Part 3
*****
The final days of the school year passed without incident. Oliver hadn’t come across any new abilities or displayed any previously discovered abilities either in public or private. Their luck had held out long enough to see the week through.
The end of Oliver’s year in kindergarten was marked with a little ceremony held at the school. Lois and Clark were in attendance together with Jimmy, whom they had brought along for his photography skills to commemorate the event.
Shortly after sunset that evening Clark spun into the Suit as he prepared to fly his family to his parents’ farm in Smallville via Superman Express. It had been quite a while since their last visit to Smallville because for the last few years travel courtesy of Superman hadn’t been an option. Ever since Oliver was born Lois and Clark had to fly strictly in airplanes, rescues and private moonlight flights notwithstanding, making it more difficult to arrange trips to Smallville as often as they had before.
Now that Oliver knew the secret however that was no longer a problem. Smallville was again just a short, free of charge flight away that was ready to take off anytime they were, day or night.
After a few minutes of trying to figure out the logistics of carrying both his wife and son and coming to the conclusion that Oliver’s wheelchair would have to be left behind for now, they were ready to go. Lois secured Oliver in her arms and then Clark in turn gathered her into his arms.
Since this was Oliver’s first time flying with Superman Clark flew slower than he usually did when it was just he and Lois. For the first couple of minutes Oliver was afraid, but then once he realized that neither his mother nor father were going to drop him and that he was completely safe he began to enjoy the flight. He gazed down at the ground below and at the moon and stars above, marveling at how everything looked from up here.
When they landed on the porch of the Kansas farmhouse Oliver immediately asked, “Can we go again?”
Clark let out an amused chuckle and turned to Lois. “He may look more like me on the outside, but he’s all you on the inside.”
“Maybe later,” Clark said addressing his son. “Go on in guys. I’ll be right back.”
As Lois approached the front door to knock, Clark took back to the skies, flying back to Metropolis. She watched as her husband disappeared in the blink of an eye, which elicited a reaction of astonishment from her son who had never seen such speed before. This was all so new to him and everything left him with a sense of wonderment.
A short time later Lois began to hear movement coming from inside the house. Soon the door opened and Martha Kent greeted them. “Lois! Oliver! This is such a lovely surprise. Come on in.” Then after looking around she added, “Where’s Clark? And what about Oliver’s wheelchair?”
“He’ll be here soon. We couldn’t bring everything in one trip, so he’s gone back to home to get it.”
Martha found Lois’ explanation confusing. Since when did they not bring everything they needed with them to the airport?
Reading Martha’s expression Lois hoped to add some clarity to the situation. “Oliver knows about Clark being Superman now.”
Before she could say anything more Oliver was shushing her. “Mommy you’re not supposed to tell!”
Lois laughed lightly at the response. “It’s okay baby. Grandma and Grandpa Kent already know. They’re Clark’s mommy and daddy.”
Oliver’s priceless response did tell her one thing. Her son seemed to understand that he was supposed to keep the information about his father being Superman secret. Hopefully he would remember that.
“Let me see my grandson,” Martha said holding her arms out for the child.
At some point while they were speaking Jonathan had come to greet their guests. Unfortunately for him Martha already had Oliver and she wasn’t giving him up. Since his grandson was currently being carried away by his wife, Jonathan turned his attention to his daughter-in-law.
After giving her a hug and walking Lois to the living room where Martha and Oliver were already sitting, Jonathan asked, “What brings you guys out here?
“We’ll save that for when Clark gets back,” Lois answered.
No sooner than she’d finished her sentence did Clark walk through the front door. He barely had time to get himself and the bags he was carrying into the house before Oliver addressed an issue which was of great concern to him.
“Daddy did you bring my wheelchair?”
Clark set the bags down and spun back into his regular clothes. “Of course I did son. Its right here,” he said wheeling the chair into the room.
“Can you put me in my wheelchair please Daddy?”
Apparently Oliver wanted the freedom to move around even if it did take him from his grandmother’s lap, so Clark obliged his son’s wishes and helped him get settled into his chair. Once back in his wheelchair it seemed that Oliver couldn’t decide where to go. He looked from his mother to his father, to his grandmother and his grandfather. He loved them all so much and wanted to be with all of them.
Finally he wheeled himself toward Jonathan to get the hug from his grandpa that he hadn’t received when he’d arrived. Jonathan hugged his grandson as he sat in his wheelchair and ruffled his hair. After getting his hug and his hair ruffled Oliver moved back toward the couch so that he could see everyone.
“Has Lois told you the reason for our visit?”
“Not yet. I was waiting for you,” Lois replied, supplying the answer.
Clark sat next to his wife on the couch and took her hand. After they shared a brief look Clark began explaining what had been happening over the past several weeks with Oliver. He told his parents about all of the incidents in which Oliver displayed one of his powers and his idea to help him learn to control those abilities here at the farm, away from prying eyes.
The revelation was a shock to Martha and Jonathan, as they too had witnessed the disability of their grandson firsthand and believed that it indicated that he would not have powers like Clark. They had assumed that Kryptonian abilities weren’t passed on to future generations born on Earth. If what Lois and Clark were saying was true, and they knew that neither of them would lie, then they had been wrong. They had a disabled, but super-powered grandson.
By the time Clark finished telling his parents about Oliver it was past his bedtime, well past his bedtime in Metropolis time. While Lois and Clark made up a place for their son to sleep on the couch Martha and Jonathan went to bed themselves. Once Oliver was settled Lois and Clark headed to Clark’s old room where they would sleep.
At the sound of the rooster’s crow the little farmhouse awoke and began bustling with activity. Martha prepared breakfast, while Clark and Jonathan took care of a few chores around the farm. Lois meanwhile took charge of Oliver, taking care of his needs and finding ways to entertain him.
Later that morning, after breakfast, Clark took Oliver outside to begin helping him with his special abilities. Lois of course followed along. Oliver was her son too after all. Finding a large open space Clark was ready to start teaching his son about the things he could do.
Clark decided that he would begin with the ability that would be the easiest for Oliver to learn, in his opinion, floating. Even though floating and flying was the last ability he mastered he felt that teaching the ability to someone who had already done it once before would be easier than one of the more abstract abilities like shooting fire from your eyes.
Clark stood in front of Oliver and lifted off the ground, rising several feet about his head. “Okay son, come to me.”
Oliver stretched his arms up toward his father and even tried grasping at the air, but nothing happened.
Lois knelt beside her son and placed her hand on his shoulder. “You can do it sweetie. You can reach Daddy. Go to him.”
Listening to his mother’s words of encouragement Oliver tried even harder to float up to his father, but still nothing happened. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t float at all.
Suddenly an idea occurred to Lois. She told Clark and Oliver that she would be back shortly and went back inside the farmhouse. When she returned approximately a quarter of an hour later she announced that grandma was making homemade chocolate chip cookies. Oliver’s favorite.
In Oliver’s opinion Grandma made the best cookies in the world. When he heard that she was making some he immediately began trying to make it back to the house, bringing an end to the lesson. Not that it really mattered. He and Clark hadn’t made any progress at all.
Once the cookies had finished baking and had cooled sufficiently Lois took one of them and held it out for her son, just beyond his reach. As he reached for the irresistible treat Lois raised her arm slightly. What happened then caused everyone except Lois to gasp. Rather than gasping Lois smiled, her plan had worked. Oliver was floating a few inches off the seat off his chair.
The idea had come to Lois when she thought back to that day at the park. Oliver hadn’t been trying to float that day. He was trying to get something he wanted, his balloon. His desire to reach the fleeting balloon had subconsciously trigged the ability to float. That ability still seemed to be only in his subconscious.
If they could keep Oliver floating once he was consciously aware of the fact that he was doing it, then maybe he could learn to defy gravity at will. Keeping him in the air wasn’t going to be easy though. He panicked the first time it happened and fell immediately.
While he hovered in the air Lois allowed Oliver to claim his prize. Despite getting what he was after Oliver didn’t descend back into his chair and continued to float as he happily ate the warm, chocolaty cookie.
“How did you know that would work,” Clark asked stunned.
“I just remembered what he told us the first time he floated.”
Oliver wasn’t really paying attention to what his parents were saying. He was instead focusing his attention on the cookie in his hands and had yet to realize that he was floating. Once the cookie was gone however he dropped back down into his chair. The six year old wasn’t frightened by his floating this time as he had been the first. He just seemed unable to consciously maintain the ability.
Lois decided to try to appeal to her son’s sense of imagination and had him imagine that one of Grandma’s cookies was high over his head and to try to get it. For several minutes nothing happened, though not for lack of trying. Oliver tried very hard to get the imaginary cookie and just when everyone was about to give up he broke free of the hold gravity had on him and started floating higher and higher until he could touch the ceiling.
Within another hour Oliver was able to float at will for a short period of time. He still had a long way to go, but he was starting to get there. With a little more practice he would be able to float as long as he wished.
Now that Oliver was beginning to get the hang of floating, Clark decided to test his ability to fly. The disabled six-year-old had a little difficulty getting his body parallel to the ground, but was able to do it with a bit of work. However he could only get the upper half of his body into this position. His legs remained helplessly dangling perpendicular to the ground. That made flying extremely difficult, basically impossible.
Clark brought his son’s legs level with the rest of his body to see what would happen. He did nothing other than hold Oliver’s legs in that position and let him do the rest. As long as his non-functional legs were held parallel with the rest of his body Oliver was able to fly, sort of. Otherwise he drifted back to the earth. Without assistance of some kind to keep his legs held in place Oliver wouldn’t be able to fly.
Once Oliver had achieved the beginnings of floating, with a lot of help from Lois, Clark moved on to other abilities.
The next power Clark decided to move on to was one of those his son had already displayed through accidental discovery, heat vision. Clark set up a target far from the house, barn and all other structures and potential fire hazards for his son to practice on and told Oliver to concentrate on the log and imagine it burning. That was the only way he knew how to help his son with the ability.
Sitting in his wheelchair just a touch over a foot from the target log Oliver focused intently on it. For a humanly-impossible length time he stared at the log without blinking. Eventually Oliver’s concentration produced a small flume of smoke. He was never able to produce an actual flame however.
The evidence of the log heating up through the beginnings of smoke was enough for Clark to consider it a small success and decided that it was enough for now and they could move on. Throughout the rest of the day Clark continued to work on helping his son to use and control his abilities. Until now he never realized how difficult it was to explain how he did the things he did.
By the end of the third week Oliver had achieved what Clark deemed moderate success with his power control. He had been able to lift an object with more heft than an ordinary child could muster the strength to move, one which even adults would struggle with. His success with X-ray vision was limited and brief however. Speed was more or less unavailable to him because of his disability. Flying or running was out of the question and his wheelchair couldn’t handle such speeds without breaking down. So for Oliver the power of super speed would only exist in his arms and his mind.
After nearly a month in Smallville it was time for Lois, Clark and Oliver to head back to Metropolis. Perry had only given them three weeks of vacation time, so Lois and Clark had to be back at work first thing Monday morning. Since Oliver had ‘graduated’ from Kindergarten and was now officially on summer vacation he would need a babysitter while his parents were at work. A fact that made his parents less nervous now since he had gained some control over his emerging abilities during the time on the farm and knew a little about how to hide them.
Back home in Metropolis things began to change in the Kent household. The first of which was that Clark could relax and be himself once more in his own home. He no longer needed to worry about making sure that he wore his glasses at all times in his son’s presence, nor did he need to consciously avoid using his powers. Now that Oliver knew he was Superman he was free to fully be himself when he was with family.
There were also big changes in Oliver’s life as well obviously. The emergence of extraordinary abilities helped him become a little more independent. He no longer needed assistance to get out of bed in the morning and could handle bathroom necessities on his own. All it took was a little floating and he could get in and out of his chair at will.
Oliver also found a new favorite ‘game,’ one which he called ‘Super Oliver.’ This game involved Oliver habitually using his various powers all over the house. Lois and Clark frequently found that while they were occupied in another room Oliver had rearranged the furniture in the living room or his bedroom during the time in which they were away, often to build some kind of fort or secret clubhouse. Some of those times occurred when Clark was out as Superman, leaving Lois to put the room back together on her own. Usually this only happened when she discovered that Oliver had played his furniture moving game in his bedroom as she was putting him to bed. Other than on those occasions Lois usually left the furniture as it was until Clark returned.
The six-year-old also enjoyed floating up to the ceiling for an unannounced game of hide and seek. He usually floated with his wheelchair or hid it somewhere so his parents wouldn’t suspect anything. At times he would try to sneak down on them in attempt scare them.
Another power Oliver enjoyed playing with was heat vision. He liked watching ice cubes melt as he stared them down, creating a mess all over the table. That one only happened a few times as he soon learned that it got him into trouble. He was also known to melt down the occasional ice cream treat into ‘chocolate milk.’
Oliver enjoyed practicing all of his super-abilities and as long as he didn’t make too much of a mess, cause any damage or do anything dangerous, Lois and Clark usually let him. He was different from other children in more ways than one and in the privacy of his own home with his family was the only time he could fully express who he was, which was something Clark deeply understood. He knew what it was like to have a safe place where he didn’t have to hide who he was, so he and Lois ensured that their son had that freedom as well.
Having a super-powered child made Lois and Clark’s lives a bit hectic, but definitely interesting as well, especially when they considered the fact that their little boy who could do such amazing things couldn’t do a very basic thing, walk. They often found themselves wondering, as all parents do, who their son would grow up to be. Their wonderings included a very different possibility however. One day Oliver may decide to follow in his father’s footsteps and use his gifts to help people. His disability would take some adjustments in how he achieved that goal, though being the offspring of Lois Lane there was no doubt that he would find a way to do it. And he would never have to worry about his identity being discovered, because who would think that a guy who had never walked a day in his life was secretly a superhero?
