Batman

Octavio was Batman today. He wore a mask and a cape complete with a Batman t-shirt. He was in costume for the majority of the afternoon walking around the pavilion and basketball courts, visiting me at the sign-in table, lurking behind the pillars, stopping all adolescent crime. When I asked him who he was he responded "Bruce" in that deep scratchy baritone voice used in the most recent Batman movies. He was fully in character underneath that mask and black and yellow Batman seal. For those few hours he wasn't the kid that gets picked on because he doesn't speak English very well, or wears his khaki pants a little high on the hips, or doesn't have the dentist approved perfect smile. He was Bruce, the crime-fighting superhero whose strength and power is rarely challenged by others. I sat there watching him run about the courts with his cape in the wind wishing I could borrow his mask and fall into all my whims safely hidden behind a more powerful respected face.