Double Life

Thud.

White Echo, the superheroine of Arizona, landed on the ground hard. She stood up triumphantly, folding in her shining white bat wings with a snap.

The police led away her (temporarily) beaten arch-nemesis. She had been fighting Stinger for two years now, and she had gotten him put in jail more times than she could count. He always managed to escape and wreak havoc far too soon, though. She knew that before long, he would escape again and she would have to start making excuses for frequent absences at school once more.

“Thank you again for your constant help.” Chief Officer Murray said, shaking her hand.

White Echo nodded. “I do what I can.” She watched the car that held the subdued supervillain drove off. It turned a corner without incident, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

A cluster of reporters approached her. Before any of them could say a word, she gave a quick wave and jumped into the air. With a beat of her wings, she escaped the lot of them.

Good riddance. If there was one thing White Echo hated, it was interviews. She had never liked the public eye, paranoid that it would reveal her secret identity. She flew into the clouds and traced a familiar path to her home, diving into the boughs of a mesquite tree in her backyard. With a deep sigh, she found a seat and let go of the magic that held her transformation. With a tingling sensation, her wings and superhero suit disappeared, revealing her civilian self beneath.

Liena Wu.  That was her name. She was an American citizen of Chinese heritage. She took her backpack off and relaxed against the rough branch at her back, wondering what she would tell her mom about yet another unexcused absence at school.

She was tired of lying to her parents. It broke her in a way nothing else could. She knew it was supposed to be a superhero’s duty to keep their identity secret, so they could protect themselves and those they loved. When she had first discovered her bat-themed powers, it was the first lesson her mentor had given her, had drilled into her from day one. “Never give away your secret.” he had always said. “It’s your most valuable possession.”

Liena lay there until exactly 3:05, soon after school got out. Then she descended the ancient tree, slipped her backpack over one shoulder and snuck through a gate into the front yard after peeping over the fence at the empty driveway and ensuring that her parents weren’t home. She then ran to the end of the block, hoping she remained unseen, and turned around, trying to look natural as she walked back home.

This was the part of her hero career that she hated the most; trying to find a place to de-transform safely, and then walking home as if nothing happened. It was even worse when she wasn’t at school. Then she had to figure out how to potentially explain away disappearances that were hours long by insinuating that her parents hadn’t looked closely enough, or that she had forgotten to tell them about an errand she had had to run.

A familiar shuddery feeling grew within Liena’s stomach and limbs as she climbed up the driveway, telling her that her hoax had failed. She knew it wasn’t true; her parents weren’t even home. Still the feeling persisted.

She unlocked the front door and went inside. It was a tiny house; there were only two bedrooms and one bathroom, and the living room was of negligible size. But it was home, and Liena loved it more than any other place she had visited. She grabbed an apple from the fridge and went to her bedroom, dumping her backpack carelessly on the bed.

She crunched into the apple with forced gusto. Guilt overcame her hunger as the weight of years came down on her shoulders, just like it did every time she entered her room. This was where she first discovered that she possessed supernatural abilities. It was where she first used her wings, although that had ended with plaster raining down and a painful bump on the head. It was where she learned to control her powers, to keep her secret tightly squished inside of her. It was a place of endless lies.

Liena set the mostly untouched apple on her desk, then delved into her backpack and retrieved the homework from her first and second periods—calculus and language arts. She hadn’t been at school long enough to get any other homework. How would she explain that? With another lie, of course. That was how she explained everything, just like her mentor had taught her.

Lone Wolf had been a famous superhero in his time. Liena never understood how he coped with the lies that being a hero customarily required, how he seemingly enjoyed keeping the secret from everyone, including his family. He had always told her it was to keep them safe.

She believed that that was the purpose of it, but she wondered if lying to her parents would really put them in less danger in the long run.

Liena shook herself and started doing her homework at a furious pace, drowning herself in numbers and variables. It became the usual desperate run from conscience that she experienced after hero work. Sometimes she wondered if it was actually heroic to be a hero, or if it was more of an actor’s job, to be two people at once without fully committing to either. To lie to both sides, pretending to be more heroic than she really was when she took on the role of White Echo; and to constantly ditch school for ‘headaches’ and ‘family stuff’ all the time as Liena Wu. She couldn’t really live life as either version of herself.

She gritted her teeth and worked faster. She was probably getting most of the math problems wrong.

She was finished with calculus and starting on her language arts when the front door opened and shut.

“Liena, are you home?” her mom’s voice called.

“Yeah, I’m doing my homework!” Liena called back in a practiced cheerful voice.

As she continued to scribble answers to the questions on her paper, her mom knocked and came in.

“How was school?” she asked.

Liena didn’t turn around. She wouldn’t dare look into her mom’s beautiful, piercing almond eyes at that moment. “It was fine, I guess. I had a bad headache in third hour, though. I had to come home early.”

“Oh, honey.” Her mom’s hand rested lightly on her shoulder, intensifying her guilt. “You’ve had an awful lot of headaches lately. Do you think we should have you see a doctor?”

“Mom, please, no.” Liena said, the dark feeling inside of her spreading. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” The headaches were, quite literally, nothing. They didn’t exist.

“I’m not sure about that. We can wait to see a doctor for a little while, but if you keep getting these headaches, I’ll have to put my foot down.” She left the room.

Liena waited several seconds before taking a gasp of air. She was a dirty liar, and she hated it. Dishonesty was such a suffocating monster. She was sick of having a beast on her back.

She stood up, possessed by a sudden determination to tell the truth. Even if she had to lie to the entire world for the rest of her life, she could not lie to her parents for even one more day. No matter how angry they would get, it would be a hundred times better than their ignorant kindness.

After taking a steadying breath, Liena walked to her parents’ room, haltingly at first but with growing confidence. She passed through the open doorway and found her mom just getting ready to start working on her computer.

She looked up. “What is it, Liena?” she asked.

Liena’s voice was steady as she replied, the darkness in her chest dispersing.

“Mom, I need to tell you something. Can you keep a secret?”

Her mom put her computer away and sat on her bed, folding her hands into her lap.

“Of course I can, sweetie. What do you need to tell me?”

Liena looked away and breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about this before, because it’s a really big deal, but I’ve always been told that it’s important to keep it a secret, and so I didn’t say anything…” Liena realized she was babbling. “See, I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m a superhero. I’m White Echo. I’m so sorry for not telling you before!” She buried her face in her hands, nervously peeking between her fingers at her mom.

Her mother was silent for a long minute. Then her mouth spread into a wide, sweet smile. “Oh, Liena, I already knew that, and so did your dad!”

Shock replaced the guilt that Liena had felt mere moments before. “What?” she whispered in a strangled voice.

“We’ve known all along! Both your dad and I have hero blood in us. I haven’t done hero work since I got pregnant with you, but I was known as Gecko back in the day. When your dad was transformed, he called himself Lone Wolf.”

Liena bolted upright. “Dad is Lone Wolf? Their voices sound nothing alike!”

Her mom hugged her, giggling. “He’s always been good with accents. He coached you until he thought you were ready to stand on your own. We’re really proud of you, Liena.”

The words washed over her in a comforting wave. “You’re even proud of my lies?” she asked.

“First of all, it is important to keep your identity secret. And we couldn’t get mad at you for doing what we asked you to, could we?”

Liena squeezed her mom affectionately. “I’m glad you already knew.” she said quietly. Her soul was soaring, relieved of the weight of four years of lying.

She was happy.