The boy came running into the kitchen and let the screen door slam. "MOM!!!" He ran up to her and dugged her apron with his dirty hands.
"What is it baby?" She was staring down into a very wide pair of eyes on her 10 year old son's cherubic face. "Is something wrong?"
Suddenly he had a big grin. "Not anymore! This stranger just came in today and saved the whole town!"
The woman dropped to her knees to be eye to eye with the boy. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, actually, there was four of them, but, oh man, it was so COOL!" He looked up as if seeing the past just over the woman's shoulder. "These bank robbers came into town and were trying to take over, and they had a few hostages...They took me and Chris into the bank and we were really scared--"
The woman's chest contracted as she interrupted. "WHAT?" She automatically grabbed both of the boy's arms. "Did you get hurt? Baby, tell me what happened."
He rolled his eyes. "Mom, that's what I'm trying to do!" Unperturbed, he continued. "So anyway, these bank robbers grabbed a bunch of people and held us at gunpoint until they got their money." He heard his mother's gasp, but didn't pay any attention. " And then the bank robbers started emptying all the money out of the safe and nobody could do anything. They were threatening to kill us if we made any movements or sounds. When they realized we didn't have any money at the bank, they got really angry and threatened to kill everyone for wasting their time." He paused for dramatic affect.
"JUST THEN, these four people I had never seen ran into the bank and started taking out the robbers."
"Did they kill them?" She was concerned for what her young child had witnessed.
"Of course not, Mom! That was the coolest part! This really tall guy with spikey hair ran in and did a flip in the air, and suddenly six robbers didn't have their guns anymore. Then...a little tiny woman with little tiny guns started shooting the chandeliers and they started falling on the robbers' heads. Next, I saw a really tall girl with a big, big gun who knocked out a few more robbers. The weirdest guy came last. He was tall just like the first guy, and kind of looked the same, and he didn't have any weapons at all, but when he was around, the robbers didn't make a move."
The woman sat baffled in front of the excited boy. "Well! What happened next!"
"The other tall guy made them wait until the sheriff came and there turned out to be a huge bounty on the robbers, so the strangers let us keep the money!"
"What?" The woman was almost crying with happiness. "That means we can finish digging the well!" The town's plant had stopped functioning a long time a go and people had to start living off the land. It was tough, but if they had water, they could do it.
The boy broke her out of her flashback. "Come ON!" He was tugging her by the hand in the direction of town.
"Where are we going?"
"To the saloon! That's where the town is having a celebration for the strangers!"
"Do you know their names?"
"Nah, but I do know one thing!" He looked deep into her eyes with a very serious expression, then all of the sudden started to shout: "THIS WORLD IS MADE OF LOVE AND PEACE!!!"
He crossed his fingers in a familiar fashion and dragged his mom off to meet the strangers.