HECTOR'S TIMECOP

Halloween was always hard on Hector.  He was from the “poor side of the tracks” as his schoolmates were apt to say, even though no train tracks lined the town.  The dress-up day usually fell on the Friday before Halloween at Nankivell Elementary, and that meant that most of the more well-to-do kids had some pretty elaborate costumes on that particular day.  Wile most of the school dressed up as Admiral Ackbars or fully-transforming Deceptacons, Hector found himself wearing whatever makeshift costume he could find in his widower father’s closet.  For three years straight, regardless of the Hollywood trends, he would dress as a baker, one of his father’s failed jobs over the years which, in turn, provided Hector with a plethora of aprons, messy white coveralls and chef hats.  But this year was going to be different.  This year had marked the release of a Jean Claude Van Damme movie that had changed Hector’s views on science fiction forever.  That movie was called “Timecop,” and regardless of the fact that Hector couldn’t possibly afford to ape Van Damme’s fashion sense from the film, he would find a way to be Timecop for Halloween.

 

That fateful Friday before Halloween was finally at hand.  Colorful monsters and well-known

Hollywood fantasy figures from the silver screen graced Nankivell’s halls as always.  And there, in the middle of the pagan commotion was Hector, sporting his regular, red sneakers, a pair of worn jeans full of holes in the knees and crotch, along with a white t-shirt with the hastily scribbled words, “Time Cop,” in black marker.

 

For the fifth straight year in a row, Hector received a “Worst Costume” ribbon for his efforts, and for the first time in five years, Hector felt the sting of it all.  




-SLL