Chapter 27: They Are Different from You and Me
“Hi!” chirped the tall, curly-haired woman who met them after the short trip from the heliport. “I’m Emma McLeod; I’ll be your social director while you’re here.”
Emily hadn’t thought she would ever require the services of a social director.
“What’s that?” asked Kara.
Ms. McLeod smiled. “I make sure everyone gets where they’re supposed to go and has a pleasant stay. Normally when people stay here there’s an agenda. Meetings, recreational activities, meals, and so on. I coordinate all that. Since you’re not here for a working retreat, things will be a little more relaxed. So I’ll just be helping you if you want to find things, watch a movie, and so on.
“Why don’t I start by showing you to your cabin? It’s right this way.” They obediently followed her up a path to a small, ski lodge-like building, Jarrod and the other agents trailing behind them. “You’ll be staying in the Birch Lodge. The Prime Minister of Israel stayed here during the peace talks way back in 1978.”
“Oh,” said Emily.
“Here we are!” announced Ms. McLeod. She opened the doors.
“Well,” said Caitlin. “I can see we’re going to be roughing it.”
“When you said cabin I thought it would be like Girl Scout camp,” said Kara. “This is really nice.”
Ms. McLeod led them inside to the main living area. “There are bedrooms for each of you; you’ll find your luggage waiting. There are also rooms for your security detail. There’s a dining area; we’ll be serving you dinner there tonight.”
“Oh,” said Emily.
“We’ll let you get settled now. There’s a guide to the facilities in each room. If you need anything, just dial 22 on any of the phones and ask for me, OK? I’ll be here again at dinnertime.”
They all nodded, and Ms. McLeod withdrew.
“Feel free to look around, Ladies,” said Jarrod, “but let me or one of the other agents know if you’re planning to leave the cabin. Even here at Camp David we’d like you to be accompanied at all times. One of us will always be out here near the door.”
“Come on, girls, let’s have a look,” said Emily. They walked down the hallway.
There were three bedrooms in a row with their names listed next to the doors: “Dr. Jordan,” “Miss Jordan,” and “Miss Kent.” The girls followed Emily into hers.
It seemed like the kind of room you’d find at a high-end ski lodge: big TV, nice furniture, large bathroom. The only oddity was the telephones. They were more elaborate than the usual hotel unit, more like what you’d see on an executive’s desk, and there were more of them than the usual complement for a hotel room.
Emily plopped herself down on the bed and sighed; the girls sat down on either side of her.
What in the world are we doing here? she wondered. She felt displaced, like a refugee. This place felt nothing like home.
Then again home felt nothing like home, either. Maybe they were refugees after all. She wondered if any place would ever feel like home again.
The girls were looking at her uncertainly, so she forced a smile onto her face and wrapped an arm around each of them. “Come on, we’re on vacation! Let’s see what kind of things they have to do here.”
• • •
They wandered aimlessly around the grounds for a while. Since they weren’t there as part of a larger group for a meeting, they didn’t encounter anyone except the staff.
It was very pretty here, thought Emily, but she realized they were just as isolated as they’d been at home. It was a much bigger, nicer cage, but it was still a cage.
At least the press wasn’t here. It was calm, peaceful. It was quiet. That part was good. Very good.
“Emily?”
“Yes, Kara?”
“Would it be OK if I went flying for a little bit?”
Emily looked to Jarrod, who looked surprised by the question. After a moment’s thought, he asked, “You’ll be coming back here, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
He frowned. “I don’t see why not. Just stay away from people and make sure to come back.”
“Dinner is in forty-five minutes, OK?” said Emily. “Please be back at the cabin in half an hour.”
“I will,” promised Kara. She lifted into the air.
“Don’t you want to wear your uniform, honey?”
“Not this time,” said Kara, and shot skyward; they watched her rise rapidly out of sight. Emily and Caitlin wished they could tag along.
• • •
Kara wasn’t sure what had possessed her to come to the Canadian Arctic. It was pitch dark even though it was only around five-thirty. She could see by starlight easily enough but it was dismal. There were no trees, just occasional scrub. She’d had to search a bit just to find the rock she was sitting on.
It was extremely cold. Not that it bothered her, but she could tell. The wind was strong and kept blowing snow onto her; she brushed it off periodically.
She’d hoped to see a polar bear but they must have all gone to sleep already, or something. There didn’t seem to be any animals around at all. She’d noticed a native village many miles south, but this area was desolate.
She stood up and brushed the snow off again. This seemed like an incredibly dumb place to build a crystal fortress, unless you
liked being alone. It was interesting to visit once, but why would you live here?
She darted upwards, back into the clear, starlit night. The ground fell away and the features of the Earth became tiny. She felt a little freer up here.
She reclined onto her back, her hands behind her head. She’d always loved stargazing, and now she could see ten thousand times as many as she’d ever seen before. Here, far from the lights of civilization, the night sky was a breathtaking jeweled tapestry. Galaxies and nebulae were everywhere. She could see Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons.
Planet-watching set her mind wandering.
Was I really born on Krypton? she wondered.
Mom and Dad will know. She searched the stars, then realized that even if she had been, Krypton had never been a real place here — wherever here was. No matter how many stars she searched, she would never find where it had been in
this sky.
Suddenly she was hit by a violent bout of homesickness, and turned her back on the sky. She missed them terribly: her family, her home, the city she’d taken for granted until it had vanished. It hadn’t exploded like Krypton, but it had disappeared just the same. Had she been orphaned twice?
She kept acting like it was only a matter of time until she saw her parents again, until she could go home. She had to believe it to keep from driving herself crazy. But the truth was she might be stuck here forever, and every day that went by without a sign of her parents made that more likely. She wept, her tears freezing as they fell towards the ground far below.
She wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. She didn’t want to be late for dinner; she’d promised.
She streaked south at Mach 35, generating a sunlike fireball that briefly turned the Arctic night to day until she rose out of the lower atmosphere. Far below her a lone arctic fox looked up, confused.
• • •
Dinner was surreal.
It was very good, there was no doubt of that, and the staff was very efficient. It was kind of like flying first class, but on the ground.
That was the problem. Emily was not used to flying first class and wasn’t sure she
wanted to get used to it. This was a vacation. On a vacation you were supposed eat at a local pizza place or neighborhood restaurant with plastic tablecloths and paper napkins, not have a sumptuous meal prepared by a master chef. At least, on
her idea of a vacation.
It wasn’t even like going to a very expensive restaurant. It was like the very expensive restaurant coming to you.
At least the girls were enjoying it. It was educational for them to see how the rich and powerful lived. Though the lodge did have a small kitchen it wasn’t geared to full-scale meal preparation, so feeding themselves wasn’t an option. She wondered why it was there, then supposed that even the Prime Minister of Israel might want, once in a while, to make himself a sandwich instead of having someone do it for him.
Emily finally smiled when the girls got hot fudge sundaes for dessert. They seemed to be enjoying them in the way that only kids could, without worrying about calories. Kara had chocolate all around her mouth. Caitlin was methodically going after every last bit of fudge, the way she had when she was younger. Emily realized it had been way too long since she’d taken her little sister out for a hot fudge sundae, and felt guilty.
Why not? she thought.
Let them enjoy it. We don’t have to live this way at home, wherever that winds up being. She wondered what the rich and powerful did for entertainment.
Then a thought struck her.
• • •
“Ahhh!” cried Caitlin in frustration.
“Pay up,” said Kara smugly.
Caitlin squinted at her. “Are you sure you’re not using your powers?”
Kara folded her arms. “Caitlin, there isn’t a superpower for winning at Monopoly. Or if there is, I don’t have it.” She smiled sweetly. “I got my hotels the normal way.”
“It doesn’t seem fair that you can fly
and that you bankrupted the rest of us.”
Emily reminded her, “Caitlin, you creamed both of us at Uno.”
Kara tilted her head, smirking. “Are you going to pay me or not?”
“All right, all right,” grumped Caitlin. She counted out the rent. “That’s it for me. I’m broke.”
“I’m not,” gloated Kara, holding up wads of play cash.
Caitlin reached over to tickle her and she shrieked, dropping the bills and giggling.
“Ah ha!” cried Caitlin. “Who needs Kryptonite when Supergirl is
ticklish! I’ve discovered her secret weakness! The world is mine!” Kara continued to laugh helplessly, squirming all the while.
Emily let Caitlin have her fun for a few seconds, then said, “OK, OK, Supergirl has met her match. Caitlin…” Caitlin finally let her foster sister be, the giggles trailing away. “Do you girls want to play another game of Monopoly?”
“No way,” said Caitlin. “I’m convinced she has a superpower for it.” Kara stuck her tongue out, then retreated when Caitlin held out her hands and made tickling motions.
“Well, let’s see,” said Emily, looking over at the stack of board games on the table. “What else do they have?”
“Candyland,” observed Kara.
“Candyland is for little kids,” said Caitlin.
“I know, but I like it anyway.”
Caitlin stretched. “Do you guys want to watch a movie instead?”
Kara considered that, then smiled. “OK.”
Apparently Camp David hadn’t made the transition to video-on-demand yet. They had a huge library of DVDs, though: essentially their own video store. There was a listing of the available movies in the cabin.
When they called Emma McLeod, she told them that they could also get any first-run movie and watch it in the theatre located on the grounds. Emily decided she wanted to continue with the low-rent theme, so instead they watched an old Marx Brothers comedy on the large TV in her room. They laughed themselves silly.
When they finally went to bed everyone was in a much better mood.
• • •
Jarrod sighed. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Caitlin and Kara looked at each other; Caitlin had her arm around Kara’s shoulders, and Kara had her arm around Caitlin’s back. “Yes,” they both said.
Jarrod looked to Emily, who said, “I’m sure Kara won’t drop her.” Kara nodded emphatically.
Jarrod closed his eyes. “I don’t want you going anywhere where there are people. I’d be happier if you stayed over Camp David.”
“I guess…” said Caitlin. “We don’t have to go anywhere, really. I just want to see what it’s like.”
“OK,” said Jarrod. “Please be careful. If someone gets hurt I’m gonna get my… um, in trouble.”
“She won’t get hurt, I promise,” said Kara. With that she lifted off slowly, making sure that she had firm control of her foster sister.
Caitlin was surprised. She’d expected to feel the pressure from Kara’s arm supporting her, but it felt just the same as when she’d been standing on the ground. It was very odd; she still felt gravity, but it wasn’t having any effect. She turned to look at Kara. “We can go higher.”
“Look down,” said Kara.
“Oh my
God!” shrieked Caitlin. Camp David was a thousand feet below them. “This is
amazing!” She looked around. “You can see for miles!”
“Just wait,” promised Kara. She started to move, swooping low; Caitlin watched in awe as they came close to brushing the treetops, making long, leisurely curves. Kara started a lazy spiral, slowly rising higher and higher. They coasted to a stop close to their previous altitude.
Kara closed her eyes and smiled. “What is it?” asked Caitlin.
“The birds and animals. I can hear them for miles.” She sighed, her eyes still closed. “It’s so beautiful. I haven’t been out in the country since I got my powers.”
As high as they were, Caitlin couldn’t hear anything but the occasional wind gust. She wondered what it would be like to have Kara’s senses, but couldn’t imagine it. Oddly enough she wasn’t cold, though she had been when standing on the ground a minute ago.
Kara opened her eyes. “What do you want to do next?”
Caitlin thought for a moment. “Do you like roller coasters?” She grinned.
“Well yeah, but…” Kara’s brow furrowed, then her eyes widened. “I’m not sure about that.”
“Oh come
on…”
Kara looked down at Emily and the Secret Service detail. She tilted her glasses down and took in their anxious expressions. “Emily looks really worried.”
“How can you… oh, right.” Caitlin sighed. “You’re such a goody two-shoes sometimes.”
Kara pondered that. “I guess I am.” She smiled. “Like Dad.” She shrugged as much as she could.
“With great power comes great responsibility, huh?”
“What?” asked Kara.
“Never mind. That was from
Spiderman. I guess you don’t have superhero movies where you come from?”
“Oh, that. I was a baby when that came out. Mom and Dad saw it, but I haven’t, yet.” She shrugged again. “Laura is seven. We don’t watch movies like that at home when she’s awake; she just graduated to PG.” Her mouth twisted in a wry grin. “Now, if you quote from a Disney movie or something…”
Caitlin had a brief surreal moment, realizing she was discussing the movie-watching habits of Lois Lane’s and Clark Kent’s family with Supergirl while they hovered a thousand feet in the air over Camp David.
Kara broke into her strange reverie. “Do you want to fly some more?”
“How is Em looking?”
Kara lowered her glasses again. “More worried.”
“Maybe we should land.” She paused. “But can we do this again tomorrow?”
Kara grinned.
• • •
