I bought a ticket and wandered up to the main entrance, but still couldn’t spot him, so I found a shady place to wait. As I sat there thinking about all that happened, I idly noted a man in jeans and a t-shirt walking in my direction. When he stopped directly in front of me, I was startled. “Alex,” I squeaked in surprise, “is that you?” I hadn’t even recognized him.
I’d planned out a whole conversation in my mind, and now that he’d shown up in “civvies” I couldn’t think what to say. As we ambled along toward the center of the zoo, I babbled, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you when you weren’t wearing the Superman costume.”
“Are you disappointed?” he asked, and his voice had an anxious note in it that surprised me.
“No, it’s not that,” I said. “It’s just that I expected to find you playing with the kids and being your alter ego.”
“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk with you about,” he said, as we came up to the sea lion pool. We paused at the railing to watch the playful creatures swimming and barking for a minute, then he led me over to a bench. He stayed silent so long that I couldn’t take the suspense any more.
“So what’s going on, Alex?” I asked, trying not to sound too anxious. “Why aren’t you wearing the costume?”
He turned to look at me, and I thought I spied apprehension in his eyes again.
“You know I started wearing the suit because of Glenda. I was devastated by her leaving and humiliated that she had made me into a cuckold. I know it was a crazy thing to do, but the thing is, the suit seemed to help. I didn’t feel so vulnerable when I was wearing it, and that helped me get a little self-confidence back. I started working out and stopped drinking, and that was good too.”
“Then came all that publicity, and things started happening really fast. I got a promotion at work when I took that manuscript to my boss, then I went on Letterman, and now I’ve got people who want me to go to Hollywood.”
He reached down and took my hand. “But the best thing that happened to me out of all this was meeting you,” he said quietly. My breath caught in my throat and my hopes started to rise, but he dashed them with his next words.
“But now I’ve got a problem, and I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you.”
“I don’t understand, Alex.”
“The thing is, I started wearing that suit to protect me from humiliation. But now that everybody knows the real story, she’s the one who’s been humiliated. She can’t hurt me anymore, and now she has to suffer the consequences of her actions. As a result, now I don’t really feel the need to wear the suit anymore.”
I was encouraged to hear what he was saying, yet I couldn’t help pointing out the implications. “But Alex, if you stop wearing the suit it means passing up those opportunities that agent was talking about. You could be giving up real fame and fortune.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but that’s not who I am, not who I want to be. And that’s what scares me.” He stared into my eyes. “Are you going to be disappointed if I give all that up? Would you still be interested in me if I’m not Superman anymore?”