The Kryptonite Kid: A Novel

Holt, Rinehart and Winston New York

Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 383 Madison Avenue, 

New York, New York 10017.

Published simultaneously in Canada by 

Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 

Torchia, Joseph.

The Kryptonite kid.

I. Title.

PZ4.T684Kr [PS3570.067]    813'.5'4    79-1078

ISBN 0-03-046676-8

FIRST EDITION

Designer:
 
Joy Chu

Printed in the United States of America 

  13579 10 8642

Kryptonite Kid and Krypton 
are trademarks 

of DC Comics, Inc., which has 

no connection with this book 

  "We are the children of our landscape
 . . ."

—Lawrence Durrell:
 Justine

I’ve been having tons of crisp dreams lately, waking with the sunlight and remembering every horrid detail. They’re full of heavy chunks of past, of old faces floating through the air, exploding into punctuation marks. Every night they occur, like mosquitoes biting into my sleep, leaving marks that will itch all morning, all afternoon, all the way into evening, by which time I feel a compulsion to record them. But when I sit down at my desk and confront an empty sheet of paper, they run away like children. I chase them and they laugh. I sip my coffee. I nervously light a cigarette. I say a prayer. I bless myself. I slide between my sheets and crawl inside my sleep with certainty. I know they will come again. I know they will find me . . .

  

  

       

  

  

Dear Superman,

It’s me again. Remember I wrote you a letter a long time ago and you never wrote back? Robert said maybe it got lost or else maybe you already wrote it and we didn’t get it yet. Or else maybe you forgot about it except you never forget because you got a Super brane. That’s why I’m writing again. Because we always buy all your comicbooks even the special big GIANT issues that cost a lot more. And we never miss your television program on TV and that’s why we think you should write us a letter this time. And then if we ever find any Kryptonite around we’ll throw it in the Clarion River so it don’t kill you on our way to school. Goodby.

Your friends,

Jerry Chariot and Robert Sipanno

Dear Clark Kent,

I hope you don’t mind if I call you Clark Kent but I’ll make sure to put your REAL name on the outside of the envelope so nobody will know who you really aren’t. And besides I don’t think anybody will read this letter unless he’s a criminel. Anyway, the main reason I’m writing again is to ask if you used to wear diapers when you was Superbaby in Smallville which was way before Ma and Pa Kent got poisoned to death and you thought it was your fault but it really wasn’t. Me and Robert just finished the 
story called THE TRAGIC DAY MA AND PA KENT DIED in GIANT SUPERBOY NO. 165 and I cried like you did. And so did Robert. Especially on page 10 where you took your foster mother’s dead hand and said to her dead body, “Mother!—Her pulse . . . It’s stopped! She’s gone! Gone! Choke!” And then your foster father said, “You must always use your Super powers to do good . . . uphold law and order! Good luck, my son . . . And goodbye!” And then he died also. And you was standing in the cemetery on the top of page 11. I hope you remember. Anyway, if you wore diapers, did you wear them to fool the neighbors when they came by to give your mother presents for you? Or did you really have to wear diapers because you was a real baby even though you was a Superbaby? We hope you’ll tell us this time.

Your pals,

Jerry and Robert

  

PS: Doesn’t it bother you when they write stories about what you did when you was littler and just SUPERBOY and not SUPERMAN? I know it would bother me if they wrote about me when I was little. Especially if it was something I didn’t want anybody to know. Especially my mom.