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    A Man of Unusual Talent
    A Man of Unusual Talent
    A Man of Unusual Talent
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    A Man of Unusual Talent

    By Lee Brazil

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    About this ebook

    Collin Crane is a man of unusual talent. Really unusual. Too weird for the Guinness Book unusual. On the fifty-year plan to a doctoral degree in physics, and a quiet quest to understand his own oddities, Collin clings to obscurity. This superhero has learned the hard way that it's better to be safe than sorry.
    Enter Mathias Giraud, football hero, local cop, and CC's secret fantasy since high school. Mat's a simple man with a hero complex fostered by comic books and Marvel movies. Saving the world is his fantasy, but since his roots are firmly planted in Morrisonville and reality, he'll settle for protecting and serving. Until he clashes with CC at the local convenience store and is reminded of his own high school crush.
    When marshmallows are involved, the course of true love is bound to get sticky.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLee Brazil
    Release dateOct 12, 2015
    ISBN9781311891150
    A Man of Unusual Talent
    Author

    Lee Brazil

    Somewhere in a small town in up-state New York are a librarian and a second grade teacher to whom I owe my life. That might be a touch dramatic, but it’s nevertheless one hundred percent true.Because they taught me the joy of reading, of escaping into worlds crafted of words.Have you ever been nine years old and sure of nothing so much as that you don’t belong? Looked at the world from behind glasses, and wondered why you don’t fit?Then turn the page and see... there you are, running from Injun Joe in a dark graveyard; there you are fencing with Athos; there you are...beneath the deep blue sea- marveling at exotic creatures with Captain Nemo.I found myself between the pages of books, and that is why I write now, it’s why I taught English and literature for so many years, and it’s why my house contains more pounds of books than furniture.If I’d had my way, I’d have been a fencer...or a starship captain, or a lawyer, or a detective solving crimes. But instead, I am a writer, and that’s the best thing in the world to be if you ask me, because as a writer, I can be all those things and more.If I hadn’t learned to value the stories between the pages, who knows what would have happened? Certainly not college...teaching...or writing.

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      Book preview

      A Man of Unusual Talent - Lee Brazil

      Blurb

      Collin Crane is a man of unusual talent. Really unusual. Too weird for the Guinness Book unusual. On the fifty-year plan to a doctoral degree in physics, and a quiet quest to understand his own oddities, Collin clings to obscurity. This superhero has learned the hard way that it's better to be safe than sorry.

      Enter Mathias Giraud, football hero, local cop, and CC's secret fantasy since high school. Mat's a simple man with a hero complex fostered by comic books and Marvel movies. Saving the world is his fantasy, but since his roots are firmly planted in Morrisonville and reality, he'll settle for protecting and serving. Until he clashes with CC at the local convenience store and is reminded of his own high school crush.

      When marshmallows are involved, the course of true love is bound to get sticky.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, locations and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. As such, any resemblance to any persons, living or deceased, businesses, events, or locales is coincidental.

      Cover Art by © Startled Monkeys Media

      Editing by Jae Ashley

      Copyright September 2015 © Lee Brazil

      All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

      Trademark Acknowledgements:

      The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

      Age of Ultron: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Batman: DC Comics Partnership

      Black Widow: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Boy Scout: Boy Scouts of America Corporation

      Camaro: General Motors LLC

      Daredevil: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Hawkeye: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Hefty: Reynolds Consumer Products Inc.

      Hulk: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Iron Man: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Jerry Springer: Universal TV LLC

      Jetta: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft Corporation

      Lysol: Reckitt Benckiser LLC

      Macy’s: Macy’s West Stores, Inc.

      Netflix: Netflix, Inc.

      Oreos: Kraft Food Global Brands

      Pinterest: Pinterest, Inc.

      Pokémon: Nintendo of America Inc.

      Power Rangers: SCG Power Rangers LLC

      Smallville: DC Comics, Warner Communications Inc. and Time Warner Entertainment Company

      Spider-Man: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Sunbeam: Sunbeam Products, Inc.

      Thor: Marvel Characters, Inc.

      Vans: Vans, Inc.

      Walmart: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

      Story Orgy Superheroes

      A Man of Unusual Talent

      Lee Brazil

      Based on a prompt by Cheri Taylor

      1)Ability to magically manifest a giant pile of marshmallows 2) accidentally setting one's car on fire (on the inside) 3) a vegetable peeler

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      Story Orgy Superheroes: A Man of Unusual Talent

      Chapter One

      Don’t Waste Your Time

      Hey.

      Yeah. CC didn’t look up from the book he was reading. He’d just gotten to the interesting part…where he kept getting stuck on the theory and lost the whole concept. Quantum physics was way above his pay grade, but it just might hold the secret to, well…his secrets.

      Pump nine ain’t pumping, dude.

      Huh. Putting a strip of cash register receipt, which proved he’d paid for his cigarettes three days ago, in the crease of the book to mark his page, CC glanced up. Going out and messing with the pumps wasn’t something he wanted to do, not while he was alone in the store. Let me check. His gaze automatically went to the window. The area was well lit, and practically deserted, which was his favorite part of working the night shift. All the pumps except nine were empty. There, a battered, rusty old Jetta had stopped at a slight angle so he couldn’t read the plates. How about you just pull up to number ten and give that one a shot?

      Can’t. I swiped my card already.

      Something flickered in the teen’s expression as he met CC’s gaze. CC found himself flinching in reaction to that micro expression. What had it even been? The kid’s face was still sober, his eyes a little red, as though he’d spent the night either crying or smoking dope.

      I can fix that. CC sniffed the air cautiously. No odor of bud clung to the guy, and he was so small and thin that CC could probably take him one-handed, which was saying something, but… Okay. I cancelled the sale on nine. Pull forward to ten and you should be good.

      He turned his attention back to his book but fear prevented him from finding the train of thought he’d been following. Damn it. Warmth flooded his fingertips and he bit his lip, hard. Not now. Please. Not now. Raising his head, he stared blankly out the window. He’d spent years learning to control his…talent. He even sneered inside his head when he thought it; that was how awful it was. Since he’d lost his focus, he decided now was as good a time as any to put that out of order sign on pump nine. Let Deana deal with fixing it in the morning when she had extra staff. That was the negative to the night shift. You were alone from basically midnight to five am. Five hours of blissful solitude. Just him and the closed-circuit TV cameras.

      When he opened the door, he realized at a glance that the teen who’d entered the store wasn’t alone. CC hesitated for just a moment. It was well after midnight, and self-preservation said it might be best to just wait ‘til the two young men had left before he put up his sign.

      He stood in the doorway for a minute, watching.

      The second kid wasn’t any bigger or taller than the first. If anything he was more waif-like and fragile looking. They both wore dark hoodies and black jeans. Their faces were whitish blurs in the distance, but he could tell they were talking…and they kept glancing back at the door of the convenience store.

      That was enough for CC. He could wait. No point in messing with potential trouble. He tossed the sign on the counter and went back to his book, flipped back to the beginning of the chapter to start over.

      The door jangled open.

      Argh, he muttered under his breath, glancing up. He froze as he saw the two teenagers walking toward him, one looking determined, and the other a little red-faced and frantic. Can I help you? He made his voice as cold as the panic he felt would allow.

      You’re him, aren’t you? the first boy said, while the second ducked his head and toed the ground.  

      CC tensed. Yeah…he got that the boys weren’t here to rob the place, at least they weren't giving off any dangerous vibes. Not that his vibe meter was what you could call fully functional, but he’d learned… God how he’d learned to be wary.

      Him? he asked politely, straightening to as tall as he could, puffing out his chest, and squaring his shoulders to take up as much space as possible. That was how animals intimidated one another, and… He immediately felt like a shit heel as the shyer boy took a step back and the one who’d spoken flinched. Holding his ground was feeling an awful lot like being a bully, and he didn’t like it. CC took a deep breath and forced himself to relax.

      Collin Crane. The teen grabbed his friend’s hoodie, as though preventing him from fleeing. I knew when I came in before you looked familiar. I’ve seen your picture every day for the last four years. You’re still number one, man.

      Dread. His old friend and longtime emotional companion jumped him in a savage embrace. I don’t know what you—

      "No one has ever figured out how you did it, or been able to top it. That was the senior prank to end all senior pranks."

      The two boys were staring at him now, and he knew he looked like an idiot, mouth gaping open then shutting as he struggled to find something to say while at the same time trying to keep his…talent…under control, because that was the absolute last thing he needed. Well, it was a long time ago, he finally offered lamely.

      Tell us how you did it. The second youth finally spoke up. How’d you get all those marshmallows into the second floor boy’s restroom without anyone seeing you?

      ***

      Acrid, cleaning fluid odors stung his nostrils. Mathias tried to breathe through his mouth. He pushed the button to let the window down a crack, blow away some of the smell. Dillon was such a freak about germs,

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