Hero Worship Read Free Page A

consider Lieutenant Mercury to be the first costumed hero. There were a few before, but none were introduced to the world like the masked man in yellow and black was. It was a public relations blitz, or so I’m told. He had his coming-out party before I was born, but I hear people all the time say that everyone knows where they were when they first heard about him.
    He’s the leader of the Core, so he’s featured prominently in my collectibles. He sits at the head of the clean class, setting the bar high for everyone who’s followed. Growing up, I wanted badly to be just like him. When my powers manifested, I thought it might actually become a reality, but reality came crashing down on me when I tested dirty. Mercury is as clean as you can get.
    Gus dumps the pieces of porcelain into the garbage and looks at me, a concerned expression on his face. “What’s gotten into you?” he asks. “Are you okay?”
    I go back to washing dishes. I can feel him staring at me, but I refuse to look his way. I’m worried he’ll see right through me and realize it was Yvonne, Kent, and me who had the unfortunate run-in with Streak.
    He comes up beside me and begins to dry the dishes again. “Marvin, if you’re ever in any kind of trouble,” he says, “you know that you can come to me, right?”
    â€œTrouble? I don’t have any trouble,” I say.
    â€œYou can run away all you want, but your wounds travel with you.”
    â€œWho said I was a runaway?”
    â€œI said ‘run away,’ not ‘runaway.’” Gus laughs.
    â€œWell, I’m not—”
    He raises his hands to silence me. “It’s important to surround yourself with a strong support group,” he says. “Friends and family that you can turn to for guidance. Do you have this sort of support group?”
    â€œYeah, of course,” I say. “I have friends.”
    â€œDo you have friends or do you have friends?”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œAre they friends who move you toward your goals?” he asks. “Are they friends who you can act like your normal self around? Friends should bring out the best in you, and if they don’t, then you should find new ones. Put a rose in a sack of fish and soon the rose will start to stink, too.”
    Are Yvonne and Kent supportive of my goals? I think about them harassing me about my job and my decision not to use my powers to make money. I think about Yvonne telling me to stop trying to be something I’m not. Do my friends bring out the best in me? Do they move me closer to my goals? Well, if I’m being honest with myself, I suppose that I’d have to say—
    Gus tosses the drying rag at me. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got real work to do.” He walks out of the kitchen.
    I never have a conversation with Gus where I don’t end up wondering whether he knows more about me than he’s letting on. It’s the way he says things, and how he asks questions, that makes me think he’s asking something else entirely. It could be my imagination, but sometimes he looks strangely at me when I talk to him, as if he’s disappointed by what I’m saying. I don’t know what he wants from me. It’s like he’s waiting for me to do or say something, but I don’t have a clue what that is. I wish he’d just tell me, because I’m not a mind reader.

FOUR
    When I finish putting away the dishes and stocking the refrigerator, the restaurant is empty. All the cooks and waitresses are gone for the night. Even Gus skedaddled. Three weeks ago he gave me a key to the place, saying I’d earned his trust to close up at night. He taught me how to enter the code for the security system and arm it when I leave. When I told Yvonne and Kent about having a key, they’d begged me to go back and let them raid the refrigerator and beer cooler. I told them not a snowball’s