Inner Man Theatre

    “Family, family,” Kim gets her thoughts together.  “Family is important.  I love my grandbaby Aiden.  Okay, so, let’s start with us as teenagers at the time of our adventure.  There was my big brother Axer and cute, adorable little ME!  I was such a sweetie!!  And if you can’t tell, I was a big fan of Fifi from AB & Sister.  I even named my daughter Fiona after her and made sure both she and my granddaughter were naturally born with purple hair like Fifi’s.”

    “Kim, please focus,” Roxy pleads.

    “Sorry, but this is a dream come true!!  Okay, so there was mom, but I don’t see her in this picture.  Hmm, whatev.  Our mom was the lovely Destiny, who dressed like the Destiny girl in the original Axe and Rox story, even though she didn’t realize this until much later.  Weird?  I totally think it is!  So, we have Axer’s friend Jason, whom I don’t remember doing much, along with his little brother and my compadro numero uno Ramji!”  Many faces are palmed at this gross mispronunciation.  “I probably would’ve married the jerk if he hadn’t been a dweeb and died in his early adult years.  Le sigh.  Anyways, there was Axer’s spunky best friend Roxy who would never consider dating someone she saw as a brother.  Joke’s been on her ever since.  Rox’s good friends were Marna and the sisters Haley and Bailey.  Marna is a force to be reckoned with, and even after officially joining the System Guards for a while, she was a favorite among the newcomers.  Oh, and then…dun dun dun, hubba hubba, there was Mandy Hall.  Just her mere presence could strike Axer dumbfounded.  Funny how he ended up marrying the clueless sister-friend, yah?”

    Faye turns to Paul and whispers, as if he cares, “This sounds a lot like my problem with Kammy and Elfie.”  She keeps listening for seven seconds and turns back, without warning, to continue her conversation with Paul.  “Who am I kidding?  Why fight it, right?”  Paul doesn’t know or care.  He just hopes Faye doesn’t get him in trouble.

    “I really want to talk more about Mandy,” says Kim, “but I think that’ll lead into the adventure part.  But guys, seriously, being here…it’s a childhood dream.  I grew up reading System Comics, loving Fifi and Keb and AB and wishing I could be like them and meet them.  Sure, we knew enough to realize it was our ancient history and not just superhero fiction, but to grow old and have my granddaughter, by chance, be chosen by the System Guards and me, ME be selected to join the team I used to read about several ages before…and see all my heroes and ancestors hadn’t even aged more than a couple years?  And then I work right beside all my heroes and now I’m telling their stories…” Kim’s goofy nature dies down for a second as sweet tears trickle down her cheeks.  She sniffles, smiles and tries to finish her sentence without crying, “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such good friends, but I am grateful, so very grateful, especially since…. Aw, one story at a time.  Big brother, you take over so I can hug someone.  Roxy, you’re closest, so you’ll do.”  The girls hug as Ax transitions to the next part of the story.

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