by David Estes
Chapter Twenty: Nikki saves Betsy
Spencer was easily able to locate the source of the distress call. At first he was a bit disappointed, but the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that this would be the perfect opportunity for Nikki to be revealed to the people of Cragglyville. Using her flying gloves, it would be a simple task for her and she would be able to get the positive publicity they needed.
It was almost as if the cat was in on it and had climbed the tree just so it could be rescued by Nikki Powergloves. While not the most daring feat, in a small town where news was slow, it would get the full attention of the media. It must have been a particularly slow news day, because the local TV station crew had already arrived; they had probably been driving around town hoping that something would happen.
An old woman was crying under the tree. “Oh, my poor little Betsy, come down from that tree!”
Spencer approached her. “Is there something I can do, ma’am?”
“Oh, thank goodness you are here, young man. Are you a very good climber?” she asked expectantly.
“I’m afraid not. I am a little afraid of heights. If only there was a superhero nearby who could help.”
The woman looked at him like he was nuts and reached up to her ear to turn up the volume on her hearing aid. “A superhero did you say? I think you’ve been reading too many comic books, young man.”
“You never know,” Spencer replied. The TV crew, which was comprised of a single camera man and a reporter, had their video equipment, a single camera and a microphone, out of the van and were looking up at the tree. “Hold on one second, ma’am, everything will be alright soon.”
Spencer jogged over to the cameraman and said, “Hey, Spielberg, I think the best shot would be a wide angle that gets the entire sky as well as the cat in the tree. It will help to show just how high up the cat has managed to climb before getting stuck.”
“What do you know, kid? I want to get a close-up of the cat’s face to show just how scared it is,” the man retorted.
“That’s a bad idea,” Spencer replied, before dashing back to the tree. Just as he looked up at the cat, he saw a flying shape appear on the horizon. It was moving so fast it was only a blur. Good girl, he thought, Nikki was giving the cameras plenty of time to capture her on film.
“Hey, mister,” he yelled back to the cameraman. “What’s that in the sky? It seems to be headed our way!”
The man pointed the camera toward the flying object and Spencer heard him say, “That’s odd, I’ve never seen a bird like that.”
The flying object came closer and closer—the camera moved with it across the sky—until it was almost on top of the tree. Spencer watched as Nikki, with a burst of speed, zipped deftly between the branches and grabbed the cat from its perch. She did one more flying lap around the tree and performed a perfect helicopter landing, with one arm holding the cat and the other on her hip, like you would expect from a confident superhero. She landed next to the old woman.
The old woman looked like she might faint, but managed to stammer, “Th-th-thank you. Who…Who are you?”
In a deep voice, Nikki said, “I’m Nikki Powergloves, and this town will never be in danger again with me around!” After handing the cat to the woman, she took off into the sky, her form becoming smaller and smaller until she disappeared from sight completely.
Spencer was grinning from ear to ear. Way to go, Nikks! he thought. Trying to remain calm, he remembered that he needed to pretend to be as surprised and amazed as the rest of the bystanders.
The reporter yelled to the cameraman, “Tell me you got that!”
“I got everything, sir.”
“Good, let’s roll with a live special report and you can add in the footage on my cue. Live in three…two…one…” The camera’s light blinked red, alerting the reporter that the broadcast had begun.
The reporter declared, “This is Stephen Wallace at Channel Seven news, reporting from Main Street in Cragglyville. We have just witnessed a remarkable event. One that this town…no, that this world has never seen before. I’m sure that you all used to think that superheroes were something fictional from your childhood memories of comic books and cartoons, but I can definitively say that there is a real, live superhero in our town. She calls herself Nikki Powergloves and we just watched her miraculous recovery of a very frightened cat from the clutches of the uppermost branches of a tree.”
Spencer liked this guy. He had a way of making even the easiest rescue sound more dangerous than wrestling a crocodile with both hands tied behind your back.
The reporter continued, “We take you now to the footage of the heroic rescue.” After a few minutes of silence, while the TV station was likely broadcasting Nikki in action, Stephen Wallace went on to say, “There you have it, a brave act of pure selflessness, by what appeared to be a child superhero. We’ll now interview a few of the witnesses.”
First, he spoke to the old woman, who seemed to be in shock by the whole event. She kept stroking her cat while saying, “Thank you, Nikki, thank you” and, “I don’t know how Betsy got away from me.”
Next he turned to Spencer and to his surprise, Stephen’s first question was, “Young man, do you have any idea who Nikki Powergloves really is?”
“I, uh, well…no, of course not. It was hard to see her and, well, I doubt she’s even from around here,” he managed to stammer out.
“So there’s no chance she goes to your school?”
Spencer recovered quickly. “No chance at all, sir. Why would a superhero like that live in a town like this?”
Spencer’s question stumped the reporter. “That’s a very good question, son. One we may never know the answer to.” He moved on to other bystanders that had witnessed the event and Spencer let out a sigh of relief. Time to go find Nikki.
