World Journal Monthly

The old man said, "Sylvester, you do not know of me. But I must tell you true... I am your grandfather!"

I was in Washington, D.C. to investigate the Holocaust Museum shooting. Best guess, the shooter was a senior citizen who shot another elderly visitor without provocation. He then calmly handed his gun to a security guard. But the eyewitness accounts didn't agree with each other. CNN found someone who said, the guard had been shot! Thankfully this wasn't true, as I discovered when I interviewed the guard.

I took a break from the investigation when I got a phone call. The D.C. police had picked up a vagrant who had no identification - and he said I was his next of kin! When I met him, he said he was Edouard Morowiecz - my grandfather. And he had more to say...

"I am not like your American crimefighters of World War Two. They all got shot, did they not? But I fought the Nazis in Poland. We tried not to be shot there. We helped some resistance fighters on missions, but we mostly robbed people and hid in the mountains. We were not heroes, but at least we were not Nazis.

"I was captured once, but the strangest thing happened. The Nazis forgot to guard me. Or put me in prison. Or even chase me when I ran away! I got back to the other fighters - but they did not recognize me! They did not turn me away, though. So I 'joined' them again. I had to 'join' them every day after that. A curse from God? Maybe. But it saved my life, more times than I can count.

"After the war, I used my gift to hunt Nazis. Sixty-five years it's been now. I think I just got the last one. The old man I shot, I found him in a hate group. You Americans call them neo-Nazis. But any Nazi that age is just a Nazi."

I didn't know what to say to my grandfather - assuming that's what he really was. But I did know to continue the interview... "Where do you think this power came from?"

"I do not know. Always assumed it was curse from God. But not as much curse as Nazis were."

"Why did you hunt the Nazis, after you escaped from them?"

"Was easier than hunting the curse from God. And I needed to hunt something or go mad."

"If you can make people forget to capture you, why are you in prison now?"

"Just because I am done hunting now. I had to keep telling the security guard and the police it was their duty to take me in."

"So, what will you do now?"

"I do not know. I cannot move in with anyone, because I would have to move in again every day. Maybe I just stay here with police."

"Then why did you call for me?"

"Because you are writer, my boy. You will not remember, but you write it down first. That way, at least someone thinks of me."

The next day, I got called back to the District jail. They'd kept a vagrant named Edouard Morowiecz overnight. They were going to release him, but he had died in his sleep. He'd said he was related to me, but I didn't know him. I said I'd mention him in my latest story, though, just in case he had better next-of-kin than I was.

Afterword by Sylvester Morrow.

I don't remember filing this story. My editor asked me to rewrite it to make more sense, but I don't remember any of the events I wrote about in that three-day period.

The story makes some sense, though. There's no reason to believe Edouard Morowiecz was lying about his history or his superhuman power of mass forgetfulness. It's the best explanation I've seen for the museum shooting. With his power, he could make the police forget he had a gun when they took him in. He apparently made me forget everything he told me about him.

Nobody has ever explained the presence of superhuman powers on our world. The best guesses are, our Earth has a mystery mineral in a mystery part of space that supernatural beings like to patronize, and all these things can confer superhuman powers. I can't expect Edouard Morowiecz to know where his powers come from, when all our modern experts still don't know. He may simply be an early case.

I've had people not shoot or attack me, when I was on a story. Maybe I've just been lucky. But maybe the Forgotten Vigilante and I are related - and I inherited some of his powers. I'm not going to fight for justice quite the same way he did, but in some small way, his legacy can live on.