"Ma'am, please sign here," the deliveryman instructed.
Lisa figured it was another package of comic books that Collin had ordered. As Lisa leaned over slightly to sign for the package, she sensed that the deliveryman was trying to stare down her cleavage. It was probably because the man in his mid-forties checked her out on a regular basis. At this point, Lisa just ignored it and closed the door after she grabbed the package.
I can't believe they do the same thing all day every day,
Lisa thought to herself as she placed the package on a nearby chair and continued to vacuumed the carpet in the living room. She couldn't believe that her son, who she had been taking care of after school ever since he was 2, was spending all of his time reading comic books with his friends.
It wasn't as if Collin couldn't be out doing more important things. He had a ton of friends on the hockey team he could go out and have fun with despite being sidelined with a knee injury for the last few months. He was muscular and attractive, and Lisa wondered why he was spending his time with geekier friends like Lenny and Sean, instead of dating the cute girls at his school.
Every day he just comes here from school, Lenny and Sean come over, and they spend all day reading comic books. Why does he do that? I don't even understand the appeal of that lifestyle!
Curious to get to the bottom of her son's life choices, Lisa stopped vacuuming the upstairs and decided it was time to pick up clutter in the basement where she knew the three boys would be sitting in bean bag chairs reading.
Sure enough, when she walked down the flight of stairs, Collin, Lenny, and Sean were sitting in the mushy colorful chairs, eating snacks, and intently analyzing the pictures and captions of different super beings. Lisa was fairly surprised to see the excitement on their faces as they quickly turned the pages.
They were so focused that they didn't even realize that she was standing there.
I don't get it! I mean, I get Lenny and Sean having nothing better to do,
she looked over at the scrawny Lenny and the plump nerdy Sean,
but you'd think a handsome 18 year old like Collin would be more excited by going out than doing this!
"Oh, hi, Mrs. Carter," Sean glanced up before quickly looking back down at his open book.
Collin and Lenny shot their heads up and gave an obligatory hello.
"So what do you want, Mom?" Collin asked the woman who usually introduced herself as his nanny (the result of an inside joke among Lisa and Eliza that started back in their twenties and ended up sticking).
"I don't want anything, I was just cleaning the house and I wanted to make sure things were looking good down here." Out of the corner of Lisa's eye she thought she saw Sean staring at her in a funny way, but by the time she turned her head, his head was already in between the pages of his comic.
The there was silence. Before she knew it, all of the boys were back to reading silently to themselves and it was like she was invisible. Wanting to dig deeper into their fascination with their hobby, Lisa restarted the conversation. "So what are you boys reading?"
Each of them responded with some hero or super being that she had never heard of and then went back to reading. "Ok..."
Clearly communication was not the way to go.
Well, I guess the easiest way would just be to see what they are looking at all day.
Lisa noticed the stacks of comics sitting on a nearby shelf. "Would you boys mind if I open up your comics and see what they're like?"
Collin, Lenny, and Sean nearly gasped. "
You
want to read comic books?"
"No, no, it's just that you boys are clearly very interested in these. And if my son and his friends spend all of their time with something I should at least have an understanding of what they are like."
The three highschoolers all looked at each other suspiciously as if Collin's guardian was setting them up for a trap. In the end, they couldn't come up with a good reason to say no.
Collin shrugged, "Go ahead, Mom."
Lisa chose a random comic book about a group of superheroes that she faintly recognized. She skimmed through the first couple pages and she could understand why Collin enjoyed reading these but she couldn't understand his newfound obsession with them.
Oh, well, uh, that's interesting...
As she continued to flip through the pages, she began to notice a common theme. All of the female characters in the comic had skinny waists, massive breasts, and large firm asses. They were scantly clothed as well.
The married mother felt a little dirty holding it so she decided to read another one in order to understand Collin's new hobby. But once again, the new comic portrayed women in the same light. And it turned out that every one Lisa picked up had the same theme.
She studied the female characters and then looked at her own body. Lisa was proud of her body and she knew that it was something that a lot of other men desired. She had 36D breasts on a 5'7" hourglass frame with tone legs, supporting a round butt. Yet, compared to the exaggerated women in these comics, she felt inferior.
Lisa peered across the room at her son and his friends with smiles on their faces at they read. No doubt that their comics depicted its female characters in the same sexualized way.
A wave of concern came over Lisa. She wondered if the reason Collin no longer went out with girls in his own school was because he was obsessed with a body type that he could never possibly have.
Rather than confront Collin about the potential dangers of his comic books, Lisa decided to let him be. Maybe she was wrong to assume that the sexy women were the reason he loved the comics so much. Maybe the sex objects weren't distorting his view of women after all.
At least he's reading...
*****
In the few days after she was introduced to comic books, Lisa still felt uneasy about Collin looking at women depicted in an unrealistic way. It was a Friday night and Collin was once again down in the basement reading comic books with his friends.
He should be out trying to get laid
, Lisa bluntly said to herself.
It was one thing for him to relax with some comics after school, but Lenny and Sean also came over after dinner everyday to read more comics. Since her husband worked late into the night, Lisa didn't see him much. The brunette mother worked shifts early in the morning Tuesdays through Saturdays, Lisa was rarely up past 9PM on nights before work. She usually ate dinner, watched some TV and then went to bed. Usually her husband, Aaron, was away on business trips that often left Lisa sleeping alone.
This night though, Lisa found herself not tiring despite it being past 9. She knew Collin likely assumed she would be asleep and he'd virtually have the house to himself, along with his friends. With her concern mounting, Lisa began to reaffirm her suspicion that Collin's attachment to comic books was due to more than simply the titillating storylines.
Worrying that Collin was going down an unhealthy path, instinct caused the suburban housewife to check up on him. She knew Collin and his friends were likely sitting in the same beanbag chairs and reading comics at the very moment.
The white door to the basement swung open and Lisa started to move down the flight of stairs. The first thing she noticed that was odd was that the lights were dimmed.
Why would they be reading in the dark?
