On Tuesday night, I went on a second date

dressed as

Wonder Woman.

 

I know…right?!

The back story: We tried to get together and then he was making cracks via email about how busy I am and then he asked if I was out saving the world, or something like that.

He made a joke about my invisible airplane. His last comment to me before we met was “Don’t forget your cape!”

And like someone shoving me in the chest, I reacted. I thought “I’m gonna wear my Wonder Woman costume.”

 

Wonder Woman

I bought the outfit in 2006 one month after Art was diagnosed with cancer during his first battle.

I wanted to be a queen that year until Langston, then age 9, pointed out the Wonder Woman costume and said “Mom, you should be this!” I laughed as I paid for it at the register.

Art almost fell over when I met him at the door after he was being escorted home from a chemo treatment.

My friends thought it was the best costume …. EVER.

And then I put it way.

 

And then, three years later Art died.

 

So on Tuesday, I’m sitting outside a wine bar, in my car, dressed as a blonde Wonder Woman. And I’m on the phone talking to a widow friend of mine.

“This is stupid.” I say.

“No it’s not Kim. It’s who you are. You are Wonder Woman!”

I take it in.

I feel my superpower rising.

 

She is right.

I am Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman is back, I think.

 

Wonder Woman with the faults that do not make her weak but actually make her strong.

 

Wonder Woman is real.

Wonder Woman has been who I have been all this time, since the moment he was diagnosed to this moment, one year and 8 months after his death.

 

I realize Wonder Woman is back.

I wear it to meet this guy who is laughing so hard he can’t talk for a moment.

 

I stand there laughing too because he enjoys the joke so much, because I had the balls to say “Fuck it” again and show up in a costume for a second date.

 

The next day I am laughing because he was written out the lyrics to the Wonder Woman theme song and sent them to me and he asked me to accompany him to a Christmas party.

 

He likes Wonder Woman.

 

The costume will not go back in the Halloween box.

It will stay with me, in my closet so that

I can remember

that Art’s death

has brought back

Wonder Woman.

 

It’s nice to see her again.