Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive...

I saw him through the window early this morning.  Sitting on that deck holding a small teddy bear and something about him just caught my attention.  A small boy with almost black hair and the most startling green eyes,  up on his knees looking over the railing with such longing.  I was afraid to take my eyes off of him, worried that he might leap up at any minute and run for the nearby lake, but he didn’t.

The next time I saw him was late this afternoon.  Sitting on the deck floor this time, chubby little legs stretched out in front of him, such a look of concentration on his face that I had to wonder what he was thinking as he put those Legos together.

After a while he tired of the Legos and got up on the bench again, this time jumping off.  Again and again, he jumped from the bench, landing hard on the deck and I wondered that his mother did not come out to check on him.  Surely she was watching him through the window because otherwise when he landed like that it must have shook the entire house!

He would land on the deck and sometimes stumble a bit, then look quickly towards the window and repeat the action.  Finally he moved over to the steps.  Just two steps from the deck to the grass.  He put out both arms and I swear I thought he was going to fly, but he simply landed with a tumble in the grass and scrambled back up onto the deck to do it again.  Sometimes one of the straps on his overalls fell off his shoulder and he reminded me of a dark haired little Dennis the Menace until he pushed it back up.

At last, glancing furtively over his shoulder, he ran!  Not into some phone booth since there were none, but behind the nearest bush emerging without his overalls on at all and I realized who he was!  It was as plain as the shirt on his tummy!  A five year old Superman raced across the yard wearing only his Superman shirt, little briefs peeking out below them as he slipped the surly bonds of earth and practically soared towards the water!

I might have run after him, but right at that moment, his mother came tearing out of the cabin door and took off after her small super hero, chasing him down just before he stepped into the water of that large lake!  I might have wondered how one punishes Superman, but his mother didn’t seem to have a problem.  She promptly plucked a switch off the nearest bush and helped him straight back into the house.