Band of Blue TOCChapter 6 “Clark! Clark!” Lana shouted and shook his unconscious body. Chloe ran over and dropped to the floor on the opposite side of Clark.
“He looks terrible Lana. What happened?” Lana shrugged. “Look.” Chloe pointed to Clark’s arm. “What’s that?” The veins up Clark’s arms were visibly standing out. “They look green. That can’t be good.”
Lana stood. “I’ll phone for an ambulance.” As she moved away Chloe noticed a difference in Clark. His colour returned to normal and his breathing strengthened. He gave a little moan and seemed to be coming round.
“Lana!” Chloe called. “It’s okay.” Lana turned back and came running over. As she knelt down again Clark groaned once more and looked green again. Chloe looked up at Lana and stared in surprise. “It’s you.”
“What?” Lana frowned in confusion.
“It’s when he’s close to you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Chloe noticed the necklace dangling from Lana’s neck. “Lana. Has your necklace ever glowed before?”
“Glow?” she said in further confusion. Lana reached behind her head and unclipped the necklace which meant so much to her. Looking at it she stared, wide-eyed. “What ... is ... going ... on?” she asked. As she stood and moved away from Clark the glow faded and Clark gradually came to.
As Clark awoke and slowly stood up he took in the scene around him. Chloe was kneeling on the floor next to him and Lana was standing, nervously, at the far end of the room.
“What happened?” he asked.
Chloe stood up and then bent down to pick up Clark’s glasses which had fallen of as he collapsed. She passed them to him and he put them on. “You collapsed, unconscious, Clark.” Chloe was staring at him.
“I did?” He looked around. “Lana why are you standing over there?” he questioned.
“Because of this,” she said, sadly. Holding out her arm Clark saw Lana’s green necklace dangling from her fingers. He strode towards her.
“What do you mean?” As he got closer he was struck by intense pain again. The necklace began to glow and he slowed his stride. Clutching at his sides he dropped to one knee. “I ...” he stammered. “I don’t understand.”
Lana’s eyes filled with tears and she moved even further back taking the necklace as far away from Clark as she could. She left it on a shelf at the far side of the room and returned to sit down. They all sat together on the couch. There was an awkward silence for a few minutes intermittently interrupted by someone attempting a question ... or an explanation ... but then falling quiet again after a single word. Clark finally decided he needed to say something. He had no explanation but wondered if it had anything to do with the other changes of this week. He didn’t want to be explaining those to Chloe and Lana so he came up with a, hopefully, realistic explanation.
“I ... something happened to me ... no ... er ... I noticed a change earlier on the week. I think I’ve developed an allergy.” He paused. Looking first at Chloe then at Lana he forcibly lightened his tone of voice and continued. “You know, like when people develop an allergy to milk ... or wasp stings ... late in life, even when there was no allergy before.”
Chloe and Lana both murmured an agreement. It sounded plausible.
“So,” Chloe spoke slowly “You are now allergic to meteor rocks? How does that happen?”
“How does any allergy happen?” Clark replied vaguely. After a few more minutes of strained silence Clark stood up and turned to look back at the two ladies sitting down. “I should probably go. You two will want to catch up.” He smiled. “It’s been years.”
He strode to the door without looking back. As he opened it he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Lana looking up at him with those eyes; eyes that used to gaze at him years ago.
“Clark, I’m so sorry.” He could see the tears in her eyes.
“It’s ok Lana. I’m, glad you’re here, we’ll catch up another time.” He gave her a friendly smile. Hopefully Lana would see that it was friendly. Lana reached a hand up to Clark’s face and placed it on his cheek.
“I missed you.” Clark knew that there were hidden words in that sentence. Lana had made her feelings clear years ago but Clark could never get past the ‘girlfriend of my football team-mate and good friend, Whitney’. Clark would never do that to a friend. And even after Whitney left and ... well, even then Clark’s feeling wouldn’t change. His head knew Lana was off limits and so his heart never kicked in, at least not in the romantic sense. Clark suspected his gentle rejection of her was a contributing factor to her leaving for Paris.
Clark sighed at Lana and put his hand up to hers. Bringing it down gently he replied, “I’ll see you soon,” then left.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Back at home Clark spent the whole evening researching Dr Virgil Swann. Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1977 he was very much a recluse up until his death in 2005. He spent all his time and money on studying the stars searching for extra-terrestrial communications. He also spent a lot of time looking through the Journal, still feeling a familiarity about the symbols. His mind continued to think about this while he slept and he woke in the morning knowing why he recognised some of the symbols.
“The Kawatche Caves,” he explained. “Some of these symbols are on the walls in there.
“But that’s a legend of Native American origin, how can that have anything to do with you?” said his mother.
Jonathan turned to stare at Martha. “A legend about a man from the sky - who can shoot fire from his eyes,” he said. They both turned to look at Clark.
It’s been years since I went there, thought Clark.
After we gained the protection order, I must admit, I never gave them much thought. I’m ashamed of that. I lobbied to save them because of their importance but then forgot about them. Jonathan reached out a hand to cover Clark’s in support. “Shall we all go together?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Clark, Martha and Jonathan entered the caves slowly. Clark looked around at all the cave paintings and marvelled at them once again. He remembered how awe-struck he had been when he first came across them. Holding open the Journal he began to identify some of the symbols. Most of the pictures were actually just pictures, or people or objects, telling a story. But every so often a pictograph appeared that was a symbol rather than a picture. Clark identified a few and noticed a pattern. Hope. It came more and more often as they walked deeper inside.
Clark made it to the far end and then stopped in shock. Jonathan, not noticing, walked into the back of Clark and bounced off onto the floor. “Son, don’t just stop like that.”
“Dad, look,” Clark said without changing the direction of his gaze. Jonathan stood up and followed the line that Clark was staring.
“What?” he said in surprise and strode forwards. Reaching out his hand he traced round the edge of an octagonal indent in the cave wall.
Clark stepped forwards and then broke his gaze to turn and look at his father. “Where is the disk?” he asked sternly.
“Clark, that’s not a good idea. When we put it in the ship it emitted a sound that seriously hurt you.”
“I know Dad. But you pulled the disk back out and it stopped. I also think that the sound was the signal Dr Swann had been waiting for. Without it I wouldn’t have received this book.” Clark held up the Journal.
“Okay, it’s in my tool box in the barn.”
Clark sped off immediately and was back again within seconds, the disk in hand. “If something happens you can pull it back out again Dad, ok? But I need to find out more about myself.”
Jonathan nodded and turned back to the wall. Clark stepped forwards and lifted up the disk, extending his arm. The wall seemed to draw the disk in and it floated the last few inches on its own. Embedding in the wall it emitted small lights through the markings. All three onlookers stared in wonder as the wall around the disk began to rotate and rearrange itself. Suddenly the light intensified and a stream of energy burst out of the centre straight for Clark. He felt himself being lifted off the ground, the energy filling him. It was painful, but not in the same way as the green meteor rock last night. He looked around for his father, hoping he would pull out the disk but that’s when he noticed what the energy burst had done to his parents. They had been flung to the far side of the cave and were unconscious on the floor. Clark tried to struggle against the beam of energy but it intensified and he felt his body rising further off the ground. At that point he started to hear things in his head. Words he didn’t understand, but as he hung there, in the air, a change came over him. The words began to make sense the message became clear and then ... the truth was revealed.
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