by David Estes
Chapter Eighteen: Ponytails: childish hairdo, or hidden identity?
Nikki opened the front door to wait for her friend. Moments later, she saw him dashing down the street. When he arrived at her door he was out of breath.
“C’mon in, Spence! My mom’s cooking dinner and she said you can join us if you want to!” She practically shouted, so that her mom could hear what she was saying.
“What happened?” he whispered sharply.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” she hissed back. Returning to her loud voice, she asked again, “So, can you stay for dinner?”
Playing the game now, too, Spencer shouted, “I think so, I’ll call my mom to ask. Yay!” He called his mom and easily obtained permission to eat at the Nickerson’s. Nikki knew that Spence’s mom always appreciated a night off from cooking dinner, as her shift at the hospital didn’t give her much time for domestic responsibilities.
Nikki liked Spencer’s mom. In some ways, she looked up to her too. Janet Quick was a doctor and Nikki knew she liked being able to provide for Spencer, but because of her busy schedule, whenever Nikki ate at Spencer’s house it was usually frozen meals, a staple in the Quick household. Nikki liked her mom’s home cooking much better.
Nikki ran into the kitchen and informed her mom that Spencer was allowed to stay for dinner. Mrs. Nickerson said, “Well, it’s a good thing. I made enough food to feed a small army.”
Nikki and Spencer’s mouths watered, but they would have to wait to satisfy their hunger. Dinner wouldn’t be ready for thirty minutes and besides, Nikki wanted to tell Spencer her latest story. She led him up the stairs to her room, where she told him what had happened.
Spencer listened in awe until she had finished, and then said, “Master-Yoda, you saved the day. I would say you are officially a hero. Zoooom!”
Nikki frowned. “That’s like saying someone who robs a bank and then returns the money is a hero,” Nikki replied smartly. “It was my storm that destroyed their crops, so I am definitely not a hero for fixing it.”
“I guess you’re right. Well, in any case, you’re headed in the right direction now at least. Once you’ve made up for all the damage you caused you can start to do real hero things, like dealing with Jimmy. And it seems like that bracelet you’re wearing will help you to know when you are needed.”
Nikki looked at the magical bracelet thoughtfully. She wondered how often it would burst into light to guide her to her next mission. She thought about all the wonderful adventures she would have. Nikki Nickerson had never been this happy in her entire life.
Spencer snapped her out of her daydreaming by saying, “Earth to Nikki...” He waved his hand across her face.
“What?” Nikki asked.
“Do you want to work on your hero costume?”
Excitedly, Nikki said, “Yes!”
“Okay, I have a lot of experience with this considering the ridiculous number of comic books I have read in my life. The first and most important thing is that you cover your face somehow, so that your true identity can remain a secret. Do you have any masks or should we make one?”
Nikki thought about it for a minute. “I have some old masks from Halloween, but they are all scary looking. I don’t think they’re what we’re looking for. Do I have to wear a mask or is there something else we can do?”
Spencer cocked his head to the side and began to hum to himself, the telltale sign that he was doing some serious thinking. After a few minutes his head jolted up and he exclaimed, “What about your hair?”
Nikki looked confused. “What do you mean, ‘my hair’?”
“Okay, picture this. You always wear your hair in a long ponytail, right Goldilocks?”
“Yeah, so what?” she replied, grabbing her ponytail defensively. Nikki had been made fun of a few times for her ponytail. Most of the girls at school thought it looked childish and wore their hair down.
“We could use your ponytail to cover your eyes, like a natural mask. We just have to figure out a way to create eye-holes so you can see.”
Nikki loved the idea as soon as she heard it and she even knew how to create the eye-holes. She raised her pointer finger as a sign that Spencer should hold on for a minute, and then ducked down and began rummaging under her bed. Within moments, she found what she was looking for: an old shoebox.
After opening the cardboard box, she plucked out two black, plastic circles. The circles were a few centimeters wide and had an indentation around the entire perimeter, large enough to wrap a ponytail around.
Spencer inspected one of them, “This just might work, Nikki. Where’d you get these anyway?”
“I just found them in the dirt at the park last week. I have no idea what they are, but I brought them home and cleaned them off and stuck them in my shoebox in case I ever needed them.”
“It’s like fate,” Spencer suggested.
Nikki shrugged and said, “Now help me put them in my hair.” She re-braided her ponytail, making each crisscross tight enough to hold the plastic discs in place.
Spencer used his finger to burrow two gaps in her ponytail and then inserted the plastic circles into the holes he created. Next, Nikki wrapped the ponytail just above her left ear, around the front part of her head, over the top of her eyes, and behind her right ear. The eye-holes ended up in two completely different spots—one fell just to the right of her left eye on the bridge of her nose and the other barely reached the right corner of her right eye.
“I think it needs some work,” Nikki joked.
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean, I think it looks perfect,” Spencer joked back. “Although, to be honest, I think you look more like an alien or a monster than a superhero. Here, let me fix it.” He adjusted the locations of the holes so they were directly even with her eyes. Nikki used a finger to hold the pony tail behind her right ear. She peered out at Spencer.
“How do I look,” she asked.
“Surprisingly, you look kind of dangerous, like Zorro, but we will need to something to hold the ponytail behind your ear.”
Nikki had just the solution for this and she used one of her simple hair ties to link the ponytail to her ear. “Okay, so you think I look dangerous, which I guess is a good thing if I am going to be fighting bad guys, but more importantly, do I look like Nikki Nickerson….or Nikki Powergloves?”
“I think you are nearly Nikki Powergloves, but it would help if you had a full costume. We should go shopping tomorrow and find something suitable.”
“Sounds great, Spence. Now let’s eat,” Nikki said. She undid the hair tie and the eye-holes and returned her ponytail to its rightful place on the back of her head. They raced back downstairs.
Dinner was delicious with hot rolls, sweet mashed potatoes, roasted chicken, and apple pie for dessert. The only thing Nikki didn’t eat was the fresh corn on the cob, although Spencer more than made up for her by having about five ears.
While they were working on her superhero “mask,” Nikki’s dad had arrived home. He gave them an update on the destruction around town, beginning with the damage caused by the freak storm. “Most of the farms had some damage to their fields, but Jerry Snyder and his wife were hit the hardest. Their entire cornfield was wiped out. I’m not sure how they will get by, although I heard word that some of the local churches are going to take up a collection this Sunday.”
Spencer chimed in, “We should pray for them, maybe a miracle will happen.”
Nikki glared at her friend, angry that he had said something that would potentially raise suspicions that they were involved in re-growing the Snyder’s field.
Spencer ignored her and continued on. “Mr. Nickerson, is there anyone else that had really bad damage?”
“Besides the destroyed crops around the community, there are a couple of houses up on Chambers Street that had large trees fall across their backyards. They will eventually get around to sawing them up and removing them, but it may take a few weeks.”
“
Oh, I’m sure it won’t take that long,” Spencer said with a twinkle in his eye. Nikki continued to frown at him.
Mr. Nickerson said, “And there’s the vandalism to deal with. The steps to Town Hall will have to be rebuilt and carved with the town planners names again. And I don’t know if you heard, but someone stole Arthur Munroe today.”
“The statue?” Nikki asked, keeping her face straight. “How could someone have stolen it?”
“The police are wondering the same thing. Apparently it weighs more than a thousand pounds. And it was stolen in broad daylight so it’s surprising there were no witnesses. It’s a mystery that may never be solved.”
“I hope they catch these criminals,” Nikki said.
They finished dinner and Nikki walked Spencer to the door in an attempt to get rid of him before he could make any more stupid comments. As soon as he was gone she sent him a text message:
No more dumb comments, pls
He replied with:
Sorry, got carried away
Nikki snapped her phone shut and went to her room. For the next hour she worked on designing what she wanted her superhero shirt to look like. She wanted it to be simple and comfortable. She couldn’t imagine fighting crime wearing some of the tights that comic book heroes tended to wear.
Eventually she got tired and crashed on her bed. Mr. Miyagi hopped up next to her, curling at her feet. Her last thought before she drifted off to sleep was that she couldn’t wait to become a true hero the next day.