Murder! Mystery! Action! Justice! Those were the four words that lived in Rick Greenblatt’s head even after 37 years of hearing them blared out onto television screens around the world. Those were the days where he thought he was above it all. Once, a wild young actor who starred in the biggest superhero mystery show of the 80s. Now, an old department store cashier.

“Does this lamp work with my coupon?” a man with a blond receding hairline asked.

Rick grabbed the coupon from the man’s pale hand and held it up closely to his face. He adjusted his glasses and read the coupon carefully. It was a 20 percent off home decor and appliance coupon.

“Yes, sir. It works,” Rick answered in a bored voice.

“Can you apply that to my order?” the customer asked.

Rick grumbled, “Yeah.”

He scanned the lamp and cereal boxes that were laid out on the checkout counter. The man took out his card and swiped to pay the $32.64 that flashed on the small blue screen.

The man grabbed his bag and shouted, “Have a nice day, sir!”

Rick rolled his eyes and weakly waved at him. He rested one fist against his face and snagged his phone from his jean pocket with the other. He noticed that he had five minutes left of his nine hour shift. His eyes lit up and nearly tripped as he was exiting the checkout area.

He grabbed his car keys from his pocket and started going through the clock-out process on his phone. He pressed the red clock button to clock out of his shift and walked swiftly to the parking lot. He drove off in his black Subaru Impreza and arrived at his small brown house that resided 15 minutes away from his job. He turned off the ignition, walked out of the car and opened the front door. Cameron, his husband, stood right in front of Rick which caught him off guard.

“Jeez! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Rick yelled.

Cameron folded his arms and frowned, “You didn’t see the message I sent you?”

Rick turned his phone on and did not even notice that Cameron sent him a message two hours ago. Cameron shook his head in disbelief as he walked past the entrance and into the kitchen.

“I was swamped at work,” Rick said as he passed a giant poster of himself in a red hat, mask and cape.

“I understand that, but what about on your break? You couldn’t say anything about one of your old friends passing away?” Cameron asked.

“Honestly, me and Teddy weren’t really that close. He was kind of annoying on set and acted like a brat,” Rick stated.

“I guess he got it from you,” Cameron said without thinking.

Rick stared at him blankly, “What?”

“All you ever care about is your time as The Red Raven and how great it was to be the leading man, but news flash, that show has been over for decades! You’re a more than 50-year-old man who works a dull day job and is a part of the people. I thought that you were going to change.”

“That you would wake up in reality and realize that maybe being a part of the people can be a good thing. But now I see that you never left the spotlight,” Cameron explained.

He began walking out the front door but Rick chased after him.

“Where are you going?” Rick asked, helplessly, gripping onto his arm.

“I just need some time in reality, Rick. “Something that you should do more often,” Cameron answered.

Rick let go of Cameron, and the door slammed right in his face. Tears began rolling down his face as he stood at the door, hoping he would come back. Five minutes later, Rick retreated to the living room and grabbed the newspaper from his couch.

The headline was in red and said, “Murder! Mystery! Action! Justice? Teddy Flowers, TV star, dies horrifically!” Those words began to haunt Rick’s mind once again as his eyes glossed through the story. He stopped in the middle of the description.

Teddy was bludgeoned with a wooden square block with the letter “A” painted on it. This was how a character died in “The Red Raven.” Could it just be a coincidence?

To be continued…