Band of Blue TOCChapter 1 “So, when do you start?” asked his dad.
“Two days,” replied Clark. “Enough time for me to finish the back fence, Dad.”
“You know I am really proud of you, Son.” Jonathan stopped trying to un-tighten the wheel nut and looked sincerely at Clark.
Clark smiled bashfully. “I know Dad, thanks.”
Clark had made it home in time for lunch with his Mom and Dad. Afterwards he went up to his room and emptied the blue beads into a little box on his bedside table and then changed into work clothes. His father had set off out into the field this morning but the tractor had stalled out in the middle of the back field. Jonathan and Clark were now trying to fix it. The heat of the afternoon sun was baking them both and Clark had already removed his top.
“Pass me that hammer, Dad,” said Clark. “I can see something bent all out of shape under the hood, let me see if I can tap it back.” Jonathan passed it over and Clark adjusted the hammer in his grip till it felt comfy. Turning back under the hood he positioned the hammer and gently tapped the misshapen piece of metal. It didn’t move. “Guess I was too gentle,” he murmured. Putting a bit more force into the next shot his eyes widened in disbelief when the hammer went straight through the engine.
“What? What was that, Clark?” asked his father striding to look round under the hood.
“I,” Clark stared, “I guess it was fragile.” He looked up into his father’s face in confusion.
Jonathan replied, “I guess so.” His face was questioning the situation though. “Pass me back the tools, we can’t do any more now, I’ll have to go to town to get a replacement part.”
Clark started passing things over to his father when he suddenly felt hot. His heart began pounding and his vision began to blur. He rested forward onto the tractor and removed his glasses. Rubbing his eyes he felt a strange prickling. When he put his glasses back on and opened his eyes everything looked different. He tried to focus on the tractor but it was as if he was seeing through it. He blinked hard and shook his head. He felt like he was losing consciousness.
“Clark?” came his father’s voice in concern.
“Dad, I ... aaaargh.” A loud ringing in his ears caused him to cry out in pain. He put his hands up to his ears to tried and cut out the sound but it made no difference. He dropped to his knees. The sound intensified and his vision swam even more. He felt blackness overtake him and he fell the rest of the way to the ground.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He came to inside on the couch. His mom was pressing a cold flannel to his forehead.
“Clark, honey, you’re awake.” She smiled at him. “I think you got too hot in the sun.”
“Mom, I don’t know what happened. My vision went strange then I heard the most piercing noise. It was like ... “ Clark trailed off his explanation as his hearing picked up a sound.
“Damn it man, hold that pole straight. I want to get this fence repaired before dark. Come on Trip, Sarah’s been on at me to fix the back yard fence for too long now.” “Mom,” Clark frowned. “I can hear Ben Hubbard.”
Martha stood up and looked round. “Where? I don’t see him. Is he at the back door?”
“No, Mom, I can hear him as his house. He’s mending his fence with Trip.”
“But, Clark, that’s five miles away,” Martha said incredulously.
Clark levered himself up off the couch and walked into the kitchen. Resting his palms on the kitchen worktop he focussed. “I can hear something else, too; a dripping sound.”
“Oh, is the tap on?” Martha rushed to the sink. “Huh!” she said when she didn’t find any drips.
“No, I think it’s the tap in the bathroom.”
“How on earth can you hear the bathroom tap dripping?” his mom asked.
Glancing back down at the table he noticed his glasses.
Mom must have put them on the table, I guess Dad carried me in. He reached forward and picked them up. Putting them on, he squinted and frowned.
That’s not right. He turned to look at a message pinned to the front of the fridge. He couldn’t read it. Taking the glasses back off he found the words become clearer. Staring at the fridge in confusion he frowned again and then suddenly felt the tingling in his eyes once more. Blinking and shaking his head he looked back up at the fridge and could see straight through the door.
“Mom, did you bake a pie this morning ‘cause I can see it in the fridge.”
Martha walked over to Clark and looked at him earnestly. “Clark, what is going on?”
“I can see through the fridge door, I could describe everything to you.” Clark turned to look at his mother and the vision seemed to shut off.
Just at that point Jonathan walked in through the back door.
“Son, you’re up. I’m glad it was just a little overheating or I would have been calling the doctor soon.”
“I don’t think I’m overheating, Dad. I think I’m developing some meteor abilities.” Clark felt his heart pounding and saw his hands shaking in terror. Every person in Smallville ever affected by those green rocks went psychotic. Clark didn’t want to lose his mind.
Jonathan looked at Martha. “I don’t know if it’s possible for you to get meteor abilities,” he said to Clark even though he continued to look at Martha. She smiled a sad smile at Jonathan then turned away.
“It’s time, Son.” Jonathan looked away from Martha and stared straight into his grown son’s eyes.
“Time for what?”
“The truth.” Clark frowned. “I want you to take a look at something. It’s in the barn.” Jonathan wandered out and Clark followed. When they reached the area of the barn that had always been Clark’s den Jonathan reached behind the old sofa and pulled out a rag. He opened out the rag to reveal a smooth metal oblong with black symbol etched around it. He turned to Clark. “I think it’s from your parents. Your ... real parents.”
Clark knew he was adopted but had never considered that his adopted parents knew who his birth parents were. “What’s it say?” he asked, quite curious.
“I’ve tried to decipher it for years but it’s not written in any language known to man.” Jonathan spoke carefully.
“What do you mean?” Clark frowned.
“Your real parents weren’t exactly from around ... here.”
“Where are they from?” Clark asked in a mock light-hearted voice. Jonathan turned to look at the telescope which had occupied pride of place in Clark’s den for years. “What’re you trying to tell me, Dad, that I’m from another planet? That’s why you don’t think I could gain meteor abilities?” Clark half laughed. “I suppose you stashed my spaceship in the attic.” His smile dropped when he didn’t get a funny response from his father.
“Actually it’s in the Storm Cellar.”
Clark shot up out of the couch. “What!”
“Come on, I’ll show you.” Jonathan set off back down the steps and Clark followed close behind. “I think you’ve had these abilities for a while. Your mother and I noticed something strange start to happen to you years ago. You ...” he stopped at the bottom of the steps and turned to look at Clark. “You picked up the kitchen table ... with one hand. And one afternoon, playing baseball in the back yard, you threw the ball. It ended up in the far field. I was shocked but you just said ‘I’m sorry, Dad, I’ll go get it.’ And you did ... at super speed.” Jonathan turned and continued walking to the Storm Cellar. “I thought I was going to have to tell you then but ... it stopped. I don’t know why. I don’t think you ever realised what you did and it never happened again.”
“When was this, Dad?” Clark asked.
“Around the time Chloe moved here and became your friend.” They had reached the Storm Cellar and Clark’s father opened the door. They both descended slowly. At the bottom, in the corner, was a pile of rubbish. Clark realised that it had always been there but he’d never bothered to wonder what it was. Jonathan reached out a hand and grabbed the large dirty sheet then pulled.
“This is how you came into our world, Son.” Clark backed away. It was really there, a spaceship. “It was the day of the meteor shower.”
“This is a joke, right?” Clark pleaded with his father to take it all back. He was normal, he had a normal life, a normal family and a promising but normal career ahead of him. How could he have arrived here in a spaceship. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“We wanted to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?” Clark shouted. How could his whole life be a complete lie? He felt like a fraud. He felt betrayed. He felt more distant from his parents than he ever thought possible. Even knowing he was adopted he had still felt like he was ‘their’ child. Now that had been ripped away from him. He wasn’t even a ‘child’ of this planet. “You should have told me,” he stated to his father then ran up the cellar steps and off down the road.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It only took a few seconds for Clark to realise that he was running fast; faster than ever before. In fact he had just passed the end of the road leading to the Hubbard farm already. Seconds later he found himself in the centre of Smallville. He came to a sudden stop and realised where he had run to. The Talon and his BFF: Chloe. She warmly invited him in and offered to let him stay on the couch when he admitted that he’d had a massive blow-out with his folks. Chloe was stunned at that. Clark never argued with his parents. It must have been some tremendous disagreement for Clark not to want to go back.
Sometime during the course of the evening Clark relaxed, forgot the gigantic revelations of the afternoon and then remembered to tell Chloe about his new job.
“I start in two days. It’s going to be great. I can’t wait to break big news stories in Metropolis.” He found himself smiling.
“Congratulations, Clark. I always knew you’d make it. If things had been different, though, I’m sure it could have been me getting that job.” Chloe grinned at him. Clark knew that she had once harboured a desire to work at the Daily Planet but she’d found herself drawn towards creative writing once at college and loved telling stories now, even more than she had loved writing facts back in high school.
“Oh, I should call Lois, my cousin. She works at the Planet. I’ll get her to show you round. You could have a built-in friend already there.”
“Lois?” Clark queried. “Didn’t she come to visit you once?”
“No.” Chloe tskd. “She was supposed to visit but Lucy ran off and so her and the General ditched me to go bring back the wild child.” Chloe pulled out her phone and tapped in some numbers. “Besides, Lois thinks Smallville is the most backwater village that ever existed. And that’s without ever even stepping foot in this direction.” Lifting the phone to her ear Chloe lent back into the sofa.
“Lois! Hey Cuz,” she said.
“Chlo!” Clark heard the scream through the ear piece. Now was that because Lois had screamed loud or because his new super-hearing had kicked in?
Chloe and Lois talked about random family stuff for ages. Clark tried to switch off his hearing but he couldn’t seem too. He got up from his chair and went to make himself a drink. He nearly dropped the cup he had been filling when he overheard a comment from Lois about wearing a thong on the most inappropriate of days.
“Clark?” Chloe held the phone away from her ear. “Are you ok?”
“Sure, Chloe. Just being clumsy,” he took a deep breath.
This is just too weird, even for Smallville, he thought. Chloe returned to her conversation with her cousin.
“So, my friend just got a job at the Planet. He starts in two days. How about you show him the ropes, Lo?”
“Oh, Cuz. I’m sorry but my job is not to babysit rookies. Besides I’ve got a new project. I’m searching for a mystery man. Can’t be distracted by a ‘green’ reporter from Smallville while searching for the stud who I caught a glimpse of this morning.”
“Lois! What are you talking about?” asked Chloe.
“Chlo, I’ve never experienced anything like it before.” Lois’ voice dipped so low that Clark knew it was his super-hearing allowing him to hear the conversation. He willed himself to stop listening but it wouldn’t switch off. “I was on my way to copy when I saw the most luscious tight ass disappearing down the stairwell. I chased after it but all I caught a glimpse of was the back of his head.” Lois sighed. “I’ve never felt this way about an ass before. Something about the way the material skimmed over ...” she coughed. “Chloe, do you believe in ‘love at first sight’? Oh and I haven’t even seen his face yet. Boy am I tapped in the head. Er, just ignore me Chloe. Mad Lois rambling on. Anyway, I don’t have time to be a babysitter. You’ll just have to tell Mr Smallville that he’s on his own, no stabilisers. And I gotta go now, talk to you again soon.”
Chloe put her phone down and Clark came to sit back down. “What is it Chlo ... e? You’re frowning.” Clark was glad he’d caught himself then, he’d nearly called her Chlo just after listening in on one conversation between cousins.
“Lois ... er,” Chloe shook her head. “She was being ... well ... like Lois, I guess.” She looked up at Clark and smiled. “Anyway, she said she be happy to show you the ropes.”
Clark raised an eyebrow. He had most definitely heard different.
“Clark?” Chloe frowned up at him. “Where are your glasses?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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