The Ones You Call When Everyone Else is Busy (12)

Nick and his parents sat down to eat dinner, more accurately, his parents ate dinner, and Nick just pushed around the food on his plate. It wasn’t too hard to tell that something was bothering him. “Nick, what’s the matter?” “Nothing, it’s just that Kate and I had a fight.” Jen and John exchanged worried glances over Nick’s head. “What about sweetie?” “It was stupid. She thinks I pulled a trick on her, but I didn’t and now she won’t even talk to me, not that she was talking to me much anyway. She thinks I’m crazy.” “Honey, I am sure she doesn’t think you are crazy.” Jen reached over and patted Nick’s hand. John asked, “Did you pull a prank on her?” “No, Dad, I wouldn’t do that to her. It’s just that well, I was all set to let her, and Ian meet CP and then CP didn’t show because he’s shy and so she thinks that I made him up just to make her wait for him but I didn’t.” John cleared his throat.  “Nick, your mother and I were talking about this very thing today. We haven’t met CP either. We would like him to come over for dinner on Saturday night.” Nick gulped. “Dinner…you want to meet CP?” “Yes, is there a problem with that?” John asked and Nick could tell his dad was not very happy. “Uh, no, I guess not. I’ll try to get him to come over. He might not want to, but I promise to ask him.” “What does he like to eat?” Jen asked. “Oh, that’s easy,” Nick answered, “pancakes. Can I be excused? I’m not very hungry tonight.” “Sure hon.” Jen said, and Nick went upstairs to do his homework. His parents wanted to meet Captain Pancake; his best friend thought he was insane; he was about to take on the criminals that for some reason had stolen his puppy; and he had a book report due tomorrow. Life just wasn’t getting any easier.

Friday, after school, Nick felt a little better. He and Ian were on their way to meet Captain Pancake and ride the Cheese Bus to headquarters. Ian was so excited to be meeting actual superheroes that he kept going on and on about genetic mutations and other scientific reasons that superheroes might exist. Nick just let him talk. He didn’t need to understand why they existed; it was enough to know that they did. Plus, since he had someone to walk home with, Nick didn’t have to take that annoying bus where all the older kids made fun of him. It hadn’t been an easy day; Kate would not even look at him let alone talk to him. Finally, they came to the corner of Nick’s street and within minutes Captain Pancake arrived. He stepped off the bus in all his superhero glory. His cream suit gleamed in the sunlight. A breeze, that always seemed to be wherever he was, fluttered his cape out behind him and filled the air with the scent of maple syrup. His hair was combed just so, and he stood straight and tall with his hands on his hips, looking so much like a superhero that even Nick was impressed. “I am Captain Pancake,” he said, in his loud booming voice and then much softer, “and you must be young Nick’s friend, Ian.” Ian reached out and shook CP’s hand. He was still staring in disbelief. As he pulled his hand away, he noticed that it was slightly sticky and smelled as though he had just eaten breakfast and forgot his fork. They climbed aboard the Cheese Bus and Nick listened as Ian peppered CP with questions about how he got his powers. Ian was disappointed to know that CP really didn’t have a scientific explanation besides the fact that he loved pancakes so much that he ate them every day and one day, developed his superpowers of shooting syrup and butter. Captain Pancake just brushed it off as fate. Ian, of course, was already dissecting theories about the anomalies of genetic composition in his head.

They arrived at headquarters and went through the same routine they had when Nick first arrived there. Since Nick had become an honorary member, they had stopped making him look away when they entered the code that opened the door to their inner sanctum. Today, though, it all for show again, as Captain Pancake tried to put on what he considered to be his best impersonation of a superhero to impress Ian. Nick wished CP could see himself as he did, one of the greatest superheroes of all time. Once inside headquarters, Ian wandered all around checking out the computers and the various gadgets that were part of every superhero hideout.

Ian looked at Neville’s tank. “Why do you have an empty terrarium?” Ian asked Captain Pancake. CP chuckled. “It’s not empty, that’s our chameleon Neville. He’s just very good at camouflage.” “He might be very good at it, but he is not in that tank.” “Great! Did he get out again? Sometimes we forget to close the lid when we feed him. Neville…Neville! Why does he never come when he is called?”  Nick understood that this was a rhetorical question; that CP was not really looking for an answer.  Ian however had one, “He won’t come when he is called because chameleons do not have ears. In fact, most scientists feel that chameleons are deaf, or at least very hard of hearing. I would suggest running the water in the sink over there. They like running water more than bowls of water. He will probably feel the vibration of it or even see it. They have extremely good eyesight, the best in the lizard world.” CP thought that Ian was pretending to know everything, but he turned on the water anyway.