We had an Easter potluck yesterday. It was a nice gathering of family, good food and, of course, an Easter egg hunt. At one point Q came to me and said he wanted a superhero mask. As a superhero myself (Papiman), I recognized the importance of a good superhero mask.  Still, my powers don’t really include fashioning custom superhero masks. Nonetheless, I set to work making something that I hoped could pass, even vaguely, for a mask. 

 

Q brought me a piece of paper. “Papi,” he said, “I want a mask so that no one can recognize me.” In the other hand he was carrying a small plastic “slinky” toy.   He stretched the slinky, stuck his nose in it and then let it go. As it hung on his nose he said, “And I can put this on my nose so that no one knows it’s my nose.” “Ok son,” I said and set to work.  I took the...

 

sheet of paper he’d handed me and cut it into something resembling an oval and then I cut out some eye and mouth holes. Oh, yea, and a nose hole big enough for his entire nose (which is not very big) to fit through. It was very important to him that he use the slinky to cover his nose. (It is a little known fact that many superheroes have had there cover blown when someone recognized an exposed nose.)

 

“We need yarn, Papi, to tie it on my head,” Q said. And of course, there was no yarn to be found. Undaunted, I grabbed a role of scotch tape. “Papi, that’s gonna stick to my hair,” Q told me. My son may have actually questioned what he had gotten himself into at that point.

 

Without a word I pulled off a long strip of tape and folded it in half- sticky side to sticky side.  Presto, instant string (kind of).  I taped each end of the tape/string to the mask and fit it over Q’s head. At that moment JT walked into the room and instantly recognized my work of art for what it was. “Papi, I want a mask, too,” he said. 

 

While Q went to the kitchen table with a box of crayons to color his mask I worked on JT’s disguise. “I want a bad guy mask, Papi,” JT said. “I want Captain Hook.” I took another sheet of paper and cut it into a square. Then I cut out some crooked eye, nose and mouth holes (they were not intentionally crooked, by the way). I drew a curly mustache along with sneering mouth and…Vuala! Capitan Hook. I used my soon-to-be patented scotch tape/string to secure it to JT’s head and he was off and running.

 

Meanwhile, Q had finished coloring his mask with patches of black. “I’m Black Panther,” he said.  He handed me a bathroom towel; because every superhero needs a cape. I stuffed part of the towel down his shirt, hanging the rest down his back and the costume was complete. He gave me a smile, pulled down his mask and ran outside. 

 

Q made his way around the backyard looking very superhero like, while JT growled at anyone who came close. After running around for a while Q came to me, mask in hand and said, “Papi, they know it’s me.” “They do,” I said.  “Well do you want me to put the mask on you again?”  He thought for a second and then said, “No, I wanna go play.” And off he went. 

 

I smiled to myself when I thought about his comment, “Papi, they know it’s me,” Of course they did…he’d forgotten to put on the slinky.