Image by Tayeb MEZAHDIA from Pixabay
“And so, Vertran, we had a whole superhero photo shoot – Dad and Melvin dressed up, and they looked so good and powerful with our neighbor Capt. Ludlow in his superhero threads – it was just so exciting and I think this really should go on Threespeak and YouTube!”
Nine-year-old Milton Trent was talking to his nine-year-old cousin Vertran Stepforth, and their grandfather Thomas Stepforth Sr. was listening and smiling, knowing where Vertran was going to go.
“Well, you know you come from superhero blood – you know Pop-Pop is the Airstepper, and His Airness just promoted him to Lord Airstepper!”
“His Airness” was a personal friend of his fellow Black billionaire Mr. Stepforth, and delighted in playing one-on-one privately with the older college basketball star because Mr. Stepforth always knew he was going to get beat, but considered it an honor to be beaten by the greatest basketball player ever, and always competed hard as respect. He always made it interesting – and his famous friend appreciated the effort it took for him, at under six feet tall and being seven years older, to keep it interesting.
“Yes, Vertran, I know because it was my mom that Pop-Pop saved – we all saw the pictures of the car!”
Mr. Stepforth had pushed his daughter, Melissa Stepforth Trent, out of the way of a car that would have hit her and then did his famous AirStep Dunk leap, getting his legs all the way up so the car passed underneath him and he landed on the back end. The car was a sports car with a fiberglass frame – so Mr. Stepforth crushed the back of it as he landed.
“His Airness” had heard about the incident and had seen the pictures, and thus had promoted Mr. Stepforth to Lord Airstepper.
“I starred in 'Space Jam' and that was cool, but, that's some real stuff you did right there, man.”
So, to his little grandsons, Mr. Stepforth was their superhero grandfather, and of course that meant they were going to grow up and be superheroes too.
“But see, the thing is, Milton,” Vertran said, “it doesn't work as well when there are too many pictures and TV shows and internet shows, because everybody thinks that superheros aren't real because those aren't. Real superheroes have to live more like … uh … like a secret agent.”
“Oh, yeah,” Milton said. “I hadn't thought about that.”
“I mean, even in the comic books and the movies and stuff, everybody doesn't get to know about the secret identity,” Vertran said. “You got to see who Uncle Vincent and Cousin Melvin and Capt. Ludlow really are because you're one of them, just younger, but like Grandma Velma says, everybody ain't able!”
“Like Grandma Gladys says over here, ain't it the truth, Vertran!”
“So, we're going to be real superheroes just like our people are,” Vertran said, “but since everybody ain't able, we just can't be putting their secret identities and ours out on the Internet like that.”
“Got it, Vertran. I get it now. We gotta live more like secret agents – need-to-know basis only.”
“Right. See, the military can teach you a lot if you let it.”
“Well, veterans like our dads are all heroes anyway, so, of course.”
“Of course!”