TSSB 1979 - Competition Entry

Item 1. Good length of climbing rope, black, grapple hook at one end.
Item 2. Medium sized knife with TSSB emblazoned on the handle.
Item 3. Compass.
Item 4. Utility belt, yellow. (Buckle has enamel TSSB on it.)
Item 5. Pair of elfin like, yet sturdy boots, sky blue with yellow trimming.

These were top-secret items, all carefully hand drawn onto a block note piece of paper, itself sealed in a handmade envelope with the initials TSSB and hidden under my mattress.

No one was to know what TSSB would stand for until I was standing over some thug and saved somebody from a terrible fate. Then they would ask. But who are you, and I would finally, proudly be able to announce to the world:

"I am Trilliant Super Sonic Boy"

There would be gasps, kids wanting autographs, peeved looking policemen and soon I'd have the other superheroes asking if I'd like to join their alliance against evil.

Before this though I still had one concern. All the other superheroes had catchy names for when they were in civilian attire. Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne of Wayne Industries.

My brother and I left the house to play catch over on the common. We had a race from the path to the flat part where they play cricket. I won. I thought, I can tell him, I can trust him. He's obsessed by He-Man, he'll understand.

"From now on, I don't want you to use my old name. You can call me Chris Crusader."

I never expected him to laugh, he who fantasized about men with huge muscles, riding green tigers and fighting frogmen and skeletons.

But he did.

Suddenly doubts appeared in my mind. If I were to run around in a yellow and blue costume, with some flapping cape and shiny boots, perhaps here in Tadworth, by the pond it wouldn't really work.

I kept the envelope with all my plans.

Maybe the older me would be able to take up the reins and live the dream.