Cat on a Hot Bright Moon, Part 2
Cat on a Hot Bright Moon, Part 2
Miranda phones home.
Welcome to Olympus City, where super-powers, physics-defying tech, and unearthly creatures are all possible now. Human nature, however, remains unchanged.
No one is born a perfect superhero, but a few strive to live up to the ideal anyway.
Previously: When visiting the Hephaestus Enterprises research facility, Miranda received a request to fly up to the moon to collect some samples, which may aid the search for the missing Fantastic Man.
Part 2
She had a couple of hours to kill before her journey to the moon. Sibyl needed to prepare an oxygen apparatus, and Miranda certainly wanted her to take all the time she needed and perhaps a little longer.
So Miranda went home. Not to the apartment. Home.
The trip took just under an hour at Mach 3. She cruised at an especially high altitude, above the flight paths of any airplanes, and the sky darkened as she sailed eastward toward Meadowville, a peaceful suburban town known for its strong school system and profitable housing market. A nice, stable community, good for raising a family, and not a place that required Ultra Woman’s services all that often. She kept her costume compressed in her pocket in case of emergency, right beside her phone.
The Thomas residence sat at the far end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood called Stonewood, where Miranda lived throughout her grade school years. She had flown to Meadowville before, but never directly to the house.
Concealed in darkness, she landed in the tree-filled backyard where she had a clear view of the kitchen. Her mother, Naomi, was loading the dishwasher while her father, Vern, cleaned the oven pan. Older sister Bianca was visiting home, and she had brought her fiancé, Remy Phillips. As they cleared the table, Bianca enjoyed watching Remy chat with Peyton. Whatever he was saying made the skinny high schooler giggle. Slumped in a chair, Peyton held a finger between pages of a well-worn paperback—a nonfiction book detailing the Terrific Trio’s first year of protecting Olympus City—though she took a break from reading to bond with her future brother-in-law.
The couple were both aspiring doctors. Remy was on track to become a pediatrician while Bianca was studying for a career as a general surgeon. They looked right together; they fit as if they were inevitable.
The whole family, including the soon-to-be family member, appeared to have enjoyed a pleasant, leisurely meal together. Except Miranda.
Miranda pulled out her phone and dialed the house. On the first ring, Peyton leapt from her chair and grabbed the receiver. One glance at the number, and her smile brightened.
“Hey! How’d the audition go?”
The youthful voice brought a smile to Miranda’s face even as the question instigated a phantom toothache. A supervillain situation had interrupted their last phone call, and Miranda invented an audition so she could respond.
“I can confidently say I am not getting that part. Can’t win them all. Did you talk to that friend you were telling me about?”
“Yeah, and she just started being mean to me too.” Peyton shrugged, a futile attempt to prop up her frown. “It’s better that I know she’s like that, I guess.”
“I’m sorry. These things can be hard. It’s her loss.”
“Not really anyone’s gain, though.”
Miranda attempted a reassuring platitude, but she couldn’t fault the kid’s logic. And she was pretty sure it showed in her voice.
Fortunately, Peyton switched topics and asked if Miranda had spotted Ultra Woman or Mr. Amazing lately. Miranda said she had indeed glimpsed Mr. Amazing flying overhead, rushing toward some incident. That was true, though she omitted the part where she immediately switched into costume to help him apprehend Papercut.
The corners of Peyton’s lips curled up, and Miranda experienced the thrill of a small but important victory. Her own smile faltered, however, as she realized that Peyton had given up on asking about Fantastic Man sightings.
Naomi claimed her turn with the phone. “Did you get the gift cards we sent? Were those good restaurants?”
“Yes. Thank you. Perfect, though you really didn’t have to.”
“How else would I know you’re eating? You’re so thin.”
“I have a small frame.”
“You’ve still got room to put some meat on you.”
Vern got on the other line, and both parents expressed several other concerns about their daughter’s well-being—financial, social, health, and so on. Miranda successfully fielded all questions and avoided raising any new concerns. Vern asked if there was any new young gentleman in the picture, which of course there wasn’t, since no one could possibly compete with her experiences as Ultra Woman. Miranda simply said she was focusing on work at the moment, though she neglected to define the full scope of her work and also neglected to mention how much she missed dating. Naomi asked about the audition that Peyton had asked about, and Miranda again avoided mentioning that the production never even existed.
Meanwhile, Bianca gazed out the window. She excused herself and exited to the deck. Descending to the grass, she looked Miranda straight in the eye.
“It’s probably getting late over there,” Miranda said into the receiver, “so I should let you go.”
“Did you want to say hello to Bianca?” Naomi asked. “She and Remy are visiting.”
Bianca was standing directly in front of Miranda, looking down on her with the usual judgment.
Miranda wrapped up the call. “I’ll catch up with her a little later, and I will be sure to enjoy spending one of those gift cards tonight.”
The moment she hung up, Bianca said, “If you’re hungry, we’ve got some leftover pot roast inside. A nice homecooked meal is a lot healthier than eating out all the time.”
“I actually have this ultra-immunity to trans fats, so no worries on that front.”
Both sisters understood there was no point in rehashing their usual arguments. Miranda wasn’t letting the rest of the family in on her secret, and Bianca would never stop insisting that she should. The stalemate persisted.
“So, an audition,” Bianca said. “I thought Ultra Woman didn’t have time for theatre.”
“The audition was a supervillain.”
“Oh, so you lied to your parents and little sister.”
“I said I didn’t get the part, and I, in fact, did not get any part.”
Bianca grimaced at that, then gestured to the house. “You came all this way. Now come the rest of the way.”
Naomi was laughing at something Peyton said. Not merely laughing. Howling. Which, in turn, got everyone else laughing. Miranda would hear no laughter in outer space.
“I have to go to the moon tonight.”
“The … moon?”
“Yes, to help find Fantastic Man and …” She realized she should have stopped there.
“And the man who nearly got me killed.”
Early on, after Warner Pinkney lost control of the thing, a killer robot targeted Bianca as a more efficient way of destroying Miranda, and Bianca couldn’t even tell her own fiancé about her near-death experience, for fear she might slip and reveal too much. Miranda hated imposing that burden on her, but couldn’t risk otherwise.
“And a nice lady who’s helped me out a lot,” Miranda said. “I shouldn’t be too long up there. I really can’t be.”
Bianca’s mouth hung open before the question found its way out. “How long can you hold your breath?”
“I’ll have an oxygen supply. So, okay, I can be up there longer than normal. I’ll be fine.”
“Miranda,” Bianca said, eyes wide and unblinking, “did you … you’re not here to say goodbye, are you?”
Miranda quickly shook her head. “No, no, of course not. It’s just …” She wasn’t sure how to explain it without generating more worry. Coming here suddenly felt like a mistake. “I’ve been to outer space before, and it’s … well … space is …”
The backdoor opened, and Remy stepped out. “Everything okay?”
Bianca glanced back at where Miranda had been, but she was no longer there.
“Yeah, just getting some fresh air.”
Hovering near the treetops, Miranda watched Bianca lie to her love, entirely for her sister’s benefit.
The couple indulged in a long kiss. The family shared laughs inside. And Miranda flew west.
All the adventures she’d experienced, plus the extraordinary possibilities that awaited her in the future, and yet she feared such a relationship, such a life, was beyond her powers.