Super Hero

While unpacking a few boxes last week, I found one of my favorite short stories: One of the Boys by Lawerence Watt-Evans. It is a classic story of a superhero. He has a secret identity. At night he runs around in tights while helping people. He fights scary alien monsters bent on destroying the world. Etc. But, one of the women he saved decides that she wants him in a romantic way, so she follows him and learns his secret identity and confronts him. What was interesting in this story is that he was from another world, but raised by humans. Sure, sounds familiar, but the twist here is that he was an alien, unlike other superheros that fit this description.

Being an alien, he didn't understand humans at all. After years of studying and practicing, he could fit into the role of superhero. As long as the conversations stayed to this topic, he seemed like he was one of the boys. But, when this women tried to talk with him, she found out his true alieness. He couldn't read tone of voice or facial expressions, so he could tell if someone was lying. He kept vats of cleaning chemicals in his apartment because the smells seemed more homey. He kept his place at 90 degrees. And after years of being sick, found out which "foods" he could eat.

This all shocked the woman, because she thought he was a strong handsome man under his costume - one who would sweep her off of her feet and do her right there, but what she found was too revolting for words. She even asked him why he protected earthlings from alien monsters when he was one. And that was the classic part, it was only because he was raised to be human and he was trying to fit in, but if anyone found out his secret, the humans would hunt him down as an alien monster.

So, what is so appealing about this story? We may have an internal nature, but we can not be more than the sum of our experiences. Everything you believe to be true is based on something you heard from someone else. Well, okay, I didn't really get that from the story, that is just my own internal perspective. What I liked about the story was the sense of his being trapped on a planet with a people that he could comprehend. What if you were on a planet where nothing made sense to you? The next level of human is coming, will it be like that for them?

-Edward