Tower and Town, May 2016

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Reluctant Hero

A light flickered in the sky and he was instantly awake, turning over and quietly grumbling “can’t they manage for five minutes”. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and glanced at the clock. Although he already knew the time the confirmation seemed to make the complaint more righteous.

He felt bone weary. This was the fourth interruption in one night, individually not big disruptions but together enough to sap the energy and dedication. It did not do much for the day job either and although he did not need to work he felt it best to keep up appearances and the perception of normality.

He reached for the suit and pulled it on, movements becoming quicker with repetition and familiarity, settling the seams comfortably until finally he pulled on the underpants. No one seemed to know why he had to wear them on the outside, it just lent credence to the final appearance. Although to be fair, he had not felt it appropriate to ask many people and perhaps it was just his personal inclination. Best not to delve too deeply into that one!

He did not really understand why he kept doing it, day after day, night after night without a break. Perhaps that’s what he needed, a holiday away somewhere, but he had tried that and it did not make any difference: same demands, just a change of scenery. Oh well! He walked to the window, opened it further and jumped out.

It was only three quarters of an hour later when he climbed back in, with the satisfaction that he had saved over a thousand lives. He started to remove his clothes, pants first of course. As he hung them in the wardrobe he thought again about sleeping clothed to save time, but he had often thought of it before and always concluded that somehow it was disrespectful to the image and people would disapprove. So much of life is about perception and meeting the expectations of others and he did not want to let them down.

Finally he shook out the duvet and climbed in. It would take a while now for it to warm up again, especially at this time of the morning, but the tiredness took over and he began to drop off to sleep. His final thought that drifted away with his consciousness was, “why on earth did I want to be a superhero and why oh why did I give them the wretched light!”

Roy Smith