When the movie about Captain Man was released, the whole town was obsessed with him. People saw him as a new hero and tried to be like him. Brian Hill was one of those people. The boy rewatched the movie with his favorite character so many times, he couldn’t even count.
The excitement surrounding the movie led to the creation of the Captain Man costumes and they were sent for mass sale. The costumes didn’t come cheap, but that didn’t stop true admirers of the character.
The trend was especially popular in educational institutions, as kids were eager to show off their superhero costumes. Within a month of the first screening of the movie, all of Brian’s classmates had Captain Man sweaters. All of them except Brian’s. The fact was that the grandmother, with whom the boy lived, supported him and herself on only one pension. There wasn’t enough money to spend on such an unnecessary purchases as a super-hero sweater. Still, Brian wanted to talk his grandmother into buying him one. “You can’t know until you try,” Brian repeated his mother’s words to himself.
When he came home from school, he saw his grandmother fiddling in the garden.
“Grandma,” Brian began the conversation. “Can you give me some money? I want a superhero sweater so bad.”
“My dear boy, you know as well as I do that I can’t let money go on such reckless spending,” Grandma replied to Brian and patted his head.
Brian’s mood was ruined for the day. Grandma saw this and worried that she was unable to give her grandson the essentials he needed.
But the old woman decided not to sit around feeling sorry for herself, but rather try to knit her grandson so cherished sweater. She didn’t sleep a wink, and overnight and she knitted the whole thing. As soon as Brian woke up, she handed him the gift.
The Captain Man sweater Brian got from his grandmother was noticeably different from the original costume. However, Brian didn’t want to upset his Grandma, so he didn’t tell her anything about it. He smiled and thanked the old lady, and put the sweater on to go to school, but soon he regretted this decision.
The kids at school made fun of Brian. Everyone he met along the way laughed at him and said mean things. The boy felt uncomfortable with the whole situation. Brian was finally “finished off” by a girl, who he secretly liked for a while. When she saw Brian’s outfit, she laughed out loud and asked contemptuously: “What are you wearing?”
Brian was humiliated and upset, so he hurried home, barely able to hold back his tears.
A young teacher, Mr. Barton, watched the whole situation during the day. He was much beloved by all the kids for his easy-going and cheerful disposition. Mr. Barton saw the condition in which Brian ran home and decided it was time to do something about it.
On his day off, Mr. Barton went to visit Brian, but the boy was not in the house at the time; he was riding his bicycle. As Brian was returning home, he saw Mr. Barton pulling away from his house.
“No, it can’t be,” pondered Brian. “Mr. Barton lives a long way from here.”
The next morning Brian put his superhero sweater back on. He didn’t want to upset his grandmother. Anticipating the laughter and snickering of the students, he pulled his head into his shoulders and walked into the school.
The moment Brian entered the classroom and headed to his desk, he suddenly realized that no one was laughing at him, there was silence all around. When he looked up, he realized why everyone was silent.
Mr. Barton, who was adored by all the students, was sitting at the table wearing exactly the same sweater as Brian. That’s what the teacher had come to his house for! He asked Brian’s grandmother to knit him the exact same sweater.
After waiting for Brian to see it, Mr. Barton exclaimed loudly: “Here he is! That’s my partner! Let’s take a picture with the coolest sweater partner!” Everyone in the room got a shock. After the teacher wore a knit superhero sweater, a lot of kids wanted to buy one just like Brian’s and Mr. Barton’s. Classmates even apologized to Brian for making fun of him. The girl Brian liked so much gave him a friendly smile.
Since the children demanded the sweater like Brian’s from their parents, the adults had to go to his grandmother. They asked the older woman to knit same sweaters for their children and offered her some cash. As a result, Brian’s grandmother raised enough money, and they went to an amusement park for his birthday.
That day, Brian happily wore a cool sweater made by his grandmother’s loving hands. And one more amazing thing happened that day, when they went to the park, Captain Man was filmed in a movie commercial there, so after standing a long line, Brian was able to get a picture with his favorite character.
It was the happiest day of the boy’s life. Brian mentally thanked Mr. Barton, without whom none of this would have happened.
