# 6

Pentagon Thomas was sad. Yes, his name was Pentagon. He was a victim child of whimsical parents who thought that being born on a day when the country faced it first genuine terrorist attack on its mainland soil needed to be commemorated in some way. World Trade Center as a first name obviously didn’t have quite the ring. Anyway, he was sad because his favourite super-hero was dead. During the recent mega-battle between the Parasite and the Justice League of America, Captain Atom had been ripped apart by a defensive Parasite after his pleas to surrender peacefully were rejected by the JLA leader Magog. The environmentalists were sad too, and so were most other people, but due to different reasons. The radioactive emissions from Captain Atom’s dissociation had rapidly spread across the entire U.S. Midwest and effectively rendered the American bread-basket a barren wasteland. Strangely enough, the only species that survived was not cockroaches, but honeybees. Swarms upon swarms of honeybees from the apiaries in Upper Midwest migrated to the neighbouring state of Montana, where Pentagon’s family lived. To Pentagon, though, all these were mere details. Captain Atom was dead, and nothing would ever be the same again for him.

His latter assertion would soon be proved uncannily accurate.

Let’s get ourselves some background here, shall we? Pentagon was the son of a wealthy faith healer Jonathan Thomas, based in Missoula, Montana. His father had practically never been around during the short time that Pentagon had been intelligent enough to appreciate the fact. On the other hand of course, the aura of his father had been around way too much. Whether it was in the form of “sick” people lining up in front of the house everyday in the vague hope that they would be blessed, or the exaggerated coverage he got in the media, especially the print media in Missoula. It was a small town, after all, with few heroes to speak of. The ones it did produce, it wore them proudly on its forehead.


It would be redundant and overly sappy to mention here that Pentagon missed the presence of a real father in his life, someone who could take him out fly-fishing down at the Big Blackfoot River, like all his friends’ Dads did. Or maybe take him to the garden during spring. The very thought of all those flowers suddenly got him excited in a way he had never previously experienced.

It was a rare occasion. Jonathan was going to be home for almost a month. Pentagon figured this would be the only time he’d even come close to getting to know his Dad. He had hardly ever spoken to him before this, he had mostly only been ordered around. He gathered all his nerve and walked up to his father’s study.

“Dad.”
“Yeah?”
“Captain Atom died.”
“Who?”
“Captain Atom.”
“Huh? Oh yea, that freak. Hah, so much for superheroes. Without the power of God within you, all other power will prove useless.”
Pentagon winced. He had hoped to catch his father in the non-faith-healer mode.
“There are a lot of bees around.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Last week while coming back from school…”
“I’m really busy Junior, just buzz off for now.”

At this point in the story, James had pretty much guessed the ending. But he let grandma continue lest she be disappointed.
“And since then, the Pentagon monster haunts the Big Blackfoot. Nobody has seen it, at least nobody who’s still alive. But fathers don’t take their kids out fly-fishing anymore.”