Wonder Guy (32 page)

The tears in Aggie’s eyes triggered a few tears of Gloria’s and an ache in her heart. She hadn’t realized Aggie might feel as frightened for her as she’d been on her own account.

“I’m okay. Really. I mean, I was scared to death at first, but then Wonder Guy arrived–”

“What happened?” Hank asked. “You two shot into the air and a minute later the mosquitoes disappeared.”

Aggie shuddered. “I wanted to stay at the windows, to watch out for you, but a couple of the mosquitoes were trying to crawl in through the broken panes.”

“I was about to haul her away from there, whether she liked it or not.” Hank shook his head. “When the bugs shriveled away right in front of our eyes. Damnedest thing.”

“I missed that part.” Gloria bent to the troublesome wheel and, with a few jiggles, had it turning freely again. “There. You know, we don’t have to see the rest of the sculptures today. I’ve had enough of an adventure for one afternoon.”

“I have to admit,” Aggie patted her chest as if calming a runaway steed, but spoke with her usual gift for understatement. “I’ve had enough excitement, too.”

“I’ve had enough giant-mosquito excitement to last me a lifetime.” Hank followed Aggie’s cue, speaking as if he dealt with this sort of thing every day. Or maybe that was his musician’s cool. He moved behind the wheelchair, guiding them back towards the Walker’s parking lot where police and emergency vehicles now crowded, blocking the way for exiting cars.

“Why don’t we go to the museum coffee shop and wait this out?” Gloria suggested, not feeling quite so cool as her companions. It would be nice to take a breather. Who knew how a day that began with giant mosquitoes might end?

* * * *

“Today on ‘How Do You Do, Minnesota’ Professor Pamela Deifenbauer from the University’s Department of Psychology is here to talk to us about the phenomenon of mass hallucination.” The talk show host, a neatly coifed blonde wearing a double-breasted apricot suit, turned to her guest.

Greg turned up the volume, interested in an academic’s take on experiences he still half-wished he could dismiss as hallucinations, if that wouldn’t mean losing the kiss from Gloria along with the monsters and mayhem.

The professor’s gray suit matched her hair. She faced the cameras with the assurance of someone accustomed to speaking to classrooms full of college students.

“What we commonly call mass hallucination is a variety of collective delusion. That is, socially contagious behavior or symptoms occurring within a group of individuals. These can include symptoms of actual physical illness in the cases we call mass hysteria.”

“I see.” The hostess leaned toward her guest. “Very interesting, Professor. Can you tell us how that might relate to recent reports from people claiming to have seen first dinosaurs and now giant mosquitoes in Minneapolis?” Her incredulous tone suggested that, of course, anyone reporting these things must be delusional.

The professor nodded. “Typically, collective delusion involves small, isolated groups such as found in schools, factories, convents. There were some interesting cases in medieval France, in which whole convents started meowing like cats or biting one another.”

The hostess lifted a tentative hand. “Very interesting, but I’m not sure how it relates.”

“But I digress. These recent reports were not confined to such isolated communities, but came instead from individuals with no prior connection to one another who happened to be present at the same time and place. This leads me to question whether they are, in fact, cases of collective delusions at all. Of course, one might also point to the rash of flying saucer sightings following an initial report in 1947. The UFO phenomenon is a good example of a collective delusion that’s an exception to the pattern of occurrence in confined populations.”

“Unless, of course, you believe in alien visitations.” The hostess laughed.

Sitting at the kitchen worktable with a cold soda in hand, Greg frowned at the television and flicked it off. He’d made it back to Aggie’s kitchen ahead of everyone else. Not surprising, as he’d flown most of the way as Wonder Guy while the others contended with traffic gridlocked in the Walker’s parking lot. He waited now, wanting to see how his mother had held up in the wake of the events at the sculpture garden, and wondering what Gloria would have to say concerning her adventures.

That kiss–maybe it hadn’t meant as much to her as to him. She was engaged to Pete and had gone out with other guys, giving her a lot more experience with the opposite sex than his few attempts at finding anyone who matched her in his affections. Maybe this kiss was nothing out of the ordinary in comparison to the others she’d experienced.

Nothing had ever come close to kissing Gloria, the girl of his dreams. To say the kiss had rocked his world constituted a massive understatement. His world had been rocked, shaken, flipped upside down and turned inside out. His world probably had a whole new topography he’d better re-map at first opportunity.

While eager to hear Gloria’s reaction to the kiss, at the same time, it felt wrong to hide from her in plain sight, listening to how she felt without revealing himself as the one who’d held her in his arms, the one who’d shared an amazing kiss with her. It didn’t seem a heroic way to handle things and that wasn’t the only thing bothering him.

The more he considered it, the less he liked it. Gloria had kissed him, yes. A kiss realizing everything he’d never dared dream. But, as far as she knew, she’d kissed a stranger. A hero, yes, a man who’d saved her from a terrible fate, a man who looked good in tights, but a man in a mask. She didn’t know who that man was. She didn’t know she’d kissed him, Greg, the guy who’d been here for her all along, someone she’d taken for granted for years.

As much as he’d loved kissing her, it bothered him that as far as she was concerned, she’d kissed someone else, someone not him. It bothered him how much he inwardly quailed at the prospect of unmasking himself to her, facing the risk of her ardor turning to scorn if she found out Wonder Guy was plain old Greg Roberts. He couldn’t let fear stop him from taking the next step. Hadn’t he learned anything about heroism these past days?

Too, since he’d acquired these superpowers, an elephant had nearly trampled Gloria and giant mosquitoes had carried her away. Her best friend had been killed. Coincidence? Coincidences did happen, but he’d known Gloria his whole life and stuff like this had never happened to her before.

“Serafina?” Greg called. And there she sat, in the chair opposite him, perky, purple velvet pillbox hat on wispy white hair.

“Yes, dear?” Her large, alert eyes turned to him.

“Ma’am.” He nodded, collecting his thoughts.

A sinking sense of loss weighted his gut as he leaned forward across the table. He’d only had these powers for a few days, less than a week. It felt good to be a hero, to make a difference. It felt more than good to have Gloria look at him the way she had, eyes shining with admiration and with the kind of interest he’d do practically anything to inspire. He spoke in a rush, before he had a chance to reconsider, “I want you to take these superpowers back. Gloria seems to be in more danger than she’s ever been before. It’s got to be connected to me, to the superpowers, somehow.”

“Tsk. Young man, have you considered you were given these powers specifically to assure you’d be in a position to help when the young lady’s need arose? Given her heroic impulses and proximity to unscrupulous persons who have already resorted to murder, danger was inevitable. Danger comes not because you have powers, but quite the opposite. You have powers because danger would arise one way or another.”

“Is it true? Is that what’s going on?” He’d been leaning forward in his chair, now he leaned back again, reassessing.

“Giving up your powers won’t prevent your young lady from being endangered. The forces at play would endanger her regardless of what you do, not least her own impulse to do the right thing.”

“Oh,” he muttered, deflated.
In that case...
“And I have a better chance to help her this way?” He spread his arms, taking in the whole present situation, superpowers and all. He might be glad for the opportunity to continue to play hero, not so glad to hear Gloria would be in danger even if his world returned to normal. “She needs me.”

“Exactly.” Serafina nodded, her hands folded neatly before her on the tabletop.

“I don’t have a choice then. If Gloria needs a hero, I have to be one.” He let his breath escape in a whoosh.

“Well spoken, dear.” Serafina’s smile twinkled at him.

“Ma’am? I have to ask...”

“Yes, dear?” She tilted her gaze up to meet his.

“I’m a rational man. I believe in the physical laws of the universe. I don’t understand how all this can be happening, but it is happening. How?” He ended on a bewildered note.

“I’m sorry to make things confusing for you, dear. You’re a bright lad, and I’m sure you understand what you call physical laws aren’t actually laws so much as they are patterns your people been able to discern, given the limits of human perception.”

“Well, yes, but this magic, what’s been happening lately, violates everything we’ve learned about how the physical universe works.”

“Yes, but you have not yet learned everything there
is
to learn about how these things work.” She twinkled again. “When you get to the true roots of creation, you’ll find what some of your scientific thinkers dismiss as mere emotion, the connections between caring and perceptive beings, are the very warp and woof and threads with which physical reality is woven.”

“But...” Greg faced an empty chair.
How did she do that?
Frustrated, he took a swig from the can solid and cool in his grip. Connections between caring beings? Maybe it would make sense if he understood more about quantum connectivity and string theory...

* * * *

Gloria headed directly home after leaving Hank and Aggie next door. Her earlier adventure might have been a half-forgotten nightmare if not for the bruises the giant mosquitoes had left on her arms. She hoped the marks wouldn’t itch the way the bites of ordinary mosquitoes did. All she wanted now was a chance to relax in a nice hot bath while she had the house to herself. The quiet neighborhood, where a robin warbled among the trees, had already begun the job of easing her nerves. Just as she raised the key to the lock, a rushing in the afternoon air alerted her and she turned, the sound awakening her memories of recent assault by giant, blood-sucking insects.

Poised for flight, her heart lifted to see Wonder Guy instead of the monsters, alighting beside her. She released a sigh, and her shoulders relaxed as if removed from a hanger. She took a fresh breath and straightened, taking in the lean, long-legged form standing before her. The remembered kiss lit a chain of signal fires along her nerves.

He cleared his throat. “Gloria.”

“Yes? How do you know my name?” She flushed, suddenly self-conscious over how familiar she’d been without even introducing herself. “How did you find me? I mean, I meant to introduce myself. I forgot.”

“I’ll explain everything.” He stepped closer.

The warmth in his gaze reassured her, even from the shadows cast by his golden mask. Everything in her yearned toward him, despite her doubts about kissing a virtual stranger. Had he followed her because he felt as she did?

When he moved nearer still, she surged to meet him. He lifted a gloved hand to her shoulder and leaned in when Gloria lifted her face to meet his lips with hers. Magic.

Her world blossomed into a deeper, richer place. A sensation of rising inner tides sent electricity into every watershed of her limbs, rushing through the tributaries and estuaries until even fingertips and toes tingled with awareness. Desires only sleeping in her before kicked her wide awake, as if she’d slept all her life until now. She moaned and sank into those desires, bringing her arms up around his neck, moving into his arms as if reenacting the moment when he’d carried her flying high above the sculpture garden. He scooped her up, dragging her tightly against a chest as warm and solid as homecoming.

She lost herself in the luxury of silken sensations flowing within and under her hands as she smoothed the silky fabric of his costume across his shoulders. She basked in the golden warmth of the embrace and relished the rare spices tasted where their mouths met. His kiss welcomed her responses, called for more. She might fall into such a kiss and be lost forever, never missing whatever else life might offer.

He moved with exquisite slowness, as if she were his sole focus and there was nowhere he’d rather be than in this moment, in this kiss, melting together with her.

His gloved hands, at first merely drawing her close, wandered lower, cradling, holding, shaping themselves to the landscape of her curves. His touch affirmed the shapes of her back and shoulders, following to the outer swell of her breasts. She shivered when his fingers climbed onward toward their peaks.