Hershie felt his expression slipping, sliding towards slack-jawed incredulity. He struggled to hold it, then lost it entirely when one of the Patron's silvery eyes drooped closed in an unmistakable wink. # "Hi, Mama." "Hershie, I just saw it on the television." He cringed back from his comm as he shrank deeper into the corner of the Belquees that he'd moved to when his comm rang. "Mama, it's all right. They've signed me for the full six months. I'll be fine --" "Of course you'll be fine, bubbie. But would it kill you to brush your hair before you go on television in front of the whole world? Do you want everyone to think your mother raised a slob?" Hershie smiled. "I will, Mama." "I know you will, bubbie. You're a very good-looking man, you know. But no one wants to marry a man with messy hair." "I know, Mama." "Well, I won't keep you. Do you think you could come for dinner on Friday? I know you're busy, but your old mother won't be here forever." He sighed his father's sigh. "I'll be there, Mama." -- <!-- <rdf:RDF xmlns="http://web.resource.org/cc/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"> <Work rdf:about="http://craphound.com/place/Cory_Doctorow_-_Shadow_of_the_Mothaship. txt"> <dc:title>The Super Man and the Bugout</dc:title> <dc:date>2001-9-1</dc:date> <dc:description>A science&#45;fiction short story by Cory Doctorow about a familiar superhero who is returned to his roots as a nebbish from Toronto, from the short story collection "A Place So Foreign and Eight More," published by Four Walls Eight Windows press in September, 2003 (ISBN: 1568582862)</dc:description> <dc:creator><Agent> <dc:title>Cory Doctorow</dc:title> </Agent></dc:creator> <dc:rights><Agent> <dc:title>Cory Doctorow</dc:title> </Agent></dc:rights> <dc:type rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" /> <license rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/" /> </Work> <License rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/"> <permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Reproduction" /> <permits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Distribution" /> <requires rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Notice" /> <requires rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Attribution" /> <prohibits rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/CommercialUse" /> </License> </rdf:RDF> --> End of Project Gutenberg's Super Man and the Bug Out, by Cory Doctorow