In a dramatic intake of breath, the hypnotist counted slowly, “One… two… three…” Then with the remaining breath in his lungs he shouted, “SUPERKID!”
Overdramatic? Maybe, but it was equaled by our young friend’s reaction to the name. He snapped to attention like an elastic cord. He blinked confusedly for several seconds. Then he spoke, “I’m Superkid.”
“Yes,” the hypnotist confirmed excitedly.
“I’m fearless,” said Superkid—formerly known as Aaron.
“Of course,” the man agreed.
“And…” Here the fearless kid paused.
The hypnotist grinned widely. “And… now you will prove that you are fearless.”
Our now-fearless hero gave the mysterious stranger an inquiring look. “How do I do that?”
“By going to that party!”
“Party?”
“Your friends are hosting a party tonight.”
“Friends?”
“Darrin and Derrick, remember?”
After a few moments, the memories clicked and Superkid nodded, “That’s right. Darrin and Derrick.”
“And they’re hosting a party…” the hypnotist repeated.
Superkid scratched his head. The memory of that didn’t quite click as readily as Darrin and Derrick did, but of course he had no recollection of that because he had had the fear hypnotized out of him and thus couldn’t remember the terrifying episode with the escape of Terrence’s tarantula. He finally told the hypnotist, “I don’t remember anything about a party.”
“Your friend Terrence is hosting it at his house tonight,” the stranger explained.
Superkid scratched his head. “Huh. Was I invited?”
“You weren’t,” the man said, “because everyone thinks you’re a scaredy-cat.”
Our hero was surprised. “That’s ridiculous! I’m fearless! And what’s so scary about a party?”
“They’re going to tell scary stories--”
“So?”
“—and watch scary movies--”
“Is that all?”
The stranger smiled broadly. “You are going to prove them wrong. You are going to go to that party and tell them that you are Superkid and you are not afraid of anything!”
“Darn right, I am! Where’s the party?”
Still smiling broadly, the hypnotist pointed to Darrin’s house and said, “He’ll tell you the details. Just be sure to tell him the very second you see him that you are Superkid.”
“If you insist,” said Superkid with a shrug and started toward Darrin’s house.
The hypnotist watched him go with a proud smile on his face and then strode away, disappearing as mysteriously as he had appeared. Will we see him again? Perhaps sooner than we think.
But now that the mysterious hypnotist has removed himself from the story, we can now focus our entire attention on our young hero. Some of the questions about him have been answered and most likely other questions have surfaced that only you the smart-aleck reader would be clever enough to ask. But I the dignified narrator am too aloof to answer such questions. Let’s just be content with our own superiority and get on with the story.
Aaron—now Superkid—marched up to the door of Darrin’s house and knocked confidently. He no longer knew the fear of being answered by someone he knew only distantly or the fear of waiting awkwardly for his friend. And Darrin noticed this immediately when he opened the door.
Before he could get a word out, our diminutive hero announced with a salute, “The name is Superkid, Darrin.”
Darrin had been in the middle of exclaiming Aaron’s name in surprise, but at this rather strange salutation his voice faltered, making him sound somewhat like a dying engine from a lawn mower.
Superkid gave an apologetic shrug. “I know it’s weird. It’s just what he told me to tell you.”
“Told you… wait, who?”
“The man.” Superkid pointed into the street but then froze. That was the moment that it struck him just how weird it really was. Before this moment, it had seemed very natural to follow the directions of a strange man with hypnotic powers, but now he really understood that this was weird.
What am I doing? He wondered. Without fear though, the thought was merely a puzzle. And since it was only a puzzle, his brain launched into a series of logical thinking: okay, he told me to tell Darrin that I am Superkid and that I’m fearless… I need to tell him that because he and everyone else thinks that I’m cowardly… and because they think that I’m cowardly they’re throwing a party with a scary theme that is supposed to keep me away… so it’s necessary to tell him that I’m Superkid, which naturally is followed by the fact that I’m fearless.
Superkid turned to Darrin and glared at him. “So you think you could scare me away, did you?”
Darrin was perplexed. “Wh-what?”
“A scare party,” our hero explained, “that you thought I was too chicken to go to. How could you ever doubt that I, Superkid, would be frightened away by something as mundane as a party? Even if the theme was horror?”
Darrin wasn’t following. But a word in his friend’s dialogue alerted him. It might help him figure out what his friend was talking about.
So he asked, “Who’s Superkid?”
Superkid gave him a bemused look. “Me?” It dawned on him that Darrin didn’t have a clue who Superkid was, which was why Darrin thought he was a coward. Darrin was confusing him for a different person who apparently was the chicken that didn’t dare go to parties with horror themes.
Strange how the hypnotized mind works, isn’t it?
But as illuminating as this logic was, Darrin was still groping blindly. He asked, “Is this a joke?”
Superkid shook his head. “No… at least, I don’t think so.” Now he was getting as confused as his friend. “I think what’s going on here is that you’re confusing me with someone else.”
Darrin shook his head confusedly. “You mean Aaron?”
Superkid’s body jolted. His eyes stared blankly for a second. Then he blinked and shook his head. “What happened?”
Darrin’s eyes widened. “Aaron?”
“Yeah?” Then Aaron noticed the way Darrin was looking at him. “What?”
Darrin didn’t speak for several moments. Something weird was definitely going on with Aaron. Darrin at first thought Aaron was playing a joke on him… until he realized that Aaron wasn’t the kind to play jokes. And when he saw Aaron’s body convulse, it convinced him that something absolutely weird was going on with Aaron. But what?
He asked, “Do you remember anything?”
Aaron gave him a strange look. “Like what?”
Darrin raised his palms in surrender. “The last five minutes? Do you remember when you knocked on the door?”
Aaron opened his mouth to respond and then shut it when he realized that he didn’t remember knocking on Darrin’s door. As a matter of fact, he didn’t remember even coming up to Darrin’s house. What was he doing here? He spun around and scanned the street, hoping he might spot something that would jog his memory.
Darrin did not like this. It was just getting worse. There was definitely something going on with Aaron. And the other name seemed to have something to do with it. Did he dare?
He did. It made him nervous though, so he asked very cautiously, “Does the name, ‘Superkid’ mean anything…”
He was alarmed when Aaron’s body convulsed again. Then his friend blinked and said, “What happened?”
“Aaron!? Are you o…”
Once again, his friend convulsed, shook his head, and then cried, “What’s happening to me?”
“It’s okay! Don’t panic!” Darrin said though he himself was losing his cool. “It’s probably temporary. We’re probably making a big deal out of nothing.”
“What are we making a big deal out of?” Aaron demanded, gripping his head as though afraid it would fall off.
“I don’t know! Just keep it together. You’ll be okay.”
“Okay? Wh
at’s going on with me? Am I spazzing out or something?”
Darrin babbled, “Sort of. I mean, it’s just for a second and then you’re one person and the next you’re someone else, and I think it’s this name that makes you spaz, so as long as we don’t say the name then you’ll be just fine—”
“A name?” Aaron interrupted. “A name is making me spaz?”
“I think so,” Darrin said, calming a little. He was slowly coming to the conclusion that his own babbling was actually making sense.
“What’s the name?” Aaron asked.
“I think it was, uh, Superkid,” Darrin answered before he realized what he had just done.
Aaron convulsed once more and then stumbled around, clutching his head. “I think something’s wrong with me,” he said. Darrin was astonished at how matter-of-fact he had sounded.
“Which one are you?” Darrin asked his friend cautiously.
“Which one what?” His friend looked up. “Oh, you mean am I Superkid or your timid friend? I’m Superkid.”
Darrin automatically began to change his friend back but then a thought stopped him. He had calmed down enough that he could now approach this problematically. Aaron didn’t seem to have an idea of what had happened to him but maybe this Superkid could give him the answers he needed.
“Hey, um, Superkid?”
“That’s me,” said the super kid, pleased that Darrin finally recognized him.
“Can you tell me where exactly you came from? How you came to be in Aar—uh—this body?”
The super kid looked down at his body and then back up at Darrin with a bemused expression. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I mean how is it that you were Aar—uh, my scaredy-cat friend for twelve years and then came knocking on my door