Secrets

Suddenly, Wrinkle’s winched as Dr Arbuckle wrapped a bandage tightly around his arm.

“I’ll have to put you in a cast,” he said.

“Can I see my grandson?” Wrinkle’s said to his daughter.

Dr Arbuckle gave a loud cough. All eyes turn towards him. His eyes flashed with a look of annoyance. He motioned to the unconscious Dolores on the sofa.

"I don't intend to be rude Rebecca, but I would like to have a talk with your father now, man-to-man," Dr Arbuckle’s said a grumpy morning voice.

Rebecca nodded.

"Would you like some snacks boys?" Rebecca looked at both Scrubs and Danny.

The two boys nodded and hurriedly left for the kitchen.

The two men were left in the room.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

Then, Dr Arbuckle stood up and motioned to Wrinkles to follow him.

"Could I have a word with you, Pop? In the study," he eyed the woman lying on the sofa.

As soon as the two men entered the study, Dr Arbuckle bombarded his father-in-law with a flurry of questions like an ill-tempered police officer at a crime scene.

"How do you know that lady? Is she one of your street lovers? From the looks of it she has been in some kind of fight. I hope she’s not a criminal or anything!" the doctor said anxiously.

"Of course not. I only loved Rebecaa’s mother. This woman was my colleague. Her name was Dolores Sanza. She was like me a superhero," Wrinkles rubbed his hand nervously. He always did this when he tried to lie.

"A superhero?! A superhero?! Of course, she is. One of those illegal mask vigilantes," Dr Arbuckle said loudly, looking increasingly annoyed. He began rubbing his temples. He always did when he was getting stressed.

"So I guess the reason you brought her here was that hospitals don’t cover your sort of activity right? Illegal crime-fighting and stuff," Dr Arbuckle said.

Wrinkles nodded, in compliance.

“Yup that’s it,” he said. It wasn’t really the truth. Neither he or Dolores were superheroes. But it was a better excuse, than to tell his daughter the truth of the nature of his job. Let her think, he was the ideal father figure with super powers.

Arbuckle stopped his repetitive rubbing. His face began taking on a red hue.

"Quite frankly I’m amazed at how you managed to provide Rebecca with a proper education and comfortable life. Superheroes don’t get paid a cent. Or are there any other jobs you do that I am not aware about? Like those shadow mercenaries who work for shadowy organizations?” the doctor said.

Wrinkles faced paled for a moment, but the doctor quickly continued his rant.

“I’m glad actually that Rebecca actually stopped following in your footsteps, so we could sensibly start a family" the doctor said.

Secretly Wrinkles was happy too, but he did not want to show it. It would create too much suspicion.

“Of course not. It so happens that one of the members of my superhero team, is super rich, and sponsored me and my family,” Wrinkle’s said making things up on the spot.

“Ah, charity. So, it’s a charity then. Which team do you belong too again? I only know so few groups that have super-rich members who pose of mask vigilantes,” Dr Arbuckle said.

“Well, that’s strictly confidential,” Wrinkles said.

“Of course, it is. Very convenient. So, what do they call you? Flamethrower? Dragon breathe? Flaming Falcon? Fire Man?” the doctor said, chuckling at his last comment.

“Like I said, strictly confidential,” Wrinkles said, afraid that the more his son-in-law prodded, the closer to the truth might unfold.

"I have known Dolores for a long time and I trust her in this. She was part of my team. You would not understand. While fighting for justice together, we formed bonds of trust and loyalty," Wrinkles thumped his chest in pride, mimicking a hero he saw on tv once.

"Yes, yes. It means she was one of those crazy nut jobs like you. Who try to be policemen but for free," Arbuckle snorted.

Wrinkles frowned at his son-in-law. Sure, it wasn’t the truth, but he did not like the way he referred to him or superheroes in general. Especially since his own daughter was a superheroine for a time!

"We were not nut jobs. We were doing something for society. Using our abilities to fight crime, making the world a better place. It's something people like you would never understand, preferring to waste your tremendous ability on mediocre jobs,"

The younger man almost snorted back in laughter. Sarcasm was written all over his face.

"Hahhhh! And you think you can feed your family wearing spandex and a mask? Nobody provides a retirement plan for masked volunteers like you. It so happens that you were lucky to have a rich teammate" the doctor said.

"Masked volunteers? Well, at least I have saved lives. What about you? I don’t know what your ability is, but you see pretty ashamed of it," the old man gave a look of disgust.

The doctor was taken aback a bit at the mention of his ability.

"Don't you dare! I save lives too! In hospitals," Dr Arbuckle pointed his finger angrily at Wrinkles.

Wrinkles gave his daughter's husband a bemused look.

"Really? As a pediatrician? How?"

Arbuckle uneasily adjusted his collar at the statement.

"Hold on just a minute, this isn't about me remember! That strange woman you brought here. Let's not get out of topic here!" Arbuckle said.

Wrinkles secretly gave a sigh of relief. He hated that he had to lie that he was some righteous superhero. If they knew his connection with Dolores, he wondered if he would be ever welcomed back into this house.

"Oh yes Dolores. Bit of a scarp here and there with a supervillain. Some giant monkey-looking fella who robbed a bank. I so happen to find and help her. Injured my hand when I was grabbed by the brute," Wrinkles said.

“At your age, you shouldn’t even be out this late,” Dr Arbuckle said shaking his head.

Wrinkles snorted back, but decided not to say anything else in case his own secret came out. But somehow, he felt that he wasn’t the only one keeping a secret. The good doctor seems to be very afraid of revealing his ability to him. Maybe there was more to his dolt of a son-in-law than it seemed.