The White Man Episode III - Someone Who Cares

8/13/2019 The White Man Episode III - Someone Who Cares

1/5

1

Someone Who Cares

Stars countless stars all streaking towards me. That s what I saw as the alien artifact dissolvedon my tongue. There was a tingling sensation all over my body. I looked around and felt OK; in fact Ifelt better than OK. I had never felt this good in my life. There was a surge of .of .something coursing through every part of me. I m not sure how I realized this, but there was something differentabout my very cells something alien yet wonderfully comfortable and familiar.

I just relaxed for a moment, for that s what the artifact was persuading me to do. I didn t feelhot or cold; I could easily breathe; my vision was good; and I didn t feel dizzy or in pain. So, this is whatit wanted, but why? Wait a minute .was I referring to the artifact as if it was some kind of livingcreature?

I looked around the house and everything was normal. When I noticed my reflection in thehallway mirror, I panicked. I was covered in a white skin of some kind. I looked like some creepy,otherworldly, faceless mannequin. Before I could start screaming for help and struggling to escape thisweird coating, the memories of sunny days at the park with cookies flooded my mind.

OK,

I addressed my reflection,

you

re not going to hurt me. But what are you?

I spent the next several minutes walking around in the armor, occasionally looking at my handsor feet to make sure they were still there. Now what? A sense of unease began to rise within me. Theartifact somehow knew I was getting uncomfortable; the stars appeared and receded. I pulled it outof my mouth and stared at it.

I put the artifact in my mouth again and the weird coating came back, along with the feeling ofpower. It transformed itself back into the disc right when I wanted it to. This was actually pretty neat.

OK, OK! Im coming! Maggie yanked open the door.

I walked right in. You gotta see this! This is incredible! Just promise you won t freak out! IsTrent home? How about Jack? I m sorry, but you re the only one I trust. Promise that this will be oursecret for now? I mean, sure it ll get out but-


2/5

2

Maggie put her hand on my mouth. Shut up. With her hand still on my mouth, she movedme to the couch. Sit down. I m going to take my hand off your mouth. Are you ready to start talkinglike a normal person?

I nodded yes. I found this two days ago. I pulled the alien artifact out of my pocket.

What is it?

I have no idea; but I know that it didn t come from earth. It s probably not even from our solarsystem.

Mitch have you been reading Jack s Captain Incredible comics again?

Watch .this is the best part promise not to freak out? Before she could respond, I got upand put the disc in my mouth. Ta-daa!

Mitch! Oh my God! What happened to you?

I quickly got out of my alien suit. Hey! Whoa! It s OK. See?

What the hell is that!?

Like I saidno idea. But it s totally safe and actually pretty neat.

Mitch! Safe .you don t even know what it is. C mon let s go. She started pushing me outthe door.

What!?

Im getting you checked out at Community General.

No! Wait! I squirmed away from her. There s another reason why I came.

Maybe I should have you checked out at Saint Albans?

Trust me .Im not crazy .this situation is crazy .but I m not.

She sighed. Give me one good reason why I shouldn t be worried about you.

I pulled her down to the cellar. I can give you a few hundred.

Maggie and Trent s basement was clean, well lit, and organized. In one corner was Trent s gym.Ever since college he had been trying to get me to build my body. I never felt that really was my cup oftea. That was about to change.

I put the alien artifact in my mouth. This thing makes me feel different I can t describe it. It snot a well.human feeling.

Mitch .this is really kind of weird.


3/5

3

Youre telling me? I m the one wearing an alien disc the size of a quarter. I walked over toTrent s weights. I picked up a 100 pound weight; to me it was as light as a paperweight. Wow yeah that s what I thought.

What s the matter, what s going on?

Watch this. I put two one hundred pound weights on the bar and picked it up with one hand. Two hundred pounds and it feels more like ten.

OK.

I put two more weights on. I grabbed the bar with both hands. Four hundredpounds definitely not a problem.

Mitch?

Six hundred pounds .still not a problem.

Mitch!

Eight Hundred pounds ugh! Now that s a little bit of a challenge.

Mitch stop! You re gonna hurt yourself.

One thousand pounds. Whew! This is a little heavy, but I can definitely manage.

This is-

Beautiful.

Now what?

Go out and make the world a better place?

Trent and Jack will be home in about an hour, we ve got to put everything back to normal.

I chuckled. That ironic .everything back to normal. I could see Maggie struggling to get oneof the weights off. Here, let me do it.

No, Ive got it.

No, don t worry about it.

You just get your side- The weight dropped and hit my foot. Oh my God! Mitch! Are youOK?

Wow! I m fine. No really I didn t feel a thing. I took a hammer off the wall above the workbench. Lets see what this thing can do. I put it in her hand. Now let me have it.


4/5

4

No. This is crazy.

I just lifted one thousand pounds and had a one hundred pound weight fall on my foot andIm fine. Now let me have it.

Mitch! I can t.

Do you remember that time when I crashed your slumber party? Boy, that was hilarious!

I wasn t happy about that.

How about the time I told on you when you snuck off to see jerk-face?

His name was Todd!

Well, I think he answered to jerk face as well. Especially when he dumped you.

Mitch

Just trying to get you in the mood.

Maggie swung the hammer with all of her strength. She hit me square on the forehead, but Ididn t feel a thing. There - are you happy?

Yes. Are you ?

You little! She hit me several more times. We both broke out into that kind of childishlaughter that grownups are supposed to leave behind. This is totally crazy.

Yeah.it is.

I sat there, in my car, in the outer parking lot of Chester s Supermarket for a few minutes. Thisreally was crazy. I was about to put on a white suit of alien armor and walk through the Grunge. I wasnever really shy growing up, but then again, I was never the exhibitionist type either. But it wouldn t beme who would be patrolling the streets looking for crime it would be what was my name? In all theexcitement of the past few days, it never occurred to me that I needed a name. Captain Power? Nah,too corny. Super Knight? Well, not really. The Cosmic Avenger nope that just wouldn t come out righteither. How about the Steel Crusader? That didn t sound right either. Maybe as the night wore on, Iwould figure out who I was supposed to be.

When I walked up and down the streets, I did get a lot of stares and the occasional comment(some of them were stupid and some were just rude). After about two hours, I thought about turningback. I also thought about how much time I would spend in a run down place that I didn t even live in.

I heard no more like felt a pinging somewhere deep in my brain. There was some sort ofdistress two blocks over. The artifact was somehow honing in on bad vibes . I raced in the direction of


5/5

5

the chaos, my adrenaline pumping, wild scenarios running through my head. When I got there, twomen were negotiating with an older gent at gun point.

They were a bit stunned as I ran up to them. I decided to be optimistic and play it cool. Afterall, maybe they would be too freaked out to do anything but run. OK, guys. Lets call it a night.

What the #@$@! The taller mugger looked at me cockeyed.

Its too early for tricks or treats whitey. His partner turned his gun on me.

Well, this was going to be tougher than I thought. They fired several shots, but the bulletsmeant nothing to me. They might as well have been snowflakes. I grabbed one in each hand and liftedthem off the ground.

Look. Go home and re-think your career choices; OK? I threw them on the cold sidewalk.They ran and didn t look back.

I turned to the elderly man. Are you alright?

Y-yes. Who are you?

Someone who cares.

When I got back to my car, the window on the front passenger side was completely shattered.This really was going to be tougher than I thought.

Bfk

2014 Benjamin F. Kaye

Documents

The White Man Episode III - Someone Who Cares