iSuperwoman

Character Spotlight: Freddie Benson

"Who's the daddy?" they happily asked her, needing to make a legal note for the birth certificate. The room was sterile, even with the pink sheets on the bed and warmly-colored wallpaper. The air, following the ordeal that made all this possible, was still and calm.

"No father," the woman answered, not seeming nearly as happy at the question. "Just me." Marissa held the baby boy close to her chest, feeling his warmth, his need. Gently stroking the tiny tuft of hair atop the babe's head, the young woman smiled deeply, feeling her heart warm over as if in a hot bath. "Hi, angel," she whispered. "Hi Freddie...yes, precious." Marissa kissed her child's forehead, trying not to stir him from his slumber. This was happiness; this was where she wanted to be. Holding the infant in her arms, gazing into the face she had brought into the world; the blessed face of the child Heaven willingly gave to her, Marissa felt a cool tear slide down the side of her face.

Years passed, and the two remained as close as ever before. Marissa held her son until he fell asleep; every single night until he turned 10 and decided to go to bed on his own. She was there for his first days of preschool and kindergarten, taped his graduation, made sure he took all his vitamins, ate all his vegetables, and sheltered him under a foundation of love for as long as she could. He was growing up; baby Freddie was becoming a young man. That in itself didn't hurt; knowing her job was nearing its end wasn't what kept the woman awake at night. It was her; she was slowly fading out of her boy's life. Even though she held him so close, he was slipping away.

"I know you're probably too old for this, Freddie," Marissa said one night, peeping her head in through the doorway. "But I love you."

"Love you, too, Mom," the preteen brunette happily replied. "...Hug?" A smile burst onto the woman's face, shattering the veil that held back her tears, and she ran over and held her boy; her blessing. He wasn't ready to grow up; not yet. Later that same, endless night, Freddie closed his eyes; he saw Carly then. She looked...different than before. Like she was a different person, but still Carly. Her hair was glistening, her smile was so touching, and her eyes were so deep and meaningful. His heart warmed, the boy stared at the girl from across the hallway for hours. Then, he woke up, smiled a bright, warm smile to himself, and remembered the wondrous image that had visited him in his slumber. "Carly," he whispered, thinking about the new girl. She was amazing; wonderful. His heart was fluttering, his breath was alittle bit heavier than usual, and he felt peaceful. Closing his light eyes once again, the child could think of nothing but that wonderful young woman.

"It's called an MP3 Player, Mom," Fredward told his mother, holding up the blue device. "You can download music onto it from the computer. It's really fun."

"He's really good with technical stuff," Marissa told the guidance councilor the day Freddie enrolled at high school. The boy blushed at his mother's shameless promotion. "So, what computer courses could he take?"

I love working with tech stuff; projectors, video cameras, webcams, anything that I can plug into. It's like my passion, Freddie told himself one day as he reprogrammed his MP3 into a sound mixer on his laptop (something he had to beg his mom for). I'm pretty good with videos, too. I made some of the school's movies, like Lost in Transaction for accounting class, Too in Love to Quit for our Shakespeare unit of Language Arts, and even some art movies. All that kind of came in second, though...

"Her name's Carly," the boy told his mother, spinning his fork among the strands of cut spaghetti. "She's really nice and smart. I think she's pretty, too." Marissa hid her deeply concealed worries about the matter, smiled, and stroked her son's hair.

Nervously walking over to the girl, who now engrossed him, Freddie cleared his throat, and tried to look away from the floor. "Hey, Carly," he greeted, struggling to keep his voice straight.

"He's so annoying," Sam declared before taking a drink of milk.

"I think it's cute," Carly replied with a smile. "Freddie's a nice kid. So what if he's got a crush on me?"

"Well, I think it's nice," Melanie added. "Who knows, Sam...maybe he'll be crushing on you some day." Sam snickered under her breath.