“Boom, Pow, Slash!” Gabriel made the sounds as he leapt from his bed and landed on the floor. He had taken a towel from the bathroom and a clothes pin to make a cape, and in his pajamas he was ready to conquer any evil-doers that might be afoot. “Stand back bad guys, or I’ll get you with my vapor breath that will freeze you solid,” he stated firmly with one hand in front of him and the other on his hip.

Gabriel knew he did not have any super powers, but he realized that there were bad guys afoot. His father was in the apartment and the steady stream of liquor-fueled profanities coming from the living room was hard to ignore. “Smash, Blam, Wop!” Gabriel continued, this time even louder, trying to drown out the horror of what was taking place in the next room.

“I will keep all the people of this fair city safe from the gangs of criminals!” Gabriel shouted as he tried to peak through the bedroom door and see what his parents were doing. When a lamp flew across the living room and exploded against the wall, Gabriel ran across his bedroom and leapt into his bed. Hearing the volume of the fight increasing, he pulled the covers over his head.

“I’m going to choke every ounce of breath from your body, and then I’m going to go teach that brat of yours some respect for his father!” he heard the voice yelling from the next room.

Gabriel threw the covers from over his head and darted into his closet, closing the door behind him. He heard something hit the floor; he guessed it was some part of, or perhaps what was left of his mother. Rocking back and forth, he expected at any moment for the closet door to fly open and his father to begin his rage upon him.

After what seemed an eternity, he heard heavy footsteps walk across the living room floor and the front door slam. Gabriel waited. He shook uncontrollably, waiting for something to happen. After some time had passed, he peaked his head out from the closet door. Nothing different. He slowly crept to the door of his bedroom and listened. Nothing heard. He cautiously walked out of his room to find his mother sitting on the floor of the kitchen, curled into a ball and weeping as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

Gabriel didn’t say a word. He just stood and stared. He slowly reached up and unclipped the clothes pin just below his chin. The cape, made from a towel, fell to the floor behind him. Reaching down, he picked up the towel and slowly approached his mother. He stood before her for a few minutes before he sat down at her feet.

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” Gabriel said, his voice squeaking as he tried to speak. Lifting his arm, he tried to hand the towel to his mother.

In her embarrassment, Katie could not accept the gift. As she looked away, the freshly impressed black eye was highlighted by her running mascara. After a few minutes, Katie asked, “What are you sorry for, Sweetie?”

Gabriel began to cry. He cried until he couldn’t see, and then he laid his head into his mother’s lap and cried some more. “I’m not a superhero!” Gabriel blurted out. “If I were, I could stop him from hurting you.” Gabriel squirmed at the truth. Children that are hurt have a way of building a world for themselves, and Gabriel’s was deconstructed when he saw his mother on the floor. “This isn’t a cape! It’s a towel!” he continued. “I can’t beat the bad men,” he announced. “And I don’t even have a super power.” Tears ran down onto his pajamas, and his chest was sticky and wet.

Katie left her battered bodily concerns behind for a moment as she ran her fingers through his hair. She followed the curve of his ear as she silently cried with, and for, her son. Time went by for longer than either of them realized before Katie came to understand that Gabriel had cried himself to sleep in her lap. She gathered his tiny body up in her arms and made the painful walk to the front door to be sure it was locked. She then carried him to his room and turned the light off as she opened the door.

As she laid Gabriel in bed, she knelt down beside him and reaffixed the towel, now a cape, around his neck. “You are a superhero,” She whispered, again stroking his head. “You can beat the bad men by never becoming one of them and never making an excuse for what they do.” As the pain in her face and ribs began to return, Katie leaned over her son and kissed his cheek. “And you do have a super power, Gabriel.” The tears were streaming from her eyes. “Your power is the love I know you have for me and the love that I have for you that would not allow me to die tonight.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 03.06.2010

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