©2003, James C. Taylor

Chapter 1: I Have Something To Tell You That I Never Thought I Would

I closed the door to my grandfather’s room. It had the smell of disinfected vomit that all of Sherwood Forest Rest Home seemed to have. I took a deep breath in spite of it and sat down next to his bed. “Grandpa, I know that you have many other things on your mind since your stroke, but I don’t have anyone else to talk to about this. Literally anyone.” His eyes seemed to slowly pierce their fog and focus on me. I began.
---§---
Harold Mortimer placed his briefcase and a picnic basket on the campus lawn and began spreading a blanket over the spring grass. As it was exam time he was certain that the students would be hunkered over their books or locked in a classroom. He pulled a bottle of pear wine and some Emmentaler cheese from the basket and a detective novel from his briefcase and sat down on the blanket.

Kate Grant (Dr. Katherine Grant, Ph.D.) walked up to him with a basket on her arm. She produced two wineglasses and two ham sandwiches. She was wearing make up, something that she rarely wore. As she sat down, Harold noticed the absence of a smile. “What’s wrong, Kittykat?”

She smiled weakly. “If you start singing that song, I will brain you.”

Harold grinned. “And you nuclear scientists have brains to spare.” Harold patted the blanket next to him. She sat down cross-legged. Harold noticed that her legs were very well muscled. Her tendency to wear long skirts kept them invisible to him. She also wore long sleeves a lot, now that he thought about it.

“Harold, we’re getting pretty serious now. I mean, we both feel comfortable enough about how we feel about each other that we’re willing to be seen together in public. I feel that I can trust you and I haven’t felt this way for a long, long time.” She pulled a strand of raven hair from her face. “I have something to tell you, something I never thought I would say.”

“I know. I love you, too.”

Kate froze. “That’s not what I was going to say. I think I love you, too. And I hope after what I have to tell you that you still feel that way.” She pressed her hands palm down in her lap. “A few years back I was charged with conspiracy to commit treason against the United States. The charges were dropped because I agreed to turn states’ evidence.” She looked away. “Do you remember Dr. James Finerty?”

“Wasn’t he the nut that got Energy X powers and ran around calling himself Professor Infinity?”

“Yes. I was a research assistant of his. I helped him and some of his henchmen acquire Energy X powers. Unwittingly, but I did. I also helped stop them.”

“By turning states’ evidence.”

Kate exhaled. “Partly. Also by beating them up.”

Harold raised his eyebrows.

“Remember how Atomic Woman appeared right around the same time?”

Harold stared at her, mouth agape.

“I am Atomic Woman.”
---§---
“Grandpa, I am in love with a super heroine.”

Chapter 2: You’ll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart

Even though I had started to come to Sherwood Forest Rest Home regularly by that point, it still seemed my grandfather’s nurse was larger every time I visited. Her “Margaret F. O’Halloran” name tag pinned to her gargantuan breast threatened to poke me from across the room when she leaned in the doorway.

“Is everything all right, Mr. Mortimer?”

“Yes. Fine. I just feel the need to speak to my grandfather lately.”

The corners of her mouth turned down slightly.

“He hasn’t improved any, you know. I don’t think he’ll be answering you anytime soon.”

“It makes him a better listener.” I smiled a wan smile.

“Well, if you need anything, let me know.” She began to turn and then stopped. “By the way, I understand you’re a professor.”

“Yes. At the University. English Literature and Composition.”

“Literature. Then you wouldn’t know my brother, then. Our family sticks to the sciences. Have a good day, Mr. Mortimer.” As she waddled back to the nurses’ station, I pulled the door to my grandfather’s room closed.

“Doctor Mortimer.” I exhaled. “I know I shouldn’t let small things like that get to me, Grandpa.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Lately I have been letting a lot get to me.”

---§---

‘You will promise to cherish me.
If you break your promise the angels will see.’

As Dionne Warwick sang effortlessly from the stereo, Harold picked up Kate’s plate and turned toward the kitchen. Kate began to rise out of her chair and he gently pushed her back down. “This is my treat. When you make dinner, then you can help clear the table.” Kate smiled a full toothed smile. “It looks like I am never clearing the table.” Harold looked at her from the sink. Her eyes glistened. She looked content. “Don’t tell me you can’t cook.”

“I make a mean ham sandwich.”

“I’ll call Emeril Lagasse.” Harold rinsed out the dishes as Kate walked to the living room area of the open floor flat. “I like cooking. It’s a way to relax from all the Internet spelling and disjointed paragraphs I have to read all day.” He pulled two wineglasses from his cabinet, ones that didn’t match anything else. The ones she gave him that day. “What do you do to get over your students?”

“Talk to you.”

Harold smiled, and walked to her with the glasses and pear wine. He poured her a glass, handed it to her, then poured himself one. “To...”

“Now.” Kate delicately clinked her glass with his. “To now.”

Harold sat next to her, a little more closely than he dared. “Now is good.” They inclined toward each other eyes transfixed. Their lips parted slightly.

And then the building shook.

The sofa pitched back slightly then righted itself. “Wow. Are you okay?” Harold got to his feet.

“Yes, but something isn’t.” Kate turned down the stereo with the universal remote and turned on the television while Harold threw open the window and looked around.

“There’s a nasty fire in one of the high rises down the street.”

“The television is saying there was some kind of explosion on the middle floors. And there are people trapped at the top. I--”

“Go. Go.”

“I need to use your bathroom first.” Harold got an odd look on his face. “To change. I don’t spin around like Lynda Carter, okay? Hand me my knapsack.” Harold picked it up from by the front door and handed it to her through the bathroom door.

“Why not just go over there without changing.”

“Because I like having a life. And it’s not safe if it’s too easy for people to find you.” She stepped from the bathroom in full costume, the red and blue cutting a striking figure.

“I’ll be back.” She kissed him hard on the mouth, then flew out the open window. He ran to the window, leaned out, and watched her become too small to follow.

‘Our Action News Live Cam has spotted Atomic Woman flying onto the scene. Hopefully they can stay with her.’

Harold sat down on the couch and leaned forward. Atomic Woman flew down along a woman who had just jumped from the seventeenth floor, grabbed her, then slowly changed both their momentums toward up. Once she was in control of the woman, she flew quickly to the ground and back up toward the upper floors. Several helicopters had arrived on the scene. Atomic Woman carried people from windows to waiting tethers and baskets.

“Atomic Woman, you need to clear the area,” the fire chief bellowed into the bullhorn. “According to the building superintendent there are more chemicals higher up and they’re going to blow any minute.”


Harold watched with a lump in his throat. Atomic Woman flew up and back from the building. Not Atomic Woman. Kate. And then the 21st floor blew. Kate seemed to glow for a second, and then all the flame and debris seemed to flow to her. She flew rapidly straight up completely from camera shot. Then there was a boom like a skyrocket and a chrysanthemum of flaming debris showered Midwest City. Harold’s heart stopped. The television camera stayed transfixed at the heart of the fireworks.

“Harold?”

Harold turned with a start. Kate was standing behind him. Harold clambered around the sofa and held her close to him.

“Not quite as relaxing as cooking,” she said.

---§---

My grandfather’s eyes seemed to almost be consoling me. “I am afraid, Grandpa. Not just about her, but if I can stand this life. I don’t know that I can do this.”

Chapter 3: Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

I looked down to the nurse’s station and, not seeing Nurse O’Halloran there, sighed. Her overattentiveness to my grandfather as of late had become unnerving. She seemed to appear in my grandfather’s room without warning, although, thankfully, never while I was discussing Kate with him. A vase of flowers, a fluffed pillow. If she hadn’t said she was married, I might of thought she was giving him attention to get to me. Anyway, I went into the room and closed the door. My grandfather still hadn’t moved, but yet I felt he was more there than he had been. Hope, I guess. You have to have hope.
---§---
‘What do I do when lightning strikes me
And awake to find that you’re not there?’

Harold’s car was stopped at the end of the farmhouse driveway. He sighed, put it in gear, and drove slowly up the drive. As he neared the house, he noticed that part of the wood was unpainted and unvarnished. He also noticed the other car, and two men leaving her front door, a black man about his age, and a blond twenty year old, or maybe even a teen. Kate was smiling at the black man. They all heard the crunch of his tires on the gravel and looked at him. The blond was quickly halfway to Harold when Kate said “It’s okay. He’s okay,” a deep scowl etching her face. The black man looked warily at her. “He’s okay. He’s the one.”

“Okay.” The black man motioned to the blond. “Let’s go.” The black man got behind the wheel of the car, the blond strangely already seated next to him. Harold rubbed his eyes. The men’s Jeep Cherokee roared to life and they sped off down the drive.

“Why are you here?”

“Kate, we have to talk.”

“I told you not to come here.”

“We have to talk about this.”

“You have to talk about this.”

“Avoiding this conversation doesn’t make the need for it go away.” Harold walked toward the front door. “Please. Let me in.”

She stood in the doorway, fists clenched by her side, glaring at him. She then turned her back to him and walked into the house. “Come in.”

The door opened into the kitchen. There was a plate in the sink and a couple of glasses on the kitchen table, as well as an odd looking metal bracelet. Kate leaned on the table, her back still to Harold.

“I told you never to come here.”

“Why? Because the house isn’t painted?”

Kate’s cheeks reddened. “Why are you here, Harold?”

“Why did you leave?”

“Don’t make me tell you. Just forget it.”

“Forget it? I love you, Kate. How do I forget you running out on me like that?”

“It’s not you.”

“Nobody else was there. Did you meet someone? Was it that guy?”

“What guy?”

“The one that just left.”

Kate turned around. “He’s a friend.”

“A super friend. I’ll bet he was Lightning Man. And the kid was probably Pinball.”

“He’s not Lightning Man. He’s Len Thomas. A friend of mine. Just a friend.”

“Then tell me, Kate. Tell me why you won’t make love to me.”

“I...” Tears began streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t.”

“You can’t tell me?”

“I can’t make love to you.”

Harold’s brow knitted. “You can’t? What does that mean?”

“I can’t. Not since I...changed.”

“Did Finerty hurt you? By God, if he did--”

“He didn’t hurt me, Harold.” Kate sat down in one of the chairs. “My powers come from Energy X manipulating the weak and strong forces of nuclei. Basically, I can create and absorb explosions and ride the lines of force between molecules to fly. Maybe with practice I can do other things. It took practice and control for me to do anything other than blow things up. That’s what makes me a freak. That and if I am not careful, I glow in the dark.”

“I love you, even if you glow in the dark.”

“That’s not why I can’t make love to you. Some times it’s harder for me to keep from exploding than others. When I’m tired, for instance. Or hurt. Or...”

“No, baby. No.”

“Yeah. I dreamed of you and me one night. Just dreamed. And I blew up the back end of my house.” Kate’s face was slick with tears. Harold walked over to her and held her.

“I’m sorry, Katie. I am so sorry.”

“How could I tell you that I want you so much I could kill you?”

“I’m sorry. I understand. We’ll figure out something.”

“Someone may already have. That’s why Len and Jerry were here. That’s what this is.” She held up the bracelet. “Len works for the government. A scientist there who owes him a favor looked at my notes and thinks this can tamp my bursts. I didn’t want to come back till I knew. But it wasn’t you. It was never you. And I want you to know that.”
---§---
“So I held her for a long time, Grandpa. And then we made love. And it was good. And we’re okay. Only, later Len called her and told her that Finerty had escaped from prison and was looking for her.”

The door opened and an orderly wearing a headset entered the room. He closed the door behind him and looked me dead in the eye. “Looks like I found the next best thing. Allow me to introduce myself, Dr. Mortimer. I am Professor Infinity. And I am going to kill your girlfriend.