Author’s Note: This vignette jumps forward a few months in the story chronology. I wanted to write something for Christmas and they aren’t there yet in the story. I also needed to write something short because life has intruded on my writing time a lot this month, not to mention my car being hit from behind and flipping over completely. That was an interesting experience.

“Ayeesha, get your ass back here,”her mother shouted.

She pressed forward through the crowd. She had to get close enough to see him.

He had just landed on the outdoor stage and walked behind a big sign that said KIDS ARE HEROES. He landed with his glorious light blazing and came out from behind the sign waving to the crowd with his light off.

He was beautiful, his perfect white costume tight against his muscles. The reflecting goggles that covered his eyes made him a mystery. He was perfect, a real man, a true hero.

And he was FINE. Ayeesha and her friends pored over the superhero magazines looking at the male supers, and this new one was the best. Sun Man. She had to see him up close. She pushed past the people gathered for the Christmas gift giving event.

The Mayor of L.A. was on stage too. She had no respect for him since he was found in bed with that Latina reporter.

“The annual Kids Are Heroes event, sponsored this year by Mossoft Software...” a TV lady was saying into a camera as Ayeesha shoved her way towards the stage.

She was getting pretty old for the presents they gave out at this thing every year. She was past Barbies and Bratz. She didn’t need no plastic baby doll, she knew females just three years older who had real babies. She wasn’t there for the toys. She wanted to see Sun Man.

She heard him before she could get close enough to see him well. He took the microphone and said, “We may fight villains and catch criminals, but you kids are the real heroes!” The crowd cheered.

“Kids who stay in school, get an education so they are ready for the challenges of the twenty first century, they’re the ones who make a real difference!”

He was spouting the same stupid stuff that the teachers told her at school. She went to school for the free lunch. Most days it was the only meal she got. Weren’t no jobs, no future for her and her friends.

Not unless a superhero carried her away to the world she saw on TV, where people always had food to eat, and cars, and other beautiful people to sleep with.

Their make believe world was brighter and more vibrant than Ayeesha’s reality. She had this TV world to look at because her mother’s boyfriend said he couldn’t watch football in anything but high def.

It wasn’t the boyfriend who took an extra bus on the way home from work every Friday to make a payment at the rent-to-own place. On those Friday nights when her mother came home late Ayeesha watched the TV world and ate whatever was in the house. Sometimes that was a can of something. Sometimes it was biscuits made of nothing but flour. Sometimes it was tap water.

In that bright LCD world appeared a hero, a vision in white, a dream of a man. And he was real. He was on the news, not a show. He was probably white, most superheroes were. With that costume covering all of him, though, Ayeesha could dream that he was a brother.

“Now put your hands together for the reptile ranger, Slither!” Sun Man said. A snake man leapt on the stage. He was wearing a one piece purple costume. He was pretty scary looking, but all the kids knew him from his cartoon show, so they cheered.

“And last but not least, the Amazing Man of Metal, formerly of The Protectors, Chrome!”

The metal man came onstage and waved. He was just wearing tight shorts, to show off that all of him was chrome. Ayeesha wondered if his dick was metal too, and what that would do to his girlfriend.

Chrome carried a steel bar, which he bent in half to great applause.

The heroes this year were horrible, Ayeesha thought. The Golden Oracle used to put on a real show. It didn’t matter, Sun Man was there.

“Whoa, watch where you’re going, young lady,”a man said. She looked up and saw a black man in a nice suit. He was leaning on a cane with a silver handle.

Another man was looking at her too. This one was hard looking, like her cousin who had gone to Afghanistan and seen things he wouldn’t talk about.

“Sorry, Mister,”Ayeesha said, and kept pushing closer to the stage. As she moved away she heard the man in the suit say, “That’s not Mike.”The other one said, “He was tellin’ the truth, for once.”

The Metal Man introduced Santa Claus and the event got down to the business of giving away the donated toys. Hundreds of kids lined up for what would be the only Christmas present many of them got.

The three superheroes and Santa headed the four lines, with some help from fire fighters and police officers. Ayeesha tried to get in Sun Man’s line, but a group of boys who were even older than her pushed her away. She ended up in Chrome’s line.

“There you go, honey,” the man of metal said. He handed her a package wrapped in pink paper.

“Can I talk to Sun Man?” she asked.

“Move along, others are waiting,” Chrome said.

“I want to talk to Sun Man!”

“Merry Christmas!”Chrome shouted to the crowd. A policeman tugged her away.

She waited for the crowd to die down. Near the end the police and firemen took over and the superheroes started to leave.

“There you are, Ayeesha, let’s go.”

“I want to talk to Sun Man.”

“Which one is that?”

“White costume.”

“He white, Ayeesha, he won’t have nothin’ to do with you.”

“He might be black under that costume.”

“Don’t be stupid. We going home.”

Ayeesha pushed the gift at her mother and ran. Sun Man was walking back towards the stage. She had to say something to him.

She ducked under the barrier around the stage. He was walking towards the big sign. He went behind it.

“Hey!”a policeman said and ran after her.

She got behind the stage just in time to see something she would remember for the rest of her life. Sun Man stopped and nodded at another man wearing another all white costume. It was the same as his except there were no goggles and no yellow sunburst on the chest.

And the other man had electric lights strapped all over him. He flipped a switch and they blazed into life. He bent his knees then jumped in the air. He flew.

High in the sky, the fake Sun Man looked just like the real one when he was lit up. He vanished into the clouds.

The first Sun Man walked down a few stairs and got into a limo that was waiting with its door open.

“You shouldn’t be back here,” the policeman said and pulled Ayeesha back. She didn’t resist.

“You ready to go?” her mother asked when Ayeesha came towards her.

“He fake, Momma,” Ayeesha said, trying to hold back tears.

“He a man,”her mother said. “I got me some of the cookies when no one was looking.” She held open her purse and it was full of the cookies that were given out earlier. “You want one?”

“Merry Christmas!” Santa Claus yelled as he got into another limo with the Chrome guy.

Never believe, Ayeesha learned that day. Never believe in anyone.