Pt 29
Lois and Clark held hands in the center of the thyme and willed to be in their new home again. A bright light flashed and they were standing again in the honeymoon suite beside the glowing globe.
“Clark, this is so amazing.” She stood looking around the brilliantly illuminated room. “I’ll just stay here while you take Perry and Jimmy home. I think I have to do some thinking until this all sinks in. Come back for me when you’re done okay and we’ll go back into the house together. I don't want to raise suspicions if I come back to the farmhouse alone.”
“Okay, Lois.”
Clark drew his bride into his arms and leaned down to kiss her. After a lingering kiss, Lois pushed him gently away, “The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back.”
He smiled. “I’ll be right back!”
“Okay. I love you. Be careful.”
He kissed her forehead and spun into his alternate identity, then disappeared.
Superman knocked at the door to the farmhouse. “Hi Superman!” Martha said, shaking his hand warmly. Did you see Lois and Clark outside? I think they went for a walk.”
“Yes, I met them out in the gardens. They’re quite the couple!”
Superman looked and found Jimmy and Perry. “Sorry to be so long getting here, I had a few things to tend to before I could come. I hope you weren’t waiting for me for long.”
“Superman, my man, I guess this means it’s time to go back to Metropolis!” Jimmy said raising a high five for Superman who stood with his arms folded across his muscular chest. He simply raised his eyebrows and nodded, ignoring the silly human salute.
When Jimmy and Perry were seated in Perry’s car, Superman lifted them into the clear Kansas sky.
“Hey Joe, tell me that’s not a flying car.” The 747 pilot asked his copilot.
“A flying car, Bob?”
“Yeah, over there, see the dot on the radar?”
Bob glanced at the radar gauge then pulled out his binoculars. Scanning in the direction Joe signified, he finally spotted the green dot in the air far behind them. As it neared, the dot began to reveal a red line. “It’s just Superman carrying a car.”
“So we’re both having the same hallucination anyway.”
“ He must be moving fast to be passing us at that speed. How fast are we going anyway?” Joe whistled softly.
“Six hundred miles per hour.” Bob nodded, struggling to still see the swifly moving vehicle outside the airplane windows.
“It sure beats me how he can hold a car like that without the wind whipping it right out of his hands.” .
“Beats me how he can even lift it, let alone fly! He’s a pretty amazing guy.”
The conversation turned to details of an impressive rescue, then on to his personality, then on to the recent scandal in the tabloids. “So do you think Superman’s really got a secret identity?”
Bob shrugged. “No telling. I know if I were him, I’d be likely to be getting away with anything.”
“Well, you know, it’s interesting that he’s dating some guy’s chick. That’s pretty sleazy don’t you think? And when she’d engaged to boot.”
“It does make you wonder. Maybe he’s the other guy, too.”
“Nah, what’d he want to go and be a regular guy for? He’s Superman, he can have it all, why would he want to be that Clark Kent, he’s got to work same as the rest of us.”
“Yeah, but what if he wants to have money so he can go out to restaurants and stuff, like they showed in the paper?”
“Well man, can’t he scan the ocean x-raying oysters for pearls? He can do all sorts of things. He could x-ray the earth looking for gold and refine it with his eye fire. He could have it all, a bank full of money!”
“Wouldn't that be cool, go looking for coal deposits and make diamonds with his hands in a jiff.”
“He could even do work for folks at his super speed and get paid big bucks. I bet if he worked for the government in law enforcement by the job instead of the hour he’d really have it made. Man, I can’t imagine anybody wanting to be pretending to be a reporter. What a dumb thing to do. No man, he’s probably got a place he hangs in the mountains, or on some star and just comes around rescuing people when he wants to. He doesn’t need to work. I bet he can build himself a real mansion. He could just buy up a piece of land somewhere, or take something that’s uninhabited and turn a forest into lumber and make solid gold bathroom fixtures, the works. I bet there’s nothing he can’t have if he wants it.”
“Okay, you got a point. But what if he’s lonely? I mean, he sure looks like a regular man. What if he wants to get married? Women must be coming out of the woodwork to be with him, what if one of them’s caught his eye? He’s so darn honest and moral you can be sure he’s not going to be fooling around with anybody, no matter what that suit of his looks like.”
“Too bad he can’t have one of his own kind. I mean, maybe he could go back to Krypton and get himself a woman and bring her here.”
“Now wouldn’t that be something! Mrs. Superman. I bet she’d be a real looker. Do ya think she’d wear a really sexy suit, too?”
“Hard to say. Beats me why such a moral guy wears something so risqué. Who knows.”
“Do you think he’s been checking out different planets for a wife?”
“I don’t know, but that woman in the picture wasn’t from another planet, it was Clark Kent’s partner at the Daily Planet. You’ve heard of them, Lois Lane and Clark Kent, hottest team in town? The billboards are all over the place.”
“Yeah. I dunno, I just can’t see Superman with some earth woman. He’s so unemotional and all, it must be his heritage.”
They sat quietly musing it over until they were distracted by turbulence.
Superman landed Perry’s car in his driveway. It was dark outside. Perry and Jimmy got out of the car and thanked the man in the cape profusely for his help. “It’s too bad you couldn't be inside for the wedding, it was really awesome. You shoulda seen Lois!” Jimmy shook his hand heartily.
“Thank you Superman. You know, I don’t reckon I’ll ever get used to driving a car thousands of feet above the clouds!
“Take care of yourselves and goodnight.” Superman said. He raised one fist skyward and shot home to Lois. Before he’d put any distance between himself and Metropolis, he was in the ship. He’d forgotten already that they’d been told that the ship would always be only a thought away.
Lois was asleep, the skirt of her wedding dress covering the bed. Clark appeared, looked around in amazement at how this new phenomenon happened and spun back into his tuxedo. They’d left their other clothes at the house and hadn’t properly said goodbye and left for their honeymoon yet. His parents undoubtedly understood though.
Clark pushed the reams of fabric out of the way and lay down beside his bride. “I'm back, Lois.”
She stirred, her arm going around him. She murmured something and snuggled into his chest.
“Did you miss me?” he teased. He’d been in her dreams with her. He focused on her dream around him again and faded from this world into hers.
She was blissfully happy to have married Clark Kent. She wasn’t too thrilled however with the directions the globe had given her to heed his council. She didn’t like playing second fiddle to anyone. Even someone who was always right. She was torn between having a tantrum and making love to her husband, so instead, she became two people doing what they both wanted to do. Clark didn’t confine himself to her dream however, so she soon awoke to what was on his mind.
“Let’s go say goodbye to my parents and get our stuff so we don’t have that hanging over us, okay?” Clark finally said as they hovered somewhere over their bed.
Lois wasn’t as interested in making appearances anywhere. “Why don’t you just go get it for me and tell them…”
“Lois, I think you should thank my mom for all she’s done for us and say goodbye.”
Was this some of that council from her husband that she was supposed to heed? She raised her eyebrows. Heeding anybody’s council was going to depend on one thing and one thing alone, whether she darn well wanted to.
“Okay.” She stood up on the soft white carpet and ran her hands through her hair and made herself presentable. “I'm ready to go.”
Clark, flapping the tuxedo tails out behind him, came to stand by her side. She adjusted the bowtie and then took his hand. This of course led to another series of kisses. Finally they were ready. Instantly the ship had disappeared and they were standing in the yard outside the farmhouse.
“There you are, Lois!” Martha said as she tidied up after the last guest. She gathered her daughter in law into her arms and kissed her cheek. Smelling Clark’s aftershave on her, she smiled knowingly.
“Thank you so much Martha for all you’ve done for us.”
“It was nothing dear!”
“Lois! There you are! You just took off in the middle of your reception. I had no idea if you were coming back or not!” Ellen was scolding her again.
“Oh, Mother!” Lucy put a hand on her mother’s arm. “Give the girl a break, she’s a bride! It’s her big day!”
Lois smiled at her sister. How right she was. “Hi Mother. We just came to get our things for our honeymoon and to say thank you and good bye.”
It wasn’t long before Lois and Clark were driving away from their parents and the farmhouse. “Where are we going to leave the car?” Lois asked, knowing that she and Clark had no other intention than to return to their honeymoon suite hidden in the air above them somewhere.
“Maybe we can take it with us,” Clark responded. He pulled over to the curb and took Lois, hand. “Ready?”
She nodded and as she did so, they found themselves in a garage that glowed to match the honeymoon suite they’d been in.
He leaned toward her for a kiss, then reached for his door handle. “I guess I don’t have to worry about locking the car and taking the keys out!”
“I guess not!” Lois smiled. Clark got out and came around to open the door for Lois and to help her out. They’d left their wedding clothing at the Kents and were wearing what they’d chosen for their journey.
Clark took Lois into his arms as she stood up and floated them through the doorway that opened as they neared it. Lois wanted to explore the house a bit, but not that badly. They returned instead to their honeymoon suite where they did what newlyweds do.
When she awoke in Clark’s arms, her desire to explore came back. “Come on, Clark, let’s see what this place looks like.”
His arms arms around her, his lips near her ear, he whispered, “it’s whatever we want it to be.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. I just know I know it.”
“Oh. You’re a strange one Clark Kent.” She kissed his cheek and turned to get up, resisting his gentle pulling on her to come back. “Come on Clark. Let’s explore!”
He rolled his eyes and came around to stand by her side. She walked away from the bed toward the wall. A large dresser they’d not noticed before appeared. Beside it was a doorway. As they walked through it, nothingness changed into a white living room. The furnishings were exquisitely appointed.
“Wow.” Lois breathed, sliding her hand across the back of the couch as she walked around the room. A gold coffee table sat on the carpet in front of the couch. Two overstuffed arm chairs completed the circle. Small tables and other furnishings and plants lined the round wall of the room. Lois stepped toward an empty space in the wall and it opened up into a kitchen. It boasted all the latest gadgets as well as many she’d not seen before. A panel of buttons on the edge of the counter had something to do with those.
Clark pulled out the drawers and opened the cupboards to reveal everything a cook might want. Hesitating slightly, he walked over to the fridge and opened it to find it stocked with all the foods they would have bought had they been shopping.
“Did you notice if there were closets in the bedroom? Do you think our clothes are all here?”
“I didn’t notice. I get the feeling that the only thing that’s here is what we want at the time.”
“This is sort of like virtual reality, you know.”
Clark looked around the room. “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s a game. I think it’s real. Or we’re not real anymore.”
Lois put her hand on Clark’s arm. “We’re very much real. And so is this. But I must say, it sure is strange, surreal, spooky, and just like virtual reality games I’ve played.”
“What would you like to drink my dear? We have whatever you want.”
“How about a lime cream soda with an orange slice on the glass?”
Clark pulled a bottle out of the refrigerator, opened a cupboard and poured it into two glasses. He then cut an orange and put a slice on the side of each. “How about a cherry with that?”
Lois smiled, leaning back against the fridge. “Sure. Let’s go sit in our living room and talk.”
