The story behind the story
Partly in deference to the Edna Mode character from the 2004 film, The Incredibles. Loved this film, and particularly loved Edna and her absolute insistence on ‘No capes’ despite the frequent requests of her ‘client’ Bob Par, aka Mr Incredible.
This story is also for one little boy who loves his action heroes, none of them female as far as I can tell. He clearly loves his mummy but maybe doesn’t quite see her as an action hero.
So without further ado, I give you:
No Capes!……………………..
My name is Kevin and this is what my mum says every time I ask her to add a cape to her uniform. I keep asking because I think she would look really cool in a cape. But she always, always says, ‘No’.
I have to call it a uniform too, she does get very cross if I call it a costume. She says it takes away from the work she does and what she does is pretty cool and sometimes a little bit dangerous. Because you see in real life my mum is a ‘Super Hero’, with her own special powers.
To be honest I think her ‘uniform’ is a bit boring, without a cape. If you didn’t know, you would just think she was going to the office, though I suppose the fact that it is orange does make it stick out a bit.
My mum doesn’t really like the colour, but ‘needs must’ she says. She prefers to just blend, do the super hero ‘thing’ and then leave. She never hangs around for interviews afterwards, ‘I haven’t got the time’, she says. “Would make me even later picking you up”.
I think it’s really cool that she is a ‘superhero’ even if it does sometimes makes her a little late for pick up at the end of school and she can’t always drop me off if she has special ‘superhero stuff’ to do.
But I like it when she tells me about what she has been doing and how she used her ‘special’ powers to save the world. So now, I need to remember what her ‘Super Hero’ powers are.
Well, my mum can…………………………
Pick up the tiniest sound of ‘trouble’ from anywhere in the world, including mine. Really annoying if I am trying to get something from downstairs, when I am supposed to be in bed.
See through the thickest of walls, this is a problem when I am trying to get on the IPad when I shouldn’t or when I am arguing with my sister.
‘Pop up’ wherever she is needed, she had to do this a lot when I was little and running about all over the place. Mum says,’ I didn’t always know or see the danger’.
Freeze time with her ‘special look’, she says this is really useful when me and my sister start fighting. I think she sometimes does this with dad too.
And because she can ‘just appear in an instant’ wherever she thinks she needs to be, she is never too late for school. She just has to remember sometimes where that is. One time she almost forgot to pick me up from my football match at Queens Park.
But, my mum, always has good stories to tell and is always very careful about how she uses her ‘Super Hero’ powers.
It is really annoying, though when she seems to know exactly when I’ve been a bit naughty.
“Having a cape” she says, “Would just get in the way”
Sometimes I say to her, “Mum, why don’t you use your powers to do the shopping, or the things around the house?”
And she says, “As tempting as that would be. I have to save them for when they are really needed. What would happen if I used them up on everyday things and then didn’t have enough, to get a cat down from a tree, to stop a child stepping in front of a car or getting someone to hospital?”
Sometimes I ask, if I can go with her and she always says, “When you are a little bigger, and you have learnt to use your own superpowers.”
And I say to her, ‘Mum, please get a cape?”
And she always, always says “Absolutely, not, no capes!”
Janice Taylor
shortstoriesblogger 