"James Maxey - The Final Flight of the Blue Bee" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxey James)

The Final Flight of the Blue Bee by James Maxey
James Maxey tells us, "The first superhero comic book I ever picked up was Superman #279,
all the way back in 1974. The Man of Steel teams up with Batgirl. I don't remember much
about the plot, but I do remember thinking that Batgirl was kind of hot. I was hooked. Over
three decades, I've accumulated about thirty thousand comic books. No one can say they aren't
educational. All the physics and biology details I used to write ├втВм╦ЬFinal Flight of the Blue Bee'
have been rigorously researched and fact checked against my collection." Anyone want-ing to
read more of his superhero writing can track down the author's debut novel, Nobody Gets the
Girl, which was published last year by Phobos.
****
When the old man came out of the bathroom wearing the faded costume, Honey placed her hand over
her mouth to stifle a giggle. The black and yellow fabric over his round stomach stretched skin-tight,
revealing several inches of white, hairy flesh between his belly button and his metallic gold underwear.
The sleeves and leggings of the costume sagged, as if once filled by muscles that had vanished long ago.
In the center of his chest was an appliqu├Г┬й bee, the silver foil wings crinkled and ripped. He looked
away from her, studying himself in the mirror. She wondered how he saw at all in the black mask that
concealed the upper half of his face, the eyes hidden by thick, gold, faceted lenses.

"It's a little early for Halloween, isn't it?" Honey said.

"Yes," he said, frowning.

Recognizing that she'd offended him, Honey assumed her best poker face.

"So," she said. "You're a bee."

"Yes," he said.

"You, uh..." she paused, biting her lip. He showed you the money, she thought. Don't blow this. "You
wanna talk about it?"

"Buzzzzzzzz," he said.
****
They'd let Mick Payton out of prison with a new suit and one hundred forty-seven dollars in his pocket.
He'd declined the halfway house's offer to send a car to pick him up. He walked out the gate and didn't
look back. It was twelve miles to the small town of Starksville. He needed the fresh air, the sunshine.
Bees danced in the flowering fields as he walked past.

By that evening he'd blown half the money, starting with a T-bone dinner. The meal cost an outrageous
twelve dollars. Back in 1964, you could eat out for a week on twelve dollars. Once he'd finished, he'd
walked to a hardware store and spent a breath-taking fifteen dollars on an axe. Finally, the bus ticket to
Collinsville, New Jersey, set him back fifty dollars. By now, he was braced for the extra zeroes that
followed the prices. He tried to shrug it off. Once he reached Collinsville and the old farm, money
wouldn't matter.
****
"You haven't heard of the Blue Bee?" the old man asked.

"Blue?" Honey asked, studying his costume, which didn't have a stitch of blue.

"He was my mentor," he said. "I was his partner, Stinger."