Rick hauled the heavy VHS collection box into the passenger’s seat of his Subaru and slammed the door with a grunt of exhaustion. He took a moment to catch his breath and then hopped into the driver’s seat to start the car. 

As he was driving his way to the police station, he loosely held onto the steering wheel. Old memories began to spin around his head like a film reel.

He was taken to a time when both he and Isabelle were much younger and much closer. He was sitting on a squishy red sofa inside of a massive beach house in Malibu. It was 3:05 p.m. and as if on cue, the front door opened indicating that Isabelle was home from school. Cameron, who just started making lasagna in the kitchen, turned to the front door and smiled. 

“Hey Izzy, how was school today?” 

Isabelle looked down at the floor and grumbled, “Fine.” 

Cameron stopped what he was doing, quickly washed his hands and knelt down to Isabelle. He was looking at her face-to-face because as a psychologist he knew that the first step to having a client open up to you was to get close to their level and express affection. The same can be said for children. 

“What’s wrong, Izzy?” he inquired. 

Isabelle sniffled and tried to hide her tears, “Boys at recess said mean things to me.” 

“Oh no, sweetheart, I’m sorry to hear that,” Cameron held onto Isabelle’s hands as he expressed his sympathy.

 He looked over to see Rick on the couch watching TV. 

“Rick, honey, can you come over here please? Isabelle needs both of our help.” 

The television’s trance on Rick faded away when he heard Cameron’s voice. He leapt from his seat on the sofa and met Cameron and Isabelle by the front door. 

“What’s wrong, honey?” Rick asked with concern. 

Isabelle repeated, rubbing her arm again, “These boys at recess were saying mean things to me.” 

“What did they say to you?” Rick tried not to sound aggressive in his demand.

“Today was career day in Mrs. Peterson’s class and I went up and told the class that I wanted to be a police officer and Calvin and his friends laughed at me. Then, at recess, they chased me around the playground and kept telling me that a girl couldn’t be a police officer and that I should be something girly like a cheerleader and I told them I don’t want to be a cheerleader. Then, they pushed me down and-,” Isabelle bursted into tears as she was trying to explain what happened, revealing the purple bruise on her right arm. 

Cameron hugged Isabelle tightly. “It’s okay, Izzy. What those boys said isn’t true. A girl can be a police officer and I know that you’ll be a great one.” 

Isabelle cried onto Cameron’s shoulder as Rick knelt down and patted Isabelle’s head. 

“It’s okay sweetheart, like Daddy said, you’ll be a great police officer when you grow up and you wanna know something about me?” Rick asked. 

Isabelle lifted her head and said, “What?” 

“Your daddy is a superhero.” Rick beamed.

“Really?!” Isabelle squealed. She turned her head back to Cameron, “Is it true, Daddy? Is Daddy a superhero?” 

Cameron gave Rick a distasteful look, but nodded and said, “Yes, Daddy was a superhero.” 

Isabelle’s sadness was washed away as she gasped, “That’s so cool! What superhero are you, Daddy?” 

Rick took Isabelle’s hand and led her into the kitchen where a poster of him in a red cape, mask and hat, was displayed proudly on the wall. “I was the Red Raven. A masked hero in red who would solve mysteries and bring justice to the city,” Rick stated. 

“Woah. You fought bad guys too?” Isabelle asked, excitedly. 

“I did. You know, I have videos of me as the Red Raven if you want to watch them with me?” Rick asked. 

Isabelle nodded enthusiastically, “Yes! I wanna see Daddy as a superhero!”

Rick held Isabelle’s hand as he turned on the VHS, which already had an episode of “The Red Raven” inside of it. The episode began and Isabelle sat on Rick’s lap as she watched in awe of what she believed her dad could still do.

To be continued…