Earth Man

by Richard Paul Evans

  “No need, it is my pleasure. My name is Morgan Snowfall.”

  Danny shook hands with the man, but immediately the stranger bowed and began to walk away.

  “Morgan’s my daughter’s name.” Danny said.

  “It’s a great name.” The older man replied. “Take it easy.”

  Snowfall said as he patted Danny on the shoulder. There was a smoky scent about the man, like a fire of pine wood mixed with marijuana and tobacco.

  “Thanks for the Coke.” Danny said, raising the can in the air. The man nodded in response and continued walking north toward the highway.

  “Sometimes an act of kindness makes all the difference,” said Snowfall, pulling his cloak tight around his shoulders.

  After they crossed over the border, Danny was fed up with just slouching in his seat. During the previous two weeks it had felt like his abilities had started waning, they no longer seemed to provide the spark of energy he’d first experienced. He was becoming accustomed to it. The almost scientific method he’d been using to determine the limits of his power was beginning to bore him. The words of the stranger from the store seemed to bounce around in his head. Finally Danny sat up and turned to Helen.

  “Pull over, I want to get out.” Danny said.

  Helen gave him a sharp look and pulled over.

  “I’m going to walk back.” Danny said, getting out.

  “Why would you want to walk Danny?” Helen asked.

  “Dad wants to be at one with nature.” Ray said jokingly.

  “Actually that’s pretty much it. It doesn’t feel right, doing things like this. I have to actually do something you know? Even if it just means going for a long run or something.”

  “You’re just getting used to it Danny, like everything else. The first rush of excitement soon gives way to familiarity. It’s normal.”

  “Maybe. I just need to think about it, clear my head.” Danny replied.

  “Fine. Have fun. Only you could get bored of super powers, Danny.”

  Helen pulled away as Ray saluted sarcastically from the back seat. Danny held his soda pop up high as the car kicked up dirt and drove away.

  The night air did nothing for his sullen mood. Danny walked along the road, watching the tail lights of their red Volvo until it disappeared into the darkness. Once they were gone he stepped off the road and began to walk east into the wilderness along the border between Canada and the United States. Taking a drink of his cola, he wished he’d never accepted it now that he was stuck carrying it. He’d spent so much time revelling in his new powers he’d lost track of why he was given them in the first place. The threat to the Earth had failed to appear and he wondered if perhaps he was supposed to track it down somehow. Without knowing what to do, he was starting to feel lost. Danny didn’t want to accept that Helen might have been right in the car, that his abilities were starting to feel commonplace. The initial joys of his experiences were fading and it worried him. He wondered if this wasn’t just another one of his half-assed interests that he’d eventually grow bored of. Over the years he’d taken up many new hobbies and challenges that he’d obsess over for a few weeks. Then he’d move onto something else, the hockey gear, half-finished novel and drum set in the garage was proof of how fickle he was with his interests. Those were just from the year before; there was evidence of his aborted ventures gathering dust throughout their house dating back two decades.

  Danny also began to feel guilty for not spending more time with the kids. Morgan and Ray had seen him every day but his attention had been focused on showing off his new powers. With no job, it was no big deal to spend time with them directly, doing what they wanted to do. Yet it seemed like he could never make it happen; either the kids wanted to do something he didn’t want to or he wanted to do something they had no interest in. With Ray, this was a little more acceptable because he was a teenager and reluctant to spend time with his father but Morgan was younger and needed more time with him. Morgan was nothing but a red-headed angel, she just wanted to be kind and be loved in return. Danny had even forgotten to follow up with Dr. Rue about Ray’s accident and that angered him. When he first heard the young boy shouting, he thought for sure it was one of his own children calling to him. Suddenly he realized it was really happening, at that very moment, out in the darkened forest there was a child crying out.

  “Help! Help!”

  Danny borrowed the night-vision of a local bobcat and scanned the area. He saw a young boy, no more than a year or two older than Morgan, running toward him waving a tiny little flashlight. The child had a very short, clean haircut and wore a red puffy vest that reminded Danny of Michael J. Fox in the time travel movies. The boy could barely catch his breath as Danny kneeled down to listen to him.

  “There’s . . . a . . . bear. My Mom and. . . . Dad are stuck in . . . . the car.” The young boy grabbed Danny’s hand and pulled him forward.

  “Okay kid, I’m coming.”

  The boy dragged him toward a cluster of trees. Danny could see the van amongst the trees but he saw no sign of a brown bear. Yet his instincts and new abilities told him there was one around, its scent was in the air. Danny had borrowed night-vision from the bobcat and he’d picked up a predator’s instinct as well. He knew there was a threat out there in the night; he could even smell the food that had attracted the bear in the first place.

  “What’s your name?” Danny asked, hoping it would calm the kid down.

  “Bradley, Bradley Thomas.” The boy wheezed, still out of breath.

  “Stay right here, okay Bradley? Do not come closer, no matter what.”

  The young boy nodded in agreement.

  “Do you have a phone?” Danny asked.

  The young boy nodded again, trying to hold back tears.

  “Call 9-11. Tell them you are just off the highway, near the border.”

  Danny ran around the trees and into the camp site. The bear was circling the old gray van, driven to anger by the smell of food coming from inside. The boy’s parents sat in the front seat, too afraid to take any action. The man in the van looked identical to his son and he was even more scared than the boy had been. The father waved his arms wildly even though it was obvious Danny had seen them.

  Sniffing the air, the bear growled and smashed its front paws against the windows. Danny snuck around the opposite side, weaving in and out of the trees.

  The bear had already stripped off metal and white paint with its long jagged claws. It slammed itself down unto the van and the woman screamed. The bear then circled to the passenger side and Danny ducked around the front to the driver.

  “My son,” the man said through the window, “Did you see him? Is he okay?”

  Danny just nodded and placed a finger to his lips for silence. He suddenly realized he was still holding the can of Coke in his hand. There was no where he could put it and after having spoken to the Earth itself, he felt it would be disgusting to throw it on the ground. Instead of littering, he held onto it and circled back around the rear of the van. Danny had duplicated the bear’s abilities once he’d seen it and he knew it was chasing him. They had each other’s scent but Danny used his senses to stay a step ahead. The bear was alone and hungry; it had lived off human garbage for so long it no longer knew how to hunt. Such a proud beast, forced to live off refuse. The smell of fried food from inside the van was enraging it. Danny felt sorry for the bear but he also knew its power. The energy in his fingertips was almost buzzing, eager to duplicate the bear’s powerful claws. He understood how easily it could kill because he could feel its strength pumping through his veins. Red energy wanted to burst from him but he did not want to hurt the bear. The animal was so lonely and Danny knew why it had been alone so long; the beast was dying. It was rotting slowly from the inside. A blockage that had burst was now causing the rest of the organs to fail. Danny knew it was fatal because he could smell the sickness of it; the bear’s scent was putrid with the smell of death. There was no way he could describe the smell in hu
man terms other than that it was the smell of rot itself. No words could describe it but it was obvious to the other animals. The bear had been abandoned to die by its own kind.

  Danny leaned against the windshield and whispered to the two adults inside. The woman had long curly black hair that was plastered to her face and Danny couldn’t tell if she was listening to him or not.

  “When I say go, you two run,” Danny pointed back to where he’d left their son.

  “Your son is there, head straight from there to the highway.”

  The two parents nodded vigorously and Danny knew it was the best he could hope for from them. The bear went back to prying at the side door and Danny walked into the headlight beams, backing away from the van. As soon as it saw Danny the bear turned toward him, shaking its head as it bound toward him.

  “GO.” Danny shouted as he walked backwards away from the bear.

  He heard the doors of the van open but he did not dare take his eyes off the giant predator in front of him. The bear turned around and spotted the two frightened adults running away from the van, the doors left open behind them.

  “Keep your eyes on me, over here. Come on!” Danny said to the bear.

  It charged at him again but he scampered backwards, keeping his hands up in front of him. The bear was not sure how to continue, it was reluctant to leave its meal behind to pursue a human but it did not want to give the appearance of submission to its challenger. It stood on its back legs and roared at Danny. It now had to prove its dominance and he smelled like a rival. Suddenly Danny realized that with all his new-found powers he could not control the bear. Even though he could match the bear, that he could read it and duplicate it, he could not influence it in any way. The words of the stranger from the gas station suddenly came back to him.

  Sometimes an act of kindness makes all the difference.

  Danny looked down at the can of Coke in his hand and he threw it at the van. The bear turned around and Danny kneeled slowly in front of it, keeping his eyes on the bear’s feet. With Danny in a submissive position, the bear confidently looked around. It could smell the sticky sweet soda in the air as the can hit the windshield and covered the hood with fizzy foam. Danny couldn’t see the bear enough to get out of the way if it took a swing at him, it was now up to the bear if he lived or died. Danny had no intention of making the animals’ painful existence any worse and while he didn’t want to die, refused to hurt something that had already suffered so much. It just wanted to eat and be left alone.

  The bear went back on all fours, trying to make up its mind as to which direction to go. It began to lick the soda off the van. The smell of the fried American food won out and with the doors open, the bear gleefully jumped inside. Danny breathed out slowly. It crossed his mind to pick up the Coke can but the way the bear was tearing up the van, he thought it was safer to get away from there.

  The RCMP had thanked him for distracting the bear then he was free to leave. They had no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary when the truth was so far from the ordinary as to be unbelievable. The bear had run off with its prize, leaving the van a ruined mess. No people or animals had been hurt so everything worked out okay for everyone involved. Danny got home fairly quickly and although he was exhausted, he also felt a sense of physical elation unlike anything he’d experienced before. It was contentment, the sense of finally knowing his place in the world. He found Ray reading a book on animals in his bed, stretched out sideways with his head resting on his wrist. Ray had dirty blonde hair that was always dishevelled, just like Danny and Danny’s mother. The red hair Morgan had come from Helen and her side of the family, the Boyle’s were almost all blonde. In every other way he was clearly Danny’s boy; they were built almost identical with lean muscular swimmer’s legs and broad shoulders. Only the eyes were Helen’s and as he got older, more and more of his expressions began to resemble those of his mother.

  “Where’s Mom?” Danny asked.

  “In the bath. Morgan’s in bed, she’s sick.”

  “Is it bad? How sick is she?” Danny asked.

  “It’s just a cold Dad. She’s all snotty and sounds funny though.”

  Ray flipped the page, his eyes still in the book. Danny sat down on the edge of his bed and pushed his son’s stinky feet aside.

  “You can do some pretty cool stuff, huh?” Ray asked, finally looking up.

  “I think so, yeah. Can I ask you a grown-up question Ray?”

  Ray shifted and sat up on the bed, drawing his legs up to his chest. Sometimes you could see in Ray’s face the man he was going to become, while other times the small, curious child was still there peeking out.

  “Sure, I guess,” Ray answered, “What is it?”

  “Does it bother you that I don’t have a job or that sometimes we don’t have extra money for things?”

  Ray shook his head back and forth after a moment of reflection.

  “Nah Dad, it’s cool. I mean I have everything I need.”

  Danny said nothing, letting Raymond finish when he was ready.

  “I do wish there was a car for me, you know, when I turn sixteen. But I could always get a job too, I guess.”

  “You could.” Danny said kindly.

  “Maybe I can do what you do. This superhero stuff.”

  “I don’t know, Ray I don’t think it works that way. Anyway I am no superhero.”

  “How did you get home, Dad, after we dropped you off?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean did you call a cab, run, or what?”

  Danny knew where his son was headed with the conversation and he smiled.

  “I flew.” Danny said.

  “See? Superhero!”

  Ray flopped back on his bed, grinning. Danny hugged him, said goodnight and left. The smile on his face went from ear to ear.

  Helen had a job lined up Saturday morning so Danny got up and made breakfast. This time he avoided bacon, instead making eggs and toast. He fried the eggs sunny side up and served them on a bagel. The kids loved the yolk of the egg bursting in the middle of the warm bagel so much they didn’t even notice he’d used whole grain bagels. Helen stood by the door, finishing off her breakfast by cramming it in her mouth.

  “I’m going to talk to Dr. Rue today.” Danny said, sitting at the table with Morgan and Ray.

  Helen slung her tool belt around her waist, adjusting it so it hung at an angle on her hips like a cowboy.

  “Good. Who’s watching them?” Helen asked, waving her hand like a magic wand at her two children.

  “Linda and Phil are going to stop in; it’ll only be an hour or so.” Ray answered between mouthfuls of eggs.

  “I’m going out anyway.” Raymond said. Egg dripped from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it with his sleeve.

  Helen shook her head at her son and husband who seemed like two peas from the same pod, or perhaps two matching pigs at the trough. She hugged her daughter, wiping her nose for her with a napkin.

  “You feeling okay?” Helen asked as she kissed Morgan on the forehead.

  “I’m okay.” Morgan said, kissing her Mom back.

  “I’ll get her some ice cream while I am out.” Danny said.

  Morgan grinned at him and nodded her head.

  “Okay,” Helen said, opening the door. “But get the real stuff. Not the soft serve crap.”

  The kids ran up and gave their mother a big hug. Helen waved by to Danny over Morgan’s head and he gave her a big smile in return.

  “See you later, honey.”

  Phil and Linda didn’t visit just so Linda could babysit. They’d come to hang out with Danny, which explained the twelve pack of beer Phil had brought with him. Danny’s plan was to run over to the doctor’s office, make sure the doctor was not concerned or worried, then hurry back home, kick up his feet and drink a few beers with Phil and Linda.

  “Don’t go Daddy.” Morgan pleaded.

  “Why? You feeling sick, baby bear?”

  Danny lif
ted his daughter up in his arms. The little girl’s nose was red and swollen but otherwise she seemed to be getting over her cold quickly. She had the sniffles but there was no fever or nausea as far as he knew.

  “I just want you to stay home today. With me.” Morgan said sadly.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll have fun. He won’t be long.” Linda popped her gum as she spoke to Morgan, right in Danny’s ear.

  “She’s right, I’ll be right back.” Danny said.

  Danny put Morgan on the floor and she sauntered off into the living room.

  “I’ll call you if there’s a problem.” Phil said as he filled Danny’s fridge with beer.

  Ray was already out of the house so Danny shouted goodbye to Morgan. He could hear Dora in the background. She’d put on her favourite show and forgotten about him already.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.” Danny said to Phil as he headed out the door.

  There was a September chill in the air, the kind that served as winter’s warning. Even though the sun was bright in the sky so he grabbed his jacket. He was already in the air before he had his arms in the sleeves.

  Dr. Rue’s promotion to Kelowna General had only happened the previous spring; he still ran his private practice out of his house on the other side of town. Danny flew within a block of the cul-de-sac with the intention of walking the rest of the way. There was a crisp breeze, especially up in the air and he was glad he’d grabbed the jacket. It was a thick old beaten leather thing he’d had for years, inherited from his father.

  There were children in the park playing soccer but they barely noticed when Danny dropped down from the sky and landed behind a tree. Children had a remarkable ability to ignore adults, even when they flew. More than a few people had witnessed him using his abilities but no one ever said a word, almost all of them just assumed their eyes were playing tricks on them. Nobody could accept the fantastic because they had never experienced it before. People doubted themselves so easily that any shift in reality was simply ignored, after all how could the universe change the rules? It was much easier to doubt themselves then their reality. Danny was beginning to see why people were willing to believe ludicrous stories about weather balloons, or blame it all on an overactive imagination, or a trick of the light. No one wanted to accept the world was more amazing and wonderful than they’d thought when it was easier to find some flaw inside them to explain it. Danny didn’t hear their chatter but the kids playing were offended; they thought Danny had been urinating in their park. Why else would he have been hiding behind the trees?