Learning To Fly

by DeMaris, Charles

  The reporter came up to him, trying to catch her breath from running from the other side of the street, and thrust a microphone in his face.

  “Sir, I’m not sure what I just saw. Who are you?”

  “Uh…just someone trying to help.”

  “That was some way of helping. Who are you? Do you have a name?”

  Walter stood there with the microphone in his face, a crowd of people staring at him and taking photos and video, and he was at a loss.

  “Name’s Walter, ma’am,” he said, before lifting off and flying out of sight.

  5

  “Dude, that was awesome,” Franklin said when Walter walked in the door, “and you smell like smoke.”

  “Yeah, the smoke was kind of thick. I need something to eat and some sleep. Then we’re going to Best Buy.”

  “What’s at Best Buy?”

  “Get you a phone…and get me one of those Bluetooth things.”

  “Man, that’s gonna go viral, and you didn’t have a mask or anything. Folks are gonna know you everywhere now.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’m going to crash for a bit, okay?”

  Crash he did until he woke up at noon to an interesting smell coming from the kitchen. He wandered in to find Franklin sitting at the table eating a burger, and there was another one sitting on a plate.

  “Thought I’d figure out how to use that Foreman grill. That thing is awesome.”

  “It comes in handy.”

  “Have a burger.”

  “A burger for breakfast?”

  “Look at the time. It’s afternoon.”

  “Whatever. That is what you young folk say, right? Everything’s always ‘whatever.’ Anyway, it looks good. Thanks, kid.”

  “You were some cranky old dude when I met you. Now you’re not quite as cranky. What gives?”

  “Don’t know. Helping people…just feels good. You should have seen those people in Chicago…when they knew they were safe. Man…gives me a feeling right here.” He touched his heart. “Just makes you feel real good. Kind of humble too.”

  “You fly around like Superman and you’re humble?”

  “Hard to explain, kid. I’ve spent the last decade avoiding people. Now I saved a few…humble seems like the word. The things I can do…you would say it’s awesome. Maybe it is. It feels neat, like all the dreams I had when I was a kid about flying. I thought being a superhero would be this grand adventure, but it feels different. Am I making any sense?”

  “Maybe, but you’re an old dude. You’re gonna look at life different like.”

  “Differently, kid. Adverbs end in ly.”

  “Since when are you a grammar nerd?”

  “Never was, but you want to pass that test, you gotta get it down.”

  “Okay, whatever.”

  “I mean it. You need to get cracking on the studying. I see you got my laptop out. You been on there yet?”

  “No…but seeing you all over the internet this morning. You’ve gone viral.”

  “Viral?”

  “You know, when something starts going all over the internet because people keep sharing it? You’re all over. You go anywhere and everyone’s gonna know you. I told you that would happen.”

  “You told me?”

  “Before you went to bed.”

  “Well, I was a bit tired. So, I’m getting some publicity?”

  “You could say that. You were all over the morning shows, all the cable news channels…everyone’s talking about the superhero named Walter. People are wondering where you’re from, if there are other people like you…it’s crazy.”

  “That’s just great. Now how am I going to do anything in public?”

  “I tried to warn you. Get a secret identity, but no…you didn't listen. You’re the old dude. You know better than the kid from the streets.”

  “It’s a little late for that now, but that just means I don’t have to stick by any pretenses. You ready to go to the store?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, give me a second to get cleaned up.”

  Walter came out of the bedroom a few minutes later, showered and slightly more presentable than he had been when he got home, and a minute later they were landing in the parking lot of Best Buy.

  Within seconds they were surrounded by people who recognized him, taking photos and trying to get close to him. He didn’t quite know how to handle the attention, but he didn’t want to be his old cranky self either, so he stood there for a minute looking at all the people and trying to figure out where to start. He noticed a young child standing next to his mother. The child was staring at him with wide eyes and smiling, and appeared to be about five years of age.

  “Hey there, little fellow,” he said to the child, “I’m Walter. What’s your name?”

  “I’m…uh…I’m Mike.”

  “Hi Mike, pleased to meet you,” Walter said, sticking out his hand.

  The boy smiled and shook his hand.

  The crowd pressed closer and so many people were talking at once that Walter had a hard time distinguishing one person from the other.

  “Folks…I got a little shopping to do. Can me and the kid here buy some things and then I’ll be right back, okay?”

  Walter and Franklin pushed their way through the crowd into the store, and went to the mobile phone counter.

  “Can I help you?” the young man behind the counter said, not yet looking up.

  “Yeah, need to add a line to my phone. Go ahead kid, pick out a phone.”

  “Wait,” the clerk said, “You’re Walter.”

  “Yeah…John,” Walter said, reading the clerk’s name badge, “You’ve waited on me before.”

  “You’re Walter…from the fire…man, this is so cool.”

  “Yeah, cool. The kid’s gonna pick out a phone and I’ll need to add that to my account. And do me a favor, will you? Don’t let anyone see my address, okay? Last thing I need is that crowd showing up at my apartment.”

  “Will do, Walter. So, you can really fly?”

  “Seems so.”

  “How you got those people out of that building. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. What did it feel like?”

  “Felt damn good, just seeing the looks on their faces.”

  “I mean…flying…what does that feel like?”

  “It’s hard to explain. You ever had the dreams? It’s kind of like that, but not quite. It’s better. I don’t know. It just happens. Now it feels like walking. I don’t really think about it, just point in a direction and go.”

  “Man, wait until I tell my girlfriend I met you.”

  “You’ve met me before, remember?”

  “If you say so.”

  “I’m the same guy.”

  “Uh…I guess.”

  “And there is a line here. I’m not the only customer. Can we add the line?”

  “Sure, you got a phone picked out?”

  “You got one picked out yet, kid?”

  “Sure thing. That one right there,” he said, pointing to a phone.

  “Okay,” John said, “it should just take a couple minutes. Will there be anything else?”

  “Yeah, the kid’s gonna pick out a couple Bluetooth headsets.”

  When Walter had paid for the phone and the headsets, he went over to look at laptops, and it was then he realized that there weren’t any other customers lined up at the mobile counter. They were all following him around.

  “Kid, you know much about computers?” Walter asked.

  “Little bit,” Franklin said.

  “Good. Mine’s like me, over the hill. Think you can pick me out something decent, no more than a grand?”

  Franklin spent no more than ten minutes talking with a store associate before he had picked one out and Walter paid for it and started to leave the store, only to find himself surrounded by a crowd of admirers. One man approached with a printed photo of him flying, a screenshot from the news broadcast.

  “Hi Walter.
Can you sign this? It's for my son.”

  “Is your son here?” Walter asked.

  “No, he’s at school. I’ll be picking him up. This will make his day.”

  “I’ll bet,” Walter said, signing his first name to the photo.

  He was pressed by more and more people with photos or blank pieces of paper, wanting autographs, wanting to take selfies with him, or just wanting to shake his hand.

  “Excuse me, but I had a long night and didn’t get much rest…”

  “I got you, Walter, “ the store manager said, bringing a chair, “Just sit right here,” and to the crowd, “If you could form an orderly line, I’m sure Walter will be happy to see you.”

  The crowd was orderly, but didn’t seem to be dwindling, and two hours later Walter had signed more autographs and taken more selfies than he could count, and he wanted to be anywhere else but there. The manager was delighted with the arrangement because the store had been packed the whole time. Walter made eye contact with Franklin and his meaning was obvious. Franklin spoke to the manager who then addressed the crowd.

  “Listen folks, Walter has other places to be, so if we could let him leave in the next ten minutes, that would be good.”

  There were audible groans from the crowd, but in ten minutes, the people dispersed and Walter and Franklin left the store and flew home. It wasn’t long before Franklin had the new computer set up and was showing Walter how to use the Bluetooth.

  “We can’t have you losing it when you’re flying, so you can wear this band around your neck and run a line from it to the earpiece, so if it falls off your ear, you won’t lose it.”

  “Thanks, kid, you think of everything. Now, since you appear to have the computer working, you need to get to studying.”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. You want to live under my roof…”

  “Okay dude, I hear you.”

  “And don’t smart off to me, got it?”

  “Got it, Dad.”

  Walter rolled his eyes, sat down in his recliner, and turned on the TV. He was on several channels, and after surfing for a minute, he gave up and turned it off.

  “Ah hell, I’m a freakin’ celebrity.”

  “Now you know the importance of the secret identity.”

  “Yeah, didn’t think much about that one. It’s not like we have a lot of super types running around, except in your comic books.”

  “I haven’t read those things since I was a kid.”

  “You’re still a kid.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  “So…kid…you know more about this stuff than I do. Should I rest up so I can be up half the night doing whatever I’m supposed to be doing?”

  “Probably not a bad idea. You should rest when you can because you never know what’s gonna happen.”

  “Well, you can wake me up if you see anything. You can keep the news channels on when you’re studying.”

  “You mean like that?” Franklin said, not five minutes later.

  “Huh…like what?”

  “That,” Franklin said pointing to the TV.

  “Apartment building on fire…Westwood…that’s not far. I’ll be right back.”

  “Don’t forget your phone.”

  “Oh…yeah.”

  Walter put his phone in his pocket, put his Bluetooth on his ear, and was gone. Franklin continued watching the TV coverage and saw Walter arrive seconds later and pull everyone and their pets out of the building less than a minute later. By the time the fire department arrived on the scene, everyone was standing around Walter, taking photos and trying to get close to him.

  “Excuse me folks, got a call comin’ in,” he said, pressing the button on his Bluetooth to take the call.

  “Don’t hang around there too long,” Franklin said, “There’s another one on the east side…looks like Amelia.”

  “Okay, I’m on the way.”

  “Well folks, I gotta go. You take care,” he said, lifting off into the sky and flying away east. He arrived at the burning apartment in Amelia a few seconds later and it was much the same. He evacuated the residents, and their cats and dogs, and stood there awkwardly accepting their gratitude. What he didn’t notice was a man sitting in a car on the edge of the parking lot talking on a cell phone.

  “Wow, I have twenty-nine seconds to evacuate your building, get here, and evacuate everyone here.”

  “How fast do you figure he had to be going?” the man on the other end asked.

  “I’m sure we can do the math. Darn fast, however you add it up. I wonder how he found out. You think he has super hearing or something?”

  “Right before he took off, he took a call. Had a Bluetooth in his ear. He’s got someone somewhere, doing support.”

  “You know what the boss is gonna say.”

  “She’s gonna want more data.”

  “Okay, call Mike in Queens. Have him fire that one up.”

  “Right now?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, how long you figure for the media to report it?”

  “It’s New York. It’ll make news fast enough. Just make the call.”

  A few minutes later, Walter took another call from Franklin.

  “What now, kid?”

  “You’re not gonna believe this, another apartment fire.”

  “What is it with apartments catching fire? Where’s this one, back on the west side?”

  “Queens.”

  “Like New York City?”

  “Yep, that’s where Queens is.”

  “Okay, I’m headed there. I’m gonna be hungry when I get back. You think you can grill up some burgers?”

  “Sure, I’ll have ‘em ready when you get back.”

  6

  Walter finished his sixth hamburger, washed it down with a beer, and put his feet up.

  “You know what’s weird, kid?”

  “Besides eating like that?”

  “Yeah. I get horribly hungry sometimes. I think my body burns stupid amounts of energy doing this stuff. No, besides the eating. It’s these fires.”

  “What’s weird about them?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not any expert. I’m just a retired factory worker. The one on the west side and the one out in…where was that…Amelia…they seemed similar. I can’t explain it. My senses are more sensitive now. There was a smell, nothing I’ve ever smelled before…and I smelled it again in New York. I wonder if they were all arson.”

  “Could have been, but they were almost at the same time.”

  “Yeah…almost. I don’t know. I’m not wearing my tin foil hat or anything, but it just seems weird. You know, maybe the cops oughta know. Be right back, kid. You can take Otis for a walk for a bit if you want. I’m sure he’d love to get out.”

  Walter walked into the District 1 Police station downtown and was recognized instantly.

  “Hi, Walter,” the officer at the desk said, “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

  “Hi Officer…Daniels,” Walter said, reading the cop’s name badge, “I’m not sure, just a weird hunch I need to run by the experts.”

  “Weird hunch?”

  “Yeah, about those apartment fires.”

  “Nice job, by the way, getting all those people out.”

  “That was no big deal, really. I do what I can. Anyway, I don’t know much about this sort of thing, not like you guys do. There was a weird smell at both fires, nothing I’ve ever smelled before. Then I heard about one in New York City, so I zipped over there and got some folks out of that building, and I smelled the same thing. I think they were set on purpose.”

  “You know you’re dealing with different jurisdictions, don’t you?”

  “Yeah…just figured you could make some calls to the right people, make sure they do some digging.”

  “I’ll have you talk to Officer Cocker. He’s a bit of an arson expert. If you could describe everything to him, maybe he can make some sense of it.”

  “That would be good
.”

  “Hey Walter,” Michael Cocker said a couple minutes later, “Follow me. We’ll sit down and have a chat.”

  Walter followed the cop to an office where he pulled up a chair and sat down.

  “Daniels tells me you have some suspicions about the fires?”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t know much about this sort of thing, but something smelled funny at each one, even the one in New York.”

  “New York?”

  “After I got the folks out of the one in Amelia, I heard about one in Queens, so I went there and took care of that as well…same smell there. Weird.”

  “Can you describe the smell?”

  “Not easily, but I’ll try.”

  Walter spent the next minute trying to describe what he smelled at the fires.

  “How did you pick that out?”

  “Can’t explain it. My senses are more sensitive than yours. I can pick out things, individual smells. I can smell the corn beef sandwich you have packed in that cooler over there. Rye bread. I like rye bread.”

  “That’s a hell of a sniffer you have there. What you describe is probably some sort of accelerant. If you’re right, then the same thing was used at all three fires. But why New York? Seems like a bit of an outlier.”

  “I don’t know. Just telling you what I noticed. Figured you could make some calls. If they’re all connected…”

  “I see where you’re headed. Thanks for stopping by…and good job out there saving those people. Most of us think you’re pretty cool.”

  “Most of you?”

  “There are a couple guys around here worried you might become some kind of vigilante. There are some stories going around, couple incidents in Clifton.”

  “Clifton’s a weird part of town, all those college kids.”

  “Well, I’ll make some calls about the fires. You need anything else, stop by, or just give us a call.”

  “Will do.”

  “What did the cops say?” Franklin asked when Walter walked in the door.

  “Said they’d take a look at it. I’m telling you, all those fires were the same. I don’t know why. I don’t know what kind of bastard would burn down apartment buildings. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Someone testing you?”