ALERT: Jackdo

Most mornings when Jack wakes up, he says good morning. And then he says, "Will you play guys with me?" "Play guys" means we both choose a superhero action figure and begin acting out made-up stories with them. I like to say yes when I can. I get a kick out of the stories that emerge. This particular morning, the story turned unusually domestic. Starring Jack as Wonder Woman and me as a little-known superhero named Bishop . . .

Jack (as Wonder Woman): "Hi Bishop. It's me, Wonder Woman. I love you. I love you, so I want to marry you."

Me (as Bishop): "You do? Well, alright then."

A small, sweet ceremony is played out on the living-room couch. The superheroes even smooch.

Wonder Woman: "Now we need a home."

Bishop: "Well, I just happen to have built one for us right over here."

"Cool. Now we need to have a baby."

"Oh, a baby? Hmm. Um . . . what should we name our baby?"

"Um . . . well, we already had our baby. And now he's all growed up. And his name is Wolverine!"

 

That was fast. We now have an adult child. With claws, even.

Domesticity ends. The typical superhero story kicks back in. But this time we have the additional tag-team luck of married superheroes . . .

"Bishop, do you hear a bad guy in our house?"