A series of unfortunate events Part 1

2012

"I remember when I was a little kid growing up, watching cartoons and reading comic books. I always wanted to see a super hero in real life. I wanted them to be real so badly. Sometimes, I’d imagine what I’d do if I were a super hero. What would I do? Would I have super strength? Would I control fire, or throw bolts of lightning? It was all kid stuff. But even in my adult life, I was sucked into the ideas of abnormal human beings. Somewhere, the rules are always being broken. We as human beings have created laws that are broken all the time. Something in the universe created all the laws that govern how we move about our space. It’s about time they were broken too. But never once did I imagine leaping through the air and traveling 13 city blocks..."

Upon completing his sentence Render leaps forward into the late Los Angeles skyline creating a near blur of city lights bellow him. Cars and street lamps appear as a graceful menagerie of moving streaks of lights. They seem to spread in all directions. Render closes his eyes and slowly extends his arms outward as he reaches the apogee of the leap and for a moment, he is nearly suspended and motionless above downtown. Slowly, he begins to gather speed on his decent. He opens his eyes and spots the perfect rooftop to land on and lets himself accelerate down towards his target. Within a moment, Render lands gracefully on the rooftop without a sound. He casually strolls to the edge of the building and peers down, focusing on a street sign.

Annoyed by his shortcoming, he grumbles.
“Flower? Shit! That’s only 10 blocks! Auuugh, I’ll get it right eventually”

Render, formerly Jason Reyes, a five-foot-eight slender man, had rather elongated features and a commanding stature for a man of his build. His long thick black hair contrasts his light brown skin making it hard to hide his Filipino ancestry. He had been manager of research and development for an up and coming automotive performance parts manufacturer until the accident...

2008

“Ah shit... Late as usual” grumbles Jason as he weaves through traffic on the 105 attempting to make record time getting to LAX to pick-up a client. As if to add to the frustration, a taunting musical chime, muffled within the car denotes the constant beckoning of an ever-so-demanding cell phone.

“Fuck” he murmurs as he dedicates his right hand to shuffling through the items in the center console of the car and then onto the passenger seat where a mangled pile of automotive magazines managed to spread itself from the seat to the floor, and fill the space between the door and the seat. Amidst the mess he feels the vibration of a $400 electronic “personal low-jack,” called his cell phone, promptly snatches it up and flips it open to utter a frustrated “hello?”.
“Oh hey sweets. How are you? Yup. Traffic, traffic and more traffic, but at least it’s moving enough for me to get through it with a little ingenuity. I’m en route to picking up a cli-"

Before he could finish the statement the jolt of another motorist accidentally attempting to change lanes into the space occupied by his car causes him to drop the phone.

“Damnit!”

Attempting to keep his eyes on the road, he blindly grabs the phone up from his lap, rotating it in his palm to face upright before returning it to his ear.

“Uh hello, Hun? I’ve gotta go. I just got “body-slammed” by another car here. I’ll call you after I get back from the airport.”

Jason hangs up the phone placing it in his pocket and waves to the other motorist gesturing to pull over. The two cars gradually make their way across the traffic-laden lanes to the side of the freeway. Jason and the other motorist -a young woman- almost simultaneously get out of their vehicles and start to approach each other with apologies. She is a rather tall shapely but slender woman. Her hair is long jet-black and wavy. She is about the same skin tone as Jason, but the tone is a bit deeper carrying a reddish hue. Her facial features are generally soft except for around her lips and eyes, making them stand out more. Her hair waves and her blouse and skirt ripple as the gusts from passing cars combine with the wind to create pulses of air that are almost in time with the steps she is taking towards Jason. As she approaches, Jason leans back, seating himself on the hood of his car as he is captivated by her hazel eyes and is admiring each step she takes. Her steps are a bit miscalculated as a sign of nervousness but that does not stop him from being completely engrossed in her beauty. The two car-lengths of space between them allots ample time for Jason to take in the sight.