Gilly Flower Writings

Hero-Like Tendencies

By Kathryn Evans

Roger always wanted to be a hero. It was just in his nature. As a boy he would put kittens up in trees so that he would have the opportunity to come to the rescue of their mewling cries. His mother said that he was like a white knight. Everyone else said that he needed physiological help.

In highschool, he was the best friend to all of the girls he knew. They trusted and confided in him whenever they were fighting with their boyfriends and they all said that Roger was the nicest guy in the world and that they loved him. Apparently, though, none of them liked to date nice guys that they loved. It wasn’t until his senior year that Roger had his first girlfriend. She was a girl whose other boyfriends had been such jerks that she almost did not know what to do with Roger’s hero-like tendencies. The two of them experienced a brief few months of idyllic bliss, where they did things like see movies and play put-put golf. But Roger’s heroic nature was too much for her and she soon reverted back to the world she knew and was more comfortable in. She cheated on him with the school quarterback while she was drunk at a party and when Roger confronted her and she didn’t even seem guilty about it he broke it off with her. She seemed relieved, while Roger contemplated monkhood

He managed to avoid girls until his sophomore year of college, and then he met Bianca. She was the first girl he ever met that didn’t need rescuing. She was a chemistry major, was smart, funny, and intelligent and had incredible self-confidence. She always laughed and thought it was sweet when Roger would open her door for her. With Bianca, Roger didn’t have to play the hero. And yet, who was he if he wasn’t a hero?

It was one night as they were walking home through the streets of the city after dinner that Roger’s heroism was truly tested. It was late, but the weather was nice and so they had decided to take a walk through the park. They were both quiet and just enjoying the night and each other’s company and they quickly heard the sounds of a struggle breaking out close by. They looked around and just down the path they could see a group of about four grisly men surrounding a single man who was wearing a button-downed shirt and who was clutching his briefcase like a life-raft. The other men were all dressed in shabby, worn clothes and even in the dark Roger could see their wicked, cruel smiles as they surrounded their poor victim.

“We should call the police or something,” Bianca whispered, clutching Roger’s arm.

“They would never get here in time. We have to help him.”

“Roger, there are four of them, what do you think we will be able to do?”

“Stay here,” he told her and then continued down the path. “Hey!” he called out as the muggers moved in on the man. Roger hoped that he would be able to just scare them off. He knew from past experience that most bullies were really just cowards as soon as someone stood up to them and Roger had actually avoided many fights that way in highschool.

The men all turned towards Roger and the man with the briefcase took this opportunity to run in the opposite direction. The muggers all cursed as their prey fled and again they turned towards Roger. He swallowed a stab of fear in his stomach; there was nothing cowardly in the menacing looks that were now advancing towards him.

“That was a mistake, boy,” the lead man said. He had a shaved head and wicked looking scar down his cheek that glared in the light from the street. One of the other men pulled out a knife blade and Roger heard Bianca try to muffle a cry. The men laughed and then rushed at Roger. He tried to fend them off but soon felt a sharp pain as the knife pierced his shoulder. He tried not to cry out, heroes didn’t cry, but his vision was fading slightly as he suddenly hit the ground. He could hear Bianca screaming and then her screaming became muffled. Roger realized that only one of the men was standing over him now and he couldn’t see the rest. He also couldn’t see Bianca.

Roger tried to get up but the man standing over him placed a foot on Roger’s shoulder, sending a sharp, crippling pain through the knife wound. This wasn’t supposed to happen to heroes. Heroes didn’t lie on the ground in pain while the muffled sobs of their girlfriend could be heard so close by.

Again, Roger tried to get up, his only thought was getting to Bianca. Why had he been so stupid? Why had he put her in such danger just to save a man who had run at the first chance?

The man standing over Roger laughed and began to press down harder with his foot, but was blindsided by something hitting him in the side of the head. Roger looked over to see a leather briefcase now lying on the ground.

The sounds of struggling near Bianca's muffled cries paused a moment and then there was someone else standing over Roger, offering him a hand up. The man who had been standing watch over Roger was now on the ground and the man in the button-downed shirt was standing beside him, his briefcase now forgotten. Two of the other men were now coming towards them while the third continued to hold Bianca with a hand over her mouth to prevent her screaming.

“You boys just don’t know when to give up,” the leading man said, pushing up his sleeves to reveal heavily muscled forearms.

Just then the sound of police sirens could be heard approaching. The leader swore and then said, “leave the bitch,” as he and his companions took off running, dragging their fallen comrade with them.

Bianca staggered slightly as she was released but then rushed over to Roger, who was feeling slightly faint from blood loss. The two of them turned to their savior, who happened to be the man they had tried to save in the first place.

“Fred King,” he introduced himself. He looked to be a young business executive and had a shy smile as he helped Bianca keep Roger upright. “And I think we were all rather lucky tonight.”

As they waited for the police, Roger and Bianca introduced themselves and couldn’t help but ask what Fred was doing alone in the park so late at night. Fred looked rather sheepish as he explained that his car was in the shop and the muggers wouldn’t have gotten anything off of him anyway because he had lost his wallet and that was why he didn’t have any money for a cab. He said it must have been an act of God that Roger and Bianca had come along when they did, he was only sorry that Roger had been hurt. He had called the police and then come back to help as fast as he could.

Bianca was a little shook up but was otherwise unhurt, except that her blouse was torn a little. Roger didn’t feel very hero-like as he stood there bleeding with Bianca supporting him on one side and Fred King supporting him on the other. The sirens grew closer until they soon heard the pounding of feet and the shouting of police officers with loud, official voices.

Roger let them load him into an ambulance, with Bianca still clutching him tightly, and then they sped off to the emergency room, though the wound was now only bleeding a trickle. The muggers had managed to avoid hitting anything critical and the wound was not deep. Bianca’s warm, comforting smile only made Roger feel even more pathetic.

Roger’s hero-like tendencies could easily have cost him his life and Bianca’s safety and he swore that he would never make such foolish choices again. But when he told Bianca this, she only laughed and Roger thought perhaps the muggers had hit her in the head in their scuffle.

“Roger,” she said. “You will always be a hero, you can’t change that. The difference between heroes and regular people is that heroes will always try to save others before they save themselves. Your first thought when you saw that man was to save him before you thought of the risk to your self. And when those muggers had me you only tried to get to me, never mind the fact that you yourself were bleeding on the ground. You can’t change your nature, so why would you ever want to try?”

Roger tried to let this sink in but he was still a little light-headed from blood loss. He decided to simply smile and nod and agree that she was right because he knew that would make her happy. Perhaps he would continue in the heroics business, but he had best learn some better battle-tactics.