The Third World – Joe and Mary Lang's Story
Please note:
This is a companion story to "Jungle Love" and its sequel, "Concrete Jungle Love". They can all be read separately if need be. If you haven't read JL or CJL, then consider this an "Elseworlds" story.
1
Prologue
May 17, 1968
Martha and Jonathan Kent, a childless couple, both about 29 years old, were driving by Schuster's field one fateful night. They were on the way to their home, a yellow farmhouse nearby, when a light switch in the night sky turned itself on. A blinding streak, explosion, ensuing fire, and what felt like a momentary earthquake caught them completely off-guard.
"Martha, honey – did you see that? The ground shook, too." Jonathan said, pulling his pick-up truck over to the side of the road so quickly that Martha went sliding across the bench seat.
"Yes, I did, Jon – and I don't believe what I think I saw."
They both flew out the truck, slamming the doors, and quickly headed towards the glowing light without regard for their own safety. After about a ½ mile running through corn fields, they both stopped dead in their tracks.
A large, gaping hole in the ground was encircled by fire. In the center of the depression was a rocket ship. The flames prevented them from approaching the small ship which had what looked to be an "S" insignia engraved on the outside. Gazing steadily through the blaze, Martha gasped.
"Jonathan! Look! The door to the ship is moving!"
Jonathan put his arm around his wife as they both stared through the flames, frightened, but fascinated by what they were about to see. Jon was quite an avid UFO buff, and he had a telescope set up in the barn. On every clear, beautiful night, he viewed the stars in wonderment. In Kansas, where there were no offending city lights, he found it amazing to consider the possibility that some of the pinpoints of lights visible through his scope could represent life on another planet.
The rocket ship had landed in such a manner that the nose of the ship was partly buried in the ground. The hatch had been partly ripped open during landing. Martha's jaw dropped open as she spotted a little hand pushing on the door.
"Jonathan Kent! There's a baby in there. Those Russians must be doing space experiments again – this time with a child. We have to save him, Jon!!"
With that, Jonathan ran back to the pick-up truck while Martha fixed her eyes on the baby hand and arm that was visible to her. The poor little thing was trying to emerge from the ship!
Jonathan returned with the tarp that was used to line the bed of the pick-up. Wrapping it around himself, he ran through the flames, down to the little ship.
"Jon, please be careful, honey," Martha called out, petrified but amazed at this turn of events.
Jonathan covered the hatchway door with the tarp, so he wouldn't burn his hands on the hot, steaming metal of the rocket ship, and forced it open. A "normal" looking baby boy, about two years old, screamed in delight at him! <Wow, no big bug-eyed creature with long skinny fingers. Looks just an earth kid. Amazing. Maybe the Ruskies *did* send him up!>
Wrapping the child up in his arms, and protecting both of them with the tarp, he again ran through the flames and immediately handed the child to Martha. The baby boy was naked and amazingly, appeared unharmed. Martha's eyes glowed while staring down at the beautiful baby boy, for her daily "wish on a shooting star" request had finally come true.
Jonathan knew the look in his wife's eyes all too well. Any time she was near a child, he saw that expression on her face. "Honey, you know we can't keep him. He belongs to someone, you know. We have to find his parents."
Martha looked up at her husband, and then, pointing to the "S" on the ship, replied, "Jonathan – I'm pretty sure he's not from around here." Smiling broadly, she headed back toward the truck with her precious cargo cuddled tightly in her arms.
<Oh, no! I'm in trouble now. She's never going to want to give him up!>
Jonathan had never seen his wife move that quickly before. In her earnestness to get the child back to the farm house, clothed, and comfortable, she beat her husband back to the truck.
"Jonathan! It's about time you got here", she scolded. "We have to get home – quickly. This poor thing has been neglected. He has no clothes, no food – I can't believe it though, there's not a scratch on him!"
"Martha – we're going to have another problem. What if someone else finds that rocket ship, and we turn up with a two – year old child – what's going to happen then? We'll have the government and Project Blue Book crawling all over us!"
"Take me home; then maybe you can go back there and stick the ship in the back of the truck. You can store it in the storm cellar; no one will ever see it."
Jonathan knew when he was defeated. "Ok, honey. But how are we going to explain suddenly having a two –year old?"
"I'll think of something," she smiled, glowing. "Don't you worry."
~~~~~
Jonathan dropped his wife and their apparently newly inherited son off at the house, made a pit stop at their barn, and the took off again, breaking posted speed limits in his quest to get back to Schuster's field before the ship was discovered by someone else. He drove his truck right into the cornfield, and using the buckets of water he had brought with him from the barn, managed to douse enough of the flames so that he could drive close enough to the ship to attempt to pick it up.
Even though it was not that large of a ship, it was very heavy – too much for him to lift by himself. Not wanting to get anyone else involved, Jon went to plan "B". He tied rope around the ship, then fastened it to the bed of the pick-up. He reasoned that if he couldn’t put it in the truck's bed, then his truck would just have to *drag* it home. Luckily, the road home was a dirt one, so it wouldn't be scraping tar, leaving marks that an investigator might notice.
Just as he arrived home, ship in tow, he heard sirens that appeared to be heading in the direction of Schuster's field. <Whew! Got that done in the proverbial nick of time!>
He drove right up to the storm shed, and opened the hatchway doors. Untying the rope, and re-wrapping the ship in the tarp, he managed to drag it to the entrance way, and push it down the stairs. Jonathan walked down the stairs, and managed to move it over to the side behind the doors. He laid hay on top of the tarp to hide the ship. Satisfied that it wouldn't be seen if the authorities became suspicious and investigated his house and outbuildings, he then ran back up the stairs, closed the storm shed doors, parked the truck in its normal spot, and entered the farmhouse.
Jonathan's heart warmed at the sight of his beautiful, auburn-haired wife and the very cute approximately two year old boy sitting at the kitchen table. Martha had him wrapped in a bath towel for now, and he was eating a bowl of Martha's home-made oatmeal. Apparently he had no problem with motor skills, as he was clutching the spoon, dipping it into the oatmeal, and enthusiastically putting the spoon back in his mouth, swallowing its contents. He had an infectious smile on his face. You had to love this child at first sight!
"Martha – the authorities are heading out toward Schuster's field now. They may come and knock on our door to see if we saw anything suspicious. Having him sitting there clad only in a bath towel at this time of night – well, that might be a little weird if they come around."
"Honey, watch him for a minute. I'll whip him up something on the sewing machine right now."
"How're ya gonna do that? Don't tell me – you bought fabric and patterns for children's clothing a long time ago, didn't you?"
Martha smiled sheepishly. "Yes, every time I've headed into town without you, I would find a pattern I liked, and if it was on sale, I would buy the fabric to match. I wanted to be prepared for the day we had our own family. That day is now here."
Jonathan shook his head. Boy, that woman was stubborn! <How can we possibly keep him? We have no birth certificate, no explanation of how he got here -!>
Nonetheless, within 20 minutes, their new charge was wearing blue shorts, a plaid short-sleeved shirt, and matching blue socks!
"Honey, I was thinking about his name. What do you think of the name "Clark Jonathan Kent?"
Jonathan rolled his eyes. His wife was so happy. How could he deny that woman anything, when she made his life so complete?
"Sure thing. Clark – after *your* family name, and his middle name – after *me*. That's very sweet, honey. So how are we going to explain his presence? Come up with anything while I was dragging the ship all the way back to the house?" he said with wry humor.
"Yes – he's the out-of-wedlock son of my teenaged niece," chirped Martha. "I haven't figured out how we're going to legally adopt him, but I'll come up with that later."
Just then, lights flashed in the driveway, Martha took little Clark upstairs to the spare bedroom, and laid him down on the bed. She then tucked him in, kissed him on the forehead, put a comforter over him, turned off the lights, and headed back downstairs.
The town sheriff, Jason Trask, was at the door with his deputy, T.J. Ross. "Hey, Jonathan. We've had reports of UFOs and shooting stars tonight. You see anything weird comin' out of the sky by Schuster's field?"
"No, Jason. We've been in all night. We're baby-sitting for Martha's grand-nephew, little Clark. He's been keeping us hopping," Jonathan replied. "In fact, we just finally put him down for a nap."
Trask smiled, then said, "Oh, the neighbors down the road, the Irigs, said that they thought they saw your vehicle go by a little while ago. When I walked by your truck, I felt the hood of the engine, and it was still warm."
<Think fast, Jonathan, think fast!>
"Yes, Martha asked me to run out to the general store to get some stuff for little Clark," admitted Jonathan. "But you asked me if I saw anything weird tonight, and the answer's … no."
Just then, the future Superman came running down the stairs, speaking in an unintelligible tongue. When he spotted Martha, he nearly flew into her waiting arms.
"This is my grand-nephew, Clark Kent," Martha said to Trask and Ross, beaming proudly. "Isn't he just a little doll?"
"That he is, ma'am," replied T.J. Ross, who had a small son of his own, Peter, at home. They looked to be about the same age. "He's a real fine looking boy. You must be real proud of him. Doesn't talk yet, huh?"
Clark was rapidly spouting words that no one in the room could understand. Martha started feeling a bit flushed, because it was apparent it wasn't exactly "baby talk", but a more sophisticated type of communication.
"His mother, my niece, and him have a strange way of talking to each other, I guess. We're going to be watching him indefinitely, due to an unexpected family-type issue," explained Martha. "The first thing I'm going to do is to read books to him and get him to use proper English!"
Both men smiled, and shook Jonathan's hand. "Have a great night folks. Sorry to bother you. Jonathan, if you think of anything strange you might have seen driving home, like little green men, please let us know," said Trask, as he walked out to the Sheriff's patrol car, topped with a flashing red light.
As soon as he was certain they had driven off, Jonathan took a deep breath. "You see, Martha? This is what I'm worried about. What if I left evidence at Schuster's field that I can't see in the dark? I'm going to have to go out at the crack of dawn and try to cover up my tracks. That Trask is quite the snoopy one," said Jonathan sarcastically. "I hear he's dying to get his hands on a space-alien. He's read all the same UFO books that I have. We don't need him poking into our personal business."
"Honey, we don't know that little Clark's from outer space. He could be born in some other country. I don't recognize the language he's speaking, but …maybe it's Russian or something," Martha said. "He sure doesn't look like the aliens depicted in your outer-space books."
"Thank God for that, because he obviously isn't tired for bed yet," remarked Jonathan, smiling, as he watched his new "son" run around the kitchen. "A weird-looking alien child with this much energy would be impossible to keep under wraps. He's as smart as a whip, too. You can tell he understands what we're saying," he observed. "Bet he'll be talking in no time."
~~~~~
Jason and T.J. headed back towards Schuster's field. Jonathan had put the fire out just in time – in the dark, there was no way to pinpoint exactly where the ship had landed. Taking a large flashlight out of the cruiser, Trask walked around the perimeter of the field and finally spotted a flattened area in the growing husks of corn. He began to follow it and eventually stopped short before he nearly fell into a large crater. He beamed the light towards the center of the depression. Several shiny green crystals about four inches in diameter glowed back at him in response. Ross was waiting back at the car. Trask carefully entered the hole made by Clark's ship, and retrieved the crystals.
<There was a meteor shower, all right. So where's the big rock that made this huge hole in the ground?> he pondered. <I'll bring these to a lab in Wichita to have them analyzed. Who knows, maybe they'll be worth some money some day?>
Fitting the specimens in the pockets lining the inside of his jacket, he followed the trail back to the cruiser.
"So what was it?" asked T.J.
"Must have been a scared animal that tore his way through the corn field. The trail ended suddenly. Didn't see anything suspicious at all," Trask lied.
~~~~~
TBC
