Hazel knew that Nora was having a hard time. Harder than normal for someone in kindergarten. Hazel knew that at 5 years old Nora was finding the whole world overwhelming. There were so many things she couldn’t do because she was too small. So many activities she was left out of because she wasn’t as old as her big brother. So many places she wanted to go and things she wanted to be that she wasn’t able to because she was not a big boy.

Hazel had seen these feelings before in her own daughter, Jo. When Jo died, Hazel wished she had told Jo just how much she was too good for this world. She was not too fat or too stupid or too unpopular. She was Hazel’s perfect Jo. When she was gone, nothing could replace that.

Hazel often thought about Jo when she looked at Nora. She wanted Nora to feel safe and happy and worthwhile. But she hadn’t been able to communicate that to Jo. How could she do that for someone else’s child?

One Saturday morning Hazel was driving down David Street when she saw him. It was the one that Nora’s mum had told her about. Just to make sure, Hazel pulled over her car across the street and double checked her messages.

We are having a superhero themed birthday party. Nora is obsessed with Batman. I wish I could find someone around Albury who would come to Nora’s party dressed in a Batman costume driving the Batmobile.

Hazel got straight out of her own car and crossed the road. She went up to the windows of the large black vintage Corvette with the huge fins out the back and the round tail lights as red and pointy as missile projectors. She rapped hard on the drivers’ side window. A bemused man rolled down his window, KFC drumstick still halfway to his open mouth.

“You are going to be my Batman,” she said.

Three weeks later, the Corvette turned into Eastern View Estate, same drivers’ side window rolled down. The car had been polished and its chrome panels gleamed in the winter sun. In the driver’s seat sat the caped crusader. Through his itchy and hot plastic mask, he scanned right and left. He did not know which house it was because he had never been there before. He didn’t even know the name of the birthday girl because they had never met. But he kept looking until he saw the driveway where 10 little superheros were waiting.

Amidst cheers and cries of wonder, Batman emerged from the car. Although the mask was still uncomfortable, now he was glad for his flowing cape and polyester onesie.

“Who wants to come for a drive in the Batmobile?” he asked his eager audience.

Nora’s mum told Hazel that Batman wouldn’t accept any money for his generosity and that he had even returned the Batman suit washed and clean.

And Nora was so proud. She was the only child in town to have Batman come to her house. Her party had been the talk of kindergarten the next day. For now, the world had somehow shrunk to be more bearable and Nora-sized.

Hazel was comforted and glad. But she couldn’t help but wish that Batman had been around to help her fight off the baddies when Jo was alive.