Chapter Seven
When Clark got home from work, Lara told him all about getting the job and the new apartment. While Clark was happy for his daughter, it saddened him that Lara would be moving out on her own.
When she’d finished her story, she asked, “So Dad, can you help me move?”
“Of course, Pumpkin, you know I will. Did you find anything you liked when you looked at my old furniture?”
“Yes, I like it all. It just needs a little cleaning and airing out, but it’s in good shape and not too far out of style. Of course, I’ll need a new mattress, but the rest will work nicely.”
“That’s great. Why don’t we move that stuff tonight, then tomorrow you and I can shop for a new mattress and other stuff you’ll need. How does that sound?”
“That’s great, Dad. I appreciate all your help.”
“No, problem, Pumpkin. You know I’ll do anything for you.”
**********
Early the next morning, around 3:00 a.m., Superman and Superwoman flew Clark’s old furniture to Lara’s new apartment. It took a few trips because most of the items were bulky, but when they finished the apartment was nearly complete. They only needed a mattress and box spring for the bed.
Clark sat on the couch and looked around. “You know, this place reminds me a lot of my old place in Metropolis. It was laid out a lot like this, but I had a small loft storage space upstairs.”
Lara grinned cheekily. “Huh, that’s wild. Maybe I’m channeling a young Clark Kent?”
“Maybe so. How about we head home then come back in the morning and get the rest of the stuff you need?”
“Sounds good, Dad., Let’s go.”
The next day, Friday, Lara, and Clark hit the mattress store a few blocks from her apartment, and after her purchase, she scheduled delivery for Saturday morning. They also hit a national chain store that sold towels, sheets, pillowcases, and all sorts of home supplies. They returned to the apartment, each laden with shopping bags. They went out again, this time purchasing kitchen items, silverware, pots and pans, and other sundries. By noon the apartment was nearly complete, the mattress was the only missing item.
“So, Pumpkin, are you hungry? I noticed there’s a little family restaurant a few blocks away.”
“Yeah, Dad, that sounds good.”
Lara took her father’s arm and the two walked down the street to a small family run place that served a variety of American and Italian fare. Since it was later in the day, the place was nearly empty so they had their choice of tables. They chose one near the window and placed their orders.
“You know, I had a closet a lot like yours that I converted to store my suits,” Clark said softly. “Want me to build you one?”
“That would be great, Dad,” Lara replied. “I was wondering how I was going to store them securely.”
“Tomorrow I’ll pick up the supplies and we can build it after they deliver your mattress.” Clark looked sad. “I guess once that’s done, all that’s left is your clothes and stuff.”
Lara clasped his hand in hers. “It’s okay, Dad. I may be moving out but I’ll visit a lot, don’t you worry.”
“I know, Pumpkin. I knew this day was coming, but it’s still hard.” Clark said with a wry chuckle. “Now I know how my parents felt when I moved to Metropolis!” Just then their meals arrived, so they switched to happier topics while they ate.
**********
Saturday morning the delivery van dropped off her mattress then Lara and Clark installed the sliding door to the secret section of her closet. He put the button that opened the door high on the front wall so that you almost had to know it was there to find it. Lara put her spare suits and boots in the closet and tried out the mechanism. The last thing to do was to put her clothes away in the front portion of the closet and the armoire.
Lara stood back, scanned her bedroom, and smiled. While there were still a few things she wanted to do with her place, she was completely moved in.
Lara grabbed two colas from the refrigerator and passed one to her father. She sat at the opposite end facing him and took a sip of her drink.
Clark gazed at his daughter seriously. “Lara, honey, I hope you don’t think I’m butting in, but I have some advice I’d like to pass along.”
“Of course, Dad. Any words of wisdom you can give would be greatly appreciated.”
“Okay. First, you should cut back or avoid altogether Superwoman duties during the day while you’re at work. I was put on probation once because I was out being Superman when I should have been working.”
Lara’s mouth formed an O, surprised by her father’s admission.
“I know you usually only help at natural disasters and such, but you’re living in a big city now and you’ll hear a lot more things than you did back home, especially once people know that you’re around. The emergency services can handle things, so don’t put your job in jeopardy because of Superwoman. If you want to patrol after work hours, that’s fine, but it’s up to you. You don’t have to do what I do.”
Lara smiled. “I know, Dad and thanks. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. If you do answer a call at work, try to do so without being obvious. Lois used to call me out all the time when I heard a call for help because I ignored everything around me while I listened. Also, when dealing with the press, try not to show favoritism. I made the mistake of giving almost all my interviews to the Daily Planet, either writing them myself or giving them to Lois. It soon became known that the Daily Planet and Lane and Kent were ‘special’ to Superman, which caused all kinds of problems,” Clark said ruefully.
“I never thought about, that but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks again, Dad, I appreciate your advice.” Lara sat back as she contemplated her father’s advice. No matter how much she thought she knew about being a superhero, there was always more to learn.
Lara now gazed into her lap to avoid her father’s eyes. Since he’d brought up his early days in Metropolis, she felt emboldened. There was something that she just had to know.
“Ummm, Dad, do you mind if I ask you a personal question? I’ll understand if you don’t want to answer.”
“What do you want to know?”
Lara looked intently at her father. “I… I’d like to know how I came about. You told me Lois gave me up but I know there’s more to the story.”
Clark swallowed nervously, hung his head, and sighed. “Are you sure you want to know? It’s not an easy thing to talk about.”
“I do, Dad. Please tell me. I want to know.”
“Okay, sit back. This is going to be a long one. I won’t go into detail, but at one time Lois was engaged to Lex Luthor—”
“Lex Luthor!” Lara’s mouth dropped open with surprise. “I read about him in journalism school! And she was engaged to him?”
“Yes. Long story short, Perry White, Jim Olsen, Jack Brown, and I finally gathered enough evidence to give to the police so they could arrest him. Instead of accepting arrest, he committed suicide. He was behind the bombing of the Planet so Perry convinced Franklin Stern of Stern Media to buy it and reopen. Mr. Stern wanted to rehire as many people as he could, but he didn’t want to rehire Lois. He told her he doubted her reporter’s instincts because she’d missed the biggest story in Metropolis history.”
Lara recalled her initial contact with Lois Lane. “That must have hurt her pride.”
“It did. Anyway, she made a deal with Stern. If he’d give her a six-month contract, she’d prove she was the best or she’d quit.”
“Sounds like her,” Lara snorted sarcastically.
“Yeah, well, Lois was always a driven person, but now she was on a mission. She told Perry she wouldn’t work with a partner until she’d proven herself. She took every difficult and dangerous story that came along. Lois slept only minimally, ate even less, so after a month you can guess what she looked like. I tried to talk to her, but she shut me down every time, sometimes quite nastily. Eventually, I gave up. One day she got a tip that led her to meet a source at midnight on top of the second tallest building in the city.”
Lara crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat. “I can see this is not going to end well.”
“The tip was a trap, as you guessed. Nigel St. John, one of Luthor’s henchmen, lured her up there… then he—he threw her off the roof!” Clark’s voice broke then.
Lara leaned in and grasped his hand. “Oh, Dad.”
After a short pause to collect himself, Clark continued. “Lois was falling and screaming through her gag, but I’d been out of town and didn’t hear her until it was almost too late. I caught her a few feet off the ground. Two seconds later and Lois would have been dead! I flew directly to her apartment and we were both shaking from the emotional stress. We held each other tightly but soon we were kissing and the next thing I knew we’d done… it, right there on her living room floor!”
“Dad!” Lara exclaimed, shocked at this revelation.
“I know!” Clark said, embarrassment radiating off him. “It was wrong. We both realized it never should have happened and we agreed never to discuss it again. I flew away feeling very ashamed of my behavior and I vowed never to do something so irresponsible as that ever again. Six weeks later, Lois asked me to have Superman stop by. I didn’t want to go, but she seemed desperate so I decided to make an appearance.
“Lois told me that night that she was pregnant. She wanted me to know, because I’m an alien, that I was compatible with humans for reproduction. The globe said Kryptonians were compatible with the people of Earth, but mom and dad, and I never thought that meant I’d be able to father a child. I made my first mistake when I told her that she couldn’t kill my child.”
“Wow. She must have hated that!”
Clark shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “She did. She reamed me up one side then down the other. I was desperate, so I told her I’d marry her, forgetting I was still in the Suit. When she told me Superman couldn’t get married, that’s when I made my second mistake. I spun into my regular clothes and told her that Clark could. Lois hit the ceiling, yelling that I’d lied to her for over a year. She called me pond scum, less than pond scum, and other choice insults. I stood there and took her abuse, which I felt I deserved until she calmed down.
“I begged her not to abort my child. I told her I’d never find someone I loved as much as she. She agreed to consider keeping you, but I had to give her a week to decide. That was the longest week in the world, I’ll tell you. She agreed, but she had one condition. I agreed to it before she’d even told me what it was because I wanted you more than anything in the world. Lois wanted me to leave the Planet forever and take you with me, so I began looking for work elsewhere. The Post job came open just then, so I took it. I left Metropolis about a month before you were born. Lois’s sister, Lucy, called the house—”
Lara’s mouth opened wide with surprise. “Lois has a sister?! I have an aunt?!”
“Yes. I mentioned it in passing that day you found Lois’s picture but you must have forgotten.”
“I think I was so focused on Lois being my mother that I missed that.”
“I suppose. I never told you about her because I never told you about Lois. From what I understand she’s married and was living in San Diego, but that’s all I know. Anyway, the next day I picked you up at the hospital and brought you home, the rest you know.”
Clark hung his head again, looking worn out from this revelation. Lara crawled across the couch and wrapped her arms around her father’s shoulders, hugging him tightly.
Lara broke down in tears and her shoulders shook with her sobs. “Thanks, Dad. Thanks for telling me and thanks for fighting for me. I love you!”
Clark drew her onto his lap and wrapped her securely in his loving arms. “There’s nothing to thank me for,” he replied fiercely. “You’re my daughter and I’d do anything for you!” Father and daughter spent a long time in each other’s arms.
**********
That evening, after her father left, Lara went out for a quick bite to eat. When she returned to her apartment, she called her friends.
“Hi, Lara! Did you get a job?” Sally asked.
“Yes! Let me get Ashley on the line then I’ll tell you all about it.” Lara conferenced Ashley into the conversation then Lara filled her friends in on the specifics of her job and her new apartment, and how close it was to restaurants and other attractions.
“You two will have to come up some weekend. We can hit the shops on Michigan Avenue and Water Tower Place and the museums! We’ll have so much fun!”
“You bet,” Ashley replied. “We haven’t had a girl’s weekend since college. I can hardly wait!”
“Me, too,” Sally said. “I’ve missed getting together with you two and all the mischief we can get into! I hear they have some really cute guys in that town.”
“Don’t you have a steady boyfriend, Sally?” Lara asked knowingly.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look, right?” Sally laughed, and the others joined in.
**********
Lara wore a crisp navy-blue blouse with a dark grey skirt and low-heeled black shoes when she reported to Human Resources Monday morning for orientation. She filled out the myriad forms for taxes, insurance, and the like. Around 10 o’clock, Lara stopped in front of Pam Blake’s office.
Lara smiled happily. “Good morning, Pam. I finally finished everything, so I’m official.”
“Great. Be right with you.” Pam rounded her desk then escorted Lara across the newsroom floor where she stopped in front of George Jones’s desk. George looked to be in his mid-fifties, salt and pepper hair, and a face that one would say had “character.” When he stood, Lara could see that he was around five foot ten or so and carried a few extra pounds around his middle.
“George, this is Lara Kent, our new hire. She’s going to be joining the City Desk. I want her to work with you for a few months until she gets her bearings.”
George extended his hand, which Lara shook enthusiastically. “Good morning, Lara. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Same here, George. I look forward to working with you.”
Pam asked, “Don’t you have a City Council meeting this afternoon?”
“Yeah.” George chuckled. “Lara can get her feet wet in a hurry.”
“Okay, then, I’ll leave you to it!” Pam walked away and left George and Lara to get acquainted.
George pointed to a desk across the aisle and down one from his and said, “Lara, your desk is over there. Why don’t you sign on and get familiar with the system, maybe look at the archives from the past month? I’m sure you need some time to relax after dealing with HR. Once you’re settled, then we’ll go out for lunch at noon at a little place right near City Hall. Sound good?”
“Perfect. Give me a holler when you’re ready.” Lara walked over to her desk and put her purse in the lower left drawer. Her computer was already on, and someone had set her up with office supplies. The lower right drawer contained green file folders. She logged onto the computer with her temporary password, then she put in a new password and began to familiarize herself with the system and the archives. At ten minutes to twelve, George stopped at her desk.
“Ready to go?”
“Ready!” Lara replied. She took her purse out of the drawer and slid a pen, pencil, and notebook inside. Lara fell into place at George’s side and the two walked to the elevator. When they reached the lobby, they headed west for the five-block walk to Petterino’s, a block away from City Hall. The hostess seated them quickly and their waitress took their orders. George ordered the Black Angus Cheeseburger and Lara ordered the Grilled Chicken Club.
“So, Lara, tell me a little about yourself,” George said, between bites of his cheeseburger.
“I’m an only child. I grew up in a little town in Kansas called Smallville on a farm with my dad and grandparents. I just returned from a trip through South America, Africa, and Australia. My dad told me so many stories of his travels after college that I knew I wanted to do that too. I graduated from Midwestern State with a degree in journalism, magna cum laude, and now I hope to expose corruption and crime and help the people of this city.”
George swallowed and chuckled. “Impressive. I’ve always wanted to travel but it was never the right time. Maybe after I retire!”
“Could you tell me a bit about what we’re going to see today?” Lara said. She took a bite of her sandwich and chewed quietly.
“It’ll probably be pretty boring. The aldermen seem to be a rubber stamp for whatever the mayor wants to do lately. Speaking of the mayor, what have you heard about her?”
“Lonnie Lighthand, the first African-American female mayor in the history of Chicago. A former lawyer and former president of the Chicago Police Board. Currently, she seems to be in a feud with the Fraternal Order of Police, which is probably not a good thing for the city.”
George seemed impressed. “I see you put your time in the archives to good use. Yeah, she’s only been in office since late May, but she’s certainly made an impression.”
They chatted back and forth for the duration of their meal, and at 12:45 they left the restaurant and walked west to City Hall. Once seated in the gallery, Lara watched and listened to the meeting. As it progressed, George’s assessment of the aldermen being rubber stamps for the mayor seemed correct.
After the meeting, they walked back to the Tribune building where they wrote up the story at George’s desk. George then went over his list of assignments and solicited Lara’s input on each one. He also showed her his folder of investigations in various stages of completion. By that time it was six o’clock, so each of them shut down their systems and headed home.
When they reached the sidewalk George said, “Good night, Lara. See you in the morning.”
“You too, George. Thanks so much for all your help today.” Lara walked to the nearest ‘‘L’’ station for the fifteen-minute ride to her new apartment. She put together a quick stir-fry and washed it down with ice water. After dinner, she turned the television to the various news channels to see if her father was in the news, but she found nothing. Then she watched some mindless show until it got dark. Lara wanted to do a quick patrol of the city even though she wasn’t ready to announce her presence just yet. She also had another ‘errand’ she wanted to run after the patrol.
Lara flew out of her balcony doors and into the sky. Unlike her dad, Lara’s patrols looked for accidents or fires rather than street crime. Unless something big happened, street crime was the responsibility of the Chicago Police Department, so she would leave them to it. Satisfied that the city was quiet, Lara headed east, towards Metropolis.
As she flew closer to the city Lara used her telescopic vision and found the Daily Planet building then the window, she was interested in. The occupant was hard at work alone in the newsroom so she flew down and knocked on the window.
**********
Continued in Chapter Eight
