Up, up, and awaaaaaay

For the Hero's recent birthday, he received a card that pictured a small boy adorned in superhero underwear and a cape. The message said that although the recipient hadn't fulfilled his boyhood dreams of actually becoming a superhero, at least he had stopped running around in superhero garb. At least, the inside read, the sender HOPED he had.

"Hmmm," said the Hero. "I think my cape might be around here somewhere..."

There is something about boys and capes. I use "boys" in a general sense, as in "males age 10 months to 93 years." A Certain Male Relative, who is somewhere in the middle of that range and normally has his feet squarely planted in reality, nevertheless highly esteems a certain superhero who favors a purple cape and mask. This admiration may or may nor explain a particular incident in this Male Relative's young adulthood, an incident that involved a cape, the roof of a home, and a swimming pool. Amazingly, although we have never been sure exactly how, it did NOT involve any fractured vertebrae or wheelchairs.

When the Hero first observed a photograph of the Male Relative participating in this incident, he was under the impression that the it had been witnessed and sanctioned by other Relatives. He admitted to some jealousy that his own youthful flights in a cape had been limited to the distance he could jump off the ground or from a rock.

I assured the Hero that had the Relative's mother been aware of this incident at the time, there certainly would have been another incident involving her, the cape, and the Relative's backside -- adult or not.

Neither the Hero nor the Male Relative is running around in a cape any longer, and most adult males, so far as I can tell, no longer actively seek a profession as a superhero. But if one of our bath towels suddenly disappears one day, I just may be wrong.