Forever a Superhero

It's Friday.  Where hundreds of writers come together every week over at the lovely Lisa-Jo Baker's blog to spend five minutes writing about one thing.  One word.  No hyper-editing.  No getting in your own way.  Just writing, flat out.  The most important rule: encourage the writer who linked up before you.  Won't you join us?

Today's word: Hero

GO:

He will forever be remembered as a superhero. A six-year-old boy whose life was cut far too short, but today his classmates smile as they tell stories of laughter, speed, and integrity. The fastest kid on the playground, the one who never broke a promise, the boy who always raised his hand.

They wear shirts in every color with emblems of characters who light up the cinema with their daredevil tactics and their tenacity for rescue. To defeat the bad guy. To save the day.

But as that final balloon is released into the the clear winter sky we are reminded that this boy was no work of fiction. He was real. And the collective sense of loss too palpable.

He will forever be remembered as a superhero, but to his Father, he's a son who has come home.

STOP.