher hears his son making the normal sounds one makes while going to the bathroom and is in the bathroom wipe ready after he hears the all to familiar plop, before his son can yell from the bathroom "I poopied!". You can tell Topher has done this a few times. Topher sends Parker back to bed. Goes downstairs and brings up little cups of water to hand out to the kids, so they can't pull the old classic "I'm thirsty!". Topher and Anne were pros when it came to parenting. About thirty minutes go by and all the kids are asleep. Topher kisses his wife on the forehead and heads to the gym. Topher gets to the gym and checks in. Some people get upset about his gym check ins but he sees it as a way if I have time to work out, you can make time too, and the ones who are upset are the ones who can't commit to the a workout. He goes to the weights because he's afraid to hit the treadmill in fear he will run through the window with his new found speed abilities. He goes to the bench press bench and grabs all the weights in the gym and loads both sides so they are even. He is not sure how much weight there is, he just notices the bars on the bench are bending a little bit from all the weight. He starts to think this might not be a good idea.
Topher lies back on the bench and actually looks at all the weight he has on the bars, and hears the sound of metal and steel bending. Topher not knowing his own boundaries, wraps his hands around the bar. Takes a deep breath and pushes up. Lifts the bar. The bench thanks him for taking the weight off of the hinges. He pumps it up and down with no problem. In fact he holds the bar and sits up. Then stands up. Lifts the enormous weight over his head for good measure. Not even sweating. The only thing Topher can think is, cool. He puts the weight on the ground and the bench once again silently thanks him for not putting all that back on it's hooks, out of fear of breaking them. Unloads the weight and puts them all back where they should be, because one of Topher's gym's pet peeves is when people leave a loaded weight on a bar, or just place the weights in the most random places. Once he found a twenty five pound weight in the bathroom. He had no idea what the weight was doing in there, and he didn't want to find out either. He stepped outside and realized his normal workout wouldn't work anymore with his new abilities. Then he had a brilliant idea.
Topher left his car at the gym and started running, and ran all the way downtown in a few seconds. Topher was going to start his crime fighting career tonight. He decided to worry about the costume later, since he wasn't really well know through out the state. It's not as if he was a billionaire playboy, or a famous reporter. He was a manager at Prehistoric Pizza and only had 275 friends on facebook. Not really the definition of the popular guy. But still Topher stayed in the shadows just in case. He spend the whole entire night out looking for crime and didn't find a single thing. Not even a purse napping. He then remembered that most superhero stories take place in big cities. Not Boise. He then had an idea that would have to wait for another day since it was near midnight, and he left for the gym two hours ago. Plus he has to go back to work in the morning.
Most people are excited for Thursday, because Thursday means Friday and the weekend is right around the corner. For Topher Thursday is his Monday and he dreads Thursday. He stopped and got coffee at DB on the way to work, and thinks to himself he should really buy stock in them, and soon so he at least gets some of his money back. His cup says "You taste good". And Topher is unsure how to respond to that. He drives up to Prehistoric Pizza and just takes in the beautiful building that he once thought it was when he was a kid. The fake palm trees around the building, the giant tyrannosaurus rex head up on top that moves from side to side, or it used to he works at a pretty old and dated Prehistoric Pizza, but when he was a kid that head moved. Notices the trash all over the parking lot and wishes people would pick up after themselves, he sees everything from soda cups, beer bottles, dirty diapers, and even soiled underwear. Is it that hard to throw away trash Topher thinks to himself. He makes a mental note to do a lot check before they open in two hours. He goes inside dreading the start of his week.
Topher walks in the door and notices some trash on the floor instantly, and thought that the game room closer probably no called no showed once again, and makes another mental note to leave him off the schedule so he might get the hint and quit. Topher's fingers were crossed on that one. He had to be careful this morning because he could use his new found powers and get the whole store set up in under thirty seconds, but he didn't want to raise any red flags that something has happened out of the ordinary. He heads to the office after doing a quick walkthrough and silently cursing himself he couldn't clean up the store super quick. It would take less than sixty seconds, but he decides against it. He checks the email and sees a bunch of emails demanding the impossible to happen. Have bigger sales and use less people doing it. And still provide the same magical service. The impossible is what the corporate side of Prehistoric Pizza demand, and to be perfectly honest we rarely hit it. Being the fact it's Idaho, and we are two years behind everyone. Some people in the world still think Idaho might be a city in Iowa, but if you say the word's Boise, people automatically think smurf turf, thank you Bronco's.
Topher heads to the ice bins to start filling the salad bar for the day and decides he could cheat a little here. He fills up the ice buckets as fast as he can and carries what he usually would, walking only slightly faster, to show a little more hustle than usual, to the cameras it would look like he was working extra hard, and that is exactly the result Topher was looking for. He iced and set up the salad bar in fifteen minutes and headed to go do prep. This is where he was going to truly test himself due to the fact there are no cameras around the prep area, and also no one would be there for another thirty minutes. He went into the walk-in and grabbed all the prep he had to do and just started going at it. Topher cut peppers, cucumbers, onions, oranges, both salad mixes, and filled all the dressings in under five minutes. Topher could get used to this. Topher decided to slow down a little bit and started to cut the cantaloupe just a slight faster than usual. The knife slipped and knicked his knuckle. Which would usually cause a cut and blood, and an instant white face on Topher due to the fact he hates the sight of blood, there was nothing. Not even a tiny mark where the knife hit the skin. Instead Topher looked at the knife and after analyzing realized that one of the teeth broke off and was sitting on the cutting board, where there should of been blood. Topher 1, Knife 0. This gave Topher another idea which might result in two revelations one he might be invincible, or two he's about to have only nine fingers.
Since no one was at the restaurant still Topher laid his hand on the cutting board, and stuck out his left pointer finger. Picked up the wonder knife which is one of the sharpest knifes in the store, one that has cut Topher many times on different occasions and took a deep breath. He lifted his right hand up about six inches from his left hand and took a deep breath. After five breathes and trying psyche himself up to cut his finger to see if he would bleed he went through on the fifth breath. The sound that was the result was the same sound of metal scratching on metal. But for once in Topher's life he felt no pain when he cut his finger. Which meant one of two results, one he completely cut his finger off and the pain hasn't reached his brain yet, or two nothing happened. Topher opened up his eyes half expectantly too see a pool of blood starting, a finger, and a nub but didn't see anything. Instead he saw a knife, well what remained of a knife. The knife shattered with the combination of Topher's brute strength he now possessed and his newly acquired body of steel was the best way to put it Topher thought. Topher let out a giant WHOOHOO! And threw away the broken knife so there wouldn't be any questions, or evidence. The downside is he just broke a thirty dollar knife, the plus side he found out knifes and falls from roof tops won't hurt him. He thought to himself that is a fair trade off.
The rest of the day was pretty ordinary filled with kids coming up to Topher saying games were broken when all they weren't doing were hitting the start button. It was a kind of busy day due to the lack of people the company will allow you have to work, but Topher has learned to adapt to doing the job of three or more people, one of his super powers he self developed. Topher's coworkers call him the Prehistoric Pizza super hero, because he always finds a way to save the day, even if Topher is tired of doing it day in and day out. And since the Prehistoric Pizza super hero is kind of mouthful to say they tried shortening it to the PP hero, but Topher nipped that one in the butt immediately. Then came the time that other workers dread but Topher thought was the best part of the job, putting on the Timmy the T-rex costume to go give hugs and high fives to kids. If Topher is having a bad day he just throws on that suit, in which he holds the record of getting dressed in the fastest in less than twenty seconds, and goes out to make kids smile, laugh, and sometimes scream in fear.
Topher always wondered why Prehistoric Pizza decided on using one of the most vicious dinosaurs of all time for their mascot for their establishment. He always wondered that about Barney also. In all honesty, a tyrannosaurus rex would just walk up to a small child, lick its lips, and devour the child whole. Also Topher once asked the companies trainers a question that has still be answered. How can a T-rex hug a child with such small arms and a big head? It is physically impossible, in fact T-rex's can't do a lot of things which explains why they are always so angry and eating other dinosaurs. They can't do pullups or pushups. T-rex's can't do the bench press or wear a hat. And female T-rex's can't paint their toe claws if they wanted to. When Topher brought all that up to his trainer in California his trainer just looked at Topher with a face that screamed "Okay smartass!" and handed him the huge head of Timmy and told him to go dance. And ever since that day Topher has danced and hugged his poor misunderstood dinosaur to many layers of sweat from being in such a hot suit. And he has loved every minute of it and wouldn't change it for the world.
He walks around the store giving high fives to kids, knuckle bumps, and hugs to every child that will take them. In fact Topher grabs a few tokens from up front and plays air hockey with a few of the kids, because in all honesty if you ever beat a giant tyrannosaurus rex at a game of air hockey that is a moment in your life you will never forget, even in if the tyrannosaurus rex took it easy on you and let you win, but Timmy wouldn't let you know that, he'd make it close enough so you both can be proud of the game. Topher walked around taking pictures with kids, giving parents bunny ears, putting hats on his head, even though Topher still wonders to this day how is that possible, and sees every child in the building at least three times before heading back to his cave for his nap until the next hour that corporate demands for him to be out. Which in truth only happens a few times a day to the people issue.
Through out the day Topher just stares at the clock to see if another found power is being able to control time to make work go by faster. Sadly he does not have that power and staring at the clock just seems to make time go by even slower. He makes another mental note for not to try that again. By the time five o'clock hits Topher is ready to go home and see his wife and kids, and be bombared at the door by either screaming children, or faster than the speed of light conversations about how their day was at school. During the drive home Topher realizes how slow it is driving in the car due to the fact that he could run home and be home in an instant now. A power he was determined to try out tonight when the kids go to bed. If he couldn't find any crime in Boise to stop, he would go else where to stop it. He steps in the door and hears silence as soon as he gets home which wasn't always a good thing. He walks into the kitchen and kisses Anne on the forehead, "How was your day hon? he asks her.
"Fine until I had to pick up the kids. Then the migraine began again.", Anne told Topher. An answer he was sadly used to hearing. An answer which meant some massive damage control and some time for mom to get stuff done without being bothered by a thousand questions and the all to popular "Guess What!" which is now Parker's favorite way to start any sentence. Topher heads upstairs and changes into a DB coffee shirt and some shorts and goes out to talk to the kids.
"Daddy!!!". Taylor says to Topher while give her dad a hug. The best part about coming home from work Topher thought. Sure he hugs kids all day in a giant dinosaur costume, but it's not quite as special when it comes from your own kids. Taylor then gets a sad look on her face, "Daddy, Parker was mean to me in school today. He kept taking my crayons and told me I was coloring wrong. He wasn't being nice. He made me cry", Taylor says while tears start to appear while telling her dad the tragic event of the day once again.
Topher hugs Taylor tightly and asks, "Did you tell your teacher?" Taylor nods her head. "Did Parker tell you sorry?" Taylor nods her head again. "There then problem solved", Topher said to his daughter than asks her if she wants to play his kids favorite game, Destroy Daddy. Which basically is Topher running around the backyard acting like any kind of supervillian he can think of, while his kids play fight, throw balls, or in his daughters case scream that's my daddy don't hurt him, for around twenty minutes or until someone gets hurt. Even then sometimes when someone gets hurt they all get up and walk it off and go back to playing. The quickest way to forget how much pain your in when your dad throws a ball at you and knocks you down, is to get right back up and charge at your dad hopefully tackling him. And if he's a good dad like Topher feels he is he will go down like a freight train just him, and in some cases like Parker tackling him it feels like it.
"Dinner is ready clean up the yard, and wash your hand's and come eat", Anne tells the family from the door. Anne looks at her husband and sees he on the ground which means some different things, either he hit Parker hard with the ball and let him tackle him, or he was napping on the lawn, and since she heard her son crying a few minutes ago she knew it was the first one. "You need to watch your strength", she tells Topher. Topher his head down nods and goes picks up toys in the yard. Even though he could pick his wife up and down with one arm now, and run circles around her he knows who's the real boss. Topher's dad gave him great advice on his wedding day, she's always right, and if she is wrong don't tell her. That is how they have lasted ten years of marriage, well that and rarely seeing each other.
Topher and Anne got the kids off to bed with not as many battles due to the fact Anne threatened them they would wake up with no toys tomorrow if they didn't go to bed nice. In about ten minutes all the kids were asleep, which meant Topher could go do what he waiting for all day while at work. Topher kissed his wife on the forehead and left her watching the tv, and heads off to his car to drive the few minutes to the gym. He parks his car and checks into the gym to cover his tracks. He decides since Boise is quiet at night crime wise he might as well hit Seattle to see if there any action that needs to be stopped. He starts running as fast as he can in minutes he is in Seattle about to start a new life as a state crossing superhero. Topher smiles to himself and says "Let's do this!"
All that Topher saw when he opened his eyes was the brightest light he has ever seen before. He knew it wasn't the light to heaven, because dead people can't smell, and he smelled a freshly laid dog poo about six inches from where he landed. Well not really landed more like jumped off a roof in an attempt to fly and belly flopped to his almost demise. Topher didn't even have one second of flight, instead he somehow flipped in the air and landed on his back directly under the sun and opened his eyes directly into it. Butters Topher's golden labrador came up to his owner and gave him a kiss. A kiss that if dogs could talk would probaly be followed, You jumped off the roof, I don't know, but I'm a dog, and I still love you. At least that is what Topher thought the dogs kiss meant. Topher also didn't know how we would of explained to his wife if she came out and found his body on the ground either dead, well if he was dead there would be no needed explanation really, or completely paralyzed. He thought he can lift heavy stuff, run fast, the most logical thing that would he be able to do also would be fly. Super-dude does it. So why can't Super Topher. He then scratches that name at how absurd and egotistical it sounded. He got up with not a scratch on him, just a little soreness from the fall. Looked down and saw his body imprint on the lawn. He had no idea how he was going to explain that to Anne, but when the time came to he would of think something fast, or just blame it on the kids. The second option usually works.
Topher went into the house with a tiny limp to think of costume options or possible names, because he thought that would be the most logical thing to do after finding out you have super powers. First test them to see what you have, your limitations, and the powers you don't have would be the most logical 3 steps of part 1. Part 2 would be think of a name that would strike fear in criminals minds, but at the same time instill hope in the people who need saving. Part 3 would be make an awesome costume, Topher was thinking something in orange because that was his favorite color, and possibly sleveless to show off his massive arms he has now. And finally part 3 would be of course go fight crime and make a name for yourself. But make sure to not step in the line of bullets until he was sure it wouldn't kill him. He didn't want to hold the record for world's first superhero, and also the one who has the shortest career because he didn't know he could stop bullets.
Topher went and got some printer paper and his kids crayons. He was pretty sure this isn't how most superheroes designed their costume but you have to start somewhere. Topher was not the best artist, in fact he wasn't a good artist, to be honest he could barely draw a straight stick figure. But he did what he always does and just tried. He first drew a basic body and added massive arms to it, in fact it reminded of an anorexic person who had massive arms because he was on steroids. He drew a cape on his hero looking person and a little mask to barely cover his identity. Topher thought to himself that will work for now. His next step would be figuring out a name for himself. He was thinking maybe Captain Awesome but thought that might sound way egotistical. Then he remembered the time when he called himself Leviathan but then remembered the beating he was handed last time he called himself that, and even let a little tear come out when he was haunted of those painful memories. He then remembered why he wanted to become a hero in the first place, to be a voice for the voiceless, be able to stand up for those who were afraid to stand up for themselves, and to always defend the little guy and who ever else needed. That's when the name came to him out of the blue, Defender. Defender he thought to himself has a heroic tone to it, and also a hint of danger to strike fear into evil. He smiled because he came up with the perfect name. He wrote the name Defender under his stick figure person, and underlined it for good measure. He colored his cape a dark orange, and wrote a big block lettered D on his chest, after he added a triangular chest to his drawing. He was so in tune to what he was designing he didn't hear his come down the stairs.
"Were you on the roof? I could of swore I heard something pacing on the roof a little bit ago?", Anne asked her husband. Topher was not prepared to have to answer this question so soon. In fact he was hoping the grass would grow over the body indent he just made in the lawn so there would be no questions asked, because Topher sucked at lying. And his wife always saw through his lies, and that's why he always just told the truth instead. He ponderded whether to make his usual smart ass remarks which might make his wife even more upset, or act like she was crazy and say he didn't hear anything since he was down here with his headphones in for a little bit trying to drown out the dogs barking while he was drawing. But at that thought he looked down at his drawing and realized that was a drawing to be proud of, and his kids could whip out a better looking one in less time and in full color as well. He opted for a plan A, being a smart ass.
"It might of been Santa practicing for the winter on peoples houses. I heard he chooses random house where he knows kids are in school so they won't see him in the daylight to practice his rooftop walking. You remember that movie the Santa Clause, well I heard that was based on a true story, so now the elves make Santa practice three times a week on random houses through out the year to make sure he doesn't fall down again", Topher said to his triumphantly on the spot. Trying to hide his smirk he just wanted to let out and his sudden moment of sarcasm and intelligence. Topher had no idea how his wife would respond to this absurd comment. He waited for fury to be unveiled, or a laughter of how insane it sounded.
Anne just looked at Topher dumbfounded at what her husband just spurted out of his mouth, and responds out of sheer anger and amazement of how stupid her husband just sounded. She hits him really hard on the shoulder and says, " You are so full of shit!" She shakes her hand and realizes it feels like she just punched a wall, and then said, "You also need to stop going to the gym so I can punch you, and not be the one in pain." The pain and the ridiculous answer her husband made her forget about what she asked in the first place and just changed the subject entirely instead. "Let's go pick up the kid's now so I can get an iced tea because I'm thirsty, and a little snacky, maybe some fries too."
Topher completely amazed how easy it was to get out of that one smiles and grabs the keys to his wife's car and heads out the door with her behind him. They sit in silence for most of the car ride there, except for when they had to order the teas and fries. When you have children in the car ninety percent of the time the most two common things happen one you get a headache from hearing the kids scream and yell at the top of the lungs of who's touching who or they are in the sun. The other side is yelling at them to be quiet, or attempting the many failed attempts at starting the quiet game which barely lasts ten seconds before a child says something. So Topher and Anne were enjoying each others company in the silence why there still remained some in the car, before it was replaced with chaos and screaming. Also the fact Anne's running on maybe four hours of sleep, and when she doesn't get any sleep she's grumpy, and Topher doesn't like grumpy Anne, so he just drives letting his mind wander due to the lack of conversation.
They pick up the kids and there's the sudden flurry of information though out the day. Only a child can cover eight hours of a day in an incomprehensible five minutes or so, and will get mad if you one don't understand what they are saying, or two answer the way they didn't want you too. The second Parker shot out of his classroom he instantly started telling his dad about his day, "Dad guess what! Today for snack we had something I didn't like so I didn't eat it. It was chocolate. I go out of control with chocolate don't I dad. And then at first recess I fell down on the slide because James pushed me, but I'm ok. And at second recess I was running around and tripped and scraped my knee. At lunch Damian hit me because we were sitting next to each other, but I'm not sure why because we aren't supposed to sit next to each other we were supposed to sit with our class, but there were no seats left. And at art we painted a picture for you, its you wearing a cape riding a skateboard, I called you Skateboard Dad. Is that cool Dad! It's cool huh. And then we went home!" The only thing Topher could do was nod while trying to digest what his son just said. He knew if he said the wrong answer Parker would get mad at tell on him to mom that he wasn't listening. He gave his daughter a hug after the giant explanation which gave him a few more seconds to pick and choose the right words to tell his son about his day.
Topher decided to tackle on each event his son told him one by one so he could gauge how he was reacting to each of his very carefully chosen words. " I'm sorry you didn't like your chocolate snack, but I'm glad you were a good brother and gave it to your sister instead." Topher than offered a high five to his son which he happily gave. "Did James say he was sorry for pushing you? It was an accident wasn't it." Parker nodded both times. Two for two Topher was on a roll. Topher than kissed Parker's knee to address the skinned knee. because that's what Topher thought was all that was needed. Now the tough one involving Damian. "Now Parker being a big kid requires you to be able to sit other aged kids and behave as well. I'm pretty sure Damian just didn't hit you for no reason, and I will talk to him about it when he gets out of class." Parker just nodded his head knowing he just tattled on himself during the process of ratting out his brother. Topher knew he had to bring it home with the art picture. This was the make or break moment of the whole entire conversation. "That is awesome bud! I would totally have a skateboard like that! And that cape is rad!" Topher sat back waiting for the aftermath of his attempt at having the right answers for the day. Topher thought he had a victory in this column, but the only true judge of that would be Parker, his son.
Parker just looked at his dad with a quizzical face and says, "What does rad mean?"
Topher counted this one as a win because the only thing Parker got from that whole spiel was, what does rad mean? "Rad is just another word for awesome buddy", Topher tells his son triumphantly. Parker then tells his dad he's going to go play on the playground while they wait for his brother to come down. Since second grade is one of the bigger classes they are always out for some reason. And like everyday Damian is the last kid out. The reason is because Damian stays behind to make sure the chairs are tucked in, the wipeboard cleaned off, the floor swept, and all around the classroom is clean before he can leave. The funny thing about that is Damian at home could care less about that kind of stuff. It's true what they say your child is different at home, then he is in school. Almost every parent is told that their child is so well behaved, polite, and so caring, and then you look at them like they are crazy and say simply he's faking. All the kids pile into the car and the chaos begins once again.
"He has my book." "He won't give me a chip." "She hit me!" "His head is on my shoulder" Are the constant things Topher and his wife heard being yelled from the back seat. All the voices meld into one when there is that many things being screamed at once.
Anne turns around and gives the kids her angry look, the one that even scares Topher some times and says, "Not a word from either of your mouths, or if I hear one peep coming from anyone of you I will throw all your toys away! I mean it! I want quiet! Mom has a headache and didn't get much sleep, and you are just making my headache turn into a migraine. So be quiet or else!" Short and to the point Topher thought. The silence than began, but Topher knew it wouldn't last long, seeing they were his kids and they don't know how to be quiet for anything over thirty seconds. The silence lasted for about fourty five seconds, and then there was a tiny peep from the back seat. The typical car ride in Topher's mind.
When bed time rolled around it was time for the nightly ritual in Topher's house. The bed time battle as he called it. The constant bickering of who didn't want to brush their teeth first, what pajamas they were allowed to wear, who was going to get a bath first and a whole other batch of useless things that didn't matter to the average adult mind. But when you are a kid it makes a huge difference. Topher tucks his kids into bed after reading them a story, using silly voices of course. Also attempting to try to change the names of the characters to his kids names, but they had none of that and complained about it. Loudly. He lays in bed and not a second goes by before Parker comes bursting into the bedroom. "I have to go poopy!", Parker says with a smile.
Topher looks at his son, "Well you know where the bathroom is." Topher then points his finger out the room motioning for his son to get out of his room and head to the bathroom instead. Topher hears his son making the normal sounds one makes while going to the bathroom and is in the bathroom wipe ready after he hears the all to familiar plop, before his son can yell from the bathroom "I poopied!". You can tell Topher has done this a few times. Topher sends Parker back to bed. Goes downstairs and brings up little cups of water to hand out to the kids, so they can't pull the old classic "I'm thirsty!". Topher and Anne were pros when it came to parenting. About thirty minutes go by and all the kids are asleep. Topher kisses his wife on the forehead and heads to the gym. Topher gets to the gym and checks in. Some people get upset about his gym check ins but he sees it as a way if I have time to work out, you can make time too, and the ones who are upset are the ones who can't commit to the a workout. He goes to the weights because he's afraid to hit the treadmill in fear he will run through the window with his new found speed abilities. He goes to the bench press bench and grabs all the weights in the gym and loads both sides so they are even. He is not sure how much weight there is, he just notices the bars on the bench are bending a little bit from all the weight. He starts to think this might not be a good idea.
Topher lies back on the bench and actually looks at all the weight he has on the bars, and hears the sound of metal and steel bending. Topher not knowing his own boundaries, wraps his hands around the bar. Takes a deep breath and pushes up. Lifts the bar. The bench thanks him for taking the weight off of the hinges. He pumps it up and down with no problem. In fact he holds the bar and sits up. Then stands up. Lifts the enormous weight over his head for good measure. Not even sweating. The only thing Topher can think is, cool. He puts the weight on the ground and the bench once again silently thanks him for not putting all that back on it's hooks, out of fear of breaking them. Unloads the weight and puts them all back where they should be, because one of Topher's gym's pet peeves is when people leave a loaded weight on a bar, or just place the weights in the most random places. Once he found a twenty five pound weight in the bathroom. He had no idea what the weight was doing in there, and he didn't want to find out either. He stepped outside and realized his normal workout wouldn't work anymore with his new abilities. Then he had a brilliant idea.
Topher left his car at the gym and started running, and ran all the way downtown in a few seconds. Topher was going to start his crime fighting career tonight. He decided to worry about the costume later, since he wasn't really well know through out the state. It's not as if he was a billionaire playboy, or a famous reporter. He was a manager at Prehistoric Pizza and only had 275 friends on facebook. Not really the definition of the popular guy. But still Topher stayed in the shadows just in case. He spend the whole entire night out looking for crime and didn't find a single thing. Not even a purse napping. He then remembered that most superhero stories take place in big cities. Not Boise. He then had an idea that would have to wait for another day since it was near midnight, and he left for the gym two hours ago. Plus he has to go back to work in the morning.
Most people are excited for Thursday, because Thursday means Friday and the weekend is right around the corner. For Topher Thursday is his Monday and he dreads Thursday. He stopped and got coffee at DB on the way to work, and thinks to himself he should really buy stock in them, and soon so he at least gets some of his money back. His cup says "You taste good". And Topher is unsure how to respond to that. He drives up to Prehistoric Pizza and just takes in the beautiful building that he once thought it was when he was a kid. The fake palm trees around the building, the giant tyrannosaurus rex head up on top that moves from side to side, or it used to he works at a pretty old and dated Prehistoric Pizza, but when he was a kid that head moved. Notices the trash all over the parking lot and wishes people would pick up after themselves, he sees everything from soda cups, beer bottles, dirty diapers, and even soiled underwear. Is it that hard to throw away trash Topher thinks to himself. He makes a mental note to do a lot check before they open in two hours. He goes inside dreading the start of his week.
Topher walks in the door and notices some trash on the floor instantly, and thought that the game room closer probably no called no showed once again, and makes another mental note to leave him off the schedule so he might get the hint and quit. Topher's fingers were crossed on that one. He had to be careful this morning because he could use his new found powers and get the whole store set up in under thirty seconds, but he didn't want to raise any red flags that something has happened out of the ordinary. He heads to the office after doing a quick walkthrough and silently cursing himself he couldn't clean up the store super quick. It would take less than sixty seconds, but he decides against it. He checks the email and sees a bunch of emails demanding the impossible to happen. Have bigger sales and use less people doing it. And still provide the same magical service. The impossible is what the corporate side of Prehistoric Pizza demand, and to be perfectly honest we rarely hit it. Being the fact it's Idaho, and we are two years behind everyone. Some people in the world still think Idaho might be a city in Iowa, but if you say the word's Boise, people automatically think smurf turf, thank you Bronco's.
Topher heads to the ice bins to start filling the salad bar for the day and decides he could cheat a little here. He fills up the ice buckets as fast as he can and carries what he usually would, walking only slightly faster, to show a little more hustle than usual, to the cameras it would look like he was working extra hard, and that is exactly the result Topher was looking for. He iced and set up the salad bar in fifteen minutes and headed to go do prep. This is where he was going to truly test himself due to the fact there are no cameras around the prep area, and also no one would be there for another thirty minutes. He went into the walk-in and grabbed all the prep he had to do and just started going at it. Topher cut peppers, cucumbers, onions, oranges, both salad mixes, and filled all the dressings in under five minutes. Topher could get used to this. Topher decided to slow down a little bit and started to cut the cantaloupe just a slight faster than usual. The knife slipped and knicked his knuckle. Which would usually cause a cut and blood, and an instant white face on Topher due to the fact he hates the sight of blood, there was nothing. Not even a tiny mark where the knife hit the skin. Instead Topher looked at the knife and after analyzing realized that one of the teeth broke off and was sitting on the cutting board, where there should of been blood. Topher 1, Knife 0. This gave Topher another idea which might result in two revelations one he might be invincible, or two he's about to have only nine fingers.
Since no one was at the restaurant still Topher laid his hand on the cutting board, and stuck out his left pointer finger. Picked up the wonder knife which is one of the sharpest knifes in the store, one that has cut Topher many times on different occasions and took a deep breath. He lifted his right hand up about six inches from his left hand and took a deep breath. After five breathes and trying psyche himself up to cut his finger to see if he would bleed he went through on the fifth breath. The sound that was the result was the same sound of metal scratching on metal. But for once in Topher's life he felt no pain when he cut his finger. Which meant one of two results, one he completely cut his finger off and the pain hasn't reached his brain yet, or two nothing happened. Topher opened up his eyes half expectantly too see a pool of blood starting, a finger, and a nub but didn't see anything. Instead he saw a knife, well what remained of a knife. The knife shattered with the combination of Topher's brute strength he now possessed and his newly acquired body of steel was the best way to put it Topher thought. Topher let out a giant WHOOHOO! And threw away the broken knife so there wouldn't be any questions, or evidence. The downside is he just broke a thirty dollar knife, the plus side he found out knifes and falls from roof tops won't hurt him. He thought to himself that is a fair trade off.
The rest of the day was pretty ordinary filled with kids coming up to Topher saying games were broken when all they weren't doing were hitting the start button. It was a kind of busy day due to the lack of people the company will allow you have to work, but Topher has learned to adapt to doing the job of three or more people, one of his super powers he self developed. Topher's coworkers call him the Prehistoric Pizza super hero, because he always finds a way to save the day, even if Topher is tired of doing it day in and day out. And since the Prehistoric Pizza super hero is kind of mouthful to say they tried shortening it to the PP hero, but Topher nipped that one in the butt immediately. Then came the time that other workers dread but Topher thought was the best part of the job, putting on the Timmy the T-rex costume to go give hugs and high fives to kids. If Topher is having a bad day he just throws on that suit, in which he holds the record of getting dressed in the fastest in less than twenty seconds, and goes out to make kids smile, laugh, and sometimes scream in fear.
Topher always wondered why Prehistoric Pizza decided on using one of the most vicious dinosaurs of all time for their mascot for their establishment. He always wondered that about Barney also. In all honesty, a tyrannosaurus rex would just walk up to a small child, lick its lips, and devour the child whole. Also Topher once asked the companies trainers a question that has still be answered. How can a T-rex hug a child with such small arms and a big head? It is physically impossible, in fact T-rex's can't do a lot of things which explains why they are always so angry and eating other dinosaurs. They can't do pullups or pushups. T-rex's can't do the bench press or wear a hat. And female T-rex's can't paint their toe claws if they wanted to. When Topher brought all that up to his trainer in California his trainer just looked at Topher with a face that screamed "Okay smartass!" and handed him the huge head of Timmy and told him to go dance. And ever since that day Topher has danced and hugged his poor misunderstood dinosaur to many layers of sweat from being in such a hot suit. And he has loved every minute of it and wouldn't change it for the world.
He walks around the store giving high fives to kids, knuckle bumps, and hugs to every child that will take them. In fact Topher grabs a few tokens from up front and plays air hockey with a few of the kids, because in all honesty if you ever beat a giant tyrannosaurus rex at a game of air hockey that is a moment in your life you will never forget, even in if the tyrannosaurus rex took it easy on you and let you win, but Timmy wouldn't let you know that, he'd make it close enough so you both can be proud of the game. Topher walked around taking pictures with kids, giving parents bunny ears, putting hats on his head, even though Topher still wonders to this day how is that possible, and sees every child in the building at least three times before heading back to his cave for his nap until the next hour that corporate demands for him to be out. Which in truth only happens a few times a day to the people issue.
Through out the day Topher just stares at the clock to see if another found power is being able to control time to make work go by faster. Sadly he does not have that power and staring at the clock just seems to make time go by even slower. He makes another mental note for not to try that again. By the time five o'clock hits Topher is ready to go home and see his wife and kids, and be bombared at the door by either screaming children, or faster than the speed of light conversations about how their day was at school. During the drive home Topher realizes how slow it is driving in the car due to the fact that he could run home and be home in an instant now. A power he was determined to try out tonight when the kids go to bed. If he couldn't find any crime in Boise to stop, he would go else where to stop it. He steps in the door and hears silence as soon as he gets home which wasn't always a good thing. He walks into the kitchen and kisses Anne on the forehead, "How was your day hon? he asks her.
"Fine until I had to pick up the kids. Then the migraine began again.", Anne told Topher. An answer he was sadly used to hearing. An answer which meant some massive damage control and some time for mom to get stuff done without being bothered by a thousand questions and the all to popular "Guess What!" which is now Parker's favorite way to start any sentence. Topher heads upstairs and changes into a DB coffee shirt and some shorts and goes out to talk to the kids.
"Daddy!!!". Taylor says to Topher while give her dad a hug. The best part about coming home from work Topher thought. Sure he hugs kids all day in a giant dinosaur costume, but it's not quite as special when it comes from your own kids. Taylor then gets a sad look on her face, "Daddy, Parker was mean to me in school today. He kept taking my crayons and told me I was coloring wrong. He wasn't being nice. He made me cry", Taylor says while tears start to appear while telling her dad the tragic event of the day once again.
Topher hugs Taylor tightly and asks, "Did you tell your teacher?" Taylor nods her head. "Did Parker tell you sorry?" Taylor nods her head again. "There then problem solved", Topher said to his daughter than asks her if she wants to play his kids favorite game, Destroy Daddy. Which basically is Topher running around the backyard acting like any kind of supervillian he can think of, while his kids play fight, throw balls, or in his daughters case scream that's my daddy don't hurt him, for around twenty minutes or until someone gets hurt. Even then sometimes when someone gets hurt they all get up and walk it off and go back to playing. The quickest way to forget how much pain your in when your dad throws a ball at you and knocks you down, is to get right back up and charge at your dad hopefully tackling him. And if he's a good dad like Topher feels he is he will go down like a freight train just him, and in some cases like Parker tackling him it feels like it.
"Dinner is ready clean up the yard, and wash your hand's and come eat", Anne tells the family from the door. Anne looks at her husband and sees he on the ground which means some different things, either he hit Parker hard with the ball and let him tackle him, or he was napping on the lawn, and since she heard her son crying a few minutes ago she knew it was the first one. "You need to watch your strength", she tells Topher. Topher his head down nods and goes picks up toys in the yard. Even though he could pick his wife up and down with one arm now, and run circles around her he knows who's the real boss. Topher's dad gave him great advice on his wedding day, she's always right, and if she is wrong don't tell her. That is how they have lasted ten years of marriage, well that and rarely seeing each other.
Topher and Anne got the kids off to bed with not as many battles due to the fact Anne threatened them they would wake up with no toys tomorrow if they didn't go to bed nice. In about ten minutes all the kids were asleep, which meant Topher could go do what he waiting for all day while at work. Topher kissed his wife on the forehead and left her watching the tv, and heads off to his car to drive the few minutes to the gym. He parks his car and checks into the gym to cover his tracks. He decides since Boise is quiet at night crime wise he might as well hit Seattle to see if there any action that needs to be stopped. He starts running as fast as he can in minutes he is in Seattle about to start a new life as a state crossing superhero. Topher smiles to himself and says "Let's do this!"
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Chapter 2
Thank you to all who believe I can do this. I promise I won't let you down. I now give you chapter 2 of Super Mid Life
Chapter 2
Topher couldn't believe that his dream finally came true all those years ago. Ever since that shooting star twenty three years ago he now had the ability to lift cars, fly anywhere he wants, and read minds. This was proof dreams come true, but with all superheroes there are always supervillians attempting to take over the world. This time it was Dr. Dementia, a deranged ex psychologist who hypnotizes his victims to do his bidding or believe whatever he tells them to believe. He has been one of Topher's arch nemesis for many years now, and this time he has Topher right where he wants him.
Dr. Dementia cackles to Topher, "Topher, it's for your own good that I took your powers away, before you hurt anyone else. You are the one who snapped, flew into the hospital, and punched out all the bottom walls so the building would collapse on itself. It's your fault hundreds and hundreds of people are dead. You are not a hero after all!" Dr. Dementia kidnapped Topher a day ago hypnotizing him day in and day out, and finally he cracked Topher. Dr. Dementia could tell Topher he was a pink unicorn, and Topher would get on all fours and start acting like a pink unicorn. In short Dr. Dementia was victorious in finally defeating him.
Topher sat motionless in his chair quietly sobbing to himself, asking forgiveness from God for what he did, even know deep down in his heart he knew he didn't deserve His forgiveness. Topher was led to believe that his wife was shot during the time Topher was being kidnapped. She was rushed to the hospital to be operated on. But the surgeons were not actual doctors, instead they were Dr, Dementia's thugs, and killed his wife on the operating table. So Topher out of rage took down the hospital with his bare hands, killing hundreds of people, including his own wife who was in recovery after a successful surgery. This is what Dr. Dementia has been telling Topher for the last two days, and this is what Topher believed. He came to gain revenge of Dr. Dementia, but then got caught again, and was tricked into being completely powerless. Dr. Dementia was all smiles for once in his life after an altercation with Topher, he was actually happy. So happy in fact to add insult to injury just wailing on Topher's face because he knew that there would be no retaliation, no consequences, not even the uttering the word stop, because Topher was broken.
Dr. Dementia was in control and he knew it so he stopped punching Topher and just relied on verbal abuse, but the real reason the doctor stopped punching Topher is because his hand hurt like hell, and he had to give it a rest. "You are a failure!" Dr. Dementia yelled at Topher. "You are not a hero! You killed hundreds of people including your own true love! Your wife! You killed your wife!! You were never a hero, you are nothing but a time bomb that finally went off killing people, GOOD people! Hundreds of them!" Then Dr. Dementia did something very peculiar, and started jabbing Topher in the eye with is fingers, and stopped calling him a failure, and started calling him Daddy. Then Topher heard a faint cry in the background that weren't his cries.
Topher was woken up from his dreammare, that's what Topher called them because in them he has powers like he has always dreamed of, but somehow always loses control, and kills the ones he loves. He never got superpowers from that wish years ago, but instead lived out another dream of his, becoming a family man. His wife was not dead like Dr, Dementia led him to believe she was sleeping soundly next to him for it was five o'clock in the morning. Topher's eyes than adjusted to the darkness and saw a blurry silhouette of his six year old son Parker standing infront of him, who has stopped for a moment to see if he was successful in waking his Dad up from sleeping. Parker wanted a story read to him. At six o'clock in the morning. The previous night Topher told his son that he would read him his book in the morning, and since children have no real sense of time, as soon as Parker woke up that meant to him its morning, and my Dad will now read me a story.
Parker says in a quiet voice, well to Parker he thought it was quiet, "Dad, read me my book please, it's morning. You promised." Topher half dead to the world lets out a barely audible word that semi resembles five more minutes. Since Parker was used to this answer from his father this early in the morning he knew exactly what his father had actually said. He told his dad, "O.K.", and plopped on the floor and opened up his book trying to read it. "The..d..o...g...dog...b...a.. Dad what does b, a, r, k, e, d spell." Topher knowing he wasn't going to be able to go back to bed, rolled out, and walked like a blind zombie to his son's room to read his book to him. Parker followed his father grinning a big grin, because he knew he was victorious.
After Topher read to Parker he proceeded in waking up his other children, his daughter Taylor, who was Parker's twin sister, and his oldest son Damian. Taylor and Parker were six years old, and Damian was almost eight. The superhero bug bite was transferred to his children as well, complete with bins of super-hero toys, pictures on the wall, and every article of clothing super-hero related. To say he was a proud father would be an understatement. Taylor was craving waffles for breakfast, so Topher told his daughter he would make them after he got dressed.
When Topher went upstairs his wife was in the process of waking up. Anne was three years older than Topher and he found something new he loved about his wife each day. Today it was she was wearing his I Fight Dragons t-shirt and looked cute as can be in his eyes. Her shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and natural face was true beauty to him. "Morning Sunshine!", Topher told his wife. Her response was turning over in the bed and burying her head under her pillow. Topher grabbed a a super-hero shirt out of his many hero shirts, and jeans and headed to the bathroom to change. His morning ritual before he got dressed was to weigh himself before he got dressed. He was at 197 pounds, two up from where he has been all year. He shook his head and went to the bathroom, and stepped on the scale again. 196, its a minor one pound victory, but a victory none the less, Topher gets dressed and heads downstairs to make breakfast.
Topher was making his kids waffles when they all came down to the kitchen and gave him a big hug, birthday cards, and an off key birthday song. Today was Topher's thirtieth birthday and by the looks of it his kids were more excited then he was. To Topher hitting thirty meant another year stuck at his dead end job at Prehistoric Pizza, where everyone appreciates him, except the ones that could help him move up the management chain. Topher was not proud of his job, but his was proud of being a father, the greatest job in the whole world. And moments like these wouldn't happen unless he was a dad. He got the kids fed and in the car and off to school.
Like clockwork his kids were fighting in the car even before they pulled out of the driveway. Topher was prepared and put on his "children's sing along" playlist that contained many of his and his kids favorite songs they sing to. Ready, Aim, Fire by Imagine Dragons started playing and his kids started singing along. "When your backs against the wall...hmphm...Ready, Aim, Fire Away!!!", Topher's kids sang along as loud as their little voices would let them. The best part is they knew about a third of the song so they mumbled their own words, or what they thought were the words when they had no clue. They sang the song the whole way there asking it to be repeated about nine times before they got to school. By this time Topher had a headache and was ready to kick his kids out the door and speed off screaming FREEDOM! But he didn't instead he went downstairs to the schools gym and waited with his kids for school to start.
Topher shook hands with the few fellow dads down in the gym, and said hello's to the moms. There were more moms than dads down with the kids, but that was pretty much expected in Topher's eyes. They had their morning prayer and then the principal asked if there were any birthdays today. Damian, Parker, and Taylor instantly screamed out, "It's my Dad's birthday!". in unison. Topher couldn't help but be impressed. Impressed and embarassed. The whole school sang "Happy Birthday Mr, Thompson". Topher started to think Mr. Thompson is my dad, I'm not that old. But was used to being called Mr. Thompson because that's what all the kids call him out of respect when he helps out in the classrooms. Topher then led the school in saying the pledge of allegiance. After the annual morning festivities Topher went to go find his kids to give them a goodbye hug and kiss.
Topher finds Damian standing in the second grade line and walks up. Topher gives him a hug and a kiss on the forehead saying, "Love you Kid number 1 be good." Damian returns the love to his father and tells him he will like always. Topher than goes off to go find Parker and Taylor before they head off. There was no real rush because the kindergarten class is always the last one out of the gym. He walks up behind Parker and gives him a hug and a kiss, "Love you Kid number 2, be good." Topher then finds his daughter standing next to her best friends and gives her a hug and a kiss, "Love you Kid number two and a half, be good." Taylor grabs her daddy's hand and asks to walk with her to the class. Topher knowing that sooner or later this attention will be going away happy obliged. He walked with his daughter to her classroom, and gave her another hug before saying goodbye for the day. And heading off to start the day. Which meant for Topher getting coffee at DB coffee and hitting the gym. His other morning ritual.
As soon as Topher steps into the gym he feels he has entered his third home. His first being his family, the second being Prehistoric Pizza, and the third being his "me" time at the gym. He puts his earbuds in and turns on the Ipod onto shuffle. It's leg day. Topher hates leg day. When Topher was in high school he had surgery on his right tendon, to help correct his acchilles tendonitis he had at the time. His leg never really recovered and suffered in growth since then. His right leg was named his girly leg, by teachers, some friends, and yes even his wife. He was deteremined to make his leg less girly, even if he died trying in the process. Which he has almost done on a few occasions at the gym. He did his leg presses adding a little more weight each time. His ipod going from Five Finger Death Punch to Britney Spears. He loved his ipod and how random it could be. The funny thing is Topher made a promise to himself when he started going to the gym that when ever a so called girly song came on his ipod he had to do five more reps than usual. And just to make it even more interesting he had a ton of so called girly music on his ipod. From Taylor Swift, to Selena Gomez, to Katy Perry. He worked hard to it all. After an hour and half of pain, sweat, and swearing at the gym he checked his phone it was a text from his wife.
"They need our help with an art project down in the twins class, can you go down." The text read. Topher shot back a text to the teacher, Mrs. Merring telling her he would be there in about twenty minutes. She replied back with Topher's favorite word, "Awesome!". Topher went home and changed and kissed his wife and told her good night. Anne works at the hospital on night shifts so Topher and Anne don't see much of each other. They joke to others that's how they keep their marriage fresh and always so happy. But deep down Topher really misses seeing his wife, but he knows how much he loves her job. So he's happy for her that she found out her true calling and gets a satisfaction from her job. Topher hits DB coffee on the way back down to the school, to pickup his complimentary birthday coffee.
As soon as Topher drives up in his orange Cobalt the smiling faces of the DB workers are there ready to greet him with a friendly, "TOPHER!" Yes he is on a first name basis at the coffee shop. They ask him what he is up to, and tells them it is his birthday today. Then the whole coffee stop starts singing Happy Birthday Topher! Topher tries to never go anywhere to get coffee, and this is the reason why. He looks down at his coffee lid. All the coffee lids at DB coffee have a special message. Today's his read his favorite, "Get up early. Stay up late. Change the world!" That was basically Topher's motto in life and that is how he lived his life. Topher thanks them for their awesomeness and tips them and heads down to the school.
He gets there just as recess is ending and snack time begins. His favorite time to come down. He spots the pretty sweet superhero cupcakes, and then sees his wife, Anne putting a candle in a cupcake. Anne had the idea since they wouldn't have time to have cake at home tonight with homework having to be done, baths need to be taken, and lunches being made all before she had to head off to to work, decided to bring the cupcakes to the twins class and enjoy a birthday song there. The whole class sang Happy Birthday once again, and Topher blew out his candle. Making the same wish he has made since he was a kid, wishing to become a superhero. True dreams never die.
Taylor asked her dad, "Daddy, what did you wish for?" She said smiling.
Parker quickly yelled, "Daddy, can't tell you or it won't come true. That's the rules of wish making, don't you know that Taylor!"
Taylor looking a little defeated cuddled into her daddy's arms for a hug which he happily gave. Topher than proudly said, "I wished to become a superhero. The same wish I have made since I was about your guy's age. And I never told anyone until now. It still hasn't come true, So maybe it's not meant to come true, and I should start making a new wish.
Mrs. Merring came and gave Topher a hug and said to him, "Mr. Thompson you are a superhero! That wish came true a long time ago! Isn't that right class." Which the class shouted yes in agreement. The art project they were doing that day were making superhero capes, in honor of superheros everywhere. Topher loved helping in the classroom, because he knows in a few years parents are really needed in the classroom anymore. So he will take any chance he can get to help out. That's pretty obvious with him and wifes combined hours of over a hundred volunteer time for the school. The minium is thirty five a year. Topher made his own cape, as well helped the kids design their own. Topher's cape was orange with a giant A for awesome on it, and lightning bolts down the sides. Parker's cape was green with a giant B on it for Bat-Dude and little black cut outs that closely resembled bats. And Taylor's cape was pink with sparkles everywhere with a giant P on it, for what else than Princess!
Topher spent the rest of the day in the classroom helping during class, reading stories, doing funny voices, and playing with the kids outside with all their capes on. There's no cooler feeling than running real fast and feeling and hearing a cape flap in the wind behind you. Topher never forgot what that felt like when he was a kid. And Topher thought it was a little ironic that the day he celebrates getting older he spends being a kid. Topher wouldn't of had it any other way. While Topher was down at the school Teresa, Topher's mom called him on his cell phone and sang him happy birthday, Followed by his sister, Krista calling right after his mom did. And on top of that his phone constantly vibrating with text messages or Facebook wall posts of happy birthday. The one day of the year where you wanna take your phone out and chuck it at a wall as hard as you can. But you can't because of how expensive it is. But still you think about it. Alot!
The next day Topher woke up completely refreshed and feeling more alive than he has ever before in his life. It was the same feeling Topher gets after writing a really emotional blog where he pours his soul out and holds no punches, or after a month of great workouts. He didn't know how to explain it but he felt different. A good different. His wife was still at work from the night before so it was up to him to get the kids fed and off to school once again. He grabbed a different hero shirt and another pair of jeans and headed into the bathroom to start the morning ritual once again. He took off his shirt and noticed something extremely odd. His stomach had shrunk. Drastically. And the man boobs, or moobs as he called them. The same ones that years ago a friend of his asked where his top was to hide his boobs at the pool when they went swimming were. His moobs were gone. What was in place was a fully chiseled chest. Straight off a mens fitness magazine. He had abs! Topher has never had abs in his whole life, but staring him right in the mirror was a six pack. His six pack. The six pack he has been working on getting for the last two years, now of all days decided to show up. He didn't know why, and frankly he didn't care. He then noticed his arms. His arms were no longer just arms. but full on twenty four inch guns. Topher pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He wasn't.
He put on his shirt best he could and proceeded in waking up the children and getting them ready for the day. His kids were having trouble getting up so Topher decided to have some fun and grabbed his nerf dart gun and entered each kids room. He first went into Taylor's room and turned on the light. He first tried softly waking her up, but she wasn't budging. So he unloaded all twelve darts into her waking her up with screams of surprise and laughter. Taylor gave her dad a hug and Topher helped her get dressed. "Grab your gun and we will go wake up your brothers", Topher told Taylor. Then Topher and Taylor creeped up the stairs as quiet as they could and split up to go into different rooms, so the screams of one of the others wouldn't wake up the other and spoil the fun to be had. Taylor went into Parker's room because it was just natural for her to torture her twin, and Topher went into Damian's room. They unloaded all their ammo on each other's target simutaneously, and woke both brothers up at the same time. Mission accomplished. Taylor and Topher hugged each other and gave each other high fives and headed downstairs to go make breakfast.
On the menu today was dinosaur eggs, which was oatmeal with gummy dinosaurs that come out of candy eggs with hot water. One of Topher's kids favorite meals for breakfast. While his kids were eating breakfast he combed Facebook for inspirational things to post, because Topher always has to be the ray of sunshine. Even if people don't wanna see the sunshine. He finds about ten pictures he likes and shares them all, thinking in his mind if I help inspire one person today, then today will be counted as a victory. Gets the kids in the car and puts another song on that his kids know only half the words too. "I wanna live in a world full of heroes", by Kirby Krackle one of Topher's favorite bands, and one he has actually met. The song name checks alot of different heroes. "I wanna live in a world full of heroes!", are the words his kids only know. But they sing that part loud and proud. And Topher sits in the front seat of his car smiling, and proud. Some parents are proud their kid is an honor student, Topher is proud his kids love nerd rock as much as he does.
They get to the school with no blood shed and only a little of headache a starting. A good car ride in Topher's mind. They all pile down into the gym again for the morning prayer and announcements. Topher goes up to one of the dad's Jeff. Jeff is a father of a girl who is in Damian's second grade class, and has become a good friend of Topher's. They even coached T-ball together, or as Topher called it herding cat's with cattle prods while playing with grass. Coaching another proud dad moment. Jeff shakes Topher's hand, a handshake that usually crushes Topher's hand, a handshake Topher barely feels as of right now, and says, "Man, the gym is being kind to you!"
Topher taken off guard on how there is no sign of pain during the handshake just smiles and answers back, "Thanks man! I knew if I kept at it something would finally happen. And I guess my thirtieth birthday present from God was to finally show all the hard work I've been putting in the last few years! So to that I say thank you God!"
Jeff not sure how to respond to that tells Topher he's gotta run to work, and take care and he'll catch him later. Topher says goodbye to his kids and gives them kisses and hugs and sends them off to class. Topher gets in his car and just sits there to fully digest what has happened overnight. He has no answers for himself. He wonders if he should tell his wife about the sudden change, but he thought it might be more fun to see if she notices. He gets on his Facebook and posts the status, Today's goal: Be awesome!. He then puts down the phone and heads to the gym while silently telling himself we are going to go see how awesome I can be.
Topher grabs his ipod again and plugs his earbuds in and decides to warm up with a little action on the treadmill. He starts to jog, but doesn't feel any burn so decides to speed it up. He starts running, but it still seems way to easy for him. This never happens because Topher hates running. It might stem from years of being bullied, or not being able to run his whole life growing up. Or quite possibly because he's been told he looks like a drunk penguin when he runs. Doesn't matter the reason Topher sucks at running, but today it felt like a brisk jog to him. He ran for a good hour and half not really feeling the burn then decides he should do some weights before leaving the gym. He goes over to the bench press bench and puts thirty five pounds on each side to warm up with. Topher does an easy twenty reps. Decides too add another ten pounds to get him started. Topher again effortlessly pumps the hundred and thirty five pounds up and down twenty times. Topher amazed and feeling super confident goes to grab two forty five pounds to add to each side on top of the other forty five that were already on there. A grand total of 315 pounds. Tophers usual max on the bench is 145 with a spotter. Once again up and down, up and down, up and down, a total of twenty five times. Topher is awe struck and grabs his stuff and heads to his car.
Topher takes a swig of his water bottle for the first time in the last two hours, not really out of lack of dehydration, but more of he always did after the gym. He sat in his car for a good five minutes going over the day, and what has happened. "Running really fast, Lifting heavy stuff without any effort. No way. There's no way it came true. Holy.... I have superpowers", Topher screams in his mind. Topher can't believe after all those years making the same wish it finally came true and he couldn't be happier. With all these sudden emergence of powers Topher started to wonder what else he could do. Topher really wished he could fly. Maybe he can fly now he thought to himself. Only way to find out. Topher stops at DB coffee on the way home, and once again got the lid that states, "Get up Early. Stay up Late. Change the world!" Fitting Topher thought. So very fitting. He heads home and pulls into the driveway. He looks around to see if anyone is around and starts jogging. Then running. Topher first was able to see things when he was jogging but as soon as he started running and not limiting himself the world turned to a blur. He swear he saw trees, and little blurred out forest animals while he was running but he knew that was impossible since he was just running around his neighborhood block. Topher thought it might be a good idea to stop and see if anything had happened. He stopped three feet away from a lake, and a sign that said Lake Michigan. Topher's jaw dropped because when he started running he was in Idaho.
Topher than turned around and ran back home. Across many different states watching the world go by in a blur. Smiling the whole entire time. For once in his lifetime he was fast. This is the same kid who in elementary school got a note from his doctor saying he couldn't run the mile due to his asthma. Topher thought to himself look at me now! Screw running the mile. I'll run the states. He had to stop a few times to make sure he didn't overshoot himself and land up in Japan, but after a few missed states he finally made it home. Surprisingly not exhausted at all. He walked up to his car and looked around to see if anyone was watching. Not a soul outside that was good for what Topher was about to attempt next. Topher grabbed under his car with both hands, and slowly lifted them up. Lifting his own car over his head in the process. Topher let out the biggest smile of his life. Put down the car after a few more pumps up and down for good measure, and decided to see one more thing. He went to the backyard to clean up the yard from dog poop, a very quick and easy job now that he had a little speed in him. Then climbed through Damian's window to get on the roof. He headed out onto the roof and towards the backyard. If anyone saw him doing this he could just say he was checking the roof for broken shingles, but he would have have no excuse for what he was about to attempt.
Topher walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. That was a long drop. A three story house. Topher knew he could fly he just knew it. So he first started taking a little jog about to jump and then stopped right at the edge. Saying to himself, "I have super strength, super speed, so chances are I can fly! And I will not know unless I try! So I must do this." Topher goes back again revving up his engines before he launches off the roof and into the sky. At least that's what Topher was hoping was going to happen. Topher closes his eyes runs to the edge of the roof and jumps off.
Chapter 2
Topher couldn't believe that his dream finally came true all those years ago. Ever since that shooting star twenty three years ago he now had the ability to lift cars, fly anywhere he wants, and read minds. This was proof dreams come true, but with all superheroes there are always supervillians attempting to take over the world. This time it was Dr. Dementia, a deranged ex psychologist who hypnotizes his victims to do his bidding or believe whatever he tells them to believe. He has been one of Topher's arch nemesis for many years now, and this time he has Topher right where he wants him.
Dr. Dementia cackles to Topher, "Topher, it's for your own good that I took your powers away, before you hurt anyone else. You are the one who snapped, flew into the hospital, and punched out all the bottom walls so the building would collapse on itself. It's your fault hundreds and hundreds of people are dead. You are not a hero after all!" Dr. Dementia kidnapped Topher a day ago hypnotizing him day in and day out, and finally he cracked Topher. Dr. Dementia could tell Topher he was a pink unicorn, and Topher would get on all fours and start acting like a pink unicorn. In short Dr. Dementia was victorious in finally defeating him.
Topher sat motionless in his chair quietly sobbing to himself, asking forgiveness from God for what he did, even know deep down in his heart he knew he didn't deserve His forgiveness. Topher was led to believe that his wife was shot during the time Topher was being kidnapped. She was rushed to the hospital to be operated on. But the surgeons were not actual doctors, instead they were Dr, Dementia's thugs, and killed his wife on the operating table. So Topher out of rage took down the hospital with his bare hands, killing hundreds of people, including his own wife who was in recovery after a successful surgery. This is what Dr. Dementia has been telling Topher for the last two days, and this is what Topher believed. He came to gain revenge of Dr. Dementia, but then got caught again, and was tricked into being completely powerless. Dr. Dementia was all smiles for once in his life after an altercation with Topher, he was actually happy. So happy in fact to add insult to injury just wailing on Topher's face because he knew that there would be no retaliation, no consequences, not even the uttering the word stop, because Topher was broken.
Dr. Dementia was in control and he knew it so he stopped punching Topher and just relied on verbal abuse, but the real reason the doctor stopped punching Topher is because his hand hurt like hell, and he had to give it a rest. "You are a failure!" Dr. Dementia yelled at Topher. "You are not a hero! You killed hundreds of people including your own true love! Your wife! You killed your wife!! You were never a hero, you are nothing but a time bomb that finally went off killing people, GOOD people! Hundreds of them!" Then Dr. Dementia did something very peculiar, and started jabbing Topher in the eye with is fingers, and stopped calling him a failure, and started calling him Daddy. Then Topher heard a faint cry in the background that weren't his cries.
Topher was woken up from his dreammare, that's what Topher called them because in them he has powers like he has always dreamed of, but somehow always loses control, and kills the ones he loves. He never got superpowers from that wish years ago, but instead lived out another dream of his, becoming a family man. His wife was not dead like Dr, Dementia led him to believe she was sleeping soundly next to him for it was five o'clock in the morning. Topher's eyes than adjusted to the darkness and saw a blurry silhouette of his six year old son Parker standing infront of him, who has stopped for a moment to see if he was successful in waking his Dad up from sleeping. Parker wanted a story read to him. At six o'clock in the morning. The previous night Topher told his son that he would read him his book in the morning, and since children have no real sense of time, as soon as Parker woke up that meant to him its morning, and my Dad will now read me a story.
Parker says in a quiet voice, well to Parker he thought it was quiet, "Dad, read me my book please, it's morning. You promised." Topher half dead to the world lets out a barely audible word that semi resembles five more minutes. Since Parker was used to this answer from his father this early in the morning he knew exactly what his father had actually said. He told his dad, "O.K.", and plopped on the floor and opened up his book trying to read it. "The..d..o...g...dog...b...a.. Dad what does b, a, r, k, e, d spell." Topher knowing he wasn't going to be able to go back to bed, rolled out, and walked like a blind zombie to his son's room to read his book to him. Parker followed his father grinning a big grin, because he knew he was victorious.
After Topher read to Parker he proceeded in waking up his other children, his daughter Taylor, who was Parker's twin sister, and his oldest son Damian. Taylor and Parker were six years old, and Damian was almost eight. The superhero bug bite was transferred to his children as well, complete with bins of super-hero toys, pictures on the wall, and every article of clothing super-hero related. To say he was a proud father would be an understatement. Taylor was craving waffles for breakfast, so Topher told his daughter he would make them after he got dressed.
When Topher went upstairs his wife was in the process of waking up. Anne was three years older than Topher and he found something new he loved about his wife each day. Today it was she was wearing his I Fight Dragons t-shirt and looked cute as can be in his eyes. Her shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and natural face was true beauty to him. "Morning Sunshine!", Topher told his wife. Her response was turning over in the bed and burying her head under her pillow. Topher grabbed a a super-hero shirt out of his many hero shirts, and jeans and headed to the bathroom to change. His morning ritual before he got dressed was to weigh himself before he got dressed. He was at 197 pounds, two up from where he has been all year. He shook his head and went to the bathroom, and stepped on the scale again. 196, its a minor one pound victory, but a victory none the less, Topher gets dressed and heads downstairs to make breakfast.
Topher was making his kids waffles when they all came down to the kitchen and gave him a big hug, birthday cards, and an off key birthday song. Today was Topher's thirtieth birthday and by the looks of it his kids were more excited then he was. To Topher hitting thirty meant another year stuck at his dead end job at Prehistoric Pizza, where everyone appreciates him, except the ones that could help him move up the management chain. Topher was not proud of his job, but his was proud of being a father, the greatest job in the whole world. And moments like these wouldn't happen unless he was a dad. He got the kids fed and in the car and off to school.
Like clockwork his kids were fighting in the car even before they pulled out of the driveway. Topher was prepared and put on his "children's sing along" playlist that contained many of his and his kids favorite songs they sing to. Ready, Aim, Fire by Imagine Dragons started playing and his kids started singing along. "When your backs against the wall...hmphm...Ready, Aim, Fire Away!!!", Topher's kids sang along as loud as their little voices would let them. The best part is they knew about a third of the song so they mumbled their own words, or what they thought were the words when they had no clue. They sang the song the whole way there asking it to be repeated about nine times before they got to school. By this time Topher had a headache and was ready to kick his kids out the door and speed off screaming FREEDOM! But he didn't instead he went downstairs to the schools gym and waited with his kids for school to start.
Topher shook hands with the few fellow dads down in the gym, and said hello's to the moms. There were more moms than dads down with the kids, but that was pretty much expected in Topher's eyes. They had their morning prayer and then the principal asked if there were any birthdays today. Damian, Parker, and Taylor instantly screamed out, "It's my Dad's birthday!". in unison. Topher couldn't help but be impressed. Impressed and embarassed. The whole school sang "Happy Birthday Mr, Thompson". Topher started to think Mr. Thompson is my dad, I'm not that old. But was used to being called Mr. Thompson because that's what all the kids call him out of respect when he helps out in the classrooms. Topher then led the school in saying the pledge of allegiance. After the annual morning festivities Topher went to go find his kids to give them a goodbye hug and kiss.
Topher finds Damian standing in the second grade line and walks up. Topher gives him a hug and a kiss on the forehead saying, "Love you Kid number 1 be good." Damian returns the love to his father and tells him he will like always. Topher than goes off to go find Parker and Taylor before they head off. There was no real rush because the kindergarten class is always the last one out of the gym. He walks up behind Parker and gives him a hug and a kiss, "Love you Kid number 2, be good." Topher then finds his daughter standing next to her best friends and gives her a hug and a kiss, "Love you Kid number two and a half, be good." Taylor grabs her daddy's hand and asks to walk with her to the class. Topher knowing that sooner or later this attention will be going away happy obliged. He walked with his daughter to her classroom, and gave her another hug before saying goodbye for the day. And heading off to start the day. Which meant for Topher getting coffee at DB coffee and hitting the gym. His other morning ritual.
As soon as Topher steps into the gym he feels he has entered his third home. His first being his family, the second being Prehistoric Pizza, and the third being his "me" time at the gym. He puts his earbuds in and turns on the Ipod onto shuffle. It's leg day. Topher hates leg day. When Topher was in high school he had surgery on his right tendon, to help correct his acchilles tendonitis he had at the time. His leg never really recovered and suffered in growth since then. His right leg was named his girly leg, by teachers, some friends, and yes even his wife. He was deteremined to make his leg less girly, even if he died trying in the process. Which he has almost done on a few occasions at the gym. He did his leg presses adding a little more weight each time. His ipod going from Five Finger Death Punch to Britney Spears. He loved his ipod and how random it could be. The funny thing is Topher made a promise to himself when he started going to the gym that when ever a so called girly song came on his ipod he had to do five more reps than usual. And just to make it even more interesting he had a ton of so called girly music on his ipod. From Taylor Swift, to Selena Gomez, to Katy Perry. He worked hard to it all. After an hour and half of pain, sweat, and swearing at the gym he checked his phone it was a text from his wife.
"They need our help with an art project down in the twins class, can you go down." The text read. Topher shot back a text to the teacher, Mrs. Merring telling her he would be there in about twenty minutes. She replied back with Topher's favorite word, "Awesome!". Topher went home and changed and kissed his wife and told her good night. Anne works at the hospital on night shifts so Topher and Anne don't see much of each other. They joke to others that's how they keep their marriage fresh and always so happy. But deep down Topher really misses seeing his wife, but he knows how much he loves her job. So he's happy for her that she found out her true calling and gets a satisfaction from her job. Topher hits DB coffee on the way back down to the school, to pickup his complimentary birthday coffee.
As soon as Topher drives up in his orange Cobalt the smiling faces of the DB workers are there ready to greet him with a friendly, "TOPHER!" Yes he is on a first name basis at the coffee shop. They ask him what he is up to, and tells them it is his birthday today. Then the whole coffee stop starts singing Happy Birthday Topher! Topher tries to never go anywhere to get coffee, and this is the reason why. He looks down at his coffee lid. All the coffee lids at DB coffee have a special message. Today's his read his favorite, "Get up early. Stay up late. Change the world!" That was basically Topher's motto in life and that is how he lived his life. Topher thanks them for their awesomeness and tips them and heads down to the school.
He gets there just as recess is ending and snack time begins. His favorite time to come down. He spots the pretty sweet superhero cupcakes, and then sees his wife, Anne putting a candle in a cupcake. Anne had the idea since they wouldn't have time to have cake at home tonight with homework having to be done, baths need to be taken, and lunches being made all before she had to head off to to work, decided to bring the cupcakes to the twins class and enjoy a birthday song there. The whole class sang Happy Birthday once again, and Topher blew out his candle. Making the same wish he has made since he was a kid, wishing to become a superhero. True dreams never die.
Taylor asked her dad, "Daddy, what did you wish for?" She said smiling.
Parker quickly yelled, "Daddy, can't tell you or it won't come true. That's the rules of wish making, don't you know that Taylor!"
Taylor looking a little defeated cuddled into her daddy's arms for a hug which he happily gave. Topher than proudly said, "I wished to become a superhero. The same wish I have made since I was about your guy's age. And I never told anyone until now. It still hasn't come true, So maybe it's not meant to come true, and I should start making a new wish.
Mrs. Merring came and gave Topher a hug and said to him, "Mr. Thompson you are a superhero! That wish came true a long time ago! Isn't that right class." Which the class shouted yes in agreement. The art project they were doing that day were making superhero capes, in honor of superheros everywhere. Topher loved helping in the classroom, because he knows in a few years parents are really needed in the classroom anymore. So he will take any chance he can get to help out. That's pretty obvious with him and wifes combined hours of over a hundred volunteer time for the school. The minium is thirty five a year. Topher made his own cape, as well helped the kids design their own. Topher's cape was orange with a giant A for awesome on it, and lightning bolts down the sides. Parker's cape was green with a giant B on it for Bat-Dude and little black cut outs that closely resembled bats. And Taylor's cape was pink with sparkles everywhere with a giant P on it, for what else than Princess!
Topher spent the rest of the day in the classroom helping during class, reading stories, doing funny voices, and playing with the kids outside with all their capes on. There's no cooler feeling than running real fast and feeling and hearing a cape flap in the wind behind you. Topher never forgot what that felt like when he was a kid. And Topher thought it was a little ironic that the day he celebrates getting older he spends being a kid. Topher wouldn't of had it any other way. While Topher was down at the school Teresa, Topher's mom called him on his cell phone and sang him happy birthday, Followed by his sister, Krista calling right after his mom did. And on top of that his phone constantly vibrating with text messages or Facebook wall posts of happy birthday. The one day of the year where you wanna take your phone out and chuck it at a wall as hard as you can. But you can't because of how expensive it is. But still you think about it. Alot!
The next day Topher woke up completely refreshed and feeling more alive than he has ever before in his life. It was the same feeling Topher gets after writing a really emotional blog where he pours his soul out and holds no punches, or after a month of great workouts. He didn't know how to explain it but he felt different. A good different. His wife was still at work from the night before so it was up to him to get the kids fed and off to school once again. He grabbed a different hero shirt and another pair of jeans and headed into the bathroom to start the morning ritual once again. He took off his shirt and noticed something extremely odd. His stomach had shrunk. Drastically. And the man boobs, or moobs as he called them. The same ones that years ago a friend of his asked where his top was to hide his boobs at the pool when they went swimming were. His moobs were gone. What was in place was a fully chiseled chest. Straight off a mens fitness magazine. He had abs! Topher has never had abs in his whole life, but staring him right in the mirror was a six pack. His six pack. The six pack he has been working on getting for the last two years, now of all days decided to show up. He didn't know why, and frankly he didn't care. He then noticed his arms. His arms were no longer just arms. but full on twenty four inch guns. Topher pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He wasn't.
He put on his shirt best he could and proceeded in waking up the children and getting them ready for the day. His kids were having trouble getting up so Topher decided to have some fun and grabbed his nerf dart gun and entered each kids room. He first went into Taylor's room and turned on the light. He first tried softly waking her up, but she wasn't budging. So he unloaded all twelve darts into her waking her up with screams of surprise and laughter. Taylor gave her dad a hug and Topher helped her get dressed. "Grab your gun and we will go wake up your brothers", Topher told Taylor. Then Topher and Taylor creeped up the stairs as quiet as they could and split up to go into different rooms, so the screams of one of the others wouldn't wake up the other and spoil the fun to be had. Taylor went into Parker's room because it was just natural for her to torture her twin, and Topher went into Damian's room. They unloaded all their ammo on each other's target simutaneously, and woke both brothers up at the same time. Mission accomplished. Taylor and Topher hugged each other and gave each other high fives and headed downstairs to go make breakfast.
On the menu today was dinosaur eggs, which was oatmeal with gummy dinosaurs that come out of candy eggs with hot water. One of Topher's kids favorite meals for breakfast. While his kids were eating breakfast he combed Facebook for inspirational things to post, because Topher always has to be the ray of sunshine. Even if people don't wanna see the sunshine. He finds about ten pictures he likes and shares them all, thinking in his mind if I help inspire one person today, then today will be counted as a victory. Gets the kids in the car and puts another song on that his kids know only half the words too. "I wanna live in a world full of heroes", by Kirby Krackle one of Topher's favorite bands, and one he has actually met. The song name checks alot of different heroes. "I wanna live in a world full of heroes!", are the words his kids only know. But they sing that part loud and proud. And Topher sits in the front seat of his car smiling, and proud. Some parents are proud their kid is an honor student, Topher is proud his kids love nerd rock as much as he does.
They get to the school with no blood shed and only a little of headache a starting. A good car ride in Topher's mind. They all pile down into the gym again for the morning prayer and announcements. Topher goes up to one of the dad's Jeff. Jeff is a father of a girl who is in Damian's second grade class, and has become a good friend of Topher's. They even coached T-ball together, or as Topher called it herding cat's with cattle prods while playing with grass. Coaching another proud dad moment. Jeff shakes Topher's hand, a handshake that usually crushes Topher's hand, a handshake Topher barely feels as of right now, and says, "Man, the gym is being kind to you!"
Topher taken off guard on how there is no sign of pain during the handshake just smiles and answers back, "Thanks man! I knew if I kept at it something would finally happen. And I guess my thirtieth birthday present from God was to finally show all the hard work I've been putting in the last few years! So to that I say thank you God!"
Jeff not sure how to respond to that tells Topher he's gotta run to work, and take care and he'll catch him later. Topher says goodbye to his kids and gives them kisses and hugs and sends them off to class. Topher gets in his car and just sits there to fully digest what has happened overnight. He has no answers for himself. He wonders if he should tell his wife about the sudden change, but he thought it might be more fun to see if she notices. He gets on his Facebook and posts the status, Today's goal: Be awesome!. He then puts down the phone and heads to the gym while silently telling himself we are going to go see how awesome I can be.
Topher grabs his ipod again and plugs his earbuds in and decides to warm up with a little action on the treadmill. He starts to jog, but doesn't feel any burn so decides to speed it up. He starts running, but it still seems way to easy for him. This never happens because Topher hates running. It might stem from years of being bullied, or not being able to run his whole life growing up. Or quite possibly because he's been told he looks like a drunk penguin when he runs. Doesn't matter the reason Topher sucks at running, but today it felt like a brisk jog to him. He ran for a good hour and half not really feeling the burn then decides he should do some weights before leaving the gym. He goes over to the bench press bench and puts thirty five pounds on each side to warm up with. Topher does an easy twenty reps. Decides too add another ten pounds to get him started. Topher again effortlessly pumps the hundred and thirty five pounds up and down twenty times. Topher amazed and feeling super confident goes to grab two forty five pounds to add to each side on top of the other forty five that were already on there. A grand total of 315 pounds. Tophers usual max on the bench is 145 with a spotter. Once again up and down, up and down, up and down, a total of twenty five times. Topher is awe struck and grabs his stuff and heads to his car.
Topher takes a swig of his water bottle for the first time in the last two hours, not really out of lack of dehydration, but more of he always did after the gym. He sat in his car for a good five minutes going over the day, and what has happened. "Running really fast, Lifting heavy stuff without any effort. No way. There's no way it came true. Holy.... I have superpowers", Topher screams in his mind. Topher can't believe after all those years making the same wish it finally came true and he couldn't be happier. With all these sudden emergence of powers Topher started to wonder what else he could do. Topher really wished he could fly. Maybe he can fly now he thought to himself. Only way to find out. Topher stops at DB coffee on the way home, and once again got the lid that states, "Get up Early. Stay up Late. Change the world!" Fitting Topher thought. So very fitting. He heads home and pulls into the driveway. He looks around to see if anyone is around and starts jogging. Then running. Topher first was able to see things when he was jogging but as soon as he started running and not limiting himself the world turned to a blur. He swear he saw trees, and little blurred out forest animals while he was running but he knew that was impossible since he was just running around his neighborhood block. Topher thought it might be a good idea to stop and see if anything had happened. He stopped three feet away from a lake, and a sign that said Lake Michigan. Topher's jaw dropped because when he started running he was in Idaho.
Topher than turned around and ran back home. Across many different states watching the world go by in a blur. Smiling the whole entire time. For once in his lifetime he was fast. This is the same kid who in elementary school got a note from his doctor saying he couldn't run the mile due to his asthma. Topher thought to himself look at me now! Screw running the mile. I'll run the states. He had to stop a few times to make sure he didn't overshoot himself and land up in Japan, but after a few missed states he finally made it home. Surprisingly not exhausted at all. He walked up to his car and looked around to see if anyone was watching. Not a soul outside that was good for what Topher was about to attempt next. Topher grabbed under his car with both hands, and slowly lifted them up. Lifting his own car over his head in the process. Topher let out the biggest smile of his life. Put down the car after a few more pumps up and down for good measure, and decided to see one more thing. He went to the backyard to clean up the yard from dog poop, a very quick and easy job now that he had a little speed in him. Then climbed through Damian's window to get on the roof. He headed out onto the roof and towards the backyard. If anyone saw him doing this he could just say he was checking the roof for broken shingles, but he would have have no excuse for what he was about to attempt.
Topher walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. That was a long drop. A three story house. Topher knew he could fly he just knew it. So he first started taking a little jog about to jump and then stopped right at the edge. Saying to himself, "I have super strength, super speed, so chances are I can fly! And I will not know unless I try! So I must do this." Topher goes back again revving up his engines before he launches off the roof and into the sky. At least that's what Topher was hoping was going to happen. Topher closes his eyes runs to the edge of the roof and jumps off.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Choices: A poem
We are faced with many forks in the road.
Choices if you may.
Do we go left?
Do we go right?
Or do we defy all logic and go straight!
The easy road gets you nowhere.
It leads to the comfort zone.
While in the comfort zone you are stuck.
No chance of going up.
Only going down.
Because when you choose the safe road there is no risk,
No pain.
No challenge.
But with that comes no growth.
No victory.
There are many factors that need to be counted for.
Before making a choice.
Friends and family see completely different sides of things than you do.
Your inner voice.
Because deep down you are the only one who knows what you want.
A brave heart.
One that is not afraid to take chances/
Trusts others and loves others.
A heart that has seen a battle and will never run from a fight.
And finally a strong mind.
Not a book smart mind.
But a a mind that knows what it wants.
A mind that is tune with the heart, and the inner voice.
A mind that values your friends and families opinion.
But ultimately has your best interest in mind.
A brave heart and a strong mind are an unstoppable combination.
And if you know how to use them there will be no stopping you!
So do not be afraid to go straight when the world only offers you left or right,
The easy lighted path most likely will never lead to your dreams.
Take the dark road.
The road that has fear.
Pain.
Obstacles.
New beginnings.
The road that leads to your destination.
What you truly want.
Because if you truly want it,.
You yourself will guide you.
Guide you to your inner victory!
Sunday, June 16, 2013
I am.....
I still remember that first picture I saw of you.
You looked like an alien.
Not a child.
You grew in your mommys stomach.
Listening to the world from inside.
Preparing to change our world on the outside.
Getting ready to make me the man I am.
The first time I held your finger I knew my life had changed.
Changed for the good.
The ultimate test was before me.
And I knew if I failed.
I also would be failing you.
You were so tiny.
And made me feel like the biggest man on this planet.
That day you made me the man I am.
As you grew you decided you needed some playmates.
Your prayers were answered not once, but twice.
Giving you not only a brother, but a sister also.
I instantly became two things when my children were born.
My sons first hero.
My daughters first love.
They made me the man I am today.
Each day you challenge me in ways I will never understand.
And probably in ways you don't either.
I hope I pass the test.
Whether it being a hero.
Villain.
Prince.
And yes sometimes a princess so you can do my hair.
Those are the days that make me the man I am today.
Blessed.
Lucky.
Are two words that don't come close to explaining how I feel.
How I feel to be chosen to become a dad to you three.
Because of you three you have made me the man I am today.
Jaiden's, Brodey's, and BayLei's Dad.
And sometimes Mr. Miller.
Is how I am known now.
I have lost my name when it comes to children.
But that is ok.
Because you have made me the man I am today.
Your father.
And I couldn't be happier!
<3
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Powerless!
Powerless!
There are few things in our life where we are powerless, but that is ok because you have the power everywhere else. One of lifes greatest games is throwing stuff at you to see if you can handle it, such as cars breaking down, money getting stolen, getting stuck in a snow bank, or people that just test you. You are powerless for the most part of the events that are thrown at us to test us. To see how strong we are. How brave we are. How determined we are. What kind of person we will become. You are powerless at the events, but you hold all the power of how you handle it. Sure you could go sit in the corner and cry poor little old me, or you can do the right thing get back up, and figure out the best result, and make it HAPPEN!
People are put in our life for us to love, learn from. teach, and test us. We are powerless over other people in most situations, because ultimately what they want to do should come down to them. If not they do not realize their inner power. We have the power to love how we want to, learn all that we can, teach others, and ignore @$$holes! But some would like to feed into the negative and just give in to the others attitude. In a way becoming powerless. Giving them exactly what they want, an altercation, where they hold all the power, because you have lost a portion of yours, and they know it. You can love who you want in this world, but you are powerless to how that person will react. It might be the same way you show love, or it might be completely different. People who we trust never stop trying to teach us, and we also have the ability to always teach others. We have the power to help, but we are powerless of making others listen unless they want to. Ultimately you have all the power within in you for your life.
The trick in life is knowing what you have the power to influence, and what you are completely powerless in controlling. Once you have that figured out you will live a happy life, and most likely a successful one. Life comes down to those three rules: You must know what you cannot change. Have the courage to change the things you can. And finally the wisdom to know the difference. It's pretty straight forward, and applies everywhere in life. The people who fight those three rules are extremely unhappy, and usually unpleasant to be around. They either think one of two things crap always happens to me, O woe is me, or they think they have the power to control the world and hate themselves when they realize they only have real power within their own world. Simple accept those three rules and live a happy life.
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