THE HERO

He’d always been the Fat Kid. The one who hung around the popular kids – tolerated but never taken any notice of, never listened to, never agreed with. The one who was bullied or if he was lucky, ignored. The last one to be picked when kids chose teams to play games – the Fat Kid. Or worse. Piggy, Fatso, Lard-ass. Or Four-eyes – yes, the pebble glasses didn’t help, either. Without them he was almost blind. He couldn’t see or focus on anything. Slow, useless at sports. And not all that sharp intellectually. One of Nature’s losers. It was as if he had some form of anti-charisma. At home he fantasised about being a super-hero, saving the world from evil. We all have our fantasies, and why shouldn’t he have his? Never to be realised, of course – shy, undemanding, always the first to put himself down before others did, unwilling to draw attention to himself.

His teacher had decided early in the school year that he was ‘special’ – which meant he wasn’t. Stuck at the back of the class, where he could barely see the blackboard. Slow to understand, slow to write, never finishing assignments or projects. And in the desk next to his, Sonya, beautiful Sonya. Long black hair in braids down to her waist, olive skin – his was pasty white – a snub nose and a dimple in her chin. Popular, vivacious, full of energy and laughter. But unkind, too. The laughter was often at him. ‘Look at Four-eyes! Slow as a wet week! Clumsy, stupid!’

She hung around with the popular kids – she held hands with Mark, big tough Mark, tall, athletic, handsome, cruel. He wished he could be like Mark and he worshipped Sonya, hopelessly. He knew he’d never have a chance with her – she was out of his league. But that didn’t stop him dreaming.

Suzy, who sat on the other side of him, was small, mousy, intelligent, shy. She helped him with his schoolwork, occasionally whispering answers to him. She was the only person in the whole class, in the whole school, who was nice to him, and he was grateful for it. It didn’t raise him in his own eyes, but he felt safe with Suzy, and smiled at her when she smiled at him.

At home his mother did the best she could. She had to work to support them both, so he never saw her until the evening. He sat in front of a computer screen playing games. At least there he could be the hero. Fighting the Bad Guys. Or the monsters. He didn’t always win, but at least on the screen, in a fantasy world of his own creation, he could have self-respect, he could believe he was important, worthwhile.

So the super-power, when it came, was life-changing. Charisma, pure and simple. He didn’t have to be thin or see well. He didn’t have to prove himself. It came suddenly. The teacher singled him out in front of the whole class as he often did – he seemed to like to see the boy squirm with embarrassment – with a question. He was flustered, he hadn’t been paying attention. But he answered, voice quavering. He was sure he had given the wrong answer, but the teacher, surprisingly, said ‘Well done, Kevin. Exactly right. I’m impressed.’ The rest of the class looked at him standing there, his face flushed and red. And instead of laughing at him, they seemed to be regarding him with approval. Used to the usual taunts, he was waiting for the sudden reversal, the cruel remarks. But they never came. The class actually were smiling at him, even Sonya, even Mark.

When he got home he looked up the answer to the question the teacher had asked. His intuition was correct. He’d been wrong. But the teacher had accepted it – not only that, he had complimented the boy on his answer. Kevin was mystified.

Next day at school the other kids had planned a game and the usual choosing up of sides had begun. And he had been chosen first! Not only that, the two team leaders had fought over him – each wanted Kevin on their team. And when the game began the ball was sent to him. He fumbled it – of course – but nobody yelled at him, nobody laughed at him. Next time the ball came his way he tried a little harder – he’d never been good at sports – but he managed to kick the ball and it dribbled chaotically – but to one of his own team-mates. From then on he began to relax and enter into the spirit of the game. He didn’t get a goal, but he didn’t embarrass himself, either. And when he kicked the ball and it dribbled to Mark, he turned it into the winning goal, and for the very first time gave him a high-five.

From then on, Kevin was inexplicably popular and influential. The others deferred to him in discussions and arguments. If Kevin said it, it was so. His marks in class improved, even though he was no cleverer and wasn’t working any harder.

And he took part in the games – he was now always the first one chosen. His game improved, and he found himself running for the ball, becoming more energetic. He lost a little weight – he’d never done any exercise before – he didn’t see any point when the other kids laughed at him. He was still large, but not unfit. He had become popular. Mark, the most popular boy in school, talked to him, slapped him on the back laughed with him, not at him.

Then Sonya began to take notice of him. She started sitting at the same table when he had lunch, and talking to him. Up to now he had eaten alone, but now people seemed to want to sit near him. But Sonya the most. She now ignored Mark, who looked saddened, but didn’t seem jealous of Kevin – only angry with Sonya. He soon found a new girlfriend and showed her off in front of Sonya. But Sonya didn’t care – she was too busy talking to Kevin. He lapped it up, of course. He felt he was in Heaven.

He began to ignore Suzy. She wasn’t a popular girl and with his new friends he found her boring – too quiet, not funny enough for him. But as time went by he noticed that Sonya wasn’t as nice a person as he’d thought. She was in the habit of making cutting remarks – not to him, but to the other class members. And she especially singled out Suzy. Kevin finally summoned up the courage to confront her on it, and she apologised. ‘I’ll never do that again,’ she assured him. And she didn’t. But only to Suzy. She was still unpleasant to the other girls in the class, singling out the quiet ones who couldn’t answer back. He started to feel somehow uncomfortable associating with her.

And as he spent more time with Mark he realised that the other boy was a bully and a coward. He picked on those smaller than him, made their lives hell. Greatly daring, Kevin told him to stop it, and Mark did – at least when Kevin was there. But he was pretty sure he kept at it when his back was turned.

He enjoyed his new-found popularity, the easy agreement he got from everyone. But it seemed too easy – he didn’t have to work for it, he didn’t have to be nice or clever or witty. No matter what he did he was approved of, listened to, agreed with. It started to become stale. If nothing he did made any difference to the universal approval, was anything he did of any worth? He began to avoid Sonya and Mark as he became aware of what they were like. And he became more aware of the others – the ones he’d thought looked down on him when he thought about them at all. And he began to value them as people, see their qualities. And his confidence improved. The automatic approval of other people became meaningless to him. He put more time into his studies and less into worrying about what people thought of him. He found being a hero rather meaningless in itself without it being earned.

When the power left him Sonya suddenly dropped him like a hot brick – ‘Eww – what did I ever see in you?’ And Mark ignored him and began again to bully him. And he found he didn’t care. He realised their opinions of him and the things they said weren’t worth his attention or worry. He was happy being himself. He made friends with several of the other kids in the class who, having recovered from the effects of his power, turned out to be amenable to a bit of communication initiated by him. And he repaired his relationship with Suzy.

Looking back on that time he was still mystified by that short period of magical charisma. But he certainly didn’t regret it. It had changed his attitude to life, to other people, and to himself. He was sure of himself and happy in his own skin. He never became much smarter, he got a little fitter though not much thinner – he found he actually enjoyed sports, played football each weekend and made several friends. He got up a job as a junior clerk and gained a reputation for solid, careful work. He slowly climbed the promotion ladder and became a well-loved minor manager. He was happy in that position for the rest of his life and was very much missed when he retired.

Sonya married Mark, but I can’t say it was a happy marriage. They really weren’t very nice people, either of them.

And no, Kevin didn’t marry Suzy. She went on to be a highly paid ball-breaking corporate lawyer, becoming extremely wealthy but more and more jaded and disillusioned, until finally, at the age of forty-eight she threw it all over and moved to Australia, where she set up a business capturing wild camels and selling them to Saudi Arabia, where they were in high demand because of their superior speed and stamina in the highly popular camel races.

Kevin and Suzy kept in touch though, and remained friends for the rest of their lives.