The buzzer rang, indicating the end of second registration before home-time, and the kids spilled out of Phoenix Secondary School, Cash among them.

Usually, when Cash finished school, he went to his favourite hang-out place, Computer Connection, to check out the cool new gadgets they had. But not today. Cash couldn’t run home fast enough. He’d been distracted the whole day, unable to concentrate, because his mind kept darting to the superhero waiting in his bedroom. Or so he thought.

When Cash got home, he looked for Cap K everywhere. When he couldn’t find him, Cash sat puzzling over the situation. He came to the conclusion that Cap K had just been a hallucination. Or, if he was real, he had gone back into the comic book.

“Ah, man,” Cash said to himself. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“Cash! Jou pa’s op die foon (Your dad’s on the phone),” Magz called from the lounge.

Cash took the phone and answered, “Yes, Pa?”

“Cash, my laaitie,” Roy said. “Daar was ‘n oke that rocked up here at lunch time rush. Started tuning customers they destroying their life with alcohol. He reckon he’s a friend of yours, nogal. Called himself Captain of something or the other. Tell me you don’t know this purple-eyed clown, sonny.”

“That must be Cap K!” Cash said frantically.

“Yoh, garners dees dae en hulle vreemde nicknames (children these days and their strange nicknames).”

“Pa! Focus. Where is he? Is he with you?”

“Eish …” Roy said. “Hy’s in die trunk (He’s in the jail).”

*****

“What the heck were you thinking?!” Cash screamed at Cap K.

“Your dad’s a nice fellow,” Cap K said, ignoring Cash’s question.

“I had to tell him that you’re a pastor’s son, looking to convert people, just so I could get you out of jail! You weren’t really arrested, but still.”

It turned out Roy had a friend at the police station who pretended to arrest Cap K, just to satisfy Big Vic, before he did anything worse.

“Here’s an outrageous and totally ridiculous idea,” Cap K said. “Why don’t you just be honest with him?”

Cash flushed, thinking back. He had told his father the truth. Cash told Roy everything about Hurricane Thor and about Captain Kind coming to life. Roy laughed until he was blue in the face.

“Now,” he said, once he had caught his breath. “Vertel my die waarheid (Tell me the truth).”

That’s when Cash made up the lie about Cap K being the pastor’s son.

“It doesn’t matter,” Cash said. “Why did you go into the tavern?”

“I’m programmed not to like alcohol. You made me this way,” Cap K pointed out.

“Yes, but you don’t have to do anything about it when other people are drinking it. It’s their choice.”

“In Issue 2, Scene 9, I raided a local tavern run by Professor V and set all their souls free,” Cap K said. “He held them captive. They weren’t drinking of their own volition.”

“So, you thought that the same thing was happening here. You were trying to set them free …” Cash trailed off.

Cash had written the comics based on what he’d hoped would happen in his own life. He couldn’t be upset with Cap K for carrying out his own invention of reality. Cap K was only doing what Cash had written.

***

Tell us what you think: What problem might Cap K try to sort out next?