Mark is a regular Joe who wanted to become a superhero. He spent most of his time watching movies and cartoons on how to become the perfect superhero until one day he watched the spiderman movie, he then and there decided that he wanted to be like spiderman. Something about how the superhero dressed intrigued him, the mixture of the red and blue color on his outfit, his big bulging white eye on his mask. It all made him wonder, how does the hero wear his costume? Is blue the hero's favorite color, if so why add red? Could the hero even see through those thick white eyes he had on his mask? Mark couldn't help but ponder. But the powers the hero had, captivated Mark in a manner he defined as phenomenal. Mark then decided to be like spiderman.
At age seven, Mark got his first job to make money for his hero's journey since his parents decided not to support him. Mark had seen a very nice spiderman outfit at Mrs. Jane's clothing store. It cost five dollars and he wanted it.
So every morning Mark would wake up by seven and mow his neighbor's lawn, he did this for one week until he was able to raise seven dollars from his hard work.
Filled with Joy the next day, Mark took the seven dollars from his savings and ran off to Mrs. Jane's clothing store. He ran and jumped, he skipped and walked all the while singing a song of victory until he arrived at Mrs. Jane's clothing store. When he arrived at Mrs. Jane's store he saw a little girl crying in front of the shop. She had spilled her ice cream on the floor and was crying about it. Mark paused, stunned by the scene. He watched her as she stood still Infront of the store, her fingers soaked with the cream of the ice cream while still holding on to the cone. He looked around the street which was crowded with people walking to and fro until he finally spotted the ice cream man in the distance. He ran up to him and asked for the price of the ice cream. The ice cream man replied him, "three dollars". He looked again at the girl who was still in tears and his spiderman costume which he could clearly through the transparent glass of Mrs. Jane's store, hanging among other dresses. He looked back at the ice cream man and said, "can I have one please?". The ice cream man agreed, he gave Mark one ice cream in exchange for Mark's three dollars.
Mark returned to the girl with a smile on his face, "don't worry, you can have mine", he said. She received the ice cream with a joyful smile, "thank you.." she said, as she returned to Mrs. Jane's store. Mark stood and took one last look at the costume before bowing his head to leave. Scorned by defeat he returned home deep in tears.
On reaching home, he found his mother outside the house removing the laundry from where she had spread. She beckoned on him to come, and he did.
"What's the matter baby?", She asked
But Mark was unable to reply, his voice had been taken over by the sorrow from within him.
" Is it the costume?", She asked Mark again pulling him closer to her side. He nodded in agreement.
"But I thought you made enough money for that.."
Mark nodded in agreement again.
"Then what happened sweetie..", she said, her hand slowly caressing Mark's head. And so, Mark told her all that had happened. On hearing Mark's story, Mark's mother left what she was doing and went straight into the house. She returned with her purse in her hand and from it, she brought out five dollars and gave it to Mark.
Mark smiled and jumped with joy, he hugged his mother and thanked her before dashing out back to Mrs. Jane's store. His face was beaming with joy when he arrived at Mrs. Jane's store but it quickly turned to confusion on seeing the note on the shop's door, "Closed". Quickly his joy sank, he stared in the direction of the costume, and his heart cried when he found it wasn't there anymore.
He slowly began to shed tears, he fell to his knees with tears in his eyes. All he wanted was to be a superhero just like spiderman.
While he was deep in tears, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to see who it was, it was Mrs. Jane.
"A little birdy told me that you did a good deed.." she said with a smile on her face. Just then the little girl who Mark had helped came out from behind the woman. She smiled at Mark.
"Here, this is for you.." the little girl said handing Mark the spiderman costume he had thought was sold.
Mark's face immediately beamed with joy. He hugged the little girl in appreciation. He then handed his money to Mrs. Jane, but she refused to collect it, instead, she said, " Every good deed has its reward....but now, remember that you don't need a costume to be a superhero. As long as you never stop doing good you are ten times stronger than any superhero can ever be.." And with that, she smiled and patted Mark on the shoulder before leaving.
Feeling victorious and powerful, Mark returned home with a smile on his face.
Thanks for reading. Happy new Year. 💓