Me u Approximately Words Counted 2,100

406 C G R A T 2010 Me

M W 16 Disposable Copy

"City"

by

Mark W. Meredith

I remember the first time I went to the "city." … went to the big "Astro City." Everybody who lives outside of "Astro" calls the city, knows that it's called, on the outside- -"- - Big Astro City".

My father took me. My dad took "one" when one was young.

Father took "one" on the bus to the city.

At the breakfast table on Saturday I went down to the breakfast table and eat some cereal to begin my day and my dad was up already and dressed already for "some reason." Dad said, I remember- - - - he said it loud enough to fill the dining room, "Guess where we're goin'ta go today" - - - -?

Meredith-2 Cit. ….

Dad stared at me expectantly - - - -as if expecting a reply to a redundant "query".

My father paused again to give one- - - - one more chance to answer a rhetorical query.

Father waited expectantly expecting as my father paused in the silence of the room. Dad munched silently on the Cle-o patra o's cereal in his mouth before swallowing the "o's."

I guessed, "Is there some baseball game going on I don't know about - -?"?- -

Dad finally answered loud enough to fill the silent room, "We're Going to the city today"!

Being a child that had recently passed the second grade that had just been told I was going to do something that, "this was the first time I had heard", of I was confused. I said to Father, "I am- -?- - I didn't know we were going to do that today - -? - - This is the first I ever heard about this- -!- -I would remember agreeing and being told I was 'go 'a da' city. Are you sure - -"?- -

Dad replied, "Yup - - (- -!- -) - - It's been planed in advance already days ago! Get your stuff and get dressed- -! - -Let's go- -!- -Let's get going -"-!- -

Hindsight looking into past memories always gives "one" 20/20 perfect vision. I can see now my father didn't clear this with me first. Father probably "planned" this idea himself at work while working. Fathers are always jerks but with kids sometimes surprises can be like fate to them. Sometime surprises could lead to adventures that one didn't know "one" wanted to do that one's glad she or he did.

Meredith-3 …"ty"

We got on the bus Father with the Astro City Astros cap on and I in my jacket because it was early in the morning in Saturday's day and "Indian summer" as well. After we sat down in the seats for a while I looked up at my dad and said, "Why are we going t'Astro City, Dad- -? - - " - -

Dad merely replied, "We're gon'ta go see some superhuman crime-fighter's sightings, kiddo-"-! - - Then I looked out the window as if I would see powered mystery men among the buildings in the city. One didn't see any crime-fighters flying to the sky on the outskirts of the amassed buildings downtown in "Big city" on the (pronounced horr-eye-zunn) horizon. Nor did "one" see flying women or men flying into the sky between the "thin" buildings "nor" did "one" see superhuman women "nor" men flying over the streets patrolling for crime, passing between alleys. One said to my father, "There can't be any super-powered people there in the big City Dad because I couldn't see any of them when I just looked. I looked really hard too".

"My Daddy" had said, "You have to be patient. We may not see them today but if we do you'll know that it all was worth it. 'You' can't see the superhuman persons all the time, silly Willy gumdrops - -"!- - My dad used to call one this to prove to "one" that my dad was a kid at heart. I then looked out the bus's big window and stared hard at the downtown to see if one could see any super heroes. I tried "real" hard to make sure I didn't miss any super-hero sightings. I stared at "Big Astro City" in awe.

Meredith-4 Ci ….

After a while I gave up being a kid as I had been. After a while after that I found that the bus had turned to go behind a small mountain that was "eclipsing" the city. The small jutting mountain "blotted" out the steel and stone towers of the city for a while until "our bus" drove around the "back" of the shadowy-jutting, small, mountain on "the opposite side" of this jutting mountain our bus turned to go behind a while ago. Finally going around the "eventually turning" slow curve of the other side of the small hill then I was able to see the downtown of "Big Astro" again reaching up towards our future in the stars- -.- - The bus "wasn't done" with going around the shade-lined small mountain yet though. The bus driver had to begin to drive up into "the town" on the foothill of the other side on the small jutting mountain facing toward Astro City. I looked around toward the old fashioned ethnic towers around me and say to my father, "Where are we- -? - - Are we there yet- -?"? - -

Dad replied, "Now, there aren't buildings yet- -!! - - We're in Shadow Hill - -! " - -

"One asked", "Are there any heroes that live here - -?" - -

Daddy said to me, "There's only the 'Hanged Man', really. That's all the heroes in this part of 'Big Astro'".

One replied, "What is Hang-a-Man like"- -? - -

The Bus Driver "Mr." Irons at that point had then said, " … He looks like the 'Hanged Man' is a ghost made of dark shadow. Some say the 'Hanged Man' is the ghost of a person who was hung for the wrong reason. Now the 'Hanged Man' seeks justice and judges real evil Demons. The crooked cops that hung the 'Hanged Man' put a cloth bag over the 'Hanged Man's' head when the cops hung him - - - -so he wears a cloth sack on the 'Hanged Man's' face and a noose around the 'Hanged Man's' neck twisting in the wind as he flies slowly from one place to the next."

Meredith-5 Cit. ... .

I then asked the bus driver, "Can you see the 'Hanged Man' anywhere now- -? - - … See right now - -?- - I wan' 'a see where the 'Hanged Man' is". I looked around at the structures around the outside of the moving bus's window, "Where is the 'Hanged Man' - -? - -

The Bus Driver had said, "The 'Hanged Man' only shows up at sunset and defends Shadow Hill all night from Demons. He is still there in the morning before the 'Hanged Man' disappears. Only early in morning around 'seven.' It's not early enough. It's too late in the day to see the 'Hanged Man' already, now". The bus had gone a little southwest on a road for a bit and the bus slowly turned onto a road turning northwest to compensate for the bus-route leading the bus awry (Uh-Wry) for a while. As the bus slowly curved north one finally got a good look at the "big city" for the first time. As I tell you about how I put my arm on the giant bus windowsill now that one thinks of it I bet you are wondering who I am. Maybe I'm some body whom one day'll chronicle the stories of the heroes of Astro City. My name is Busiek, my name is Kurt Busiek and this is the first time my father took me to Astro City.

"One" and my father got off of that bus that said City Center onto 1st street I asked, "Why are we getting off here- -? - - You said that we couldn't see any super 'humans' until we were surrounded by buildings - -!- -Doesn't the bus go down town"- -?- -

Father said, "Yeah, but, my father used to get off the bus with me here and I want to do the same with you and me. We used to get off of at a bus stop on First Street and walk on into the city looking at Astrobank tower - -.- - "

One raised my hand reaching towards Father as if to say, "Take my hand. Let's do this thing. Let's go."

We then walked down the street that Astrobank tower was on looking at the top of the tower as we walked into the city. The big city was gleaming with golden morning light as the chrome buildings reflected the early morning sunlight.

One thought the buildings were solid gold as if the "big city" were a city of the future.

In a way I had been right. I and my father looked up at the "Astro"bank tower in awe as we walked to the building- - - - .

We never took our eyes off of the "Astrobank tower."

When my father plus me had reached the other side of the intersection on the corner of the "block" that "the Astrobank" Tower was on that was when the "fireworks" really began. When my father and I had just crossed at the crosswalk a bus crossed the intersection and parked next to us to wait for passengers. I and my dad were near the corner of the building. Father and I looked up the length of the "Astrobank tower" as if it pointed toward the skies.

My dad said, "Samaritan … it's said he he's come from the future to save us from a future that might be. Can you practically see the flyin' autos twirlin' around the "Astro"bank tower?"

I replied, "Yeah, I can almost see the flying cars"- - - -! but I had plain cars to worry of. This was because I was hearing the roaring engine of a corvette driving recklessly like the automobile were about to jump the corner of the intersection sidewalk, screech down the sidewalk and crash into the side of "the Astro"bank tower. Instead I looked in time to see that the bus's turn signal was signaling to merge with traffic as a corvette sped through the lane the bus was merging with. Of course there was a crashing. After the crashing the obvious "bouncer" quickly stormed around the bus' front and began clawing at the bus door ripping it open with his considerable strength. The muscular thug lumbered now steadily up the bus steps and "started slugging" the driver of the bus over and over really hard in the skull.

By this point Dad obviously was looking because my dad and I had both slowly walked over as if slowly magnetized over to the sidewalk in front of the bus except at a far distance. The bus-driver was covering his head or at the least trying but the bus driver's skull was clubbed around by the "thug's" meaty fists. What happened next was what my dad had said happened. In the on-coming crowd of sparse pedestrians a tall Jewish man with a trench coat stopped dead in the tall man's tracks for a second looking straight at the muscled bouncer and not at Father. Then the "Jewish man" that was muscular and wearing a suit grabbed a handful of the over-coated man's curly bangs and ran a glowing hand through it making "the well muscled" man's hair glowingly white. By this moment Father cried out to me, "Look!" All I saw was a man's blur running towards my father and me. The muscled bouncer drew back with great inertia to make what seemed like a punch that would put the 'driver man for the bus deep into a concussion. When the thug threw the punch "Samaritan" appeared - - - - catching the thug's hand + punch all at once - -! - - The muscled thug ended up merely punching Samaritan's open hand as hard as he could. Samaritan caught the muscular bouncer's ham sized fist from behind him with Samaritan's more human-proportioned strong hand. The bouncer followed his eyes along Samaritan's wrist and then arm as if Samaritan appeared suddenly out of nowhere. Suddenly the muscular bouncer looked around at Samaritan's outfit behind him knowing "he's" in trouble then up into his eyes in fear. The hero gave him "a hard glare" in the eyes. Then …. .

- - -30- - -