The Incredible Adventures of Pat Benoit
By: Natalie Delisle
Pat stands at the register of “Comics R Us”. He owns 24 of the 25 comics of Torpedo Woman and The Jackhammer. The final comic #25 just came in and Pat is anxiously in line waiting to purchase it.
“Sorry dude, it’s our only copy”
“I’ve followed
them since episode 1, I NEED this final episode.”
“Sorry dude. We keep one for our store
records and this is the only one the store got.
They didn’t print many of this episode cauz the ending is lame. Who kills off superheroes anyways? Gas tank
explosion my ass…”
“THEY DIE?! THEY EXPLODE?!”
“Sorry dude, I didn’t ruin it for you did I? Anyways try back next week and I’ll see what I can do for you.”
Pat walks out of the store with his head down. He thinks to him self “The last episode, I’ve waited for this since I was 10. I could see it, the freaking thing shining in its plastic casing in the display case. I’ve waited for this since forever. I finally get to find out who they are, and what? The freaking zit faced kid that’s been reading comings for a week tells me I can’t buy it. I’m the comic book pro, who does he think he is?”
Rain is coming down as Pat sulks to his car. He gets in, sits down, the wetness from the rain caused the comic on the seat to stick to him. Ripped comic book pages line the floor and dash. Intact comic books are piled on the passenger’s seat, backseat and rear window. Pat starts his car, a loud crack of thunder rumbles through the sky. He drives down the road towards his house. All of the sudden, lightning strikes a telephone pole and sends wires and sparks flying.
“HOLY SHIT!”
One of the wires flies toward a 4
story apartment building. Pat watches it
destroy the window.
Pat jams his car into park and flies out of it, rushing to the scene. Pages of comics trail after him as he speeds out of the car. Pat runs to the front of the house and hears the fire alarms screaming. People are filing out of the house to save themselves from the fire. Ther are carrying cats, dogs and even a pet fish out of the building. Pat waits for the people to exit and sees the flames rising in the window and setting first two floors on fire.
“Are you the last one out?”
“Yes, I come from the top floor and I knocked on everyone’s door, they are all
evacuated”
Pat
is glad, but at the same time disappointed, he thought today would be his day
to shine. He stuffs his hands in his
soggy jean pockets and decides to go back to his car parked in the middle of
the street.
“HELP ME AHHHHH”
Pat hears a blood curdling scream coming from a smoke filled room. His ears perk up and his adrenaline surges. He pushes through the crowd and runs over the wet side walk, into the house. There are flames everywhere. The whole first floor is on fire, Pat knows the woman is in danger.
Pat hears another hair-raising scream and locates the stairway to lead him to the woman’s room. He climbs stair after stair dodging falling timbers of fiery wood. He hears her scream for help. The screams are getting louder, he is getting close. Up and up he climbs to the 3rd floor of the building. The handle on the door is red hot, it needs to open in order to get the woman out. Pat rips off his t-shirt and winds it around his hand. “If I was a superhero, I would be fireproof” he thinks. He gets opens the door, the woman is lying on the floor breathing through a pair of pajama pants. HELP ME she screams and grabs at Pat.
CRASH. Pat runs out of the room and looks down, the 1st and 2nd floors collapsed, there is no way out. He runs back to the woman, “stay low to the ground”. Pat wraps his t-shirt around his face to help him breathe through the smoke and debris filled air. He makes his way down the hall to a window. Pat makes a fist and breaks the window. People below are sprinkled with shattered glass, but nobody is harmed. He looks at his hand for blood. There isn’t a scratch on it, he ignores this and calls to the people below. “I’ve found the girl, the stairs have collapsed, we need a way down.” SOMEONE CALL 911 a voice below screams.
Pat runs back to the room and grabs the woman. They make their way across the hallway to the window he smashed in. CRASH, the floor they are walking on begins to cave in. They run over the floor to the end of the hall. They reach the window and breathe in the cool clean air from outside. HELP US the woman cries out to the people below. “I know this is a long shot” Pat thinks, but he located a trampoline in the neighbor’s backyard. “This is our only chance, I’d rather break some bones than burn to death”. Pat yells to the people below:
“Do you see the trampoline in the
back yard over there?”
“Yes”
“I need you to go get it and place it under us, we’re going to jump and try to
hit it. There’s no other way out”
“Ok”
Three men grab the trampoline and place it below the window.
“What is your name?”
“Sophie”
“Ok Sophie you’re going to jump first”
“I’m too afraid, you go first”
“Well honey, that’s just too damn bad now isn’t it, this is our only chance and I’m not leaving you in this building to burn”
“Fine”
“Good. I’m going to stay here until you’re safely on the ground.”
The woman climbs up onto the ledge of the window, she gazes into Pat’s eyes. For a moment they stare into each others eyes.
“Ok, on the count of three I want you to jump. Are you ready?”
“Yes”
“1, 2, 3 JUMP”
The woman is hesitant but Pat gently nudges her out the window. He watches her fall. Ashes are falling like snow as the woman falls 3 stories to a trampoline. He watchers her body change shape as it nears the trampoline. He thinks “Damn this was a bad idea.” She hits the trampoline and bounces back up. The trampoline cushioned her fall and it springs her back up, she bends into a sitting position as the trampoline bounces her up each time less distance than the first. Finally she stops, the people help her to safety.
Pat is covered in sweat and is starting to get light headed from the smoke and ashes in the saturated air.
“Holy shit it worked”
“What was that?”
Pat hears a muffled sound coming from the floor above him.
“It’s a dog”
“A god damn dog”
“WHY?!”
Pat needs to go up one more flight. Will the trampoline hold him and the dog from the 4th story? Uncertainty flows through pat as he grabs his t-shirt and wraps it around his head. And image of Nelson his pet pit bull flashes before him.
“Why did it have to be a dog?”
“A cat, I would have left but a dog?”
“WHY”
Pat runs through the hallway and hears the floor crack with is weight.
“This isn’t going to hold”
Pat locates the stairs and starts to run up them. Each step he takes tears a stair apart and splinters it into the fire below. He reaches the top and finds the entire hallway on fire. He can see the door the dog is behind. He takes a deep breath and runs for it. Flaming pieces of wood are falling at him in all directions. He dodges one on his left, and then his right, one exactly to the front hits him. The wood lands on pat’s feet and he feels nothing. It’s tingling him, not burning. It doesn’t even feel hot, Pat grabs the flaming piece of wood and examines it. His hands aren’t getting burned. The flames feel like they are licking him, tickling the pores in his skin.
“What the heck?!”
Pat ignores this and chucks the piece of wood.
He throws himself on the fire eaten door the dog is behind and it explodes
open. He sees the dog. It’s a pug, locked in a cage on the floor.
“The poor thing wouldn’t have had a chance”
Pat un-latches the cage and takes the pug out. He looks at bone shaped name tag that reads “Pete”.
“Well Pete, today is your lucky day.”
Pat wraps Pete in his t-shirt and runs out the door. There are more burning timbers falling all around him, but he runs and makes it through the hallway. The stairs are completely gone when Pat and Pete reach them. Pat decides to jump it. He squats then leaps. As if his feet had wings Pat is lifted above the collapsed staircase and flies over it without effort. As he is in mid air, he glances at the fire below. Pat lands safely and looks down the hallway. He sees the floor has caved in at the middle. His lungs are filled with smoke and itch from embers he breathed in.
Pat decides if he could jump the stairs, he can jump this hallway. He squats and leaps and is once again lifted
in the air. Pat realizes his leap is
lasting a long time. He no longer feels he
is jumping, but that he is flying.
“This isn’t possible” Pat screams mid flight, and he abruptly stops. He lands with thud on the fire eaten floor. The floor gives in to his weight and Pat starts to fall through it. Pat pushes Pete to safety near the window, then floor collapses and Pat falls through. He is holding on to the metal support beam remaining from the floor. He hangs by one arm and dangles over the fire. His arm trembles holding the weight of his body, the rubber soles of his shoes melt away. Pat can feel the fire licking his feet but it only tingles, he is not burned.
Pat gets a surge of super human strength and pulls himself up, as if he had been pushed from below. He lands on the floor and grabs Pete. Pete is howling in fear, Pat re-wraps him in the t-shirt. They climb onto the window sill and Pat holds Pete tightly.
“Here we go”
Pat hurls his body out the window
and hits the trampoline. It bounces him
up and down until he stops. Pete can
hardly breathe and pants for fresh air. Both
of their lungs hurt from the fire they breathed in. The people help Pat off the trampoline and congratulate
him for a job well done. A woman who
knew Pat’s grandfather pats him on the back
“Francis would have been real proud of you Pat, real proud.”
Pat thanks the woman and starts to walk to his car. He studies his hands and feet as he walks, still clutching Pete with his arms.
“Did I just fly? Why aren’t my feet and hands burned?”
A wave of confusion rushes over Pat, he collapses in the back yard of a neighbor.
******
Two hours later
“Where am I?”
“Shit I still have this dog”
Pat picks himself off the ground
and walks to his car which is still in the middle of the road with the door
wide open. He gets in and places Pete in
the backseat. He sits for a while studying
his hands. “Not a scratch” he thinks to
himself. He begins to think the whole
thing was a dream. Then he realizes
there is a pug in his backseat and they are both covered in ash. Pat turns the car on and drives home. Nelson is waiting at the door when he
arrives.
“Hey Nels, I got a friend for you for a little while”
Pat places Pete in front of Nelson. They sniff each other and frolic off into the living room where Nelson keeps his toys. Pat walks into the bathroom and looks in the mirror. He is covered in ash and soot and is black from head to toe. He examines his feet where the flames were licking him. “Not a scratch,” he thinks to himself. Pat takes his jeans off. They have holes burned into them. He throws them into the trash can and turns the shower on.
Steam fills the bathroom.
******
Two weeks later
Telephone poles are covered in signs with Pete’s face on them.
FOUND DOG
PETE THE PUG
CONTACT PAT
752-1045
These signs have been up since the morning Pat rescued Pete. Pat decides to take Nelson and Pete out for a walk.
“Nels, Pete”
“Let’s go for a walk”
Nelson and Pete bark in excitement
and run towards Pat. Nelson is jumping all
over the place. Pat calms him down and
places leashes on both of their collars.
“Ok, let’s go”
They head out the door, and Pat
locks it. The walk on the sidewalk for a
while and turn the corner to
“PETE?! PETE IS THAT YOU”
A large man appears from the railroad tracks with a construction hat on. Pete starts barking and runs up to him.
“Hey asshole you stole my dog”
“Wha’d you mean I stole your dog”
“That’s my god damn dog mister and you have it.
He’s been missing for two weeks”
“Ok, you’re building burnt down right?”
“Yeah, I was on vacation, Vicki was taking care of Pete for me”
“Well, I was in the building and
Pete was locked in a crate”
“I don’t own no dog crate, you sole ‘im”
“THE BUILDING WAS ON FIRE”
“YOU STOLE MY FUCKING DOG”
“RESCUING ISN’T STEALING DOUCHE BAG, HAVEN’T YOU SEEN THE SIGNS AROUND TOWN?”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A DOUGHE BAG, FUCK FACE?”
Sirens blare in the distance and police arrive at the scene
“What’s the problem here gentlemen?”
“This guy stole my dog from my
house”
“The house was on fire two weeks ago, I jumped in and saved the dog”
“I’ve heard of you, you disappeared after you rescued that woman, nobody could interview you, very strange mister didn’t look good to us officials.”
“I passed out on the lawn. I Inhaled a lot of crap from the fire”
“Anyways this guy stole my dog and I want something done about it”
“I didn’t steal your dog”
“MY DOG WENT MISSING AND YOU HAVE HIM!”
“Come along with me sir”
“Why?”
“You’re under arrest for the theft
of a dog and breaking an entering into a home”
“I DIDN’T BREAK IN, THERE WAS A WOMAN AND A DOG TRAPPED IN THE BUILDING AND I
SAVED THEM, RESCUING SOMETHING
ISN’T STEALING IT”
“That’ll be for the judge to decide mister”
The police man throws Pat on the ground.
“Put your hands behind your back”
Pat does and is handcuffed
“You have the right to remain silent, anything you do or say can and will be
used against you in a court of law. You
have the right to speak to an attorney…..”
“I don’t fucking believe this”
Pat is placed in the police car and the door slams at him.
“I didn’t steal that dog”
“I don’t give a shit, sit down and shut up”
Pat slouches in the seat. There is no
way out of this.
They arrive at the police station. Pat is taken in and is walked down a long hallway with black and white checkered floor tiles. There is a door at the end. The police man opens it and pushes Pat through. He throws Pat up against the wall and sticks his fingers in ink and places them on finger printing paper. Each finger leaves the smudge of Pat’s identity. He is given a moist towelette, then thrown into a jail cell.
“I didn’t steal that dog”
“That’s for the court to decide sir”
Pat lays on his side on the cold concrete of the cell floor. He a ray of light is visible from the window. The metal bars are grey and cold and show no signs of freedom. Pat rolls over and is lying on his back. “Why did this happen?” he says out loud to himself, “Why am I here?” Pat closes his eyes and it all comes back to him.
It’s 3:18 am, lights turn on in the room of a young boy. An old man enters and wakes the boy up. “Pat wake up, we have to go”. The boy wipes his sleepy eyes and gets out of bed. The man carries the boy downstairs, an old woman waits holding a small yellow winter coat for the boy. “Put this on Pat, it’s nasty outside”. They go outside to the car and the old man buckles him into his seat, Pat quickly falls asleep.
They arrive at the hospital, Pat’s grandfather is holding his sleepy body. Pat wakes when they enter the brightly lit hospital. “Where are we?” Pat asks. There is no reply. “We’re here to see the Benoit’s, Kathy and Michael Benoit, they were brought in about an hour ago” the grandfather tells the receptionist. “I’m sorry sir but they are still in surgery, you’ll have to wait down the hall until a doctor comes to see you.” They proceed to the tiny waiting room down the hall.
Pat’s grandmother lays him on the couch. Her and her husband take the wooden chairs in the corner. The floor is white and blue checkered and very clean. It reflects the fluorescent lighting mounted in the ceiling. Pat quickly falls back to sleep arms draped over the side of the couch, mouth wide open and breathing loudly.
He feels like he is being lifted again but does not wake up. His grandparents have gotten news from the doctors and go home. They are crying, but sleeping can’t see this. They arrive at their house, place Pat in his bed and head downstairs. They do not go to bed. At 7:00 they hear Pat awake. Mr. Benoit goes upstairs and enters Pat’s room.
“Pat, have a seat, ok?”
“Why? I want to eat breakfast”
“Breakfast isn’t ready yet Pat, I have something very important to tell you”
“Oh”
“Pat do you remember where we went last night?”
“Some place with bright lights, I remember they woke me up.”
“Yes Pat, it was the hospital.”
“The
hospital? Is grandmother sick?”
“No Pat, there’s been an accident”
“Accident? What kind of accident”
“Oh Pat, I don’t know how to tell you this,”
“Your parents…”
“What about my parents?”
“They were in an automobile accident last night, there was ice all over the road and… he didn’t see it.”
“Who? My dad?”
“No Pat, the other driver. He hit a patch of black ice and spun into your parent’s car. Because of this they hit a tree. Pat, are you following me?”
“Yes”
“Pat I’m so sorry”
“Why are you sorry, they are fine right?”
“Oh Pat, your grandmother and I wish with all our hearts that’s the truth. But it’s not.”
“What do you mean?”
“They are angles now Pat, up in heaven”
“Pat?”
The boy sits on the edge of his bed crying. His grandfather picks him and walks into his grandparents’ bedroom. He lays pat in the bed, piling pillows up behind his head. He goes into the closet and opens something, then comes back out holding an old skeleton key. He goes to the cedar chest at the end of the bed and unlocks it, looking carefully at Pat before he opens it. The chest lid is lifted, Pat glances down with tear filled eyes and sees his grandfather close it. His grandfather locks it back up, returns to the closet and puts the key away. Pat can see his grandfather is holding a black shoebox.
“Grandpa, what’s in the box?”
“Something that will help you through this. Pat I know exactly what you are going through, my parents died when I was very young.”
His grandfather opens the shoebox and superman is on the front cover of a magazine. He takes it out and hands it to Pat, who holds it up to the light and studies it.
“Mr. Benoit, you have a visitor”
Pat sits up, interrupted from his daydream. He can see the police man unlocking the jail bars. He leads pat down the hallway. Lots of black and white floor tiles line the hall to the exit. Pat is cold and wants to go home. Pat is lead out the door, his handcuffs are taken off. He gently rubs the sore pink skin the handcuffs rubbed against. He looks at the police man as if to say something, but is distracted by the site of Sophie and Nelson standing behind him.
“Hi”
“WOW! HI, what are you doing here?”
“I was up the street when I heard you and Martin fighting about Pete. By the time I got there you had already been hauled off, so I didn’t get a chance to defend you. I really wanted to… Martin scares me”
“You’re telling me! I can’t believe his name is Martin, I thought it would be Spike or something”
“It should be. Anyways I knew you were in trouble and your dog was left behind after they hauled you away. I figured I’d pick him up and bring him to you!”
“Thanks!” Pat bends down and scratches Nelson’s ears.
“Well, you’re free to go, I explained the whole situation to Martin and he dropped the charges.”
“I tried to tell them…. Why didn’t they listen to me? Why did they listen to you instead?”
“They’re called breasts Pat… Anyways you and Martin were so wild when they found you they didn’t know who to believe.”
“Thanks for clearing this whole mess up. I really appreciate it”
“Hey no problem, you only saved me from a burning building, it’s the least I could do.”
“Eyeah, it’s all good. Anyways I should get home Nelson looks hungry, and I really want to take a shower.”
“Do you want a ride?”
“No thanks, I’d rather walk. I need to clear my head.”
“Ok, if you need anything don’t hesitate to call.”
Sophie hands Pat her phone number on a crumpled up piece of paper. She gently touches his hand. They gaze into each others eyes and a spark ignites. Sophie slowly turns away and struts out of the police station. “I’ll definitely be in touch” Pat says as he watches her walk away. Pat exits the police station and starts his trip home. He walks the streets with Nelson and he thinks about the girl, jail, the huge man with a dweeby name of Martin.
“What a stupid name for a big guy. Oh well, she’s pretty isn’t she Nels?”
Nelson looks up at him and wags his tail. They walk for another 20 minutes and reach the house.
“Home sweet home, never looked so good”
Pat opens the door and walks inside with Nelson. He goes into the kitchen and fills Nelson’s bowl up with food. Nelson trots over and starts devouring as if he hasn’t eaten in days. Pat scratches Nelson’s ears, then goes into the bathroom. He turns the shower on and steam fills the room. There is a knock on the door and he goes to see who is there. Nelson starts barking and runs at the door in attack mode.
“Nels calm down, it’s probably just the neighbors”
Pat opens the door.
“Hello?”
Nobody is there. He walks off the porch on to the walkway and there is nobody.
“Weird”
Before he goes in the house he steps on something
“What the hell?”
The object is a small envelope with his name on it. Inside is a letter that reads:
“Dear Pat, you are ready to know the truth.”
Attached to the bottom of the letter is an old skeleton key.
“What the hell?!”
“What is going on?”
Pat runs to the backyard screaming
“Hello” trying to whoever left the note on his front doorstep. There is nobody,
nothing, just the sound of his own voice. He looks over the fence to his neighbor’s yard. He sees a figure wearing a black trench coat
running away. Pat flies over the fence
and runs after the cloaked figure. He
turns the corner and sees the man in the black trench coat. Pat runs toward him. The man gives him a smile and vanishes before
Pat’s eyes.
“What the heck?!?!” Pat stands in place for a while
staring at the spot where the man was standing.
He touches the ground where the man's feet were, there is nothing, the
pavement is cold. Pat walks back to his
house and goes inside. He studies the key.
“I wonder…”
Pat drops the envelope and the letter on the floor and heads to the attic. The cedar chest that used to be at the end of his grandfathers bed is up there. It had always been locked when he was a boy. One time he and Matt, the boy next door, tried to pick the lock with one of Pat’s grandmother’s hair pins. They got caught and were verbally lashed by his grandmother for hours. Pat was sent to bed without supper and was grounded for a month.
“They didn’t want me to go in this,
why would I get the key now?”
Pat blows the dust of the top of the
chest and finds the keyhole. He slowly lifts the key up to it. He inserts the key and gives it a gentle
turn. It clicks and the lock drops.
Excitement flows through Pat’s veins. He has never been able to explore inside
this cedar chest before. Thoughts race
through Pat’s mind as he reaches to open the chest. Should I really be doing this? What the heck
is inside this thing? Is there a dead person in it? Pat puts his hands onto his knees and wonders
if he should open it.
“Well, someone wants me to see what’s in this thing.”
Pat throws open the cedar chest. Dust flies
everywhere and creates a fog along with the sunlight spewing in through the
window. The dust settles and he can see
a stack of old newspapers and a bundle of clothing.
“What the hell?”
Pat opens one of the papers, the headline reads:
TORPEDO WOMAN AND THE JACKHAMMER KILLED RESCUING WOMAN FROM BURNING CAR.
“That’s how the zit faced kid said the comic ended…”
Pat looks at the photographs of the super heroes, they were strangely familiar. He holds the photos up to the light from the window and studies them.
“MOM? DAD?”
Pat crumples on the floor staring at the photographs of his parents dressed in their super hero attire. He reads the story of his parents attempting a rescue of a woman pinned inside a burning car. Both of Pat’s Parents were inside getting her out when the gas tank exploded.
“Grandfather told me they hit a
tree. This can’t be them. They were hit by a driver and then spun out
of control and hit a tree.”
Pat looks at the newspaper article and lays it on the floor. He goes into the chest and takes out the
bundle of clothes wrapped tightly with twine.
Pat unties the twine knots and looks at the articles of clothing. There’s a red cape, red boots and a blue body
suite with the letter S in a diamond.
Pinned to the inside of the body suite is an old black and white picture
of a young woman in her early 20’s.
“WAIT, I know that lady”
Pat runs downstairs and grabs the picture of his grandparents on their wedding day. He runs back up to the attic and places the photo’s side by side.
“Grandmother?”
“That means grandfather was…. And my parents were…. So I must be….”
“HOLY SHIT”