Short story - The Little Batman!!
Sam is 3+ and has a sense of understanding that’s comparable to a grown up. Now, don’t think he’s a boring little boy, he is a thinker, deep thinker; while being very friendly and adorable.
This little boy is a little Batman, that’s the superhero he has been following and watching a Batman movie daily, it didn’t matter to him if it’s the same movie was being played repeatedly. All he wanted to see was BATMAN!! Over and over again.
It’s a Monday of June, Sam wakes up early morning and starts peeping out of the little glass window on the main door that’s locked, just to watch the School bus and as it arrives, he shouts out loud, “Look Mom, Batman’s up the window, I am going to rescue the School bus now; it’s in danger”. Having been able to peep through the glass door wasn’t an easy task for Sam. It took a lot for him to watch the School bus pass. Sam had to pile up his Mummy’s handbag over an upside-down toy box and stand tiptoe on his little feet.
Tina: screams, be careful Batman…. (While preparing the breakfast of Sam’s choice).
Sam: Alright mom, Sam smiles back with the cutest grin, while Tina did notice that Sam was standing on her handbag. She yelled, “Sam, what are you doing to my handbag? Get off right now!!”
Daddy comes to the boy’s rescue while getting ready for work, and Sam occupies his favorite driver’s seat in the car; carrying his breakfast along. Sam gobbles his pancake fast so that he gets more time on the wheel, this makes the maple syrup drip on the steering wheel, which didn’t bother Sam as he was busy with all his honking and pretend driving. He started moving the steering wheel faster and faster until daddy bribed him to move out of the car so that he could go to work.
Sam was now ready to become a Batman. He pulls out a big scarf from the chair that his mom kept for herself, knots it at the neck and runs fast all over the house to make the cape fly, but it doesn’t. He now starts to jump high on the sofa that makes him happier as the cape does move every time he jumps.
Tina was watching all this from the kitchen, she gets mad at Sam again; as she found her favorite scarf crumbles and creased, that had overeaten maple syrup and the dirt. She immediately takes the scarf off Sam’s neck while warning him not to repeat this; ignoring the joy that Sam got out of his favorite little cape that gave him the joy of being his superhero.
The boy was sad and serious now, as he lost his favorite identity… the Batman. He sat in a corner and started building a rocket launcher out of little pieces of blocks so he could fly in it when he grows bigger.
Sam looks at Tina, who is still expecting an apology from him without realizing, it was she who was mad at the little boy. Sam was now uncomfortable at his mom’s silence and calls on her.
Sam: Mummy!! Talk to me, talk to me. I am sorry! You are my Yumma!! Now, this new word Yumma finally made her laugh. She cuddles Sam and makes him sit in her lap, putting both her arms around the boy
Tina: I promise Batman, I won’t be mad at you again.
Sam: Pinky promise
Tina: Yes, pinky promise.
Tina closes her eyes and realizes what a child’s happiness means. She joins Sam in building the rocket launcher. Sam now feels more connected to Tina as she was part of his toy world now.
Later in the day, while sipping coffee and replying to all the emails Tina got this morning, she was wondering why she gets mad at the little boy while he tries to be his favorite Superhero. Wasn’t she like him in her childhood, did she not play her favorite movie star when she was little, did she not steal her mom’s makeup and countless stuff to become a princess or had she not pretended to be one?
Tina smiled, remembering her childhood days, and immediately took another scarf out of her handbag and knotted the cape to her….. Little BATMAN!!!
