Chapter 27 “Start Over Again I”

Jason’s feet touched the grass, and Superman let go of his waist – the end of a lovely flying trip.

“There we are.”

Jason wandered a bit as he looked around him. He was standing in the middle of a forest or something. There were trees everywhere, anyway. Most of them were still bare, and the sun shone on the mossy earth.

Jason looked behind him where Superman let go of Mommy. He didn’t know why Superman had brought them here, but it had to be for a fun reason.

“Superman, where are we?’ Mommy looked around.

“We’re in the Catskill Mountains.”

Jason had no idea where that was, but it sounded exciting. He ran towards his parents.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, Superman and I wanted to … play a couple of games with you.”

Games? Like hide-and-seek? Games are fun! The smile on Jason’s face broadened.

“Why do we have to play them here? We can play games at home.”

“We don’t want other people to see.”

“Like a secret?”

“Yes,” Superman smiled. “Exactly like a secret.”

“Jason, honey,” Mommy sat down before him. “A secret means you can’t tell anyone. Can you do that for me , sweety? Can you promises me that you won’t tell anyone that Superman is your Daddy, or that we come to play games here?”

Jason nodded his head vigorously. A secret sounded like fun.

“Are we going to play hide-and-seek? I want to be it!”

But Mommy shook her head. “No hide-and-seek, Jason. We’re going to play different games.”

“What kind of games?” Jason inquired, a little disappointed. Hide-and-seek was his favourite.

“We are going to play a couple of games to find out how strong you are. With Superman as your father, you might grow to be just as strong as him.”

Jason just blinked for a moment, that sounded just too good to be true.

“I’m going to have superpowers like you?” Jason jumped in excitement.

“I think so,” Superman smiled.

“NEAT!” Jason yelled.

Unable to contain his enthusiasm for much longer, Jason looked around him for a suitable object to test his powers. He spotted a large boulder a couple of feet away, and ran towards it. Gripping the mossy stone confidently, he have a mighty pull. He was disappointed however when the stone didn’t budge. Jason tried again. No change.

“Why isn’t it working?” Jason pouted.

“You still have to learn how to use your powers.” Superman said, walking closer. “And that’s not going to happen very quickly. It takes time.”

“But I want to be strong now.”

“Jason,” Mommy said. “If you really want something, you have to work for it. It doesn’t just happen by itself.”

“I’m going to teach you how to be strong, OK? From now on, we are going to train here once a week, so that one day you might even be stronger than I.”

“Really?” Jason looked at his father, incredulously. “I can get stronger than you?”

“If you train hard enough.”

Jason jumped up.

“I want to train!”

Superman smiled, and Mommy took him by the hand. “I thought you would.”

“Look Jason, here’s what you do.” Superman walked over to a clearing in the wood where a lot of dead trees lay on a heap. “I gathered a couple of trees yesterday, so we could train. I want you to lift them.” Superman grabbed the end of one of the trees and lifted it up, so that it only rested on the ground at the other end. “Thus.”

“But that’s heavy!”

“We’ll start with the smaller ones.” Superman pointed at a skinny tree.

A baby tree. Of course, Superman is and adult, so he gets to lift the adult trees.

Jason gripped the small tree by the end and gave a tug. It lifted a couple of inches from the ground, but it was heavy and Jason quickly dropped it to the ground again. His high spirits sank.

“I don’t think I have Superpowers.”

“Sure you do,” Mommy said as she rushed next to him. “Remember when we were on that ship?”

“With the bad guys?” Jason shuddered at the memory. He’d rather not think about it.

“Yes, with the bad guys. Do you remember what you did with the piano?”

As his Mommy spoke, an image flashed through Jason’s mind of a piano flying through the air.

“I really did that?” he whispered.

“You sure did.” Mommy wiped his hair back, beaming at him proudly, but Jason didn’t feel proud at all. In fact, he felt horrible and he didn’t understand why Mommy was smiling at him.

“I hurt that man.”

Mommy’s smile faded. “Jason, that was an accident.”

Jason stared at the ground. He now clearly remembered the pile of wood and ivory and the jangle of strings under which the man lay. He had thrown that piano.

“I don’t think I want to have Superpowers.” Mommy looked at Superman, who took a step closer.

“You know Jason, when I was about your age, I didn’t want to have Superpowers either. I remember one day when I came home from school and I ran to my mother to give her a hug.”

“Your mother from the picture?” Jason asked.

“Yes, my mother from the picture. I gave her a hug and you know what happened?”

Jason shook his head.

“I squeezed too hard, and my mother broke two ribs.”

Jason stared at his father horrified, thinking about the nice lady in the picture.

“I felt so bad about it, that I never wanted to be strong again. Jason,” Superman lifted his chin up with his finger. “I am not saying this to scare you. Accidents happen. My mother was not angry at me for breaking her two ribs. Your mother and I are not angry at you for throwing that piano. But you do understand why we have to train now, don’t you? You have got to learn how to control your strength so that we don’ t get more accidents.”

Jason nodded slowly. It took a while to understand everything Superman said.

“And if you learn to control your strength, you can also use your powers to help other people.”

Jason looked up. Superman helped other people all the time. Jason wanted to do that too. He didn’t want to throw pianos at people, He wanted to blow out great big fires and rescue people, just like his father.

“Jason, when you threw that piano, you helped me.” Jason looked at his Mommy. “That man was going to hurt me. You saved Mommy’s life.”

Jason blinked.

“So, I’m a hero?”

Mommy smiled. “Yes, you’re my hero.”

But Jason shook his head.

“No, I’m not your hero. Superman is your hero. He saved you loads of times, you told me yourself. He got you first – I have to find my own girl to save.”

Superman chuckled and Mommy laughed.

“Well, that can wait for a couple of years.”

“Let’s stick to training for now.”