Chapter 7

Sportacus opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed. Looking over to his side, he found Stephanie asleep. Something wasn't right. He couldn't remember how he got there nor could he remember what day it was or even the time.

Slowly he got out of bed and went into the bathroom. The above average hero splashed cold water on his face and looked down at his bare chest and stomach. He was surprised to find that his six pack was gone, replaced with a beer gut, and his toned chest seemed to be more like… well for lack of a better word like man boobs.

Sportacus had the sudden urge to eat something and he walked out to the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, he found nothing but sugar loaded foods. Something told him he shouldn't eat those but his stomach rumbled and he gave it a shot.

Sitting at the kitchen table, he slowly unwrapped a package of HoHos. Even more slowly, he put the chocolate heart attack in a wrapper into his mouth. As the above average hero began to chew it, he realized that he liked it.

Stephanie walked down the hall and found her husband on his fifth package of HoHos. A slight smile crossed her lips and she said,

"So this is what I find you doing. I thought I told you to eat more sports candy and I come home to find that all you bought at the grocery store was sugar."

"Mm hm." Sportacus mumbled.

"What?" Stephanie asked.

"They're good." He said washing the HoHo down with some Kool-Aid. Stephanie shook her head and turned to walk back down the hall. Her husband got up and came after her. Grabbing her around the waist he noticed something felt funny. Stephanie turned around and gave him a look.

"Someone had to get into shape since you couldn't anymore." She turned to go back down the hall. Sportacus followed her but paused at a door across the hall from the bathroom. It seemed as if he should know who would be in it but he couldn't remember. His hand went to open the door when Stephanie stopped him.

"You promised you'd never open that door again." She said. Her husband looked into her eyes and saw that tears had begun to well there. Sportacus wiped them away and wrapped his arms around her.

Questions buzzed through his mind that he desperately wanted answered but first he had to get Stephanie to stop crying.

"Don't cry." He pleaded. "Everything is going to be ok."

"That's what you said but it wasn't fine was it? He was your son." Stephanie said in between sobs. The use of the word 'was' frightened him for some reason.

"He looked up to you and he wanted to be like you and now…" Stephanie stopped talking. She pulled away from her husband and a horrible angry looked crossed her face. Before he knew what was happening, Stephanie slapped Sportacus across the face.

He stood there with a look on his face. Sportacus didn't know what to make of it and would have loved a further explanation but a beeping noise stopped him. Without saying anything, Stephanie rushed into their bedroom and rushed back out dressed in a pink outfit. She slammed the front door and was gone.

Sportacus slumped down in the hallway. It was obvious that he had done something to hurt his wife but he didn't know what it was. The only way to find out was to open the door. Now that he was down on the floor, Sportacus found it difficult to get up. Finally he managed to use the wall and he put his hand on the door knob. The moment of truth was at hand.

To Be Continued…