Before Bedtime

 

Important Disclaimer:  If you don’t have a sense of humor this story is not for you. 

 

Before Bedtime

 

He looked at his dog Arisia and shook his head.  “One hundred and fifteen days in a row.”  The sun continued to rise as he looked out the window, with the dog’s head on his lap.  Arisia could feel the waves of frustration pouring out of her owner.  His mask and cowl were next tom him on the couch.  He struggled so hard each night to fight crime and the “vampires, demons and the forces of darkness.”  But not even cursing Perry the Platypus would make him feel better.  That Trio was simply the source of frustration for all the heroes and heroines who took care of the night shift.  The White Shadow scratched his dog’s left ear.  “Arisia, they just have so many dang powers!  I mean they’ve been doing this since they were in Pokey Oaks Kindergarten.”  Arisia barked because she helped him each night and the results were always the same when the sun came up.  They simply hadn’t done enough.  He was just one man with a dog.  But dang it she thought.  “He’s the best dog dad ever!”  The White Shadow let his head drop and sighed.  He finally raised his head and hugged his dog.  “There’s always another day at least that’s what Jordan’s always singing.” 

          There were in college these days that frustrating trio.  In his head the White Shadow could hear that annoying narrator calling out their names.  “Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup.”  “Grr!”

He hugged the dog again.  “I gfotta get ready for bed, Arisia but just once I want to beat them at their own game.  I should be happy they do what they do in the daytime I guess but just once I want to be able to say that unlike the Powerpuff Girls the White Shadow and Arisia actually ‘Saved the World before bedtime’.  Just once kid.” 

 

 

 

Director’s cut: It’s just a silly fun short story.  I work nights and, on my nights off I’m usually still up in the middle of the night.  Well, every time I am, and the sun is coming up I will tell my dog.  “Well Arisia it happened again we didn’t stop the sun from coming up.”  It sparked a conversation with my friend Lori of “what if the White Shadow was in a competition with the Powerpuff Girls trying to save the world before bedtime at night while they did so in the daytime.  The song I referenced is called “Don’t Color me Blue” by my friend Jordan Cody. I'm leaving a link to her song to make her famous.  Don't color me blue by Jordan Cody

Kismet's Return

 

Kismet’s Return

 

“Look, if someone wrote a play

Just to glorify what’s stronger than hate

Would they not arrange the stage

To Look as if the hero came too late?”

 

A spark was fading.  Something was wrong.  She watched the sun descend.  Approaching the view screen that allowed her to peer into the Way Between Worlds, the geisha/ kabuki looking blonde aka Kismet the Avatar of Fate saw a pinprick of light blink and darken and keep attempting to light up again.  Telepathically she sent a summons to the Beast King requesting his assistance.  Within two days a cat like astral form came to her door and transformed to a human manifestation of the Beast King.  “How may I assist the lovely Avatar of Fate?  “This pinprick of light in the Way Between Worlds can you hunt it down for me and tell me who it is and why it flicker’s so?”  “For you Kismet it will be done.” 

Two weeks passed and the Beast King returned.  “Avatar Kismet, I bring news.  You asked me to search out the pinprick of light and the Starbearer and Celestial sent me quickly back to get you what you have observed is a person of grave importance to the Four Who Are One.  That light is one of our heroes we once helped empowered.  The Demon has been fighting hard to protect this person because we gave him gifts to make him the hero he is.  Kismet, we need you to make a journey to go help the White Shadow.  Many emotional things have hurt him, and your mission is to go show him hope and purpose to continue on.”  “Beast King, how will I accomplish this task you have laid out?”  “Do you remember your journey where you summoned fighters for a tournament?  This is no different.  Though the mission is more unique.  You can summon those to help.” 

As the Beast King departed Kismet began to ponder the task she had been given.  She thought out loud, “How does the Avatar of Fate help restore hope and a sense of purpose to a hero who has seemed to have lost it.  ?  This will take some special people.” 

She didn’t know she was special in any way but she was about to find out because Kismet had seen something in her thanks to the empathic abilities shared with her by the Starbearer.  In fact the woman that Kismet was observing was practically glowing with emotional power.  The young woman was walking through the food court of La Palmera mall.  She had dirty blonde hair up in a pony tail pulled tight a top her head, wore a lime green crop top, a black skirt, fishnets and green and black converse shoes.  Seemingly she had no care in the world as she headed to get shrimp teriyaki at Sarku.  “Why am I observing this strangely dressed young lady?  Why is she glowing with such emotional power?  Who is this unassuming gothic looking girl”, Pondered Kismet.  The young woman walked up and placed her food order and the cashier asked for her name.   “Astrid Lotus, I had hippie parents.”  While she waited on her order Astrid was approached by a young red headed woman who seemed nervous and troubled.  “Maddy, what’s wrong?”  “I’m just having a long rough day.”  “Where are you sitting, I’ll come join you and we’ll talk. After a few minutes and some food being set down, Astrid hugged Maddy.  Kismet, still near the viewing screen of the Way between World shook her head and thought a loud.  “What just happened to this lady named Maddy?  Her whole demeanor and body language changed when this Astrid Lotus woman hugged her.  That was at least a two-minute hug!  In this day and age, no one hugs someone for that long.  The Starbearer has power over the emotional spectrum, but this is the first time he has shown me a person’s emotional aura like what I just witnessed.”  Kismet tapped into the powers of the Celestial and entered La Palmera mall in the hallway by Charley’s Philly Cheese Steaks.  Kismet emerged wearing a Kiss t-shirt, blue jean shorts and flip flops but still retained her geisha/ kabuki makeup.  She gave a little giggle and ran her right hand through her short blonde cropped haircut.  “Sometimes the Celestial exhibits a sense of humor when transporting and providing my attire.”  She thought as she looked at the t-shirt with the picture of the Four Who Are One in their comic book/ rock music group disguise. 

 

“So let Hope rise and Darkness tremble.”

 

As Kismet prepared to approach the table where Astrid Lotus sat alone something of unique importance to this tale was about to occur in a place called Star City to Ms. Courtney Whitmore aka the Justice Society of America member Stargirl.  Her team had just stopped a plot by Mirror Master and Captain Cold and Stargirl turned to check on her teammate and friend Cyclone when her Cosmic Rod began blinking bright green signaling an object was drawing near to her.  A bright blue object flew past her head, and she ducked.  Three more times it zipped past her and then swooped low and attached itself to her wedding ring finger.  She held out her hand and said, “What in the name of Mariska Hargitay?”  Cyclone walked up and asked her, “Where’d the ring come from?”  Stargirl, befuddled, kept staring at it and blinking and then the ring spoke.  “Courtney Whitmore of space sector 2814, you have the ability to instill great hope.  Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps.” “But I’m already a superhero!”  She protested.  The ring again spoke, “Your ability to instill hope is greatly needed you will be transported to assist the one called Kismet as soon as she returns to the Way Between Worlds.”  “Do what now?”  Cyclone and Stargirl kept looking at the ring trying to make sense of the odd message. 

 

“Truth comes home in the strangest ways.”

 

The costume was once bright lime green and stark white.  It was befitting a vigilante hero who brought hope to others.  The cape and cowl were frayed at the edges now.  So many things had happened to this stalwart hero.  Mentally and emotionally his heart and life had been shattered.  In his civilian identity he had lost a job and people he loved.  Zac couldn’t even remember the last 8 solid hours of sleep.  It as all a blur.  Pay, bills, eat, sleep, feed the dog Arisia then bury himself in the costume of the White Shadow.  Only in the costume and fighting did he seem to find meaning.  There was no real life to him other than the one consumed by the cape and cowl.  Behind the mask was now long dirty blonde hair and a beard.  The man who once had a clean-shaven head and face was no more.  He was dealing with emotional baggage that kept him from acknowledging even hygiene problems.  He even neglected to notice some criminals had even run from him because his very costume carried a stench.  He was a hero in need of intervention because he would often be so caught up in his thoughts, he would swing his truncheons at enemies not even physically there.  He would teleport and try to pick unnecessary fights and then realize the error.  The White Shadow for all intents and purposes was a hero hurt, confused and lacking hope and purpose.  Of the Four Who Are One, the Demon was trying to keep the White Shadow from hurting himself.  The Celestial was trying to slow the teleporting.  The Beast King was using Kismet to find him help.  The Starbearer was trying to help calm the hero’s emotional turmoil.  It was going about as well as a Zebra trying to get warm in the arctic circle. 

 

“Me, I found a stubbornness that seems to grow with age.”

 

Courtney met with Kismet in the outer room to the Way Between Worlds where Kismet explained the reason, she had been equipped with the Blue Lantern ring.  Kismet also explained to her and Astrid Lotus the reason she needed help from both of them.  Courtney listened and finally spoke.  “If we’re to help the White Shadow and he keeps bouncing from place to place we need two of my friends to join us.  Jesse Quick is a speedster and she can get to places before he teleports there.  Power Girl has all the powers of Superman with a boatload of stubbornness like you wouldn’t believe.  They can come up with a way to stop him without hurting him.  Astrid you’re going to have to help me talk him down and deal with his emotional baggage.”  Kismet then summoned the Celestial to teleport them to go get Power Girl and Jesse Quick. 

 

“Fire on the arena floor

The swords are drawn, hear the lions roar.”

 

He was putting the final touches on a painting.  The man had taken a break from the vigilante hero business for some time.  His life was not consumed by it as some of the people he knew.  He still wore the amulet that transformed him though.  He barely even thought much about it anymore.  That’s why he was so caught off guard when it began to glow and vibrate against his chest.  The man dropped his paint brush and looked down.  He placed both hands on the amulet and said “By the Power of the Fangs of Castle Greyskull I am the White Lion!”  He was instantly changed to a half man half albino lion creature.  An astral projection of the Sorceress of Castle Greyskull appeared before him.  “David, my White Lion, I’m transporting you to a different realm for a time.  Your brother in arms the White Shadow is badly in need of your assistance.  However, it is not your hero identity that he needs but the human David.  He terribly needs a friend to just sit and listen to him.”  “At once madam I will gladly go to help him.”  “In moments you will be transported to the Way Between Worlds there you will meet with Kismet the Avatar of Fate and other heroes she is assembling.” 

“Never seen a warrior that looks much like me.”

 

He was a tall man with reddish hair, a trimmed moustache and goatee.  He had been out of the hero game for a bit.  He had received a strange request from a geisha/ kabuki looking woman who claimed to be the Avatar of Fate.  He found the message while browsing through a graphic novel his friend Zac aka the White Shadow had given him.  Somehow when he tried to look at the artwork of the real Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) the page altered, and the message appeared.   He pushed his thumb on the page for half a second and heard an audible voice.  “Patrick, your military and police experience is needed do you accept the offer to go to the Way Between World and join the mission to help the White Shadow?  All you must do is verbally say I accept or decline.  He shook his head for a moment trying to comprehend and then said.  “I accept. 

 

“So let Hope rise and darkness tremble in your holy light.”

 

She had just come home from a long 12 hour shift as a security guard.  All she wanted to do was relax with her dogs and cats and enjoy her day off.  She picked up the crochet project she had been working on yesterday.  Turning on Netflix, Hope thought to herself.  “Maybe just one episode and then I’ll get some sleep.”  That’s when the commotion began!  There were only a few times in her life that Hope had heard that very distinct sound.  They had fought side by side years ago before the doctors had told her she needed to cut back on her superhero activities as Heart Attack.  But Hope knew the sound she heard and it was not right.  Something was very wrong!  She knew when the White Shadow used his teleportation powers that there was a sound akin to glass breaking and metal tearing but even at his fastest teleportation’s it never sounded like it did now.  Zac was literally screaming with each teleportation.  Hope dropped her crochet project looked at her big black Labrador Bruce and said.  “I don’t care what the doctors said Bruce I have to help him.  He needs to go to the Conclave.  Only Patrick and I are the few people who know where it is.”  Knowing physically it might cause damage to her own heart Hope went to her closet and changed once more into her pink and yellow superhero costume.  She summoned her bio plasma flame powers.  She began to rise off the floor of her apartment, gesturing with her right hand, a switch on the wall opened the bay windows near her.  Her body tilted horizontally.  She flipped her reddish-brown hair over her shoulder and said.  “Bruce keep the place safe, I have a hero to go help.” 

 

“In my life, there’s been heartache and pain.

I don’t know if I can face it again.

Can’t stop now I’ve travelled so far.

To change this lonely life”

 

She was a good 60 pounds, a very muscular dog.  They said she was an American Staffordshire/ terrier mix.  One day the man they called Zac had come to the Gulf Coast Humane Society and chosen to take her home.  He had changed her name to something called Arisia.  He said she was named after an obscure character from a comic book series called the Green Lantern.  Arisia was drawn into comics and barely ever given any dialogue.  He and this dog were going to revive the character’s name.  He had rescued her and given her a large home, couch, a big chair and lots of little beds and rugs.  She had gone from a small cot and a kennel to what felt like paradise for this wobbly butt dog.   But to Arisia something felt wrong.  As kind as Zac was to her something wasn’t right with him. As a dog she sensed great pain just pouring from this man.  Somehow she knew she had to rescue him as much as she needed to be rescued.  He would sometimes come home and be so overwhelmed by tears all Arisia could do was try to crawl into his lap.  Then there was the teleportation.  The noise was hard on a dog’s ears, but it was so much worse when accompanied by his screaming.  Arisia was just a loving dog who didn’t know how to help her owner, but she kept seeing visions of the blonde haired woman with the face paint and knew this lady had a plan to help him. 

 

“When I feel the waves around me,

Calm the sea.” 

 

He had been through so much over the past few months.  Kicked from a work site, betrayed, left by the one he loved most and deceived.  Zac had gone through nearly every emotion a man could feel.  Rage, pain, anger, depression, hurt, loss, emptiness, feeling invisible, no affection, fear, distrust.  You name it; he had felt it in a matter of months.  He was trying to channel all those emotions into action using his skills of teleportation and martial arts skills as the White Shadow never realizing he was hurting himself more than the criminals he was attempting to stop.  The emotional spectrum pouring off of him was as thick as biscuits and gravy from Cracker Barrel.  More than he would ever admit he needed friends.  He was simply teleporting and swinging his truncheons at anything. 

 

“We are not the first to play this game,

Or stand over this plate,

We are surrounded by the legacy.”

 

Jesse Quick, Power Girl, Astrid Lotus, Stargirl, Kismet and the White Lion were putting the final touches on a plan to help the White Shadow but they weren’t even sure it would work.  Suddenly Heart Attack and Patrick appeared in the Way Between World antechamber and said at the same time.  “You must get him to the Conclave!”  Stargirl asked “The Conclave?  What is that?”  Hope responded.  “Have you ever seen the movie the Highlander?  The Immortals cannot fight on Holy Ground.”  Patrick continued the thought.  “Get the White Shadow to Holy Ground he won’t be able to fight have him unmask there so you can reason with him and he can heal.  If you don’t do this all your efforts will have been in vain.” 

 

“You may feel like you’re crawling over broken glass, crying a river into the pillows of your past.” 

“The stage is bare.

The crowds are gone.”

 

So, for those of you who have gotten this far in the story I’m about to pull back the curtain as the writer.  My name is Zac.  The White Shadow is my fictional alter ego.  Kismet is an extremely obscure character from the Kiss Psycho Circus comics.  Yes, the comics based on the rock band Kiss for those that didn’t catch the inside joke about her clothing.  Kismet means fate but for the comics she is the Avatar of Fate.  It has nothing to do with Ang or the live action Ferngully movie with blue people.  Kismet and Kiss are forever linked to the White Shadow mythos.  Over the years and through one story I did called Kismet’s Journey I poured feelings of heartache and hurt into her.  This time though the Avatar of Fate is setting out to rescue me with the help of fictional characters and my real-life friends.   Astrid Lotus is a friend.  I only know her as Lotus though it is not her real name.  She’s been through emotional hurt much like me and will remain anonymous.  Over the course of months I had personal events happen to me that shattered my world.  I got kicked off a job site, had to find a new job, my wife left me, and I’ve had her file for divorce.  I don’t talk a lot about it. Lotus is a friend who every time she sees me she hugs me for two full minutes.  It makes you forget your problems. David is my real-life friend along with Patrick and Hope.  The three of them at different times listened to me and prayed with me.  My parents have helped a great deal as well.  I also need to say a big thank you to my friend Abbey for being a listening ear and supporting me the days around me signing my divorce paperwork.  The Conclave is another name for my men’s Bible study group called Iron Sharpens Iron, that I try my best to go to on Tuesday nights.  The unmasking of the White Shadow is symbolic of the first night I went.  As a 46 yr. old man I broke down crying in front of 3 men of God on a patio and shared all the things I had been struggling with.  Thank you, Carlos, John and Fino.  I have endured a plethora of emotions and I am not completely healed.  For a time, I was on an antidepressant.  Where we meet for this men’s Bible study may in reality be a covered back porch at a friend’s house, but I call it Holy Ground.  We pray and study God’s word and build each other up.  This story has been an emotional roller coaster and release for me.  Trust me, I have both cried writing and typing it.  If people tell you men don’t cry that is a lie!  I have had the ending of the story in mind from the start of it.  I don’t have all the answers and I’m not completely well.  Each chapter except for one (Arisia’s chapter) I started with different lyrics of Christian music.  One Conversation that has gotten me through a lot of this is from Rambo First Blood Part 2.  Rambo has just finished a personal one man war and rescued the prisoners of war when he is asked a question by his only friend Colonel Trautman. 

“How will you live John?” “Day by Day”

With all I’ve been through some days it’s all I’ve got.  I live day by day and try to seek God with every fiber of my being.  I make little choices to pray, fill my mind with God’s Word and listen to Christian music.  Some days these are the hardest choices to make.  If you’re hurting emotionally, I urge you to seek God!  Find Christian people who can and will pray with you and encourage you.