Eric the Extraordinary

This is the story about Eric the Extraordinary

You haven't heard of Eric the Extraordinary?

Eric was a boy, just like you or me. He was in the fourth grade and loved spending time outside. The only problem was that Eric hadn't been feeling very well. The doctors and nurses took wonderful care of Eric when he needed to be in the hospital, and he knew how much his family loved him. Everyone did their best to make Eric happy, but he still missed being with his friends. He even sort of missed doing homework, but don't tell Mrs. Tucker.

One day, Eric's classmates sent him a box full of things to cheer him up. Eric's teacher said it was called a Sunshine Box because it was full of all kinds of yellow things. Folded up in the bottom of the box was a sweater the color of a ripe banana. A tag on the sleeve said, "Try Me."

Now, Eric liked yellow as much as the next person, but he didn't really want to wear a whole sweater that color. But Eric's parents frowned and said, "It looks handmade. Someone spent a lot of time on it."

So Eric shoved his arms through the sleeves and pulled the sweater over his head. As he did, the sweater said, "What's your wish? You get one, and no wishing for more wishes. It messes with our bottom line."

Startled, Eric threw the sweater across the room. His parents, who obviously hadn't heard the sweater speak, frowned and pointed at the sweater in a heap on the floor.

Eric sighed and pulled the sweater on again. This time, the sweater said, "You gonna make a wish or not? We've got to hurry this up before I get packed away for the summer."

No one had ever asked Eric what he would wish for if he could wish for anything, so he didn't have an answer ready. There's no way to prepare for a meeting with a magical item of clothing. "I want to be a superhero," Eric blurted. As soon as he said it, he scrunched up his forehead. A superhero? There were a thousand other things he wanted to ask for, but that's the first thing he thought of?

The sweater didn't say anything, or if it did, Eric couldn't hear it over the rush of wind.

He's flying. Like, in the air. Like, staring-a-crow-right-in-its-beady-eyeball flying. In case you wondered, it's true what they say: people on the ground really do look like ants.

Eric wasn't really flying on his own, though. Someone had an arm around him, but it was hard to see them because the wind made Eric's eyes water.

"Who—who are you?" he asked.

"Superman, of course." The man chuckled.

The Superman? Eric wouldn't be able to believe his eyes if they weren't still tearing up.

Remembering his manners, Eric said, "Oh, and I'm Eric."

"Eric the Extraordinary?" Superman asked. "I've heard of you."

He'd heard of Eric? Eric was also surprised to hear he already had a superhero name. Eric the Extraordinary was a long superhero name, and really hard to spell... but it was a superhero name. Not many kids his age had a superhero name, no less a name that would get a triple word score in a Scrabble game.

"Pretty soon you'll be able to fly on your own," Superman continued.

But Eric wasn't so sure he wanted to fly on his own. He always thought he was okay with heights, but now that he's sharing a flight path with a jumbo jet, he's not so sure.

It turned out that being Superman wasn't as cool as it sounded. Nobody really wants to race speeding bullets (why did anyone need to race bullets anyway?), and leaping buildings in one bound kind of hurt your knees. And when a kid on the street walked up to them with a glowing green stick in his hand, Superman ended up hiding in an alley.

"Relax," Eric said. "It's just a glow stick, not kryptonite."

Superman paused to consider this for a minute, then went back to sucking his thumb. Some superhero.

Eric started to think—maybe he was cut out for a different kind of superhero job. After a while, he noticed a beam of light blaring through the night sky. It was kind of hard to make out, but it look like a glowing bat reflected on the clouds.

It took a while, but he found the source of light. A bunch of teenage girls stand huddled together on the sidewalk, giggling. One of them pointed her phone toward the sky. Apparently now there's a Bat Signal app. Technology's amazing.

A few minutes later, a sleek black car screeched up next to them. Without a sound, the driver's window slid down.

"Good evening, ladies," the driver said. "What seems to be the problem?"

"It's him," one girl whispered to the others.

"You're cute," another girl said.

The man behind the wheel sighed. Behind his bat mask, his eyes rolled. "I told you guys only to use the app for emergencies. They really need a parental lock on the Bat signal."

The girls giggled again.

Eric pushed past the girls and stopped at the side of the Batmobile. "Excuse me, Batman?"

Batman looked up at Eric. "Yeah? You have a problem, kid? They charge me every time I answer one of these prank Bat calls, so if you had an actual problem, you'd be saving my bacon."

"Actually, I do." Eric told Batman all about his wish and his less-than-super experience with Superman.

"No problem, kid. We can handle this. First, we need to get to the Bat Cave and get you a really cool suit and..."

"Do you think a suit will really help me become a superhero?"

Batman snorted. "Trust me. Get in."

They don't make it very far down the street before the Batmobile, in all of its glory, sputtered and slowed to a stop. Batman slammed his gloved fist onto the steering wheel.

"What happened?" Eric asked.

"My butler, Alfred. I asked him to fill up the Batmobile, but noooo. The man literally has one job. One job, Alfred!"

"Yeah, but you have a bunch of other cool stuff." Eric thought for a moment. "You have a Bat—oh yeah, a Bat Plane!"

Without a word, Batman pointed to the "PLANE" button on the dashboard.

"Oh, this is the Bat Plane, too," Eric said. "Well, don't you have any special powers?"

Batman shrugged. "I don't need special powers. I'm ridiculously rich and I have a really cool butler."

Eric's heart sank. He wasn't going to learn how to be a superhero with this guy, either.

He noticed he's still wearing the weird yellow sweater, and stuck his head inside the collar. "I don't think this wish is working out, Magic Sweater. I think I just want to go home."

"This has never happened before," the sweater replied quickly. "I've never had an unsatisfied customer. You're going to ruin my approval rating! Are you sure you don't want to try another superhero?"

"Who else is there?"

"Aquaman's the only other hero with an open schedule. Can you believe that no one wants to hang out with a super-swimmer superhero?"

Eric shook his head. "Forget it. I can hold my breath underwater for like two seconds. Besides, swimming with clothes on isn't very fun. Take me home, Sweater."

And, just like that, Eric found himself standing with his parents. The Sunshine Box Sweater was nowhere to be found.

Wait.

You can't find the sunshine sweater in your sunshine box either?

Well, this is awkward.

One of your friends must've borrowed it for their own wish. It's okay, though. You don't need it. You're already a superhero, and you're definitely extraordinary.