Hurricane Gregory

H U R R I C A N E G R E G O R Y� Part 10

Herbert and Amy Henriquez were sitting up front, while Jamie, Gregory, and Greg’s little sister Carrie were sitting on the back seat of the SUV. Greg and Jamie played cards and video games to pass the time while they were driving. It would have been so easy for him to just fly down to Florida. But on this was his vacation he vowed not to wear his Superboy outfit during the trip. In fact, he had left the blue outfit with the red cape; boots and trunk at home in Metropolis! He was coming along with Greg’s family to enjoy the sun, the beach, and to relax before the start of the new school year.

Greg’s little sister, Carrie, was sound asleep on the back seat. That way, both boys were able to play their games, without having to worry about his little sister.

“Want to play some cards?” Greg asked his buddy.

Jamie just nodded, as Greg opened up a small box with a deck of cards. Greg shuffled the deck and dealt the cards. He and Jamie shared a small “lap table” set on the seat between them.

Greg kept track of the chips and the cards, while he and Jamie played several hands of poker. Greg was lucky and he knew how to play his cards right. In fact, he had beaten Jamie four hands in a row!

When Greg had dealt the cards for the fifth round, he noticed that Jamie was taking a little longer to decide which card he was going to put on the table. Jamie had almost run out of chips, and he was very close to losing. Greg noticed Jamie’s eyes. Not only was he staring intently at the backs of the cards in Gregory’s hand. There was something else.

It was Jamie’s eyes. Momentarily, they had changed color from blue to bright green, before changing back to blue again! Greg had observed this transformation in Jamie’s eyes before. This time, he made the connection. He realized, “He is x-raying my cards. He’s cheating on me!”

Greg looked Jamie in the eye, tapped his cheek just below his right eye and then shook his head ever so slightly as he softly clucked “tch, tch, tch.”

Jamie flushed bright red as he realized he’d been caught by his friend. “How did he DO that?” Jamie wondered.

To himself, Greg marveled, “He doesn’t know! He doesn’t realize his eyes change color from blue to green when he is in x-ray mode. Greg made a mental note to tell this to Jamie when they were by themselves. “He’ll need to know that about himself. If I figured it out, someone else might be able to do the same thing. He’ll need to be very careful with that.”

Jamie was overcome with remorse. To himself he mused, “It’s not much fun to lose at canasta. But it’s even WORSE to get caught cheating on your friend. I know I’ve dropped several notches in Greggy’s eyes and rightly so. I’ll hafta apologize to him when we’re alone. One thing’s for certain. I’ll NEVER use my vision power to cheat at cards again. I can’t believe I did that, not only to Greggy, my FRIEND, but also to MYSELF!”

They rode in uneasy silence for a long time.

Carrie had been asleep alongside Jamie. Greg was seated on the left hand side, next to the window, Carrie on the right. Jamie has sat in the middle so he and Greg could play cards without disturbing Carrie. She stirred and then, quite suddenly, she was awake. Jamie looked over at her and smiled. “You awake now, sleepy head?” She yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she nodded. Carrie secretly had a little bit of a crush on Jamie, only one of many girls who did. He was shorter than average, but with a sturdy build that bespoke power and purpose. But beyond his handsome, athletic good looks, Jamie had a twinkle in his merry eyes that could make any little girl swoon. Carrie also had a crush on Superboy, little knowing that her two “idols” were one and the same boy.

She pulled a teen magazine, “Ingénue” out of her travel bag. Even though she was only ten, she had already begun to sport the affectations of a teenager. Greggy often teased his baby sister calling her “ten-teen.”

On the cover of “Ingénue” was a photo of Superboy. He has in flight, facing the camera with a broad grin. You could not help being almost hypnotized by Jamie’s big soft baby blue eyes. Carrie sighed.

“I wonder if I would ever get to meet Superboy and if he’d even WANT to meet me…”

Jamie grinned at Carrie as he answered, “You BET he would, Carrie! Cute as you are? You’d better believe it!”

As Carrie gazed at the cover of her teen girl magazine Greg laughed, “My sister Carrie, meeting Superboy. Yeah, sure! She’s… Ten-TEEN! Sweet ten-teen an’ never been kissed yet! Sweet ten-teen and never been kiss…”

Jamie flashed Greggy a pair of eyes, cold as ice. There was nothing “soft” in his “baby blues” just then. Greg stopped mid-sentence. As he looked quizzically back at Jamie, softly, the boy of steel uttered only one word, “enough.” Greggy got the message.

Carrie had seen it all. As she looked up from her magazine into Jamie’s eyes, the recognition hit her full in the face! Jamie! HE is Superboy! No WONDER I like Jamie so much. He’s not “LIKE” Superboy. He IS Superboy. Rather than blurt out her discovery as perhaps most 10 year old girls might, she kept it to herself. She leaned into Jamie and lightly bussed him on the cheek. She murmured softly, “Thanks, uh, ‘Jamie.’”

Jamie blushed bright red as Carrie giggled. She wasn’t telling, but she couldn’t resist the temptation to “nibble around the edges” of the secret.

“Your so gallant, Jamie! You remind me of Superboy!” she whispered to him.

At that, Jamie blushed even deeper red, if such were possible as Greggy registered a double take. There was brief but telling eye contact between Greg and Carrie as she glanced down at her magazine cover and back up at Jamie. Greg realized. “Oh wow, Carrie has figured it out! She KNOWS!” Carrie was not telepathic; at least not yet. But she had always been VERY perceptive. She looked into her brother’s eyes, winked and placed her right index finger before her lips in a “shushing” gesture to reassure him and Jamie that she would not tell. Greggy and Jamie both sighed with relief. Jamie took Carrie’s left hand with his right, gently squeezed and mouthed a silent “thank you.” Carrie beamed back with a coquettish smile as she batted her long eyelashes at him. That set Jamie to blushing all over again.

About three hours had passed when they caught their first glimpse of the Gulf Coast, as they along the southern shore of Northwest Florida.

“Look over there!” Gregory cheered, pointing out the window. “There’s the beach! I can’t wait to go swimming, Jamie!”

“Yeah! It’ll be great! The weather is so nice right now…” Jamie grinned.

“Well, I hope it stays that way, you guys!” Herb responded.

Both Jamie and Gregory looked at Herb quizzically.

“What do you mean by that, dad?” Greg asked his father.

“Well, there is a tropical storm in the Gulf right now…” Herb replied. “They were just talking about it on the radio.”

Jamie and Greg stared at him, concerned.

“You mean… We might get some wind?” Greg asked.

“Yes, unless the storm stays well south of us. The weather bureau isn’t sure where the storm might be headed.”

“As long as it stays far away from where we’ll be at, it’ll be fine by me!” Jamie said.

“I hope so” Herb added. “According to the weather report, the storm has grown in size and it might head this way. It’s over Cuba right now. But, they still don’t know yet where the storm will make landfall after that.”

“So… Does that mean we might be in for some rain?” Greg asked his dad.

“Yes. We might get more than rain from this storm, if it grows stronger…” Herb explained. “The worse case scenario would be that the storm grows into a hurricane…”

“A… A hurricane?” Jamie gasped.

To be continued


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