MW: Birds of Paradise #1

[Ken Cooney]

                          BIRDS OF PARASendDISE

                              Issue #1
                            by Ken Cooney


   A station wagon slowly drives through the road, passing pastel 
painted cookie cutter ranch homes with green lawns and white picket
fences.  A paperboy rides his bike down the sidewalk, pitching news
papers, landing each one perfectly on the front porch, inches from the
door.  An old man in light tan dockers and a polo shirt waters his
lawn and looks at the car as it moves on.  In front of another home,
a woman tends to her red rose bushes and glances at the car as well.
   "Well, this seams like a nice place, Frank." a woman in the 
passenger seat replied to everyone in the car.
   "Yeah, Marian, the brochure said it was a great place for us to
live," Frank replied, looking around as he drove.
   "Bo-ring!" a teenage boy in the back seat replied from behind his 
comic book.
   "Looks dreadful," the teenage girl added, hunched back in the car
seat.
   "You have to give it a chance, kids," Frank mentioned, spotting the
number of his house. 
   Frank drove the car into the driveway and turned off the motor.
   "We're home!" Miriam enthusiastically replied.
   Mariam got out the guide for their new home and thumbed through the
pages.
   "Shoot me now," the girl replied as she got out of car.
   "Man, this place is going to be hard to spot at dark.  It looks just
like all of the other homes and there are no street lights," Frank
muttered to himself.
   "What was that dear?" Mariam asked, looking up from the guide.
   "Oh, I was saying 'man this place is going to be a heck of a lark.  
It looks just like no other home and there are great sights.'" 
   "Oh yeah, there's a nice park at the far end," Mariam mentioned,
reading a section in the guide under 'features'.  "Maybe you can meet 
some cool friends Teagan."
   "Yeah right and we can tell ghost stories by the campfire and toast
marshmallows," Teagan sarcastically replied.
   "That's the spirit!" Mariam commended as she continued looking 
through the guide, oblivious to her daughter's sarcastic tone.
   "I hope they have cable internet service all the way out here," the
teenage boy replied.
   "I'm sure they do, Thomas," Mariam replied, thumbing through the
book. "See, here on page 26, we can get Interstellar cable and bundle
the internet with the phone service."
   "Sweet!" Thomas said as he pulled his laptop bag out of the car. 
"In the meantime, I can see if there are any wireless modems around 
here."
   "I worked with the movers and got everything moved in.  So, it 
should be ready to settle in," Frank mentioned.
   "That's great dear, I'm sure we'll have to move one or two things
around," Mariam added, still buried in the guide.
   "Hi!  I'm Sandy.  Welcome to Birds of Paradise," a blond haired 
teenage girl in a white flowing dress replied, "I brought cookies as 
a welcome gift."
   "Oh, isn't that sweet," Mariam replied, looking at the girl, "and
you look about Teagan's age."
   "I'm sixteen," she said with a smile.
   "Perfect, maybe you two will be good friends," Mariam mentioned,
taking the plate of cookies from her.
   "Hi, I'm Sandy.  Nice to meet you," Sandy said, extending a hand to
Teagan.
   Teagan just looked at her with a small amount of disgust.  Sandy
look at her and read the T-Shirt she was wearing.  "I can't sleep.  
The clowns will eat me," she read. "Oooookay.  You scared of clowns?"
   "Only the knife wielding ones," Teagan retorted.
   Sandy slowly put her hand down. and turned her direction back to
Mariam. "Well, I live just next door."
   "So, we'll be seeing a lot of you then!" Mariam said with a smile.
   "Joy," Teagan muttered under her breath as she walked past the
two and headed toward the house.
   Thomas was already inside and found his room.  "Blue." he said,
looking at the pastel blue walls, royal blue shelves, and teal
shag carpeting. "I guess it'll do until we get things painted to 
some other color."
   "Nope, we can't paint the room without okaying with the committee,"
Frank replied from somewhere within the house.
   "Excuse me?" Thomas asked.
   "Yup, it was so in the guide," Frank mentioned as he entered the
room and paused.  "Wow."
   Frank absorbed all of the blueness in the room. "This room is
sure blue."
   "I bet that means my room is all girlie pink," Teagan replied as
she walked to her room.
   Thomas and Frank followed Teagan to her room, which indeed was 
very pink.   
   "It looks like Strawberry Shortcake threw up in here," Teagan
mentioned with some disdain.
   "Are you serious that we can't repaint the rooms?" Thomas asked.
   "Page 26, paragraph 5," Mariam replied as she entered Teagan's
room and then looked up from the guide and stopped in mid-thought.  
"Wow, this is really pink."
   The four of them looked at the room.
   "Well, there's a guest room.  Maybe that one isn't so ... uh,
pink," Frank mentioned.
   "Let's hope not," Teagan mentioned as she left the room, in search
of the guest room.
   "How about we go out and get some ice cream," Mariam said as she 
survey the room.
   "Sounds like a great idea," Frank replied, "How about you take the 
kids.  I think I'll stay here and see what the neighbors are like."
   "Suit yourself," Mariam said as she left Frank in the room.  "Ice
cream run!!!"
   "Alright!" Thomas shouted.
   "Well, the guest room is light tan, so it'll do," Teagan said from
somewhere in the house.
   Frank heard the three leave the house.  He heard the car doors open
and then close.  The car started and backed out the driveway, heading
to the local soft serve store.
   "So..." Frank said, looking around.  "This is it, huh?"
   Frank wandered through the rooms and headed out the door.  He
walked down the brick sidewalk to the next door neighbor.  The old man 
next door was cutting the grass using an old manual push mower.
   "Greetings!" Frank said.
   "Howdy," the man said as he pulled a handkerchief from his light
tan dockers pocket and wiped his brow. "Frank Newcastle is it?"
   "Yes, how'd you know?"
   "Read it in the paper," the old man said, taking off his work
gloves. "They have a section that mentions the new neighbors moving
into the neighborhood."
   "Ah!" Frank said as he shook the man's extended hand.
   "Andy.  Andy Williams.  Otherwise known as Blue Diamond."
   "Nice to meet you," Frank replied. "Don't keep your identity a
secret any more?"
   "Nah," he said, stretching his shoulders. "Retired.  Just about
all of the villains I've fought are dead or in convalescence homes or
something.  In fact, I play chess with Doctor Raven.  You know, the
guy who built a robot army and tried to destroy New York City in ...
what was it?  1964?  Something like that.  Probably before your time,
come to think of it."
   "Just a bit," Frank mentioned.
   "Yeah, well he did his time, and then worked for NASA and used his 
robotics for space suits.  Doesn't that beat all?" Andy said with a 
smile.
   "Yeah, I never expect that," Frank replied.
   "Well, he was one of the first in the program to get reintroduced
into society.  He had a clean record in prison.  Said he found God and
all that nonsense.  When he went to NASA, all of us thought something 
was up, expecting the next great plot to destroy a city or take over 
the world or something.  But he just went clean, worked, used his
knowledge for good.  Even helped us supers out of a scrape or two."
   Andy paused, grabbed his handkerchief and wiped his brow.  "Never 
thought I'd see you retiring."
   "Yeah, well, wanted to spend more time with the family."
   "This is a nice place to do it.  Quiet and all of the neighbors
have been in the business or know someone who has.  There's no telling
really who's one of 'em and who's not but it's not like anyone cares."
   "I sounded like that was the case from the guide," Frank mentioned.
"How's Estelle?"
   "Estelle died a few years ago."
   "Sorry to hear that."
   "S'Ok.  The job was real hard on her and it took a toll on her
mind.  She has a harder time controlling her power.  Kept hearing
voices even in the night.  Couldn't turn it off."
   "Wow."
   "Yeah," Frank said. "She took meds and saw help from council."
   Andy paused as his eyes looked past Frank. "I found her on the
bathroom floor.  Bullet in her head.  Self inflected."
   Andy shook his head. "I can't get mad for her doing it.  I was
surprised she held on as long as she did."
   Andy took a deep breath and put his gloves in his back pocket.
"Anyway, this is a nice place.  Friendly.  No one will bother you
except maybe the occasional fanboy.  I think you'll love it here."
   "Sounds great," Frank said, shaking Andy's hand.
   Andy smiled and walked back to his front door and then turned 
around.
   "Well, you'll like it here if you don't mind being bored after the
lifestyle you've been used to," Andy said with a smile. "For the most
part, nothing ever happens here."
   Andy opened the door and entered his house.  Frank looked around at
the fresh cut lawns and the pastel painted cookie cutter ranch homes 
enclosed by white picket fences.  He took a deep breath.
   "Nothing ever happens here," he said with a pause.  "That's going
to take some getting used to."
     Frank started back to his house when an explosion knocked Frank
forward, pushing him into the lawn.  Frank slowly got up, turned 
around, and saw Andy's house in smolders, black smoke bellowing into 
the sky.  Shreds of ashen burnt paper was slowly drifting in the air 
like snow.  Frank stood up and looked in disbelief.  A piece of paper 
fell to his feet.  "Welcome to Birds of Paradise: A relaxing and 
enjoyable place to enjoy your retirement."

======================================================================
   BIRDS OF PARADISE   Issue 1   "Home Coming"   A Metaworld comic.
   Copyright 2009 by Ken Cooney, all rights reserved.
======================================================================

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