Rudy Two had heard from Maggie that there would be a new person at the superpower support group – Reg. But Rudy Two didn't expect to get such an early meeting!
Rudy Two walked out of the community centre after a long and pointless argument with Rudy about beard lengths and Noel Edmonds. He was mulling over the argument in his mind when he suddenly heard "Ouch! Ouch! Ooh! Ouch!" coming from the green space next to the community centre. He looked to a nearby bench and there he saw an old gentleman whacking an old lady repeatedly over the head with a slipper. At first, Rudy Two thought he was witnessing some kind of domestic abuse.
"Ugh! It's just not working!" the lady said.
"Give it time," said the old gent. "Sometimes it takes a while."
"Maybe you could try hitting me on the shoulder instead? But this time try doing it harder!" said the lady.
The gentleman started hitting the lady on the shoulder. There was lots more "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" but this time it was soon followed suddenly by a "Stop!"
The lady smiled and stood up. She straightened her arm. The man grinned. Then they hugged.
Rudy Two was curious, but thought he knew what was going on.
"Sorry to interrupt your hug," said Rudy Two, "but has this got something to do with the storm?"
The gent laughed and said, "It certainly is! I've just fixed my wife's bad elbow. The day the storm came my telly wasn't working very well and I started whacking it with my slipper to get it to work. Watching the horse racing we were, and I needed to know who won the 3.45."
"Then what happened?" asked Rudy Two.
"Well, I was getting really frustrated – four horse accumulator, you see – so I whacked the telly harder and harder till the whacking was so loud that the neighbours could probably hear it. Then, suddenly, BOOM! A massive flash of lightning and the TV was suddenly working perfectly again, like the day we bought it."
The old man's wife edged forward, anxious to be a part of the story.
"Hi, I'm Alice," said the lady. "When I saw the telly was working I said to Reg – all joking, like - that he should try hitting the old video recorder with his slipper and see if that worked. He whacked it a few times and it hummed into life for the first time in ten years! Magic!"
"Then," said Reg, "I just went round the house fixing every appliance that was broken. Whack! Whack! Whack! And soon I was whacking an old hairdryer when I accidentally hit my left hand with my slipper and my arthritis in my left hand had suddenly gone!"
Rudy Two couldn't believe it. This was both the coolest and stupidest superpower he'd heard of. Rudy Two introduced himself but was keen to ask questions.
"I'm guessing you're the Reg that Maggie told me about?" asked Rudy Two.
"Sounds like I'm famous already!" laughed Reg. "Yes, I've spoken to Maggie and she's keen to see me at the support group and that's where we're going now."
Rudy Two was plucking up the courage to ask a question. "If you hit me over the head with your slipper will it get rid of my headache?"
Rudy Two had hardly finished asking the question when Reg gave him an almighty whack on the head with the slipper.
"My headache's gone!" said Rudy Two. Reg grinned, then looked around awkwardly because he was sure that the slipper activities would gain unwanted attention from curious strangers.
"Let's go to the support group," said Reg.
"Does your wife have a power too?" asked Rudy Two.
"Not that we know of," responded Reg, "but look behind you!"
Rudy Two looked behind and his mouth dropped open. He could not believe what he was seeing. They were being followed by a dog walking. No, not just any old walking. Here was a dog walking like a person - standing, on two legs!
"Meet my dog – Fonzie," said Reg.
"I guess when the storm came he was thinking about how he'd like to be human," said Rudy Two. "Can he do other human things like talking and holding things?"
"No," Said Reg. "But…" and Reg paused for a few seconds like he was carefully choosing his words. "He does seem to scratch his bum a lot."
"We have no idea where he got that from," laughed Alice.