Kamran fancied finding the secret garden which he had read about in books. He was a weak boy and was always bullied by the other boys who came to play in the neighbourhood ground.

One day Kamran’s mother asked him to fetch some fruits from the market. Half way through, Kamran caught the glimpse of some rowdy boys so he ran as fast as he could to avoid them and got short of breath. Somehow, he managed to get to the fruit market, get the fruits and go back home. This took him longer than usual. He didn’t say a word to his mother about what happened and went straight to his room.

When night fell, he packed his backpack and made up his mind to find the way to the secret garden. He climbed up to the attic and looked outside the window. A strange flash of light beamed on the door of the garage. He went outside to figure out where it came from. As he approached the garage, he heard a door creaking open.

A strange man stepped out and handed Kamran a purple crystal and asked him to come inside the secret garden. To his surprise, a small door beside the garage led him to the secret garden that he always wanted to explore.

The man showed him around the garden where everything was made of crystals. The man picked up a piece of crystal and asked him to keep the crystal over his head. As Kamran touched it, an unknown energy overcame him and he felt like a different person, much powerful and stronger than before.

The strange man said that these powers are given to Kamran to help the weak people in trouble. Kamran felt elated like a superhero and came back to his room and fell fast asleep.

The next morning, he heard a man shouting for help. Kamran had the urge to go and help the man out. As soon as the thought came to his mind, Kamran found himself flying to that man to help. Later he also saved an old man’s cat stuck in the tree. On another day he also caught a gang of thieves robbing a bank. They were caught red-handed and taken to the police.

Soon after he returned home and told the whole story to his mother. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she heard the story. She advised him to always help those in trouble and fulfill his responsibility with the powers he was blessed with.

Kamran lay down to take some rest and turned on the TV. His eyes popped out to watch an in-coming drone directed towards the Minar-i-Pakistan. According to some experts reporting on the news, it was going to hit it any moment. This moved Kamran off his feet and he went flying high in the sky. He flashed a laser beam at the drone and succeeded to bring it down in no time.

Soon the news of a superhero preventing a big catastrophe from taking place was all over the TV channels. Everyone was wondering who this saviour was.

As he arrived back home, his mother hugged him and whispered in his ear a secret, that all of us can become superheroes if we strive to find the secret garden hidden in our hearts. All we have to do is to explore it!

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 29th, 2018