The story of Halogen Part 2: "Fate"

Yesterday I posted a crudely drawn picture of a super hero I invented when I was 12, who I called "Halogen." It may not have looked like it to you, but that drawing was painstakingly modelled from an "Iron Man" comic book.

I wasn't really interested in comic books as a child. But when I went to junior high school, Fate stepped in and changed that. The woman in the photo above looks a lot like Fate as I met her back in 1983. At least once a week, my 7th grade bus driver would pull over into this convenience store along the route called "Highs." She always said it was to get gas. But very quickly we noticed that each time she also bought a pack of menthol cigarettes, and invariably lit up even before we hit the road again. To keep an eye on us while she stopped, she would have us all come into the store with her, and it was during those stops that I started getting intruiged by comic books, albeit slowly and tentatively at first.

Soon I was getting comic books every time we stopped. And that's how I first came to love comic books. I must have spent tens of thouands of hours consumed by comic books in my subsequent, awkward teenage years. All because of an affable, heavy-set woman reeking of smoke whose name I never even knew.

That adolescent anecdote may not sound like much to you. If not, just replace the words "comic books" with "sex" in two paragraphs above. That may make you smile. (Maybe with wistful recognition?)

Next time: the naming of "Halogen"....