The Art Of Us

21 • You Are A Superhero

"Hello? FP?" Charles called his name for the third time that morning, until he was finally being heard.

"Hmm?" FP looked a little bewildered from his chair behind the dinnertable.

"I called your name. You didn't hear me." Charles chuckled a little, grabbed a chair and sat down next to him.

"What are you looking at?" He wondered curious, seeing something in his hand. It was a childhood picture that he could recognize.

"Hey, that is me!" He chirped happily, seeing himself as a seven year old on the playground.

"Your Mom gave them to me so I could look at 'em." FP smiled a little, while taking another pile to look through.

Alice had boxes full of pictures, all neatly organized. Charles took a few too, to browse through them. It had been a long time since he had taken a look at these memories.

"This was when we went to the waterpark. We couldn't afford going on a vacation so Fred took us to cheer me up." He showed one to his father, where Alice was going off the slide with a six year old Charles on her lap. He looked incredibly happy.

"And this was when I learned to ride my bike." He picked another that he showed proudly. It brought back some of his happiest memories.

"It's nice to see this." FP said quietly. Charles could hear that there was something behind his words. It worried him.

"What is going on?" He asked him softly, hoping that his father felt comfortable enough to open up.

"I missed all of this." FP croaked out, suddenly all too aware of how all these memories were without him.

"I should be in these pictures." He turned to face Charles with tears in his eyes, suddenly all of it hitting Charles like a ton of bricks as well.

"I wish you were, too." He said him, casting his eyes away.

"Did you know I always made up stories about you in my head?" He wondered, his eyes suddenly twinkling again. FP might not be in his childhood pictures, but he did have other memories that did involve him.

"I even made some. Wait here." Charles ran off into his bedroom, before returning barely a minute later with a shoebox in his hand. When he opened it, he revealed drawings he had made as a kid.

"Look... here you are a superhero. Oh, and one as a firefighter. I always thought that was pretty cool." He showed what he had created to his father when he was just a little boy, all involving his Dad as someone he looked up to, someone special.

"You like to draw?" FP's eyes started to gleam.

"As a kid I did, yeah... kinda forgot about it. Maybe you could teach me, sometime?" He asked, hopeful that this was something they could bond over.

"Yes, of course. I would love that." FP smiled softly. Maybe they did have something special in common, even after years apart.

"Can't believe you thought about me all these years." He looked down at the cute drawings he had made, almost shedding a tear as he thought about how Charles somehow had always longed for him.

"I think the idea of you saving the world made it easier to accept you weren't there. At some point I was too old to believe those stories, but it didn't make me any less proud."

He smiled a little. Throughout the years, he came to learn the truth more and more, but somewhere deep down he always believed his Dad was making the world a better place.

"Turned out, you still changed the world. At least, you did for me. Your work has been there for me many times." He told him softly, referring to Southside Comics that had meant the world to him growing up.