-+-+-+-
The phone ring reminded Lois that it was already eleven in the morning and she should be up.
But how often did she have the chance to enjoy peaceful mornings all alone in this house?
She unwillingly picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Lois. It’s Clark.”
Perfect. Just what she needed. “What do you want?”
“What time should I bring Jon back?”
“I told you at noon.”
“I just wanted to make sure…”
“Okay, okay. Bye.”
She quickly hung up the phone and went back to her thoughts.
Jon would be there in an hour. Back to routine.
Yeah, but sometimes routine was the best option. Last night, for instance. The dinner with Terence was horrible.
Okay, let’s be fair. The dinner was excellent. The ‘with Terence’ part was the problem. The same evening, with Clark instead of Terence, would be just ideal.
Now, though, it was too late.
She lazily got up to get dressed.
-+-+-+-
Clark didn’t stay at Lois’s more than it was necessary. He went, dropped Jon off and left.
Now he was alone in his apartment, pacing around.
To call or not to call?
And if he called, what would he say?
And what she’d say once she heard him?
‘I’m stalling,’ he thought. Quickly, before he could change his mind, he picked up the phone and called her number.
“Hello?”
“Lois? It’s Clark.”
“What is it?” she snapped.
Clark bit his lip. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“Ehm… I wanted to tell you…”
“What?”
“Ehm… Are you in a hurry?”
“What do you want, Clark?”
“Can I come over?”
“Weren’t you here ten minutes ago?”
“Can I come again?”
Her voice lost her irritated tone and became worried. “Is there something wrong?”
It was definitely a bad idea. “No, nothing… Forget it.”
“Clark…”
But he had already hung up.
Lois stared at the speaker, troubled. Then, she put it back and went to her room.
-+-+-+-
“…Oh, really? When? … That’s great! Congratulations! … Yeah, I’d guess so. We were too, when Jon was born… …. Always being nice, aren’t you, Mom? … Okay, okay. Give Lucy my congratulations, and tell her we’ll visit her sometime. … Bye.”
Lois hung up the phone, sat back on the couch and began reading the newspaper. Just then, Jon hopped down the stairs.
“Mom, who was on the phone?”
“Grandma Ellen.”
“What did she say?”
“That Aunt Lucy gave birth to her baby.”
“When will we go see it?”
“When we can.”
“I want to go to Aunt Lucy!” he whined.
“I got that. But today you’re going to Dad’s.”
“I want to go to Aunt Lucy!”
“Leave me alone, Jon.”
“Don’t you ‘leave me alone’ me!” He angrily grabbed the newspaper Lois was reading and tore it in pieces.
“You spoiled brat!” Lois got up just as angrily and glared at him. “Go sit on the stairs and don’t move until your Dad is here!”
Sticking out his tongue, Jon went up the staircase and sat on the top stair.
Lois bent to pick up the paper pieces, when she heard a noise. She turned around and saw Jon lying motionless in front of the staircase.
“Jon!” she called. “Are you all right? Talk to me!”
The boy had his eyes closed and his face was blank.
“Jon!” She grabbed him and shook him. “Wake up, please!”
Jon suddenly opened his eyes and broke in laughter of wild pleasure. This was the last straw for Lois.
“You stupid kid!” She pulled him to her forcefully, despite his attempts to escape, and she managed to get up without losing grip of his hands. “Enough is enough! This time, you’re not getting away with it!”
She dragged him to the couch and began spanking his bottom with all her strength. The boy started to cry, but she wouldn’t stop.
“Are you happy now?” she asked, when the spanking was finished.
Jon’s face was red and he was crying so woefully, that he couldn’t speak.
“You think I can put up with all your tricks? I don’t want spoiled kids in my house. Go out to wait for your father and tell him not to bring you back before he teaches you some manners!”
Still crying, Jon opened the door and went to sit outside.
-+-+-+-
“You stupid kid! Enough is enough!”
Clark froze, right out the door.
He hesitated for a moment. Should he knock on the door and take Jon, like he was supposed to do? Or should he go? He’d bet his head that Jon had done something really bad. Lois used to get angry and yell pretty often, but when she decided to spank him she always had a good reason to.
He decided to leave. He didn’t want to get between these two. He’d come back when things would have calmed down.
-+-+-+-
For the thousandth time, Lois looked through the window.
Clark hadn’t come yet. Could it be a super-emergency?
She picked up the phone and called his number.
“Hello?”
“Clark, is that you? Why haven’t you come yet?”
“I came.”
“When?”
“I came and I left.”
“Why?”
He decided to be discreet. “I heard noise.”
“Listen, Jon is completely out of control! Come pick him up now. I’ll give you his schoolbag, too. Tomorrow you’re taking him to kindergarten and then you’re coming over. We need to talk.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow, Lois.”
“Me too, but this is serious. It’s no big deal if you go to work an hour late. You do it quite a lot, after all.”
“All right.”
“I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’m coming to pick up Jon now.”
“Good. Bye.”
“Bye.”
After hanging up the phone, Lois went upstairs to pick up Jon’s schoolbag. She grabbed it, went downstairs, opened the door, left it outside and got back in the house without saying a word.
-+-+-+-
The next day, right after he left Jon at school, Clark went at Lois’s.
“Good morning,” she greeted him and urged him in. “Sit down.”
He sat on one side of the couch, and she sat on the other one.
“So?” he asked.
For a brief moment Lois wondered where to start from. She finally decided to begin with a prologue. “Look, Clark, as I told you on the phone, Jon is completely out of control. I hardly dare talk to him, because he’ll start complaining out of nowhere. He’s turned to a very spoiled kid, and I think it’s your fault.”
“My fault? Why?”
“It can’t be mine! There’s discipline in this house. Or, that’s what I try to compel. But every day he just gets more disobedient and grouchy.”
“Lois, he’s growing up.”
“Can’t he grow up normally? Calmly? That’s not what I teach him! Someone else has taught him to expect everything from the others, and it can’t be his teacher. So, who else could it be?”
“Lois, it’s a normal reaction.”
“No, it’s not!”
“It’s normal for the divided environment Jon lives in.”
“It’s not divided! Just because we’ve gotten divorced doesn’t mean we’re divided. There’s no hatred between us. We just don’t live together, that’s all.”
“But we’re constantly fighting,” Clark reminded her.
“We’re not fighting. We’re arguing,” she replied, her voice somewhat low.
“A five year old can’t tell the difference.”
“I think you’re underestimating him. Do you know why I spanked him yesterday?”
“I didn’t touch the subject. Nor did Jon want to talk about it.”
“I scolded him for tearing my newspaper, and you know what he did to take his revenge on me? He pretended to have fallen from the stairs and gotten hurt!”
“Really?” Clark asked in shock.
“Really!”
“Then he deserved it.”
“This means nothing. I don’t like spanking him, and I don’t like having to spank him. Make sure you fix this situation.”
“Me?”
She stared at him disapprovingly. “It’s not like you to avoid your responsibilities.”
“I bear no responsibility here, that’s the problem.”
“You are the father, of course you do.”
“Lois, you’re missing something here,” Clark pointed out in displeasure. “The only one responsible for this is Jon.”
“He’s just mimicking…”
“Let me finish,” he cut her. “Jon is in the same class with, how many? Fifteen, twenty children? He talks to his friends every day, he lives their families through their eyes and he compares them to his. And he gets hurt about it. He finds his family ruined.”
“We’re not ruined!”
“Yes, we are. Maybe from your point of view we aren’t, but Jon looks at it more closely. Dad and Mom live separately. They keep fighting. They don’t love each other. That’s it.”
Lois didn’t answer. Clark’s word had touched something inside her.
‘They don’t love each other…’
“Lois?” Clark, concerned, tried to get her attention. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s not fair…” she stuttered.
“What? Jon feeling like this?”
“Huh?” Lois came back to reality. “Yeah! How do you know? Did he tell you?”
“No, but he doesn’t have to. It’s obvious.”
“Then how come I haven’t seen it?”
Clark’s gaze fell on the floor. He was feeling really uneasy. “What I’m telling you now is the conclusion I drew from what you told me. I didn’t even know Jon behaved like this. No one’s omniscient, not even where their own family is concerned. That’s why there’s two in a couple, so that the one can complement the other. What we have is abnormal.”
Lois’s face whitened.
“Lois, what’s wrong?” Clark asked, now clearly worried.
She, however, was unable to speak. She was just staring blankly in front of her.
“Lois, are you all right?” He grabbed her hands.
“It’s all my fault…” she spoke in a low voice, finally revealing her thoughts. “It’s all because of me, and my egotism…”
“What?” Clark looked lost.
“I thought I had only ruined my life. But I also ruined yours, and my son’s.”
“Lois…” Clark now understood what she was talking about. “We all make mistakes. This is my mistake, too.”
“No, no…” Lois’s face was still pale and blank. “It’s mine, it’s all my fault.” She turned to look at Clark, her eyes now teary. “Why did you let me do it?”
“You wanted to…”
“You shouldn’t have…” She burst in tears. Clark hugged her protectively and let her cry until she had calmed down.
“Is it too late to start over?” she pleaded, after finding her breath.
“It’s never too late,” he said, gently stroking her hair. “At least, not for me. “I’m still loving you, and I’ll always be.”
“Me too…”
“So, should we give our marriage another chance?”
“Yes, please…” Lois whispered. “I miss you.”
“Lois, my love…” He pulled her close and their lips joined with all the craving both had been withholding for four years.
Someday, soon, they’d be back to the way deep inside they’d always wanted to be. The beginning is half of everything, and this first step was all it took for their new life to begin.
-+-+-+-
THE END
-+-+-+-
