Homer Price (4 page)

After supper when Homer was doing his homework the phone rang. “Hello!” said Homer.

“Hello, that you, Homer? This is Freddy. Say! Did you see in the paper tonight that there is going to be a Super-Duper movie over at the Centerburg theater next Saturday afternoon?”

Before Homer could say, “No, I didn’t.” Freddy shouted, “And guess what! The Super-Duper in person is going to be there! And, Homer,” Freddy went on, “Mother has a box from the mail-order house over at the Centerburg Railroad station. So Dad says that little Louis and I can take the horse and wagon and drive to Centerburg on Saturday. We can get the box, and then go to see the Super-Duper! I thought you might like to come along.”

“Sure thing!” said Homer.

“O.K. We’ll stop by for you,” said Freddy. “G’by, Homer.”

On Saturday Freddy and little Louis drove up to Homer’s
house with old Lucy hitched to the wagon, just as Homer was finishing his lunch.

“I thought we had better get an early start,” said Freddy, “because it takes old Lucy about an hour to go as far as Centerburg.”

“I’ll be ready in just a second,” said Homer. Then after Homer had climbed in, Freddy said “Giddap!” to old Lucy, and they started off to see the Super-Duper in person.

When they arrived in Centerburg the first thing they did was go to the station and load the box from the mail-order house onto the back of the wagon.

“Gosh, that’s heavy!” said Homer as they lifted it on.

“Yeah,” said Freddy, “but I betcha the Super-Duper could lift it with his little finger.”

“Mebby so,” said Homer. “Let’s stop over at Uncle Ulysses’ lunch room and get some doughnuts to eat in the movie.”

Freddy and little Louis both thought that was a good idea so they drove old Lucy around to the lunch room to get some doughnuts.

Then Freddy and little Louis and Homer walked across the town square to the movie.

The Super-Duper’s super-stream-lined car was standing in front of the theater. It was long and red, with chromium trimmings, and it had the Super-Duper’s monogram on the side. After they had admired the car, they bought three tickets and went inside. There in the lobby was the
real honest-to-goodness
Super-Duper. He shook hands with Freddy and Homer and little brother Louis, and he autographed a card for Freddy, too.

“Mr. Super-Duper, would you please do a little flying through space for us, or mebbe just bend a few horse shoes?” asked Freddy.

“I’m sorry, boys, but I haven’t time to-day,” said the Super-Duper with a smile.

So Homer and Freddy and little Louis found three good seats, and ate doughnuts until the picture began.

The picture was called “THE SUPER-DUPER and the ELECTRIC RAY.” That was because the villain had a machine that produced an electric ray, and every time he shined it on a skyscraper, or an airplane, the skyscraper or the airplane would explode! He turned the ray on Super-Duper, too, but of course the Super-Duper was so tough that it didn’t hurt
him.

Little Louis got so excited, though, that he choked on a doughnut and Homer had to take him to the lobby for a drink of water. But finally the Super-Duper broke the villain’s headquarters to bits, and lifted the ray-machine (which must have weighed several tons) and tossed it over a cliff.
Then,
he caught the villain and rescued the pretty girl. But at the very end, the villain slipped away again, and then these words appeared on the screen: “NEXT INSTALMENT NEXT SATURDAY AFTERNOON!”

“Why did the Super-Duper let the villain get away again?” asked little Louis on the way out.

“I guess that’s because he wants to chase him again next Saturday,” said Homer.

Outside they admired the Super-Duper’s car once more and then started home in the wagon.

It was evening by the time old Lucy, pulling the wagon with Freddy and little Louis and Homer on it, had reached the curve in the road just before you come to Homer’s father’s filling station.

A car honked from behind and Freddy pulled old Lucy over to the edge of the road. Then, “SWOOOSH!” around from the rear sped a long red car with chromium trimmings.

“Gosh! It’s the Super-Duper!” said Freddy.

“Well, he shouldn’t drive so fast around this curve,” said Homer, sort of doubtful like.

Almost before Homer had finished speaking there was a loud screech of brakes, and then a loud crash!

“Giddup! Lucy,” said Freddy, “we better hurry up and see what happened!”

“Gee, there weren’t any cars coming the other way,” said Homer, “I wonder what happened?”

“Golly,” said Freddy in a quavery voice, “do you suppose . . . the electric ray? . . . Whoow, Lucy, WHOO, LUCY! . . . we better park here!”

“Oh, shucks!” said Homer in his bravest voice, “I’m going to see what happened.”

Little Louis began to cry, and Homer tried to comfort him. “Louis, that electric ray business was just part of a movie, and it couldn’t have anything to do with this.” Homer tried hard to make it sound convincing.

Then Homer and Freddy and little Louis got out of the wagon and crept along the side of the road.

There, around the curve, was the Super-Duper’s car, down
in a ditch. All three boys stopped crawling along and lay down on their stomachs to watch.

“Oh, Boy!” whispered Freddy. “Now we’ll get to see the Super-Duper lift it back on the road with one hand!”

There was a flash of light and little Louis cried, “Is that the electric ray?”

“It’s only the headlights of a car,” said Homer. “Come on, let’s go a little closer.”

They crept a little closer . . . They could see the Super-Duper now, sitting there in the twilight with his head in his hands.

“I wonder if he got hurt?” asked Homer.

“Naaw!” whispered Freddy. “Nothing can hurt the Super-Duper because he’s too tough.”

“Well, if he isn’t hurt, why doesn’t he lift the car back on the road?” asked Homer.

“Sh-h-h!” said Freddy, “he’s an awful modest fellow.” So they waited and watched from the bushes.

The Super-Duper sighed a couple of times, and then he got up and started walking around his car.

“Now watch!” said Freddy in a loud whisper. “Oh, boy! Oh, boy!” The Super-Duper didn’t lift the car, no, not yet. He looked at the dent that a fence post had made in his shiny red fender, and
then,
the incredible happened. That colossal-osal, gigantic-antic, Super-Duper, that same Super-Duper who defied the elements, who was so strong that he broke up battleships like toothpicks, who was so tough that cannon-balls
bounced off his chest, yes, who was
tougher
than steel, he stooped down and said . . . “Ouch!” Yes, there could be no mistake, he said it again, louder . . . “OUCH!!”

The great Super-Duper had gotten himself caught on a barbed-wire fence!

“Well . . . well, for crying out loud!” said Freddy.

“What happened?” asked little Louis. “Did he get himself rayed by the villain?”

“Come on, Freddy, let’s go and untangle him,” said Homer. Then Freddy and little Louis and Homer unsnagged the Super-Duper and he sighed again and said, “Thank you boys. Do you know if there’s a garage near here? It looks as though it will take a wrecking car to get my car out of this ditch.”

“Sure, my father has a garage down at the crossing,” said Homer. “And we have a horse right up there on the road. We can pull your car out of the ditch!” said Freddy.

“Well, now, isn’t that lucky!” said the Super-Duper with a smile.

So they hitched old Lucy to the car and she pulled and everybody pushed until the car was back on the road.

Little Louis sat with the Super-Duper in his car, and Homer and Freddy rode on old Lucy’s back while she towed the car toward Homer’s father’s filling station.

“What happened, Mr. Super-Duper, did the villain ray you?” asked little Louis.

“No,” said the Super-Duper, and he laughed. “When I
drove around that curve, there was a skunk right in the middle of the road. I didn’t want to hit him and get this new car all smelled up, so, I went into the ditch. Ha! Ha!”

When they had reached the filling station they put some iodine on the scratches that the barbed wire had made on the Super-Duper. (He made faces, just like anybody else, when it was daubed on.) Then he ate a hamburger, and by that time Homer’s father had the car fixed, except for the dent in the fender. Before the Super-Duper drove away, he thanked the boys and made them a present of a large stack of Super-Duper comic books. After he’d gone, Homer and Freddy went back with old Lucy to get the wagon.

“Well, anyway, Freddy, we’ve got a complete set of Super-Duper Comic Books,” said Homer.

“Yeah,” said Freddy. Then he said, “Say, Homer, do me a favor, will you, and don’t tell anybody about the Super-Duper and the barbed wire and the ditch and the iodine, especially Artie Bush. If he doesn’t hear about this I might be able to trade my comic books for that baseball bat of his, the Louisville Slugger that’s only slightly cracked.”

“O.K.” said Homer. “Come to think of it, his cousin, Skinny, has a pretty good ball, too. This is a good time to get even for the time Skinny traded me a bicycle bell that wouldn’t ring, for my nearly new bugle.”

O
NE Friday night in November Homer overheard his mother talking on the telephone to Aunt Agnes over in Centerburg. “I’ll stop by with the car in about half an hour and we can go to the meeting together,” she said, because tonight was the night the Ladies’ Club was meeting to discuss plans for a box social and to knit and sew for the Red Cross.

“I think I’ll come along and keep Uncle Ulysses company while you and Aunt Agnes are at the meeting,” said Homer.

So after Homer had combed his hair and his mother had looked to see if she had her knitting instructions and the right size needles, they started for town.

Homer’s Uncle Ulysses and Aunt Agnes have a very up and coming lunch room over in Centerburg, just across from the court house on the town square. Uncle Ulysses is a man with advanced ideas and a weakness for labor saving devices. He equipped the lunch room with automatic toasters, automatic coffee maker, automatic dish washer, and an automatic doughnut maker. All just the latest thing in labor saving devices. Aunt Agnes would throw up her hands and sigh every time Uncle Ulysses bought a new labor saving device. Sometimes she became unkindly disposed toward him for days and days. She was of the opinion that Uncle Ulysses just frittered away
his spare time over at the barber shop with the sheriff and the boys, so, what was the good of a labor saving device that gave you more time to fritter?