New Fiction by Vit Stefanovic

 Modern Day Hero

 This is a small or maybe a big testament of a small or maybe a big figure in our history. It’s none of your business why I chose to write it, just as it’s none of my business why you chose to read it. 

 My name is Richard Rich. It has nice ring to it I think, but I disliked every other aspect of it, when I was young. Mostly because it implies something doesn’t it?

 “You will be rich my son, it’s in your name!” my father always used to say. He was a junior accountant in his fifties by the way. My mother chose housewife as a profession and my sister ran off to become and actress and yes, she is being recorded, but doing things most people don’t prefer to be recorded doing. Anyway, the stakes of my family were on me. 

 Since you got this far, let’s have some of that testament stuff. OK, memories. 

 I remember that I wanted to be a hero as a kid. Big surprise, right? Wear a cool cape and kick some villain asses. 

 I remember sitting around with college loan paid at the age of 28 and suddenly realizing that I am indeed ridiculously rich. How I got my fortune is none of you dang business but know this, I didn’t stab any backs to get it. Well OK, not more than every other guy. 

 I remember thinking about that childhood dream and realizing all of those superheroes (well most of I can think of) had a shitload of cash which allowed them to do what they did. Me? Well running around and jumping over rooftops just didn’t sound so right anymore. 

 I remember losing the concept of “hero” but still wanting to do something for the society. Give something back you might say. My money was already working for me and I was a mere supervisor of the machine I built. 

 I remember failing for the first time, when I put my money to education in the third world. Imagine schools for Africa or some shit like that. My failure was putting in charge the wrong guy, as two years later, after smelling something fishy in the account books he had been sending, I personally flew to that place just to see that there is no damn school but there is a nice villa elsewhere that bastard used my money to build. 

 This discovery of mine started a beautiful court battle that lasted for a decade and employed a good hundred of lawyers. I can’t honestly say I consider THAT to be a good deed. My army of lawyers and his army of lawyers came to a tie, because both armies were equally proficient in screwing the law over. There is no school in Africa with my name, since I never trusted anyone with the same task again. Well what kind of hero am I?

 I remember turning my attention to the homeless, because I thought it was sad to see them lying on the park benches and rummaging through garbage. I supported politics with “help homeless” programs; I supported skills training centers to help them get back in line. 

 I remember failing for the second time, when I was walking home from my company (I still like walking even though I have eight cars) when a homeless person stopped me. 

 “Spare a dollar, sir?”

 “Sorry, don’t have any cash on me.”

 And I walked. 

 Of course that was a big fat lie since I always carry cash with me. It was just an automatic reaction I am sure most of you can relate to. I saw some other man fishing something from a garbage can. I could have offered to buy him a meal but I just kept walking. I guess it was more comfortable to help these people from distance. Well what kind of hero am I?

 I remember coming home and my wife greeting me with words. 

 “Darling I saw the most amazing earrings when I was shopping today. They are only 5000 $! Please will you get them for me? “

 I thought “For fuck sake, 5000 $. I could have made 5 000 homeless people happy with that.”

 I said “Of course, honey.”

 I remember involving myself in many more philanthropic activities and I remember always, one way or the other, feeling as a hypocrite. I could get my money involved, but I never managed to get MYSELF fully involved, because for god sake, someone had to run my company or there wouldn’t even be them money. 

 So I quit, because I don’t like feeling like a hypocrite. I embraced the fact, that I will probably never be a hero. But that made me feel bad. 

 And I don’t like feeling bad. So you know what?

 Fuck this shit. 

 People got that image of hero all wrong. They need to modernize it, to see the modern day hero. Someone who provides but who doesn’t stand out. Someone with his head in the sand to keep himself safe. Someone who helps human kind in his own way, by making sure it survives. Someone who doesn’t do much good but doesn’t do anything bad either. Someone, who plays the middle. 

 So that’s me. 

 I got eight cars and a big house. I have kids and they will both have college paid before they even start it. I did all of the things I had to. 

 I am the modern day hero.

 Sincerely

 Richard, ridiculously rich. 

- © Vit Stefanovic 2023

Vit is a 32 year old traveller and passionate devourer of great stories from Czech republic. He is a personal fitness trainer by trade and besides his profession he loves his fiancee, his novel-in-making, animals, good food and beer.