A future for us
pt 20
Clark aka Superman, watched from above, while his parents and Lois watched him from the truck.
The digger had moved over to the area past where he’d previously dug his hole to China. Another digger was in another area of the forest, beyond the rise.
Clark flew back to his family and let them know what he’d seen. He stood beside the open window of the truck.
“Mom, Dad, do you remember when I was a boy and I tried to dig a hole to China?”
Lois looked shocked. “You tried to dig a hole to China? I tried to do that, but it filled up with water.” She chuckled.
“Lois, that’s because there’s an ocean on the other side of the earth, what did you expect?”
Jonathan and Martha’s eyes met as they laughed. “Clark, how deep did you dig?”
“Far enough to find out that there was molten rock in the center of the earth!”
Martha turned a puzzled look to Jonathan. “Do you remember that?”
He shook his head. “No. Wouldn’t you have told us about something like that, Clark?”
Clark thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I did tell you everything. Maybe I wasn’t too clear about how deep the hole was.”
“I see. Where was this hole?”
Clark nodded over his shoulder, his arms folded across his chest. “That’s where they’re starting to dig now. I’m going to go up and watch them.”
Clark returned to the air above the workers, keeping a close eye on what was going on. The trees in the area lay in a pile on one side of the digger and a growing mound of earth now lay on the other side. The men with the Geiger counters were standing on the most recently placed soil. Then Clark spotted it, a yellow glow coming from the side of the hole. He had to do something to distract the men.
He gazed down at the trees beside the workers and ignited a small fire. One of the men saw it as it flared up. “Back up the digger!” he yelled, alerting the other men working in the group.
In moments the men had removed it from the woods and were off the equipment. Clark returned to the truck, plucked Lois out of it and took her back to the scene. Hovering above it in the air, he blew on the flames, the workers now running across the field to their trucks. He sucked up the smoke and blew it out above the forest. Lowering himself carefully, always being aware of any pain from kryptonite, he set Lois down on the ground.
“Be really careful. See it, it’s that yellow glow?”
“I see it. Just a second Clark.”
Lois scrambled down the pathway the men had dug into the ground. She found the large chunk of glowing yellow rock and pulled on it. It was lodged in the side of the hole, with about ten feet of soil on top of it. “Clark, I need something to lever it out with.”
He made her a pole from a tree and dropped it a few feet away from where she stood. Then he landed on the ground and gingerly walked slowly closer to where she stood. She pried the foot-wide rock out of the wall and scooted aside as it rolled to the bottom of the hole.
She turned to look over at him. “How are you feeling? Are you okay?”
“I think so. Actually, I’m feeling really good. Better than ever.”
“So would kryptonite hurt you from that distance?”
“Yes, I think so, I should be able to feel it from here. But I don’t feel anything bad at all.”
Lois stood in the hole surrounded by the bare dirt. She bent down to heft the glowing yellow rock It was about a foot long and half as deep and wide. Parallel crystals poked in one direction, even at one end but jagged at the other. The glow fascinated her. It felt warm to the touch. Clark inched forward towards her as she had a hard time carrying the heavy rock.
She stumbled as she tried to climb the pathway out of the hole, the rock falling from her hands and about to land on her foot. Clark beat the rock to the ground, grabbing it before it could hurt her.
She looked at him, stunned. As he held the rock in his hands it reminded him of being in the sunlight after being in need of energy. He felt strength flow through him. Perhaps that was the effect of this rock. He put an arm around Lois’ waist and carried her up to the top.
”Thank you for doing this for me, Lois. I really appreciate that.”
“It’s okay, Clark. Do you think you’d better look around and see what else you can find here?
“Okay, but I’m a bit concerned about getting too close to some kryptonite.
“Well Clark, unless you plan on staying here to watch them in their search, you’d better be the one to find any green kryptonite first.”
Jnathan and Martha were standing nearby now. “The workmen all left. They ran off to their trucks. I don’t think they had permission to be in here, otherwise I don’t think they’d have been so scared of being found here with a fire.”
Clark smiled. “Fires are one of my specialties.”
Lois slapped his arm playfully.
“So do you think you’d better go ahead and have a look to see what’s here?” Jonathan was asking his son.
“Yes, but I have no idea what I’ll find. If I get near kryptonite, I should feel it though and be able to back away before it gets me.”
“You hope!” Lois admonished him.
He climbed back down into the hole and spun out of sight, brown soil flying in all directions. A few grey rocks also flew around as he was burrowing into the ground at superspeed.
“Oh my gosh!” Martha gasped as several green glowing rocks flew out of the spinning dirt. Lois ran over and gathered them up out of the loose soil as a few more pieces spun out of the flying dirt. Jonathan gathered them up while Lois watched to see if Clark was being affected. A few yellow rocks also flew out of the hole. A few tense moments followed when the spinning stopped. Then Clark appeared carrying several large chunks of kryptonite.
“Superman! Are you crazy!” Lois was demanding at him as he emerged smiling from the dirt which was now landing back in the hole. A cloud of dust took a few minutes to settle.
He stepped up beside the onlookers and dropped the large rocks on the pile. Their faces were aghast. Clark smiled at them and held up his hands. “I can’t explain it, but there’s not a trace of pain! And while there’s no pain, I’m getting rid of these as quickly as possible!” With that, before his parents or Lois could object, he threw each green rock into the sun. A pile of yellow rocks remained. He picked up one and again felt a surge of energy.
“I’m going to go see what else is down there.” With that, and tucking a small piece of yellow rock under his belt, he headed back underground. This time he tunneled sideways, searching beneath the forest. Another pile of green kryptonite soon rose alongside the yellow pile. About half an hour later, Clark stood beside his parents and Lois again. The pile of kryptonite was as tall as he was. The pile of yellow kryptonite was half as high. A few pieces of red kryptionte were also nearby.
“There. I’ve completely searched the entire area to about 50 feet below the surface. I didn’t find any more once I got further out from this general place. I don’t know if other pieces could have landed some distance from here, but at least this is clean.” He threw the green kryptonite into the sun, a few pieces at a time.
His parents were stunned. He pulled the piece of yellow kryptonite out from under his belt and had a good look at it. Boy did it ever feel like the sunshine. “I can’t believe you just did that Clark! It’s no wonder that there was so much of it down there, you could never do that before.”
“No, you know, I think I remember why I never told you about my hole to china. I think it’s because I was affected by the kryptonite in the area and you were more worried about me than about what I’d been doing.”
“That could be.” Martha reflected. I do know there were times you’d come back from this field not feeling too good. Your father would usually go on a search and find a chunk of kryptonite.”
”Where did you put it, Dad? When you’d find a piece of kryptonite?”
“I had a hole I was filling up. A tree had come out of it once and I put the rocks in there and eventually filled it back in with the back end loader. It was over there.” He pointed to an area along the fencerow.
“I wonder if I could dig it up and throw that into the sun as well. This yellow rock, or yellow kryptonite as I’d imagine it is, seems to be protecting me from the green stuff. I’ve never felt so good before!” He tucked the rock back under his belt and followed as his dad showed him where the stash was buried.
Clark dug into it and again made a small pile of green rocks. Then after shaking his suit off, he tossed the rocks one by one into the sun. What a good location for them!
“Wow.” Lois and Martha looked at each other, at a loss for any other words. “I had no idea there was that much of it around here. Clark stood in the field and x-rayed it. Sure enough, he found some more green kryptonite and was able to toss it into the sun as well.
