What a month, he thought as he unzipped the beach bag and fished around for the suntan lotion. Visiting Monique’s parents at their beach house was usually fun, but this year her aunt and uncle were there, as well as her cousin who did nothing but complain. The house was too crowded and always noisy. Dizzy fumbled through Monique’s comb and makeup and books and candies and bottles of water. Finally he spotted the lotion and reached for it. The bottle was hot and greasy and slipped through his hands. Give me a break, he fumed. Why can’t Monique be more careful? He grabbed the bottle again, flicked the cap to the open position, aimed it at his thigh, and squeezed. To his amazement, the cap fell off. Runny lotion poured out of the bottle onto his leg, spilling over onto his towel.

The obnoxious kids laughed again, louder than ever. Dizzy ignored them. He threw the empty bottle in the sand, and leaned back on his elbow. His sons were splashing in the water, having the time of their lives. Like Monique, they were dark-haired and tanned easily. Not like Dizzy, whose pale skin got splotchy and red when he stood near a window. At least my boys are having fun, he thought. A lot more than I did at their age.

Thirty years ago, when Dizzy was in the first grade, his classmates had come up with his nickname. Rufus Spells became Dizzy Spells. Rufus told himself that he didn’t mind. Dizzy sounded a lot cooler than Rufus. But the fact that Rufus was a bit klutzy ensured that the nickname stuck. He had always been good-natured about it, until Cleo Paradise decided to imitate him in that movie. He seethed at the thought. She’d turned his whole life into a joke. Now he wasn’t only Dizzy, he was the “Dizzy Super Super.”

She had some nerve imitating my walk, my mannerisms, the way I stick my tongue out when I’m hard at work. She was tiny but managed to master my clumsy gait. After the movie was released, everyone Dizzy knew realized she had used him for inspiration. After all, Dizzy was the superintendent of her building in Los Angeles.