Part 5
"I’m surprised that you’re so interested in football," Clark said to Mayson in the stands at Metropolis stadium.
"Not really surprising," Mayson said, taking a sip of the hot chocolate Clark had bought for her. "I dated a tight end when I was in college so I spent a lot of time on the football field waiting for him to finish practice or watching him play. I learned about football, and I actually got to like the game."
"I used to play football in school. I wasn’t bad."
"Football scholarship?"
"No. Academic scholarship. I gave up football in college because I had to keep my grades up and work part-time." That was the excuse he told people. He really didn’t have to work too hard to keep up his grades, but he felt that his natural abilities made playing competitive football unfair. Having to work part-time was true because he didn’t want to burden his parents financially.
"I had an academic scholarship, too."
"No sports?"
"I played basketball and softball, but once I got into college, other than for fun, I didn’t play. I knew I had to work hard if I wanted to be a lawyer. I believed that I could make a difference. I believed in justice." She thought about what she had said. "Humpf. I wasn’t as cynical back then as I am now."
"Something happens to our ideals when they confront real life. I guess the important thing is to look at life realistically, but maintain our own personal ideals, making sure that we, as individuals at least, live up to them. We can’t control other people, only ourselves. So we have to lead our lives as if we were setting an example for others."
"Easier for you to say, working at a newspaper. In the DA’s office, I deal with the scum of the earth who have the money to be represented by smart lawyers who can get them off. For me, everyday is an uphill battle."
"So why do you do it?"
"Because." She took another sip of the hot drink mulling over Clark’s question. "In the end, I still believe in justice, and I believe that our legal system, even with its problems, basically works. If one person is treated justly, then I know that I’ve done a good job, whether I’ve won or lost the court battle." She paused looking out at the field and groaned. "I don’t know why Kelly calls that play. Every time he does, the ball slips through Anderson’s fingers as if he’s greased his hands."
Clark laughed. She loved to hear his laugh; it was so wholesome. "What?"
"You really do know this game," he said, suddenly realizing how attractive he found this woman. Not only was she beautiful, but she cared about justice the way he did. And then, like the cherry on the sundae, she enjoyed football!
"Of course I do," she responded.
They watched the players on the field line up at the thirty-yard line. "You know," Mayson continued as if she hadn’t interrupted the conversation, "I don’t think that I would like to do anything else for a living. I enjoy most aspects of criminal law much more than civil and corporate law."
He saw her shiver. On impulse, and without exactly thinking it through, Clark put his arm around her, bringing her closer to him. "You are passionate about your career," he said looking into her eyes.
"Yes, I am." She drew her face nearer to his. "Very passionate," she whispered.
"I find that very attractive," Clark responded, leaning closer.
Mayson gasped as he placed his lips on hers. They were so soft and he was so sweet tasting. The roaring of the crowd ended the moment. She grudgingly turned away from Clark who was now looking at the field and cheering on the Tigers. Milohvic had intercepted the ball at the Tiger ten yard line. They watched as Milohvic ran until Bloomsbury tackled him at the forty-yard line.
***********
Lois stared at the windows. Managing to stand on the ledge and using a long-handled squeegee, she had cleaned the summer grime off her windows. The world looked clearer to her now. As she had worked, she felt the air get colder. Winter was approaching much faster than she expected.
Once the windows were clean, she went inside to shower. The warm water felt good against her skin. Afterwards, smelling of her favourite peach bodywash, she put on her flannel nighty, made herself a cup of hot chocolate and went to check out the news. Satisfied that nothing momentous had occurred in the world in the last few hours, she began flipping channels. ‘When Harry Met Sally’ was on but just going to a commercial. There was another re-run of ‘The Brady Bunch’ and then she caught the tail-end of Rick Rogers, sports commentator for LNN, saying that on a night like this, Metropolis really needed a domed stadium. His colleague, Jim Halston, agreed as the camera zoomed in on the fans sitting in the stands cuddled up in warm blankets.
Lois gasped. There, in the stands, huddled under a blanket were...Clark and Mayson. She’d recognize Clark anywhere. Mayson was leaning in to kiss him, that pushy hussy.
"I don’t know, Rick. It looks like some guys know how to take advantage of the cold weather," Halston commented.
Snapping off the TV, Lois stomped to her laptop and got back to work.
**********
After the game, even though the weather had turned colder, Mayson suggested that they take a walk to a cafe near her apartment. They spent a long time sitting at a quiet table at the back drinking coffee, replaying the highlights of the game, and just talking. Once they had warmed up, they felt prepared to walk to Mayson’s apartment. They continued talking about their jobs, about the way the media shaped the public’s opinion, how the justice system helped make the world a better place. It was at that time, while Clark held her hand, that he offered that Superman also tried to make the world a better place.
"Superman flew in and he offered us hope," she said calmly, "that he would save the day whether it was a natural disaster or a man-made one. Then, all of a sudden, he was gone, and when he left, the hope that he represented left with him. He said that he had come to help, to fight for truth and justice, but once he came back, we realized that we couldn’t depend on him. He promised things that were beyond his capabilities."
"But Superman is only one man. He can only be in one place at a time, and as a result, there will always be people who won’t be helped."
"You’re missing the point, Clark. Once we know that Superman isn’t dependable, then he can’t be the tower of virtue that he pretends to be. We have to be realistic and take him down from the pedestal on which we’ve placed him." Mayson had put her cold hands into Clark’s who rubbed her them with his own. It didn’t surprise him that he wasn’t tempted to use his heat vision to warm them up.
"Let’s not talk about Superman," Mayson suggested. "He’s not my favourite topic of conversation while I’m out on a date."
Clark felt comfortable with that because he found that on this one topic, Mayson was myopic. And if she felt so much antipathy toward his other self, he wasn’t sure that he could or even wanted to change her mind. She had left the logic that she normally showed behind, using emotion instead to govern her ideas.
"I read the newspaper clippings about your family," he said instead. "I hope you don’t mind."
"No." Mayson said. "There isn’t too much in the paper because it was an open and shut case."
"Were you close to your parents?" he asked.
"Yes, as close as parents and kids get. When I was a little girl, I doted on my father. I thought he was the most wonderful person. He used to take me to work and show off his bright-eyed daughter to his associates at LexComm where he worked as a computer engineer. He’d make up all these programs for me to play with, and his co-workers used to try to trick me with computerized chess and scrabble games. When I got older, a teenager, I thought that my father wasn’t as perfect as I thought. He had faults, made some bad decisions. You know the regular things. Sometimes I felt that he wouldn’t let me live my own life. But, I loved him a lot."
Clark looked over at Mayson. She talked freely about her parents as if she had been longing to do so for quite a while but didn’t have anyone to listen.
"Tell me about your mother."
"She was great. I loved my mom a lot, especially when I got past those difficult teen years. She worked as an accountant for a large law firm. I resented that when I was younger because I was a latch-key kid, but I later realized that being at home with only Tom made me more independent, made me the person I am now. Before I hadn’t been assertive enough, I had let them make decisions. When I went away to college, I realized that my father and mother were okay. The problem was mine. I had been a strong-willed, rebellious teenager making their lives more difficult. After I came home, we found a comfortable middle road to live on."
"They must have been proud of you."
"Yes, they were." She smiled. "It was nice that they had told me many times before they were killed that they were proud of me and Tom." Mayson walked in silence for a few minutes. The traffic rushed past them; the occasional horn broke the tranquility. "I miss them," she whispered more to herself than to Clark.
The wind picked up, blowing some leaves and some paper in the air. Clark put his arm around Mayson and drew her closer to him. "It’s getting colder. Let me take you home."
At her door, Mayson invited Clark for coffee. He apologized that it was getting late and he had an early start the next morning.
"I guess I spent the whole evening jabbering at you."
"I enjoyed tonight, Mayson. The Tigers won the football game, the company was witty and interesting, and beautiful, and you weren’t jabbering." He watched Mayson smile and blush. She had a beautiful smile. She moved nearer, put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in for a kiss.
"Are you sure you don’t want to come in?" she asked breathlessly when they had broken the kiss.
"Not tonight, Mayson. I really have to go." He squeezed her hand and slowly walked away from her apartment door. "Good-night, Mayson."
At home, getting ready for bed, Clark wanted to kick himself. Why was he leading Mayson on? What was the point? But when he had kissed her, twice, he was surprised that he had liked it. Although, he admitted to himself, it was not like kissing Lois. It wasn’t even like holding Lois. He remembered holding after she had fallen in the Bayside apartment. He could still feel her arms clutching him, her hair under his chin, her heart beat slowing down as she became calmer. But Lois had made it very clear to him, over and over again, that she was happy being his best friend. She was not the only woman in the world. At least, Mayson wanted to be with him romantically. He didn’t feel as if he were foisting himself on her or waiting on the sidelines like a panting puppy. Yes, going out with Mayson had been very pleasant...as long as she didn’t know that he was Superman.
He had been surprised to learn that her father worked for LexComm. That organization, now with Franklin Stern at the helm and renamed Metrotek, was in charge of the computer technology that linked business and banking interests in Metropolis and other parts of the eastern United States. It also pioneered a lot of the wide area network systems that held big corporations and institutions together. Even the Daily Planet’s computer system had been developed by LexComm.
On hearing that Paul Drake had worked for Luthor, Clark’s internal suspicion meter went soaring. He remembered that at the time of Drake’s death, Luthor was building Space Station Luthor to replace the Prometheus Station. LexComm computers were ubiquitous in all aspects of industry and business in the city. If Clark was correct and Luthor had been responsible for tampering with the coolant devices on the Messenger, then perhaps, his computer engineers at LexComm might have had a hand in sabotaging the Messenger. Perhaps Drake knew about that giving Luthor a reason to murder him.
Clark shook his head. That suspicion meter, he decided, was out of control. Mayson had said that the murderers were found, dead, with the stolen goods in their burnt out car. Would it make a difference? Luthor couldn’t be tried for it and the case would open wounds for both Mayson and Lois. Proving that Luthor was responsible for four more deaths was overkill. The case was closed. Why was he looking for another nail to hammer into Luthor’s coffin? Like the thugs who had killed the Drakes, Luthor’s case and his coffin, were closed.
And even if he was right about Luthor being involved in the Drake deaths, that was irrelevant as far as Lois being angry with him, well Superman, for not sharing with her what he knew about Luthor, for not telling her the whole truth. He had told her several times, as himself, to be wary of Lex Luthor. She had chosen to ignore him.
He hadn’t seen Lois in his Superman guise since the night of the charity ball, but he wasn’t looking forward to the moment when he would. It was probably better to be invisible than to have Lois openly mad at him. But, if he wanted to have any kind of relationship with Lois, then she would have to forgive Superman for his error of omission, his big error of omission. And why was he thinking about a relationship with Lois if he was dating Mayson?
Clark decided that he did want to look into LexComm and Paul Drake’s role in it. Perhaps, Perry would consider a story about the legal transition of Luthor‘s companies after his death. Clark would suggest starting with Metrotek. That would give him time to look into the Drake murders.
tbc...
