by Anne
"HI."
It was him. She had spent enough Sunday nights listening to that voice to be certain. Now she'd found Captain Wonder in her sink. He straightened up with a smile, as if lurking in people's bathrooms was his usual occupation.
She turned around. The girls were watching her with worried looks on their faces. "Might I have an explanation?" she asked.
"It was all my fault," he hurried to tell her.
Sara barely spared him a glance. "Always to the rescue, aren't you?" Her gaze went back to her daughters. "Well?"
"We had to, Mommy." Megan said. Kari nodded. "It was just like when we found Toby. You said it was our duty to save him."
"He"—she nodded toward the muscular blond who now stood in the doorway—"was in a garbage can and some boys were throwing rocks at him?"
"Well, sort of," Kari said.
"Teenage girls can be just as vicious," Captain Wonder pointed out. "They truly did save my life."
His voice had a richer quality than it seemed to have on television, and was much more disturbing. She moved a few feet away from him for her own sanity, and caught sight of his fans outside straining to see through the windows. If they saw him, they'd never leave, she decided.
"You'd better get back in the bathroom," she snapped, and went back to the door. "Girls, close all the drapes, will you?"
They raced to do her bidding as she let herself out, At the sound of the door opening, the teenagers rushed around to that side of the camper.
"When is he coming out?" one cried.
"He is not coming out because he is not in there." Sara lied. "Now, will you please leave? My husband and I find it very disturbing to have you peering in the windows.'"
"Your husband?" They looked at each other, clearly confused. "I was so sure it was him."
"Well, it wasn't," Sara said. "Now will you Leave?"
She waited to see that they were starting back across the parking lot before she went back in. Captain Wonder was out of the bathroom, and the twinkle in his eyes told her he had heard her words.
"Thanks, dear," he said.
"Don't press your luck." He was larger than he ought to be and his presence seemed to fill the camper, making her feel smaller than her five-foot-two. All too conscious of his presence, she turned back to the girls. "I've had it for today. We are going back to the campground. We'll pick up something simple for dinner and cook it In the camper."
The girls watched Captain Wonder with questions in their eyes.
"Well drop him off at the lodge as we leave." she said, trying to avoid looking at him. Her attempt failed miserably; there didn't seem to be anywhere else to look,
'1 have a better idea," Captain Wonder said. "Why don't I take you all out to dinner? Not here because I'd get recognized, but someplace quiet. away from the park.
His smile reminded Sara of the girls when they were up to mischief, and her first instinct was not to trust him. But the girls looked so hopeful, the refusal died on her lips. Wasn't she letting her dislike of him cloud her mind? After all, their budget didn't run to steaks and a wine list. A change from hamburgers would be nice. And if she gave the girls an evening with Captain Wonder, they'd probably be in seventh heaven for the next few days and never think to complain about the old Indian sites she wanted to visit.
'Thank you,' she said politely, squelching the sudden misgivings that filled her when she looked into his eyes. "We would be pleased to have dinner with you."
Two
"I'm sure "Ted's" can't be much further."
Sara glared briefly at the blond man sitting next to her, then turned back to her driving. He had been assuring her for the last half hour that the restaurant was "just down the road," but it had yet to appear.
Actually, very little had appeared: two souvenir stands and the campground at which they had a site reserved. She was beginning to think that they should have braved the crowds at the lodge. If his adoring fans had gotten too pesky, she and the girls could have moved to another table.
She paused for a moment. Well, she could have moved. She was not at all certain that the girls were concerned with anything as mundane as dinner. It was more than an hour past their normal mealtime, and she hadn't heard the slightest complaint. They must be in love, she thought.
"That must be It."
For a split second Sara feared he really could read minds, but then she realized that he was referring to the huge neon GAS sign up ahead.
"I thought we were filling our stomachs, not the camper."
He grinned at her. It was a heart-stopping sight, she admitted, but it had little effect on her. Hunger was a more primitive force.
"It's right next to the gas station. See, there's the sign."
Sure enough, there was a tiny sign that said "Ted's" over the gas sign, She hoped there was no special meaning in the respective sizes of the signs, and pulled into the parking lot. The juicy steak she had been dreaming of faded away when she saw the run-down building with its promises of'Tast Food" and "Cold Beer." She just hoped that there was still enough peanut butter left in the cabinet to make three sandwiches. Captain Wonder could fend for himself.
"Is this it?" Karl asked, peering over her mother's shoulder. Her voice was polite, but disapproving.
"Hey, it'll be great," Captain Wonder assured her. "No one will recognize me and we'll have fun."
It was obvious that his smile wiped away all of Kari's doubts, but it worked no such magic on Sara. She took Megan's hand and followed them into the restaurant. The place was just as she expected: a luncheon counter down one side of the room and a few Formica-topped tables in neat rows. A blaring jukebox serenaded the handful of customers.
Captain Wonder led them to a table in one corner and passed out the plastic-covered menus. Sara's was sticky.
"This is wonderful," she said.
This time just his eyes smiled at her, enfolding her in a gaze of astonishing intimacy. Her racing heartbeat took her by surprise, and she quickly returned her gaze to the menu. She was not an eight-year-old to be swept away by a guy who wore tights and flew.
"What do they have?" Megan asked.
"Hot dogs," Sara suggested.
"How about chili?" Captain Wonder offered.
"Is that what you're having. Mike?" Karl asked.
"Yep," He pointed to a spot on her menu. "See, right here. 'He-man special." "
"It doesn't say that." she argued.
"Close enough."
Megan closed her menu. "I'm going to have what Mike is having."
"You hate chill," Sara reminded her.
"HI have it too," Kari decided.
Sara's frown took them all in. "Look, just because Cap—" She stopped. Why did she keep thinking of him as Captain Wonder? She knew his name was Mike. The girls could say it. Why couldn't she?
Maybe It was because Mike was a sane name. A normal name. But this was a guy who stopped bullets with his bare hands. Who had a body no mortal man ought to be allowed to possess. This was not a Mike.
She cleared her throat and began again. "If you order It. you have to eat it," she said briskly.
" Do you promise to eat all the chili?" Mike asked the girls. They nodded. "No matter how ghastly it is?"
Megan hesitated. "What if some bad guys put poison in it?"
"I'll test it first. If I say if s safe, you have to eat it." He leaned closer to them conspiratorially. "Besides, we all know that chili is the food of superheroes. If you eat enough of it. you get as strong as I am."
They giggled as the waitress came over to take their orders. Sara asked for a hot dog, then paused for the girls to give their own orders. They had been ordering for themselves for the past year and did a nice job. The elderly waitress thought so too.
"Such well-behaved little ladies," she said with a sigh after she wrote down their orders. Sara smiled up at her and noticed she was staring at Mike. "You must be real proud of them."
"They're mine," Sara said quickly, then instantly wished
she'd kept silent.
The waitress looked from one to the other, obviously confused. Mike jumped into the awkward silence with an easy smile and ordered his chili. His poise made Sara feel even more of a fool. Why had she done that? What difference did it make if some woman they would never see again thought they were a family?
It was just that the girls were hers. Hers and hers alone. Tom had left when they were four months old and she had raised them by herself. She was the one who'd sat up at night with them when they were sick, and then gone to work the next morning. She was the one who'd kept them fed and clothed and happy and who had finally managed to make a down payment on that Iwo-bedroom town house. Her first, instinctive reaction had been plain old jealousy. Unfortunately, her second reaction, a more reasonable one. had arrived a bit too late to stop her from acting on the first.
She bit her Up and looked around the table, aware that she had dampened everyone's spirits. After taking a drink of water for courage, she forced a smile onto her face. "Weren't your parents in show business. Mike?"
He nodded, "My dad starred in over forty westerns. I had bit parts in a few of them."
"What's a bit part?" Kari asked.
"Just a small role. I usually led the horse off to the stables or something like that. They never gave me any lines to say."
"Why not?" Megan asked.
"Because my parents didn't want me to be an actor and thought if I never got any lines, I wouldn't want to be."
The girls stared at him, but the waitress brought over their chili before they could ask him any more about his parents. They watched as he opened up several packets of crackers and crumbled them up in his hand, sprinkling the pieces over the top of his chili. Then they each did the same. Sara picked up her hot dog. The bun was stale.
"Do you really hit the bad guys?" Megan asked, her mouth full of chili.
He shook his head.
'Do they really hit you?"
"Nope. It's just pretend. All of it."
"Oh."
They ate in silence for a while, then Megan looked over at him. "Do you have any kids of your own?"
"Not yet."
What did that mean? Sara wondered. Did he have a pregnant wife? A pregnant girlfriend?
"If you wanted to, could you really beat up the bad guys?"
Wait a minute, girls, Sara thought. She wanted to go back to the kids he didn't have yet, but didn't know how to get there. After her earlier rudeness, she didn't feel a part of the conversation. She would have liked to interrupt with her own questions, but thought she had already said too much. She took another bite of her tasteless hot dog and kept quiet.
"Where do you live?" Kari asked.
"In a house."
The girls laughed. "That's what our Uncle Joey says," Megan said, She scraped out the last of her chili. "Do you know Mary Lou Lindstrum?"
Mike shook his head, looking puzzled. "Should I?"
'She's in the sixth grade at our school," Karl told him. "She says she's going to marry you when she grows up."
"Oh, yeah?' Mike looked over at Sara, a twinkle in his eye. "Have you seen her? Is she worth waiting for?11
Sara relaxed. His gaze suddenly made her feel light-headed and lighthearted. "If you don't wait for her, you'd better eat plenty of your magic chili to make you stronger."
He pretended to be worried. "Uh-oh. She's tough, is she?"
Karl nodded. "She gave Willie Newman a black eye last summer."
"Sounds bad."
Sara laughed. "But surely no match for a superhero like yourself. If you can take care of the Dark Avenger, you can take care of Mary Lou."
"But Captain Wonder can't hit girls. Mom," Megan pointed out. "I think he'd better hide."
'I think all he has to do Is smile at her and she'll be his obedient slave."
"What's that?" Megan asked suspiciously.
Mike smiled across the table at Sara. His eyes held a hint of amusement, but also gleamed with a promise she did not understand. That same web of Intimacy seemed to surround them. "Is that all it takes?" he asked softly.
She found his flirtatious manner more astonishing than flattering. She was a thirty-year-old schoolteacher, the divorced mother of two. He was a TV star, a sex symbol chased by thousands of women. Why would he want to flirt with her? She was not beautiful or sexy or special. Hardly a conquest to boast of.
She didn't like to think he was laughing at her or making sport at her expense, and she was glad when the waitress came to offer dessert. The girls asked for chocolate cake, just as Mike did, and Sara ordered a strawberry sundae. There was nothing like a lot of calories to put her mind back in order.
Sensing their evening was drawing to a close, the girls began to shower Mike with questions about the show and his work. Sara felt relieved rather than annoyed at being allowed to eat her ice cream in peace. Suddenly it felt safer not to have Mike's attention focused on her. He was an actor who used his charm and great looks to his advantage. That was why he was a star—he knew how to attract women and make them feel special. It was his job, but it would be all too easy for her to forget that and fall into the trap of his eyes.
"It was a nice evening."
Sara nodded, then realized Mike would not have been able to see her answer. "Yes, It was." She finished hooking up the camper's water connection and adjusted the flashlight he was holding for her.
"I'm sorry about the money," he went on.
"No problem."
"When I invited you out to dinner, I really did mean to pay. I just forgot I didn't have my wallet. I guess I'm used to people just putting it on my bill."
He moved the flashlight as he spoke and she patiently moved it back again. Actually, she had been glad it had happened that way at dinner. It put them on a more equal footing, where she was less uncomfortable. "It didn't cost that much and was certainly worth all the boasting the girls will be able to do now."
He was silent for a moment. "They're really nice kids."
"Thank you," she said quietly. Had he meant to exclude her? she wondered. Probably, for she hadn't been a particularly scintillating companion. She had been rude and ungracious and then awkward as a thirteen-year-old when he had tried to flirt with her. Oh, well, she'd never thought she could mesmerize a Hollywood star. She hadn't even been able to mesmerize Tom.
She hooked up the electrical connection and wiped her hands on her jeans. "Want that cup of coffee now?"
She led him into the camper and poured two cups of coffee while he sat down at the small dinette table. The girls came scampering over in their pajamas. Megan climbed onto the seat next to Mike; Kari sat across from him, next to Sara.
"How are you going to get back home?" Kari asked.
"Home's in Los Angeles. I was just staying at the hotel back in the park. After I finish this coffee, I'm going to call a friend of mine named Norm and have him come get me."
"We could take you back." Megan offered. "Mommy wouldn't mind, would you?"
"Yes, I would, ' Sara scolded lightly. "It's already way past your bedtime. Now, say good night and get into bed."
The girls looked crestfallen, but climbed to their feet. "Good night, Mike."
'Hey, don't I get to tuck my buddies into bed?" he asked.
"Will you tell us a story?" Karl asked quickly.
Mike flashed a quick look at Sara. She forced back the spurt of jealousy and nodded. She had been tucking them in for eight years. She could give up one night.
The girls climbed into the double bed in the back of the camper, letting Mike pull the covers up over them. Sara watched from the dinette area, conscious suddenly of how small the camper was. When she had rented it, she had thought it was spacious and roomy. But that had been with her and two eight-year-olds in mind. One six-foot-tall superhero tended to take up a fair amount of space.
She shook her head and forced her attention from Mikes body onto his bedtime story. It was obvious he hadn't told too many of them, but the girls looked enthralled with his di
sjointed ram-blings about an upcoming Captain Wonder episode. They also looked wide awake.
"I think it's time you girls called it a night," she said gently.
Megan nodded and got to her knees. She put her arms around Mike's neck and hugged him. "G'night, Captain Wonder.'
He reached over and hugged her back, then hugged Karl. When they were both lying down, he kissed each of them on her forehead. "Thanks for saving my life, buddies."
Sara squeezed by him in the narrow hallway and kissed the girls good night also, then turned off the overhead light. The camper seemed dark with only the light above the table, and Mike's presence became even more threatening to her peace of mind.
Standing at the table, he finished his coffee, then walked to the door. She followed him outside. The ground was covered with a patchwork of lights coming through the windows of the other campers, and the air was filled with the sounds of talking and laughter. Yet, as they stood at the door of her camper, she felt as if they were completely alone. The uncomfortable feeling returned.
'Well, it was fun." she said, feeling stupid.
"Yes, quite a break from my regular routine.'1
Did that mean he'd been bored? she thought. "I really am sorry about snapping at the waitress like that. It... it was really dumb."
She saw him shrug. "I guess I'd better give Norm a call before he goes to sleep.'
"Yeah." She stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans. How did one say goodnight to a sex symbol? "Do you have change for the call?"
He laughed. "I can call collect."
"Oh, right. I forgot."
"Well, thanks for the meal." He stuck out his hand.
She stared at it for one endless moment, then took it. "Anytime." She shook his hand briefly, then let it go, taking a step back toward the camper. " Bye."
She waved slightly and went inside. By the time she turned around to lock the door, Mike was gone. She took a deep breath and walked over to the table to get the coffee cups.
A handshake! she fumed. The world's greatest sex symbol kisses her daughters good night and then shakes her handf Boy, if that didn't put her in her place, nothing would. She rinsed out the cups and put them away.
