You can find the
Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois[/i] TOC here.
Where we left off in Part 14 ...Lois grabbed her suitcase and followed Martha upstairs. They stopped outside the same room where Lois had stayed previously – in her dreams – Clark’s old room. Lois’ heart began to beat faster in anticipation.
Martha unlocked the door and then handed her a set of keys. “The other key is for the front door. We ask that you restrict your comings and goings to before ten o’clock at night as a courtesy to the other guests. We have breakfast after the animals are fed and the eggs gathered, so around seven in the morning, but that means we meet for coffee at six.” She turned and paused at the stop of the stairs. “And we ask to be notified should you bring home any guests.”
Lois’ jaw dropped before she quickly reassured Martha’s departing backside, “That won’t be happening.”
“Good!” Martha replied from the stairs.
Lois exhaled, carrying her suitcase inside the room and shutting the door. ~You better be worth it,~ she murmured too softly to be considered outside of her thoughts.
She set her suitcase on the chest at the foot of the twin bed and took a glance around the room. She could see nothing of Clark’s. Then again, if his parents were using this as a guest room they probably would have removed anything personal. She sat down on the bed and buried her face in her hands, once again asking herself what she was doing in Kansas.
“What am I doing, Clark?” she whispered. When he didn’t answer, she said, “I’m sorry about your dad.”
[i]Farm accidents aren’t uncommon. If I had been here…
Clark sounded so lost she wished she could wrap her arms around him. It was his biggest weakness and what she loved most about him, that he cared too much.
Lois clapped her hands together decisively. She couldn’t sit around here crying about things they couldn’t change, when there was research to be done. “Come on, Kent, we’ve got a couple hours left before dinnertime. Let’s run into town and find your birth certificate.” She stood up and picked up her briefcase. Clark didn’t respond.
***
Part 15~What do you mean, you don’t think we should look for your birth certificate?~ Lois hissed at Clark after she parked the car in front of City Hall. She spoke inside her head because she didn’t want to be overheard, since she had the top down on the convertible.
Don’t get upset if you don’t find anything.~Clark? You want me to find you, don’t you?~
Of course, but… His voice faded.
~But?~
Just don’t be surprised, okay? Anyway, the details of my birth aren’t important. To rescue me, the note said you have to stop me from dying. It’s my death that’s important.Lois rolled her eyes. Yeah, how was she supposed to concentrate on the day he died, if she had no way of traveling through time to stop it? She dropped her head on the steering wheel.
Lois?“Time!” she said, flinging up her hands.
A couple walking on the sidewalk turned around and shot her a strange expression.
What?~Tempus is time!~ she repeated what Eduardo had told her. ~I’m supposed to research
time. Time-travel! H.G. Wells… author of…~
‘The Time Machine’! Of course. A hint of Clark’s usual optimism shone through his words before fading again.
The dead author of ‘The Time Machine’.Lois sighed. ~Right.~ She shoved open the door of her rental car, bringing her briefcase with her. ~But since we don’t know on what day you died, let’s start at your birth and work forwards.~
Oh. I see.She shut and locked her door, which almost seemed pointless with the roof down and, well, being in Smallville. Then again, as she well knew, crime could happen anywhere. She went inside and looked at the directory, finally deciding on Vital Statistics.
Lois approached the clerk at the appropriate counter. “I’m trying to find the birth certificate for a friend of mine. He was born in 1966. I believe he was adopted in Smallville.”
The clerk handed her a form. “It will be fifteen dollars and I’ll need to see a state issued photo ID.”
The out-of-towner looked over the form. ~Clark, what’s your birthday?~
I’m not sure. Adopted, remember.Lois groaned and filled out Clark’s name on the form and the year. “I’m not quite sure on his birthday,” she said, passing the form back with her driver’s license and cash.
The clerk looked over the form and then raised his eyes to hers. “I don’t know who this guy is you’re looking for, but I can tell you right off the bat that the Kents don’t have any children.”
“Can you just do the search or not?” she asked sharply.
Flies with honey, Lois.~I don’t like flies, Clark. Why would I offer them honey?~
“I’ll see what I can do,” replied the clerk, gesturing behind her. “Have a seat.”
Lois sat down in a huff. ~You have to have a birth certificate, Clark. Or you couldn’t be issued a driver’s license or a press pass or be able to rent an apartment or get a bank account or attend college or get a passport and travel abroad. All of which I know you’ve done.~
I told you this was a bad idea.She crossed her arms, annoyed. Why couldn’t Clark just tell her his birthdate? Why hadn’t she looked at his driver’s license the last time he opened his wallet to pay for something? She would have to concentrate on that tonight when she went to sleep, if she could. She had no idea if she could control what she did or looked at or said in her dreams. Probably not, or she wouldn’t act like some virginal school girl every time Superman made an appearance.
I don’t think you act like a blushing school girl with Superman.~Thoughts. My own!~ she reminded him.
Lois sat for an hour waiting for the clerk to call her back to the window. Alone. Twiddling her thumbs. Bored out of her skull. Clark wasn’t talking to her, and she missed him. Her gaze focused blankly at the generic poster on the wall. The tagline was “Nutrition: It’s Good For You!” Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have snapped at him like that. The man already had access to her inner most thoughts, fantasies, and dreams, would it really be so bad if he commented with reassurances every once and a while? She was happy that he had. It had reminded her that he was exactly the type of man she had thought he was: good, kind, decent, wholesome, all-American ghost. She sighed and got to her feet as the clerk waved her back to the window.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, but there’s no one matching that description born in Smallville in 1966,” he told her.
“Excuse me?” That couldn’t be right. She looked past him to his desk and saw a dusty old book sitting on his desk. He certainly had done the legwork. “Is that the ledger? Can I see it?”
The man shrugged and brought the book to the window, flipping it open to the correct year. “As you can see, only seventeen baby boys were born in Smallville that year. And as I know each of them personally, I know that none of them can be the man you are looking for.” He slammed the book shut. “He must have been born elsewhere.”
Lois groaned and turned away from the window.
Thank you.“Thank you,” she called back ungratefully to the clerk. ~Don’t you start patronizing me, Kent. Look what it did for Scardino.~
The clerk did the legwork you asked for. He did his job and he answered the question you asked. Just because he didn’t come up with the answer you were looking for is no reason to be surly. I warned you…~So, you’re talking to me again? Just to tell me you told me so?~ she growled at that voice inside her head.
Fine. I’ll shut up.“No!” Lois said out loud and then winced. Damn, he got her to admit that she liked having him talk to her. She hated the silent treatment. ~You better not be smiling,~ she snapped.
I wish I could, Lois. I wish I could.***
Lois crawled into her twin bed that night both mentally and physically exhausted. She didn’t know why having conversations with Clark drained her of so much of her energy. Perhaps it was the stealthy way she had to be deceitful with the Kents about knowing their son.
Clark had been fairly quiet after they… she… had returned to his parents’ house. She wondered if he was there somewhere in the background of her psyche, sulking. He hated that he hadn’t been around to catch the ladder that caused Jonathan’s accident. He hated that his folks were forced to open their home to strangers – for money – just to make ends meet. He hated that he couldn’t help, that he couldn’t be there for them, that he wanted to wrap his arms around them and hold them.
Lois knew all this without him saying one word. It was just another example of how wonderful a man Clark was that he cared so much about his parents. Then again, if her parents had still been together and in love after thirty-some odd years… she exhaled and pulled the covers over her.
Thank you, Lois.“For what, Clark?” she murmured into her pillow. She felt like she had done more today to disprove his existence than prove it.
For doing this. For helping out my folks. For not giving up on me. For everything.“So, you owe me one,” she mumbled.
I guess if you save me, we’ll finally be even for all those times I’ve saved you. Clark chuckled softly, regretfully. It wasn’t as if he regretted saving her, but regretted that he couldn’t do it anymore, which didn’t make any sense.
~‘All those times’, Clark? What, twice after I witnessed Winninger’s murder? And one of those was from a skateboarder.~ Lois’ eyes started to droop.
Right. Twice. Clark sighed and then grumbled,
I saved you at the Metro Club as well.~Huh?~
Goodnight, Lois.“Goodnight, Clark.”
***
As Lois stepped up to the outer doors of Clark’s building, she heard a yell in the neighboring alley. She turned to look down the alley and found a dusty Clark, picking himself up out of a pile of trash. That was a strange place for him to be at a time like this. What was it with Clark and trash lately?
“Clark, what are you doing here?” she asked. Did he think recreating his accident would help recover his memories?
“I live here,” Clark explained. That had to be one of the worst excuses he had ever given her.
Unable to help herself, she chuckled. “No, you don’t. Not in the alley.” She continued towards him. “Did you hear something?”
Clark grabbed her arm and turned her back the way she had come. “Uh. Yeah. That was me. I was looking… for clues.”
“Here?” Lois said, trying not to scoff. Yep, Clark had thrown himself into a pile of trash to get back his memories. Poor Clark. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Sure, fine,” he replied with a smile.
She almost believed him.
“Any news about Superman?” Amnesiac Clark just sounded odd as he changed the subject. He didn’t sound like Clark, and Lois still wasn’t used to it. It was like he was pretending to be himself.
“No, not yet,” she said with disappointment. She had kissed the red caped man before he left to battle Nightfall and, yet, Lois felt no guilt at wanting to spend her final minutes with Clark. She liked Clark. Even broken, he made her feel… whole.
“What if… he’s confused, like me?” Clark asked her. “And he wants to help, but he can’t.”
That made sense. Of course, Superman would want to help. That was who he was, but he ate a bomb in front of her. He got blown up in a building. He stopped a tsunami. The only thing that ever reportedly could hurt him was Kryptonite – but there wasn’t any proof that stuff existed. There was no way he could be confused “like Clark”.
“Superman wants to help… and he will,” she finally said.
“How can you be so sure?” Clark questioned.
“I know Superman,” Lois replied, reassured by this one fact she knew to be true. No one on Earth knew Superman better than she… well, not anymore.
“Well, I’d like to know him too, so, I can believe that,” Clark said as they continued to walk out of the alley. He must have been feeling the weight of the asteroid bearing down on them like the rest of humanity.
It sounded so weird to have Clark not know anything about Superman. He had known the Man of Steel as well as Lois and, at times it had seemed to her, even more so.
“Could you tell me about him?” Clark continued, almost pleading.
Lois smiled, as she always did, when she thought about Superman. What could she say? He was “Super” and he was a “Man”. She had nailed it on the first try. “Superman… is the type of man who makes things happen. I mean, he’s good looking and good, but the thing you notice most about him is how much you can count on him. I remember the first time he saved me… and only me…” When she had been pushed out of Trask’s airplane. When she was sure that her life was over, no second chances, no do-overs, Superman had been there for her. She really did count on him… all the time. Only Superman hadn’t saved “only her” that day. Superman had also saved Clark.
Lois realized that she had kept on walking, but Clark was no longer following. She turned back to him and he had a different expression on his face – like he was no longer pretending to be himself. “Clark? Are you remembering something?” Oh, please!
He smiled a big smile, a Clark Kent has the scoop of the century smile. “Yeah. I think so.”
Lois sighed in relief. She would much rather spend her last minutes on Earth with Clark, than his twin pretending to be him. “Well, let’s get back to the Planet. There’s a story to write. I mean, everybody’s meeting there for impact.”
Clark set his hand on her arm briefly and she felt a sizzle of… something tingly. Electricity? Magnetism? “Lois, wait. Can I meet you there?” he inquired. “I have something to do first.”
She smiled and tried not to roll her eyes. An overdue library book perhaps, Clark? “Sure, don’t be long,” she said, walking off.
He stopped her again. “Lois. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For whatever it is that you’ve done for me that makes me feel so good about you,” he said with that Clark Kent charm she loved so much.
“Oh, Clark,” Lois said, caressing his neck down to his chest for a brief moment. Touching him like this increased that tingly feeling she had felt before. She could feel it dancing around her whole body now. She wondered what it was: Fear? Anticipation? Butterflies? “Whether or not that memory of yours comes back, I want you to know I think you’re terrific.”
“Likewise.”
She really did admire him, and Lois knew in her heart of hearts that Clark admired her too. She just wished he would say it… could remember it… could tell her one time before time ran out… “I mean, I love you.”
Clark’s eyes popped in their sockets. He was in shock and he wasn’t telling her that he loved her too.
Oh, God! Oh, God! What had she done? Lois thought that if she told him she loved him, again – this time stone cold sober – he would finally admit his true feelings for her.
She needed to hear someone say it to her before her life ended.
Someone who believed it.
Maybe Clark still had no memories of loving her.
Or perhaps she was wrong and Clark didn’t love her, like she loved him.
Oh, God! She did love him like she had told him she had.
Why wasn’t Clark speaking?
She better say something else. A disclaimer. Yes!
“Like a… a brother,” she clarified.
His shocked expression turned to understanding as he nodded.
Lois laughed away her confession as if it had really been a gaffe and walked off, wincing in pain as soon as she had turned the corner so that Clark couldn’t see her. She set her hand on the building and took a couple of breaths of air, trying to keep the tears from forming.
She loved Clark.
And Clark really didn’t love her.
She should have known when he hadn’t been attracted to her while under the pheromone’s influence.
Well, that was that. She had tried. Loved and lost, as they say. Now, she knew. Clark was her friend and only her friend. Her best friend. She would make that relationship work… somehow. She would push these thoughts and feelings she had for her best friend into the darkest corner of the deepest closet in her mind and be done with them.
At least, Superman still loved her… and, barring that, there was always Lex.
Lois did love Superman, but she had never thought anything would ever come of it. She had hoped, but never really believed. He was Superman after all. Above all these petty human desires, except when inebriated on pheromones. At least, he had expressed his love for her. Maybe she should try harder there, now that she knew that there could never be anything with Clark.
Lex’s admiration might not touch her soul as much as Clark’s had, but she liked him well enough. Though, not enough to be as invested as she had been with Clark; therefore, a barrier between her heart and the pain of rejection she currently felt would protect her from ever having to feel this way with the billionaire.
When her tears were firmly at bay, she took a couple more steadying breaths and then marched off towards the Daily Planet, ready to move on with her life, whatever Nightfall determined that life to be.
Several blocks away, Lois heard it. The familiar swoosh of Superman taking flight and she turned to look up into the sky, catching only a glimpse of his red and blue before he disappeared into the heavens. It was like a breath she had been holding tight against her chest finally was able to be released.
Yep, Superman would always be there for her, in the nick of time. Lois knew she could always count on him. He would never let her down.***
After the final shovel load from the stall, Lois once again thanked her lucky stars that she had been born and raised in the city. This was dirty, stinky work and although it wasn’t difficult, she could quite easily live without it for the rest of her life. She couldn’t believe that there were people from the city who actually
paid the Kents for shoveling… manure. And to think, she herself had negotiated with these people to pay
more. She would never underestimate Martha again.
Usually a wise choice.~Ha Ha, funny boy,~ she grumped at the voice inside her head, the voice who had begged her to help out his folks, promising to help her with the chores, and from whom she hadn’t heard
once that morning.
I’m at your beck and call, Lois.“Bull!” she snapped, dropping the shovel on top of the wheelbarrow full of soiled wood shavings before picking up the handles of the wheelbarrow to push it outside to the pile Martha had shown her after breakfast. When Clark didn’t respond right away, she went on, “Where were you when your mother wanted me to gather eggs? I asked not to be around livestock and the first chore they give me is fetching eggs…”
You’re kidding me, right?“The moral support would have been nice,” she said, reaching the pile and upturning the wheelbarrow onto the compost. “I’m telling you, I’m seriously thinking about changing my mind about you. I didn’t come all the way out to the middle of Nowheresville…”
I don’t know, Lois, Clark interrupted as she hoped he would.
‘Secretly hoped’ was more correct, but she wasn’t sure if she had any secrets from the man since he moved inside her head. “Go on.”
“Did you say something to me, Lois?” Martha asked, leaning out of the hayloft above her.
Lois gulped. She had forgotten to speak silently to Clark. She had thought she was alone. “No,” she called up to the woman. “Just talking to myself.” Then she added to herself, ‘And your son.’
I’m sorry, Lois. I should have warned you. Mom’s great at sneaking up on people.~Is that where you get it from?~ she sniped rhetorically, moving upwind from the compost pile and leaning against the fence of a corral. She eyed the horse running around inside of it with suspicion, in case it thought of joining her. When it showed no interest in her, she exhaled with relief. ~Clark, I don’t think she’s your mom. I haven’t seen any evidence of you in the house. Maybe someone else adopted you.~
Martha and Jonathan Kent are the only family I’ve ever known, Lois. They’re my Mom and Dad. Where did you look?~All the common rooms and the unoccupied bedrooms upstairs. I want to check out the basement…~
That’s a good idea. Since my folks opened the house up to strangers it’s possible they don’t want their personal life on display. Maybe my father’s office…~That’s their bedroom now. First floor and all,~ Lois reminded him.
Right. Clark’s voice sounded soft and full of guilt.
~It isn’t your fault, Clark. Accidents happen.~
I should have been here for them… for him.~Clark!~ Lois felt like swearing at the man. ~Are you going to stick on the farm for the rest of your life? You have a life in Metropolis, a job, friends who love and admire you. I’m certainly not giving that up to come and muck stalls for the rest of my life, so you can watch your parents like they were two-year olds.~
Nor would I ask you to.Good! ~Nobody will blame you for not being here. You’re dead after all. It’s not like you decided to die, right?~
He hadn’t committed suicide, had he? No, not Clark. He loved his family too much. She couldn’t see him give up on life. Hell, he hadn’t given up on life, he was still living – even if it was vicariously through her.
No, Lois. I don’t think so. I really don’t know. It’s so frustrating… to know that I lived, but not have all the memories in focus or in a spot where I can reach them at a moment’s notice.~Sorry, my mind isn’t up to par,~ Lois griped.
Not everything is about you, Lois. I’m the one not up to par here. It’s like I lived, but can’t remember it. Like that time I got amnesia and forgot who I was.~Amnesia?~ She didn’t want to remember that part of her dreams, of the pain it caused her when he hadn’t said anything when she told him she loved him.
During Nightfall. I… I bumped my head…~Oh, right. You fell into some garbage during the eclipse. You got amnesia from that? Is that where you disappeared off to while I was covering Superman?~ She was trying to be casual, hoping he didn’t know how far along she had progressed with her dreams.
Not like her dream-self had really noticed Clark’s disappearance at first. Her focus had been all-consumed by the Man in Blue. Lois wasn’t keen on who she was in these dreams. How could she only miss Superman and not the wonderful man at the next desk?
It was so strange living through that time again in her dreams. They didn’t feel like dreams anymore, but nightmares – especially in light of Clark’s non-answer to her confession of love. Not to mention everyone else panicking, fearing that life was going to end, causing them to do and confess things that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Even EPRAD had thought the asteroid was going to hit until the end. They had sent up the Asgard Rocket to blow it up, but – Lois rolled her eyes – it missed. The one chance to save the Earth, and the damn rocket had
missed its target!Lois still remembered standing next to Perry in the newsroom, holding his hand as they watched the countdown clock on LNN tick closer to zero. And then nothing.
Nothing! Not even another eclipse. It was like everyone on Earth was holding their collective breath. One minute passed, then another and another. Then someone on the street started cheering. It was over. Nightfall had passed by Earth!
It didn’t hit? It missed Earth? Clark seemed as astonished as she had felt… as everyone had felt.
Everyone had thought that Nightfall was going to destroy the planet: EPRAD, NASA, the Russians, the President and even Lex had built his ark. Her brow furrowed.
Lex must have known about Nightfall in advance. There was no way he could have that bunker ready to go in four day’s time – even with his resources. Then she remembered that back when the Messenger and Prometheus had blown up, Lex had offered up his own Luthor Space Station.
The creep! Lex had known for months – possibly years – that Nightfall was coming, but instead of warning the people of Earth, he had built himself an underground lair to save three-hundred of his closest friends. Ugh. She shivered with disgust again about having believed his lies.
It all seemed kind of silly to still fear Nightfall in her dreams, when she knew that the asteroid came close but never stuck the planet.
It passed by Earth? Clark repeated, still sounding dumbfounded by this development.
~It had been close. Twenty-seven thousand miles outside of Earth’s atmosphere or thereabouts.~ Or had it been one-hundred and twenty-seven thousand miles? Lois shrugged. Professor Daitch had been convicted of gross negligence, inciting riots, etc. Poor man. He didn’t deserve the censure. Sure, he had made a mistake, a
huge mistake, but better to err on the side of caution than not. It was probably best to lock him away for his own safety due to the number of death threats the scientist received after the scandal broke.
It missed?But that was yesterday’s news.
~Let’s go into town,~ Lois suggested to the grumbling Clark, pushing off the fence post and heading for the house. ~See what they have by way of school records on you.~
“Lois, don’t forget to refill the stalls with clean shavings,” Martha called from up in the hayloft.
The reporter stopped in her tracks and grimaced. ~You owe me big, Smallville.~ She straightened her work gloves, grabbed the wheelbarrow off the compost pile, and headed around the side of the barn.
It missed?***
That night Lois sat at the dining room table, her head throbbing.
Clark had, once again, dived into his quiet sulk upon returning from town before dinner. There had been no record of a Clark Kent ever having attended school in Smallville, which was strange because in Lois’ dreams Rachel Harris had said that Clark had been her prom date. It would be pointless to go to Midwest University and check their records. If Clark had never attended high school, the chances of him ever having made it to college were pretty slim. Of course, Clark had never made it to Metropolis either. When had he fallen off the grid?
After visiting the Smallville High, Lois had spent the rest of the afternoon flipping through the last ten years of the
Smallville Post archives to see if there were any records or obituaries on Clark. Nothing. Not even a whisper. It was as if he had never existed.
She couldn’t believe someone from Smallville could die without it showing up in the
Smallville Post. They were so thirsty for news in this small town that every accident, every school award, every pothole, every fair prize, every piece of gossip was reported in the paper, and even then it was hardly the size of the Daily Planet’s Metro section. Tomorrow she would check the next ten years back 1985-1975.
Could the reason that there was no mention of Clark anywhere in Smallville be because Martha and Jonathan had home-schooled the boy and hid him away in the basement? Lois just couldn’t imagine them doing that to Clark, especially now that they had opened their home to paying guests. Next on her list was exploring said basement after they had gone to sleep to see what they might have stored away.
“Everything all right?” Jonathan asked.
“A little bit of headache,” Lois admitted, rubbing her temples.
“Didn’t find your illustrious Kent then?” he teased.
“No,” Lois grumbled, accepting a piece of apple pie from Martha. “It’s like he disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
“Nonsense,” Martha said with a reassuring nod. “People just don’t disappear. Maybe you’ve got the wrong town, dear. And Kent is a fairly common name, both as a first and as a last name.”
Lois wanted to correct Martha, knowing darn well as a reporter that people ‘disappeared’ all the time, but she didn’t feel like an argument. “No. This is the place,” Lois said, tempting Clark to interrupt to tell her to ‘shut up’. He hadn’t said word one since they…
she had returned to the house.
“How do you know?” Martha said with curiosity.
~Oh, I don’t know. His parents are here. I’ve met them before… but only in my dreams. Oh, by the way, they’re you.~ No, Lois couldn’t tell Martha that.
“He’s always telling me stories from back home. Smallville isn’t a name I could come up with on my own. It’s so….” Lois noticed both Martha and Jonathan’s expressions and decided it was probably best not to knock their hometown. “Quaint.”
“Oh,” Martha replied with a smile, clearly humoring her.
“So, what’s
your Kent like?” Jonathan asked.
“He’s tall, six foot easily, with dark hair and the kindest eyes…” Lois swallowed, realizing she was starting to gush about these people’s son. There was something about Clark that screamed he was someone to brag about. “He wears glasses though,” she said, trying to make Clark sound less like a Greek god and more human. She coughed to clear her throat. “He’s sweet and so kind and loving. Selfless. Genuine. Wry humor. He’s the strong and quiet type, yet caring and honest. In a good way,” she reassured them quickly. “— not the kind that tells you that you look bad, even when you do. He sees the best in everyone, even if they don’t deserve it. He’s definitely a glass-half-full kind of fellow.” She looked at Martha out of the corner of her eye. “Handsome.”
Martha grinned. “Tall, dark, and handsome. Hmmmm. He sounds perfect. Nope. Nobody around here fits that description.” Clark’s mother nudged her. “Does he have any flaws?”
Lois had never thought about it, but Martha was spot on. Clark was tall, dark, and handsome. When she added that to his personality, no wonder she was so enamored with him. She laughed, realizing that they were waiting for an answer and here she was off in la-la land thinking about Clark again. What had been their question? Flaws? “Yeah, he gets jealous easily, but not stalker jealous though. He’s forgiving to a fault.” She rolled her eyes in tender annoyance. “And he’s overly cautious.” ~Not to mention that he’s dead.~
“I take that back. I knew it! You came here to steal my husband,” Martha kidded, giving her husband a beaming smile. “Well, except the physical description doesn’t match.”
“I’m not tall anymore,” admitted Jonathan with laughter. He leaned over and kissed his wife’s cheek. “And my hair isn’t dark. Anymore.”
“But you’re still handsome,” Martha whispered just loud enough for Lois to catch it.
Maisie was right. These two were in love, and they didn’t mind anyone – and everyone – knowing it. No wonder Clark turned out the way he did with the Kents as his folks.
“He sounds like a fantasy,” Martha continued. “Nobody is
that perfect, honey. You might want to start readying yourself that he’s been lying to you, or you could be setting yourself up for some serious heartache.”
“But he’s real,” Lois told her adamantly. “I guess he sounds a bit unbelievable, but – trust me – he’s not perfect. He’s my partner...” Her laughter died as she looked down at her plate. Okay, that sounded a bit vague. “…at work…” That sounded even more odd. All that gushing and now she was saying that they just worked together and that he disappeared. “He couldn’t have made it all up,” she whispered not wanting to go down that path. “Why would he lie?”
Martha went over to the freezer and pulled out a carton of vanilla ice cream. She scooped out a huge portion and dumped it on Lois’ warm pie. “Here, honey, it looks like you could use this.”
Lois gazed up at the woman and smiled. Why couldn’t
she have been born into this family? Unconditional love. She had heard about it but thought it fell into the world of mythology, like Santa Claus, unicorns, fairies, and… she gulped.
Flying superheroes, Clark finished her thought. That one phrase, though spoken softly, forlornly, and almost as if to himself, made her realize what it was about Clark that attracted her so.
“He believes in me,” Lois told the Kents. “I
have to believe in him.”
*** End of Part 15*** Part 16 Comments
