My Brother, Superman-a MAVERIC LION ENTERTAINMENT SHORT STORY

Saturday, July 01, 2006
My Brother, Superman-a MAVERIC LION ENTERTAINMENT SHORT STORY
My Brother, Superman
By
Carl E. Thompson
c 2006 Maveric Lion Productions
I don't remember exactly when my brother, Joe, bought the Superman shirt. It was months after we became homeless, during that time when I got the ill fated and nearly fatal job in the storm window factory.
At first, I thought it was a silly waste of money that we didn't have.
But then he explained it to me and it all became perfectly clear.
That August 11th I checked Jefferson Hospital with infected diabetic ulcers on both great toes one of which the left had gone right to the bone. The prognosis did not look good. First, the doctors had to deal with the infections and then decided what to do about the left toe. Whatever the case my days in the storm window factory were over. No more jobs where one has to stand on one's feet for ten hours a day.
At that time, I had a cell phone but Joe did not. So there was no reliable way for me to get in touch with him.
To call a men's shelter you need to have the number of the pay phone. If you call the main phone they will not, under law, admit that the person you are trying to reach is there. If you call the pay phone then you are at the mercy of whatever slop head happens to answer it. On top of that, so idiot may have the phone tied up talking to his girlfriend or making a drug deal. Thats the way it works down on the lower levels of society.
Knowing this and knowing that, sooner or later, Joe would show up at Hospice looking for me I left a note with the person in the front office at the shelter, and then I settled back as well as I could, considering the circumstances.
The hospital is one of the nicer ones in Philadelphia, a town that is top heavy with nice hospitals. The nurses were pretty and personable and I had a television in my room. Hospitals have grown up, you no longer have to share a room with a dying drunk, or a criminal psychopath as had happened when I was first diagnosed with diabetes as a teenager.
I had a notebook with me, so I started to work on my writing. If I could no longer make storm windows, I'd have to find another way to make a living and get us out of this mess.
I didn't want to think about what might happen. More time spent in homeless shelters, trying to struggle by on the joke that is Welfare payments in Pennsylvania And the thought of losing a toe or a foot. I just didn't want to address that. Not yet. There just seemed to be a lot of permanently homeless men with missing limbs. The thought made my blood run chilly.
Moreover, I was worried about Joe. the only viable family I had left.
Therefore, needless to say, I was scared.
It was Saturday before Joe found out where I was.
From the door of my room, I could see him coming up the hall in that blue shirt with its yellow diamond and big red S. You know what it looks like. Everyone knows what it looks like. People who have never read a comic book know all about Superman and know what his S looks like. Along with James Bond, Tarzan, his buddy Batman and Sherlock Holmes, he is one of the most famous men who never existed.
When John Lennon said that the Beatles were, more famous than Jesus he was wrong. but not for the obvious reason. Superman, the Man of Steel is as famous, if not more so than Jesus. People who have never heard a Beatles album have heard of him. They know about his secret identity of Clark, that his born name is Kal-el and that he is the Last Son of Krypton. They get scared.I've hear of his arch enemy, the bald scientist/billionaire Lex Luthor and Superman’s long time girlfriend. Lois Lane Jokes about X-ray vision and changing in a phone booth are cultural standards. People who can’t tell you who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is can tell you Superman's father was Jor-el.
http://groups.msn.com/MAVERICCOMICSGROUP/yourwebpage10.msnw
Posted 7/14/2006 at 10:04 AM by mavericstud8



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