Copperman

I think my life is a circle.

Round and around, always ending up there.

I don't always know what to do.

But I've always loved circles, since I was a kid.

They're round, they have no corners

and they have no direction.

Circles are: wheels on bicycles,

lollipops at the fair,

camera lenses...

my teacher Delma's glasses

and the pattern on my underwear!

Anselmo?

Hurry up, we'll be late for school.

- Turn it off! - 5 minutes till the program ends.

Two minutes, get dressed.

But my favorite circles are the colored ones.

I like... red, turquoise, blue,

green, brown, black.

The color I can't stand is yellow.

Lemons are yellow, old man Gebedia's house...

Damn you all!

...pee.

In fact, I sit on the toilet so I don't see it.

And the Chinese.

And the school bus.

Since that day, I've gone to school on my red bike.

My mom never had many friends

but she always wore orange for the ones she liked.

Like it?

Hi. Where are you taking me?

Close the door.

Will you give me a blow job?

- What? - That's all I ask you.

Wait!

Mommy, what did he ask you?

Nothing, a liqueur.

Like limoncello.

Anselmo, my son. My friend Giovanni.

I bet you like magic.

Blow.

- Anselmo, what are you doing? - Anselmo, no!

Stop!

Cut it out!

Giovanni disappeared

but no matter, Mom always said we were enough for each other.

"The day they killed Captain Cosmo"

Why isn't Daddy with us? When's he coming back?

You know, he went to save the world.

When will he finish?

The world is full of bad things,

yellow things, very yellow!

It takes time to clean it up.

Couldn't he have cleaned up near us? It's dirty here too.

No, this is a peaceful place, there's nothing to clean.

You can't imagine what it's like in other places, filthy.

- Know what day it is? - Yes.

Work's not going very well, I need a bit more time.

It's not what I said when you asked me for help.

Don't you dare!

We can come to an agreement in another way.

Let go of me!

What's to look at?

- You want money too? - No, thank you, I get an allowance.

An allowance?

Good boy.

See you in a month.

Why did he want to give me money?

He lends money if you need some,

then every month he comes to...

He comes to see if you need more.

Yes, but his car's yellow.

Yes...

My classmates had just one teacher, I had two.

One was all for me, they called her "teacher's aide".

Maybe because she had to aid the teacher to carry lots of things

I just called her Delma.

I'll tell you a secret.

I wasn't the only special one at school.

That day at 9:19 and 5 seconds

something happened that I'll never forget.

Hey you, can you get my 240?

Your 240?

My pencil, it fell through the gate.

Will you get it?

You did it.

"Anstupid" got stuck!

I saw their plan: to push me through to the other side.

Stop it!

But for 17 minutes and 5 second, no one was able to free us,

and so the teacher called Silvano.

You got good taste, kid.

At 9:55 and 13 seconds I was free

and at 9:56 and 23 seconds so was Titti.

And I'd become her friend.

From that moment I'd have done anything to make her happy.

You know that 8 divided by 11

is 0.727272...

I don't like recurring decimals,

you know where they start but not where they end.

There, that's my house.

- Get in. - But Daddy...

Get in!

Retard, stay away from my daughter, hear me?

Hear me?

Anselmo... everything's okay.

Wait, look.

Look!

Look, sweetie... here's a circle.

Look at the circle.

Circle, circle...

Give me your hand, you do it.

Circle...

Good boy!

Circle, circle...

Slowly, slowly, darling.

There... good boy!

Better... see?

It's all over.

I think it's miraculous.

Inside were my blue jeans, red T-shirt, green pajamas

and my mother's colored clothes.

But when it started spinning, they all became white.

But light in the chandelier, starts white and splits into 7 colors,

if they stayed separate, everything would be simpler.

I could figure yellow from red

and spot the good things from the bad.

Instead they mix and the world becomes a great confusion.

Things are never what they seem.

And I'm not what I seem either.

Here come the superpowers! Flying bicycle!

Let's see if you can dent a copper helmet 4 millimeters thick.

Silvano, when did you come to town?

- Why, does it matter? - No.

Why here exactly?

One place is like any other.

Were you in here before?

Is this your wife? Do you have children too?

Are you asking questions on doctor's orders?

No, it's my idea.

A shitty idea.

- Hello. - Mom, what's a shitty idea?

- Anselmo could you wait outside? - I could, but don't want to.

- Go outside! - Going.

- Bye, Silvano, see you tomorrow. - Stay away from intersections.

Why does my son spend afternoons with you?

He comes in, sits down, drinks his soda then talks and talks...

I'd thank you if you get him off my back, I'm busy.

Fine with me. We agree.

Know what I was thinking?

Between us, we have just one mom and one dad.

Why don't we get them to marry?

We'd better not!

Why?

Then the two of us can't get married.

Right, I didn't think of that.

Want to marry me?

Where were you? I've been waiting all day.

Retard...

I told you to stay away from my daughter.

I asked her to marry me.

You did? Really?

Then let's throw rice.

Anselmo, run!

Why's your dad like that?

He's not bad, but it's my fault if some bad things happened.

No, stop!

Why?

Can you keep a secret?

Look.

- My dad is one of them. - A superhero?

Yes, he went to save the world.

Which one of these is he?

I don't know yet, I'm working on it.

Know how many superheroes there are? 275!

It takes a lot of research.

I'm sure I'll recognize him when he comes back.

He'll have a costume of all colors, except yellow,

and he'll point to the sky...

I don't feel very well.

Feeling better?

Don't worry, no one ever died from a shotgun blast of salt.

- Where's Titti? - She went home.

Listen...

be good and stay here,

wait for me, I'll go do something and be right back.

Who's there?

- What the fuck are you doing? - Leave my boy alone!

You loanshark, you've bled us for years, we're fed up,

I'll report you!

What the fuck are you doing?

- Let go of me! - Who you gonna report?

Leave her alone!

- What are you doing? - I'll report you.

Stop it!

See what you did?

- Let go of me! - Get inside.

Know what I thought?

Does Dad have a battle cry?

I'd say so.

What is it?