Once Upon a Dream - TOCPart 2*** The Over the Top Epilogue ***Lois awoke with a yawn and stretch. She lay back against her pillows and traced her mouth with her fingers. Had that happened? Had she really told Clark that she loved him? Had he really said that he loved her? Had he kissed her so powerfully that she could no longer feel her feet on the ground? Or had it all been one wonderful, fantastic dream? Like that dream she just had about making love with Clark.
With a sigh, she determined that there was only one way to find out. She lifted up the phone and dialed his number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Clark,” Lois said. So far, so good. She hadn’t lost her nerve.
“Good morning, Lois,” he replied. He seemed happy to hear from her.
“I had the strangest dream,” she said with a mischievous smile.
“Did you now? Do you want to tell me about it?”
“I dreamed that we went to the Kerth Awards last night and you won a shiny glass teardrop.”
“All true, Lois,” he reassured her. “I can see the award here next to my bed.”
“Then I dreamed you brought me home and gave me a kiss that would make Superman jealous,” she said, laughter in her voice, but wishing she hadn’t brought up the Man in Blue.
“Really? Did it work? Was he jealous?” Clark teased back. She sighed with relief.
“I don’t know.” She covered up the mouthpiece of the phone and called out, “Superman, sweetie, were you jealous of Clark sweeping me off of my feet with his kisses last night?” She paused a minute. “He said he was willing to share.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” Clark retorted without a hint of laughter.
“Actually, what I dreamed was that after you left, Superman stopped by my apartment,” she continued, almost breathless with nerves. Should she tell him what happened with Superman? If they were going to be more than best friends, more than partners, she should be more than honest with him.
“Did he now?” Clark sounded curious.
“And I dreamed I…” She swallowed. It was the now-or-never kind of moment. “I kissed him goodbye… on the cheek of course,” she clarified, in case Clark was unsure.
“Is that what that was?” he murmured.
“Huh?” What had he said?
“Go on. What else did you dream?” Clark asked.
“Then I dreamed I went to sleep, dreaming of what would have happened if I hadn’t kicked you out last night,” she whispered as she felt her cheeks flush with the truth of that statement.
“Oh, really? I had a similar dream myself.” She could hear the smile in his voice again. “Shall I tell you about it?”
“In a minute, let me finish recounting my dream,” Lois insisted.
“Of course. My apologies.”
“Then I dreamed that in the morning, you and I went out for brunch,” she suggested. She hoped she wasn’t been too forward with her idea. With her luck, she’d chase Clark away before he was hardly hers.
“Hmmm. An appealing twist. Shall I tell you what I dreamed?” he inquired.
“Oh, I guess so,” Lois said, in a slightly bored voice that didn’t match her interest.
“I also dreamed we went to the Kerth ceremony and I brought home a nice new dust collector,” he said.
“I thought we already covered that the portion of the evening where you won the award wasn’t a dream?” she reminded him.
“Right. It still has that dreamlike quality to it,” he replied. “Probably because of that perfect woman who had attended the awards with me as my date. Then I dreamed I took you home and that you told me that you loved this ordinary man more than Superman.”
“Did I now?” Lois could feel her heart beating against her ribcage. It was just a coincidence that Clark used those words, wasn’t it?
“Then I dreamed that as I left, you asked me to tell you my biggest secret,” he said.
“Oh, and did you?”
“No. Not then. I then dreamed that Superman came to visit you and you gave him, not only a kiss but a white rosebud,” he informed her. “Now, I realize now it was that kiss goodbye you mentioned.”
“Uh-huh?” Lois leaned forward, the blood rushing from her head. Oh, God! Had Superman told Clark about visiting her apartment? This was quickly turning into her nightmare.
“Then I dreamed that you called me to wish me goodnight again.”
Lois gulped. Had she done that? It seemed oddly familiar. She and Clark often spoke before going to bed. “Yeah?”
“Yes, you did. And that I confessed to you that I am in fact Superman.”
Her eyes went wide. “You told me
what?!”
“Let me see, how exactly had that gone? Oh, yes. You asked me again what my secret was and I told you that I was Superman. You didn’t believe me, of course.”
“Of course,” Lois breathed. She drew her knees up to her chest so that she’d have someplace to put her head.
“So, I told you that you’d know that for sure if you hadn’t kicked me out of your apartment,” he joked with an air of flirtation.
“Is that so?”
“Uh-huh. So, in my dream, you invited me back to your place to prove it to you…” Clark cleared his throat, for the first time nervousness coming through the phone line.
“And did you? Come back to my place?”
“Yep. I came back and visited you in my dreams. We kissed… and…” He coughed. “Well, you know… you were there.”
“Refresh my memory, Clark.
How did you prove to me that you were Superman?” Lois whispered. She had no breath left.
He chuckled warily. “Uh… One thing led to another… and, well, you insisted that I stay the night.”
“Did I?” A scoffing smile slipped onto her face. Was that the kind of dream Clark was recounting to her? Really? After one date?
“Yep. Well, the long and the short of it is…”
“Well, was it long or short, Clark?” Lois retorted, her voice finally back.
“Excuse me?” his voice squeaked.
“Never mind. Go on.”
“After we made love you told me in no uncertain terms I must be Superman,” he finished in a rush. She could picture his face turning red with embarrassment. “I believe your exact words were, ‘Wow, Clark, you’re one super man’.”
“That good were you?” she replied with an giggle. Enjoying this dirty little tell-all phone call.
“Well, I don’t know about that, being that it was my first time and all. Being Superman I’m not the type of guy who sleeps around. And you, of course, being the woman of my dreams I couldn’t say no. Well, I mean, I tried to convince you that we should wait. It had been only our first date and all. But you insisted. And you know I can never say no to you.”
“Of course not,” Lois said, another burst of giggles emerging. Was Clark really going to try to convince her he was a virgin? In this day and age? Please! “So, what precisely did you do to convince me you were Superman?”
Clark’s voice was hardly a whisper. “You want me to describe it to you in detail?”
“Yes, please, Clark. Don’t skimp on the details.”
“I think it was the floating…”
“The
what?!”
“Floating. Or maybe it was because we ended up on the ceiling…” Clark really seemed unsure which it was.
“Ceiling?” Lois sputtered.
“Well, you see, I have tendency to float when I’m happy. And making love to you, Lois, well… to be honest… was the most wonderful, amazing... I’ve never been happier.”
“Uh-huh.” She didn’t know what to say about that. “And then what happened?”
“We floated back to your bed, where you slept in my arms until a three-alarm fire woke me about five-thirty this morning. So, I had to go, and although you wanted me to stay, you understood that this was why I was always disappearing and making crazy excuses all the time.”
Lois’s scoffing laughter was gone as she started to cough.
“Lois, are you all right? I knew the air was too cold last night. I’m sorry, I should have offered you my jacket,” Clark sounded honestly chagrined.
She took a deep breath. “I’m fine, Clark. What happened next?” She was at the edge of her seat with this fable he had concocted.
“The fire took longer than I thought. And then there was plane with engine trouble in Brazil. And they’re having another farmers’ strike in France, so people were setting cars on fire and they were exploding. People were getting hurt, so I had to go.”
“Uh-huh, I understand.”
“Thank you, Lois. I really appreciate that. I knew you would.” As he said these words, Lois realized it didn’t sound like Clark speaking to her anymore, but Superman. The lower timbre of his voice. Her hands began to shake. He was pulling her into his fantasy.
“I had just finished showering, when you called,” he continued, sounding like Clark again. “I bought croissants while I was in France from that boulangerie that you love. I thought I could pick us up some coffees and I could come to your place and we could read the Sunday
Planet and do the crossword together. But if you want to go out…” His voice faded.
“That’s some dream. Are you sure it wasn’t a fantasy?” she asked, her racing heart slowing to crawl.
Clark chuckled. “Well, parts of it might have been. It sure felt real, but as it was so wonderful it must have been a dream.”
“And so what you’re telling me is that you’re Superman?” she said with skepticism.
“No, Lois. What I’m saying is that without you, I’m just a farm boy from Smallville, Kansas. With you, because of you, I’m Superman,” he told her.
“Well, now…” Lois took a moment to find her thoughts again. “Clark, I’ve got to shower and get dressed. Do you think you could be here in… say… a half-hour?”
“I could be there in three seconds,” he teased and she smiled. “But sure. I’ll see you in a half hour. I’ll have to reheat the croissants.”
“Good thing you’ve got heat-vision, then, eh, Superman?” Lois laughed.
Clark didn’t respond right away. “Uh… Lois? You do remember last night, don’t you?”
“Sure, Clark. I told you I loved you. You told me you loved me. We kissed…” She paused to get out of bed as the kiss replayed in her head. It was an amazing kiss. Her best first date kiss ever! She had been tempted to tell him it was better than kissing Superman but his dream note had made it seem that Clark was a bit envious of the Man of Steel, so she had swallowed those words. “Hold on…”
She slipped on her slippers and looked around for her robe, which she usually kept at the foot of her bed. For some reason, she had thrown it on that chair by her dresser. She picked it, swinging around so not to get tangled in her phone cord. As she swung around her robe, she knocked something off her dresser. “That was some kiss, Clar…”
Lois bent down to pick up whatever had fallen. The phone slipped out of her fingers and hit the floor. She could hear Clark’s echoing voice calling to her over the receiver, but she could not move. A bolt of lightning seemed to consume her in its blue flames as the realization that her dream – the one where she had made love to both Clark and Superman – hadn’t been a dream after all. She heard a swoosh of wind and suddenly Superman stood in front of her, wearing her favorite Clark Kent sheepish smile. She pulled her gaze away from his eyes. In the palm of her hand Lois held Clark’s glasses.
*** The End *** Comments
