Shortcuts

A paranormal superhero story with a supernatural twist

Golden Girl is so cool

Comments have been blocked for this story but kudos and private messages are always welcome. Even highly critical private messages are welcome. I don't mind criticism when it's private.

Shortcuts
by Terry Volkirch

Chapter 16

Lester had next to no homework that weekend so he planned to spend most of his Sunday patrolling the city for danger and crime. It didn't take long for something to get his attention. He started sweeping the alleys with his clairvoyance and clairaudience just after breakfast and he found a runaway girl huddled next to a dumpster, shivering and obviously hungry. The girl had long, greasy brown hair and wore dirty blue jeans under a long, tattered wool coat. She could've have been more than fourteen and his heart went out to her. With practiced ease, he used his telekinesis to remove his clothes and grab his purple jacket outfit while he shapeshifted into Crystal. The new girl quickly dressed, turned invisible and flew directly to the runaway, making sure to keep her speed below the sound barrier. She turned visible and touched down just in front of the girl, who stared at her with huge, round eyes.

"Hello, I'm Crystal. Would you like to grab a bite to eat or something?"

"Golden Girl!" the runaway shouted. She tried to get up quickly but had a little trouble. She'd gotten a little stiff from the cold and weak from hunger. Crystal helped her a little with telekinesis and the girl squealed with fear.

"Hey. It's okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." The concerned superheroine hugged the young runaway, who started crying at the attention.

"There, there. Can you tell me your name?"

"My… name… is… Lizzy," she said between sobs. "Please… don't take me… home."

"Don't worry. I suspect you have a good reason for running away."

The girl nodded against Crystal's shoulder.

"We won't talk about it any more. Now let's see what to do about you. We can't have you living out here in the cold."

Against her better judgment, Golden Girl gave Lizzy a brief warning and flew them both back towards her house. She didn't have to cover the younger girl's eyes to prevent her from seeing where she lived. The frightened girl tightly hugged the superheroine and pressed her face into the purple coat with her eyes slammed shut. She couldn't see a thing.

When Crystal got home, she checked on her father and found him gone, most likely at the shooting range. That left her free to touch down in front of her house and walk Lizzy up to the front door. "The woman who lives here is married with a son but she's alone right now. She can take you in, clean you up and feed you for the day but she'll have to take you to a shelter of some sort later."

"Please don't leave me, Golden Girl!" Lizzy cried. "Please!"

Crystal sighed, and she was about to knock on the door when Susan suddenly flung it open. "What's going on out here?!"

"It's me, Golden Girl," she gave her mother a very subtle shake of her head. "I'm bringing this runaway girl to you for help. She was ill-treated in her home and she could use some food and cleaning up. Will you help her, please?"

"Of course, uh… Golden Girl. Let's get her inside."

Crystal followed Lizzy and her mother inside and shut the door behind her, shaking her head. 'I'm still cursed,' she thought.

After quick introductions using only first names and a tall glass of water for the runaway, Susan took Lizzy to the bathroom and immediately stripped her down while she drew a hot bath. She didn't know what to think about the situation. Given all the talk about the importance of keeping a secret identity, it didn't seem wise to bring a teenage runaway home. It upset her a little but then again, she couldn't help feeling some compassion for the poor runaway, and she also couldn't miss the element of humor.

The young teen insisted that Golden Girl stay near her so Crystal did. The blonde girl stood in the doorway, blushing as she looked down the hall, anywhere but at the nude teenage girl getting into the bathtub.

"Oh!" the girl said suddenly, astride the edge of the tub. "Can I charge my phone?"

"Where is it, dear?" Susan asked. She spared a glance at her blushing daughter and had to suppress a laugh.

"In my coat pocket. I've got the charger too."

"Sure."

After Lizzy got herself settled in with loads of suds to help conceal her body, Crystal came in and sat on the floor while Susan went off to wash Lizzy's clothes.

"Thank you so much for all of this, Golden Girl," Lizzy said, blinking away tears.

"You're welcome, Lizzy," she said, looking off to one side of the girl. "I'm happy to help."

The runaway studied the superheroine for a moment. "You're much shorter than I imagined."

Crystal shrugged. "I hear television makes you look taller."

"And you blush easily."

"I'm not used to all of the attention," she said, not exactly lying but not telling the full truth. She wasn't comfortable with the way the conversation was going.

"Yeah. I saw your interview. You could use some practice."

"Thanks for the suggestion, Lizzy. I'm not really used to speaking in public. I just want to quietly help people and fight crime. I only went to the television studio on impulse. It was totally unplanned."

The younger girl nodded. "You should plan your next one."

"I don't know if there'll be a next one. I didn't like the way the first one ended."

"But you need good public relations."

"I do?"

"Uh huh," Lizzy nodded. "It's important for someone in the public eye. Don't you think?"

"I don't really know what to think. This," she gestured vaguely to her body, "all happened rather suddenly and I'm still trying to get used to it. Figure everything out."

"Well, think about it. Okay?"

Crystal smiled. "I will. Thanks."

The conversation stalled and Lizzy splashed around a bit as she cleaned herself. It wasn't long before Crystal got embarrassed again though.

"Will you wash my back, Golden Girl?"

The older girl blushed a little but hid it well enough as she replied. "Sure. But only if you call me Crystal."

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I keep forgetting your name. Everyone calls you Golden Girl."

"I know. But I prefer Crystal, at least privately, like now. Okay?"

"Sure, Crystal. Now how about my back?"

After more blushing and back scrubbing, Lizzy finished up and Crystal quickly left the bathroom to give the younger girl some privacy to dry herself. It wasn't long before the runaway girl emerged wearing just a towel, and it was only minutes after that when Matthew got home, carrying his favorite handgun in plain sight and scaring Lizzy half to death.

The runaway girl shrieked and Crystal had to wrap her in a hug and soothe her. "It's just the man of the house. He lives here. He's cool. It's okay."

"Susan!" Matthew called. "What are these two girls doing here?"

"Oh!" his wife suddenly appeared next to the girls. "You're home. Hello dear."

"Don't 'Hello dear' me. Why are these girls here?" He tried not to look at the two teenage girls too closely with one of them wearing nothing but a towel, so he hadn't yet recognized the superheroine.

"We're just helping out a runaway. She has nowhere else to go."

"We? Who's we?"

"Golden Girl and I."

Matthew looked back at the girls and finally took a good look at the older blonde girl, wearing a black body stocking, tights and boots, and still hugging Lizzy. "No way," he said quietly.

"Way," Crystal said, giving him a faint smile.

The stunned man looked back at his wife and slowly said, "Okay. Next question. Why?"

"Honestly, Matthew. Enough with the twenty questions. We're helping the poor girl because she had some problems at home. It's the right thing to do."

Crystal spoke up then. "Excuse me, sir. You're scaring Lizzy. May we please have a little privacy?"

"Privacy?! You want privacy in my home?!"

"Matthew! Can't you see you're scaring Lizzy?!"

The poor runaway girl trembled and her eyes were wide with fear.

"Please, sir," Crystal added.

"Okay, fine," Matthew huffed. "I'm sorry, Lizzy. I'll go back out to my man cave and leave you ladies alone." With that, he stomped out to the garage and got into his SUV to listen to his car stereo.

Susan stroked the frightened girl's back. "I'm sorry about that, Lizzy."

The girl clung to Crystal as she was led to the third bedroom in the house. The McHenry family sometimes used the room as a spare bedroom for guests and visiting family members as well as for storage and hobbies. It wasn't very warm yet so Susan turned up the thermostat of the electric baseboard heater and went to get one of her bath robes, slippers and a blanket to provide more warmth until the room heated up.

Crystal started to follow her mother but stopped when she felt Lizzy still holding on to her arm.

"Please stay with me," the trembling girl pleaded.

The blonde stayed with the younger girl, quietly sitting next to her on the twin bed until Susan returned to temporarily clothe the girl. The woman also dropped off a banana, celery and carrot sticks and then quickly left again to give the two girls some privacy.

Lizzy started the conversation, trying not to talk with her mouth full. "Do you think we could maybe exchange phone numbers? You know. For texting or something? That would be so cool!"

"I don't have a phone," Crystal said without thinking.

Lizzy gasped, having heard the unthinkable. The idea of not having a phone upset the girl more than anything else that day. "That's terrible!"

The blonde shrugged. "It's for the best. I can't afford to be tracked or traced. You know. Secret identity and all that."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that. Still, it must be terrible."

Crystal smiled. "Actually, my alter ego has a phone. Don't worry."

The younger girl smiled back and they eased into pleasant, light conversation until Lizzy's clothes were washed and dried.

After getting Lizzy dressed in her cleaned clothes and feeding her a hot meal, they searched online and found a social service agency for runaways in the city. It was time for the girl to leave.

The grateful young teen thanked them and agreed to forget all about the husband and wife who helped her that day. Golden Girl flew her back downtown with the girl's eyes tightly shut. She gave the social services people a brief, vague explanation about finding Lizzy and getting her cleaned up and left the girl in good hands.

* * *

Crystal returned home feeling pretty good about herself. Helping Lizzy had to be the nicest, most satisfying thing she'd accomplished since getting her paranormal abilities. They almost made it worth the dread that she felt when she thought about the conversations that she'd soon be having with her parents, as Lester of course.

She turned invisible, slipped into the house and into her bedroom with no trouble. Matthew could easily be heard working on some project in the garage so she turned visible and changed back into her, then his, normal, fully clothed self.

Lester's first stop was his mother, who sat on her bed, waiting for him. Her hands trembled and it was obvious to him that she'd been crying.

"Mom! I'm so sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to scare you."

She bent forward and he hugged her as she cried a little more. When her sobs reduced to an occasional sniffle, she finally started talking. "Don't ever do that again, Lester. You should know better! Now we have to explain your connection to Golden Girl and everything. It's going to end in disaster. I just know it."

"No, Mom. I think it'll be fine. Remember the talk I had with Dad about Golden Girl?"

"How could I forget? He made it sound like you were trying to start a harem."

Lester cringed. "Yeah. Well, just let me handle it. Okay?"

"Sure, dear. Just be careful. Okay?"

The boy nodded and went to the garage to find his father, hard at work on a small, corner kitchen cabinet.

"Lookin' good, Dad."

"Lester! There you are, you sly dog."

"Sly dog?"

"Never mind. Before your time, I guess. Anyway, Golden Girl was here."

"Yeah. Mom told me."

"Why didn't you tell me you knew her?"

"I was trying to tell you when she first showed up but we sort of got sidetracked."

"That's right," he said, recalling their previous conversation.

"Yeah, Dad. She's the real thing and she helped that runaway girl today. She truly is a superhero."

"Does she go to your school then?"

"Technically, she does."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Never mind. She doesn't want anyone to know too much about her. It could be dangerous for her family. Can't give away her secret identity."

"But you know who she really is?"

Lester blushed. "Yeah."

"Wait a minute. Don't tell me." The man paused.

Lester started getting scared, but his father soon finished his thought.

"Son, are you dating her?"

The boy slapped his forehead. "No! Why does everyone have to be dating?!"

Matthew looked confused. "So what are you trying to tell me then?"

"That you might be seeing her around the house now and then. She needs help sometimes."

"Like with that runaway."

"Yeah."

"Okay. That's cool, son. So what about Erin?"

"What about her?"

"Are you dating her yet?"

"Actually, we sort of did have our first date just last night. It was nice."

"Nice?! I take it you didn't kiss her then."

"Dad!"

"That's okay, son. It's not good to kiss and tell anyway." He paused a moment, giving the boy a good, long look before adding. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Dad."

The boy left his father, who shook his head and smiled. His little boy was growing up.

* * *

Lester found his mother in the kitchen and gave her a smile to tell her everything was okay. She nodded and smiled back, leaving him to return to his bedroom for some patrolling. He laid out on his bed, extended his vision and hearing and scanned the city for trouble. It gave him plenty of time to think.

He didn't know where he'd find enough time to patrol once he started working. If the criminal activities didn't die down soon, his sleep could suffer. That made him wonder if a paranormal ability existed to help reduce the need for sleep. He made a mental note to do a little online research after he patrolled.

On his third pass through the downtown area of the city, something finally caught his eye that he wished he didn't see. A young man had strapped what looked like a bomb around him and held up a sign that read, "Come and get me, Golden Girl!" The man sat on top of a large billboard that overlooked one of the busier streets.

Lester sighed. He checked out the inside of the bomb with his clairvoyance and determined that it was fake like he suspected. The police and onlookers didn't know that though. It was still a crime so off he, then she, went. She got dressed in her black leather jacket outfit, turned invisible and slipped out the back on her way to the big city, and in only a couple of minutes, she arrived at the scene.

Several police stood around their patrol cars near the base of the billboard where the young man sat. One of the officers talked through a megaphone, to talk to the young bomber as well as for a little crowd control. The news media had an even larger presence than the police. Evidently, it was a slow news day.

"Okay!" Crystal told the young bomber, hovering in front of him. She talked loudly enough that the nearest police and reporters could hear her. "We both know the bomb is fake so I'm just going to remove it and lower you to the police. And just for the record, this doesn't count as a date."

The young man looked crestfallen. His head bowed and his shoulders drooped.

"Hey," she said so only he could hear. "I'll make you a deal. If you promise not to do anything like this again, I'll autograph your sign. It'll be my first autograph."

"Really?!" he said, his eyes lighting up.

"Really. Do you have a pen?"

The man fished around and pulled out a large felt pen that he'd used to write the message on his sign. He held it out to her and she took it and the sign. She gave the man her autograph and handed everything back to him after he made his promise. Then she removed the bomb and lowered it and the man to the waiting police.

Everyone cheered except for a few police officers and most of the reporters. The reporters were too interested in getting a statement from Golden Girl. They stuck microphones in her face and peppered her with questions.

"Do you ever get tired? Do you sleep? Are you dating anyone? Are you an alien?"

Crystal suppressed a sigh and gave a short statement. "I do want to say one thing. I won't be making a habit out of giving my autograph for this type of behavior. This is a serious crime and anyone who commits it will be punished to the full extent of the law. That's all I have to say. Until next time." With that, she rose up into the air and shot off to the east, followed soon by her signature sonic boom.

"She's so cool," the young bomber said with a look of awe on his face.

* * *

Crystal got back home and quickly changed back to Lester, who tried not to think about what just happened. The boy just started getting comfortable on his bed when his mother knocked lightly on his door.

"Come in, Mom."

She opened the door and peeked in. "You're back. Good. I couldn't wait." She came in and closed the door behind her before sitting on the end of the bed.

"Couldn't wait for what?"

"To tell you how adorable you were with that bomber," she said with a silly grin.

"What?! You already heard about it?! But it just happened!"

His mother spoke in as deep a voice as she could manage, "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special Golden Girl report. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera."

"Golden Girl report?"

"Yes. You've got your own newsfeed and everything."

Lester groaned.

"Aw. Don't be that way, dear. I think it's cute."

"I don't want to be cute," he said with a pout.

Susan smiled. "Too late," she told him.

"Come on, Mom. Give me a break. I'm going to suffer more tonight as it is."

"Oh! That's right. You're meeting Brian tonight."

"Yeah."

"Please tell him hello for me. He hasn't been over for a long time. You should invite him over for dinner soon."

"I don't want to encourage him."

"No, I'm serious, Lester. Invite him over as a boy. Remind him to think of you as a boy."

"Hey. That's actually not a bad idea. Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome." She started to get up to leave and paused. "Want to help me make dinner?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. It seems to be a slow news day. I think I can take a break."

Mother and son went out to the kitchen where Lester practiced the fine art of chopping vegetables while talking with his mother. They continued their conversation while everything cooked, and they left the radio and television off so they wouldn't be distracted by any further reports on Golden Girl.

* * *

Lester had a relaxing and fairly quiet dinner. His father hadn't heard anything about Golden Girl's adventure that day so the subject never came up. The man was never one for words anyway. The boy finished, politely excused himself and went to his room to prepare for his outing.

As soon as he got in his room, his phone vibrated on his desk. It was a text from Brian.

"gg! where r u?"

"hang on," Lester texted back. "leaving in a sec."

"i'm saved!"

Lester rolled his eyes and then started the transformation, this time wearing his, now her, purple jacket outfit. Crystal turned invisible and slipped out the back, her father none the wiser. Her mother watched the sliding glass door open on its own though.

"Have fun!" she called out.

"Who are you talking to?" Matthew asked her, his back to the open door.

"Oh. Just Lester. He's going out."

"What? Now?" He turned and just missed the door closing.

Golden Girl was on her way to the park to meet with her best buddy, Brian, and she couldn't help wonder why she agreed to it in the first place. She met him once already and started something that she didn't want to finish. But she already promised, and she wouldn't break a promise.

* * *

Crystal touched down, this time visibly in front of Brian, who sat on one of the swings in the children's playground area.

"So predictable," she told him with a slight grin. She moved to sit on the swing next to him, hanging on to the chains and swinging gently forward and back.

"Just wanting to make sure you found me."

"I've got 'powers.' I'm not going to miss you."

"You missed me last night."

"I told you I might not show up. And I texted you!"

Brian laughed. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm just messin' with you."

Crystal stuck out her tongue at him.

"You're such a girl."

"Keep it up and I'll tie you in a knot."

"Oh! Promise?"

"Ugh! Never mind. Can we talk about something else, please?"

Brian smirked.

"Not that either," she said, her eyes narrowing.

"What?! I didn't say anything."

"Your smirk said it all. Please don't bring up that bomber today."

"Yeah. I was going to mention that. But I also wanted to say how nice it was to see you rescuing runaways. That girl… what was her name?"

"Lizzy."

"Right. Lizzy adores you. Did you know she joined your fan club?"

"I've got a fan club?" She paused and thought out loud, "I wonder who started that?"

"I did," Brian said proudly.

"You?!"

"Yep. You needed one so I started a website."

"Why?! How could you do that to me?!" she cried.

"Hey. If not me, someone else would've done it. You're too famous not to have one."

She groaned.

"Hey. Don't be that way. Come on. It's cool!"

"Please tell me you didn't list all of my abilities."

"No way! I let the members do it. I made the list from their observations. The only one they noticed that you might not like is invisibility."

She sighed. "No. I expected that. It's not like they can use it against me. I can show up anywhere at any time."

"Yeah! That's a great idea. It might make guys think twice before doing anything wrong."

"Except for idiots like that bomber today."

Brian laughed. "Sorry. That was just too funny." He quickly turned serious and added. "But hey. Do you have any idea how much your autograph is going for?"

"What?! That guy is selling it?!"

"Auctioning it, you mean. Yeah. It's up into the thousands of dollars already."

Crystal groaned, holding her face in her hands. "It just keeps getting better," she said, and then thought to ask. "What all do you have on the website?"

"Just some of your abilities and a list of all of your activities. Oh, and some photos and videos of course."

"Of course," she said. "Just please don't list all of my abilities. I especially don't want anyone to know about the shapeshifting."

"Right. I understand."

She watched him watching her out of the corner of her eye. He wasn't trying to hide his staring and it started bothering her. "What about my name?" she said, trying to distract him. "What's Golden Girl's real name?"

Brian panicked a little then. He forgot to add that to the website. "Um…," he stalled as long as he possibly good and finally retrieved the memory with a look of triumph. "Crystal! Right?"

"Very good. What about my middle and last names?"

"You got me. I'm sorry. I don't remember those."

"Crystal Lynn Dawn. Add that to the website and I might just let you take some nice photos of me."

"Seriously?!"

"Seriously."

After an awkward minute or so of silence, she continued her gentle swinging but she subconsciously gave herself a telekinetic nudge to one side and suddenly found herself knocking Brian off of his swing.

"Oh!" she said. "Sorry about that!"

He laughed as he got up, brushing sawdust off of himself. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. I could've seriously hurt you."

"Well, if you feel guilty about it, you can make it up to me."

"You want another flight?"

"I was hoping for something more personal, actually."

"Like what?"

He hung his head low and said in a quiet voice, "I'm afraid I've got bad news."

"What? What is it? You're not sick, are you?"

"No, not exactly. It's just that, I got it bad."

"It?"

"Yeah. It. You know. Please don't make me say it."

Crystal slapped her forehead. "Seriously?! I was hoping I was imagining it, but no. You really did have to go and crush on me."

Brian gave her a silly grin to confirm it.

'Boys!' she thought. "I think I should go now," she told him.

"Aw. So no kissing?"

"Definitely no kissing. Hello! Remember Erin?"

"Oh, dude. That would be so hot." He imagined Crystal and Erin kissing and he couldn't help getting a little aroused.

She growled at that. "Good night, Brian," she told him and quickly launched herself into the air, shooting off to the east, followed soon after by a sonic boom.

Brian looked up in the direction she flew. "You're so cool," he said. He knew she probably didn't hear him but with her clairaudience, the possibility was there. It was enough.

* * *

© 2015 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.