Free Banging the Superhero by Rebecca Royce

be bothered by what she'd said and after he dropped his hand to his side he kept his smile plastered on his face.
    "Why do you have your hair like that? Are you some kind of freak?"
    "I guess you could say I'm a bit of an oddball."
    Why is he so calm? Alice hadn't been back in her mother's presence for more than a few minutes, and already, she wanted to scream. Ace acted as if her mother's insult was no big deal. He was a steady rock her mother wouldn't be able to budge.
    Finally able to smile, Alice stepped past her mother and into the house, noting she still hadn't been asked to enter.
    Her mother spoke to her back. "If you're not here to hide, then what brought you?"
    Alice stopped moving, looked around at the plaid furniture she'd had as a child that now decorated the living room in another house. "Well, Mom, the thing is—"
    "Wow, something smells wonderful in here," Ace said.
    Alice sniffed the air. That was true, and she recognized the smell immediately: pot roast. She never made it herself because it was the one thing she'd never been able to make as well as her mother had. Some kind of mental block. A cooking stumbling point she could not cross over, and the very thought of it made her mad as hell.
    "It's my pot roast." Her mother strutted in her cut off jean shorts to the kitchen.
    "Alice can't make it."
    Ace met Alice's gaze with a questioning look.
    "I can't. I absolutely can't do it as well as she can," she whispered.
    "All right." He too spoke in a whisper. "Can she make Chicken Francais like you can, though?"

    "I doubt she's ever tried. She'd say it's too fancy."
    He caressed the side of her face as they walked into the kitchen. Her skin tingled where he'd touched it. Whatever else she could say about Ace, she would happily admit that her real life Batman was a sexual force of nature. His touch alone could make her melt and had—several times.
    She stepped into the kitchen and stopped, listening to the conversation Ace engaged her mother in.
    "How long have you lived here?"
    Her mother laughed. "I don't suppose Alice would have told you that. She probably has better things to do than to talk about me."
    "Now, Dora, you and I both know Alice values privacy. It's hard to get her to tell me what time it is, let alone to talk about her family."
    Was that true? Was it hard to get her to speak about herself? She had never thought it was . . . .
    Her mother nodded as she opened the oven door to look at the pot roast. The smell of Alice's favorite childhood meal wafted into the room and made her stomach growl loudly. She rubbed it as Ace glanced over at her and winked.
    A wink? Was he kidding around? Was she not hard to talk to? She opened her mouth and closed it again.
    Her mother kept speaking. "She hides things well, especially things she doesn't want people to know."
    "I bet she does. Lots of childhood memories she'd rather no one hear?"
    "No." Her mother's face fell. "She was an excellent child. Never did anything wrong."
    Why did her mother sound so bitter about that? Wasn't that what parents wanted from their children? Alice wanted to scream. Shaking, she clasped her hands behind her back so it wouldn't be so obvious. Ace was up to something.
    "There is one thing, though. The nightmares."
    Her mother blinked. "About the machines?"

    Ace's tone was dead serious now. "Those are the ones."
    Her mother arched an eyebrow and Alice shuddered. She remembered that look from her childhood. It usually made her hide in her room.
    "You're sneaky, aren't you?"
    Ace nodded. "I'm not going to pretend I don't know what you're talking about.
    Yes, I'm sneaky. You immediately discounted me because I'm a Superhero and because I have long hair. I got you to let your guard down."
    "Why are you asking me about Alice's freaky dreams? She saw her uncle lose his arm. It happens. Children have nightmares. It doesn't make me a bad mother."
    "I never suggested it did."
    Alice couldn't take any more. "Mother," she shouted. Both Dora and