Well, I found some free time between all this stuff I have to study...
So, here goes part 10:
***
Clark froze, hearing the news.
“When? How?” he asked, his soul full of anxiety and worry.
“Look,” Lois began to narrate. She wasn’t actually crying, but the tears were running off her eyes like a river. “…I was in the car, had left Sharlynn beside me, and her window was opened. When I arrived here, that car” she pointed “had blocked the way and I couldn’t move. They were outside the car, waiting. I stopped, as I couldn’t go on, and then this man… just… put his hands in the car and took her, saying “Thanks.”! Then, they all got to another car, which was parked in front of the other one, and left, and I couldn’t follow them, because this stupid car was still blocking my way! And…” She sobbed. “Oh, Clark…” She fell onto his arms, crying.
Clark put his arms around her. He was feeling very sad, and if Lois kept crying, she ‘d eventually made him cry as well.
Caressing gently Lois’ back and hair, he was thinking… It all made sense now. The Black Team had sent a small part to the bank to keep Superman busy, while the rest of them would be kidnapping Sharlynn. Simple yet effective.
Lois stood back, blaming herself.
“It ‘s all my fault!” she was saying, between her sobs. “I should left immediately, when I saw them. Now it ‘s not… Where can she be? …Oh, Clark… I ‘m so sorry!”
Clark, embraced her. Something heavy had conquered him, and he didn’t know what to say. However, Lois’ last words reminded him she needed her in these difficult moments, just like he needed her, and decided not to let their hopes vanish.
“No, it ‘s not your fault.” he said. “You don’t have to worry. Don’t lose your courage now. Let’s go to the Thorns.”
Lois stood back again, looking at him questioningly. “Why?” she asked.
“They deserve to know. And they might help.”
“How can they help?” she asked, in a loud voice. She paused for a moment, and then, she fell onto Clark’s chest once again. “They can’t help…” she murmured, and began to cry again.
Clark put his arms around her protectively, while she was crying. When she felt a little better and stopped crying, he said, sweetly: “Come on, honey, let’s go.”
“OK.” she sobbed.
They got in the car and headed to 35, Hillstone Street. After less than five minutes they were there.
They got out of the car. Clark noticed that Lois still had tears in her eyes, and her face was red.
“OK, honey,” he said, moving close to her and taking away her tears with his finger, “stop crying now, it is going to be difficult. Think about how they will feel.”
“OK.” she said, ready to cry again. “I ‘ll be strong.” She forced a smile.
Clark put his head over her shoulders, and together they headed to the basement. Lois took a deep breath, and Clark knocked the door.
No answer.
He knocked again. “Rachel, open the door. It ‘s us, Clark and Lois.”
They heard the key unlocking the door, which opened slightly, allowing Rachel to see in the corridor they were standing.
“Is it you?” she asked.
“Yes.” Clark replied her silly question. He felt Lois beside him gulping down a sob.
“Are you alone?” Rachel was almost whispering now, and her pretty brown eyes were exploring the dark corridor before them.
“Yes.” Clark whispered, too. Let us in.
“OK, come in. Quickly.” She whispered, opening the door and waving his hand, urging them to hurry.
Once they got in the room, the door was closed and locked again. All eyes were upon them – Jane’s, who was staring indifferently, John’s, in his usual childish expression, and Sharlynn’s, who was staring mainly to Lois, sarcastically.
“So, you ‘re back? So soon?” Her tone was full of irony – a tone which, unless Lois wasn’t feeling so terribly, would ‘ve lead her directly to slap Sharlynn.
But now Lois wasn’t quite herself. She almost didn’t hear what Sharlynn said, as she was lost in her thoughts.
Clark, turning his head slightly behind him, he saw Rachel, who was standing right in front of the door, giving a warning look to Sharlynn, whose face became strict, with an almost indiscernible tone of anger.
Lois turned to Clark, in a silent question.
He stared unconsciously in the wall at the back of the room, hesitating for a moment. Then, he turned to the left, to Sharlynn and John – Jane was standing a bit more to the left, right beside Lois, and Rachel beside her.
“We have bad news for you.” he began.
Nobody said anything. They just stared to him questioningly.
Clark took a deep breath.
“It ‘s about baby Sharlynn.” he went on. After a short pause, during which tried to encourage himself, he explained: “She ‘s been kidnapped.”
The women opened their eyes and mouths in surprise. Rachel turned to Jane, and John, not realizing anything, turned to Sharlynn.
“Really?” Jane asked, finally.
“I ‘m sorry.” was Clark’s answer.
“Great!” Sharlynn commented, ironically. “That ‘s all we needed. Isn’t it, Jane?” she turned to her, in an overflowing sarcasm.
Jane didn’t answer. She brought her left hand on her face, which was full of pain.
Rachel put her arm around Jane’s shoulders, looking at Clark.
Nobody was speaking. Jane had begun to breathe nosily, sighing. Her face was turning red and tears were running down her face. Finally, she leaned her head on Rachel’s shoulder, and began to sob, not intensely and desperately, but in a painful way that was revealing a hurt mother’s heart.
Lois, who was looking unconsciously in front of her, with an neutral expression, was finally distracted, and looked to the people inside the room. Her gaze was fixed upon Jane. She saw her face, and felt her pain. Her face became sad again, and something was choking her.
Tears appeared in her eyes, once again, and she leaned onto Clark’s shoulder, who rubbed gently her arm with his hand.
Sharlynn was looking to every face, nervously. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to her, but in the end Rachel got irritated. “Will you stop it?” she asked.
“What?” she asked as she didn’t realize what Rachel said, but ironically, at the same time.
“This… staring around like this.”
“I don’t hurt anyone.” she replied in the same tone.
“You ‘re awful.” Rachel commented, disgusted.
“Me?” Sharlynn pretended to be surprised – yet letting one more wave of sarcasm go.
“Yes. Stop doing like this. You ‘re awful. What do you want? Why don’t you just try to be understanding? Jane and Lois are now in pain. We all are. And, instead of just trying to be nice, you ‘re staring around like this, as if you ‘re sick of them, and sick of us! If you don’t mind about a two – week aged baby who was just kidnapped by a team of evil, sick people, who have caused a lot of trouble to you, too, in case you don’t remember, just try to be nice to us! Soften your heart. It won’t do you any harm.”
Rachel had exploded. All of her feelings towards her elder sister – anger, disappointment, disgust – had been clearly expressed.
“Don’t talk to me like this.” Sharlynn warned, firmly.
Rachel’s angry look was the only answer she took.
“And don’t stare at me like this.”
Rachel gave her one more angry look, full of disgust, too – she was showing to her sister that she wasn’t going to tolerate anything more.
“Do you insist?”
Rachel squeezed Jane’s arm, who was looking at them, blank – faced, but with the tears still running down her cheecks.
“Stop it now.”
Rachel just gave Sharlynn one more I – am – not – afraid – of – you look.
“Unless you stop right now, the next time you look yourself at the mirror you ‘ll see nothing more than blood.” Sharlynn took a few steps towards Rachel, with a warning tone in her voice, her face and the way she was waving her hand. “We ‘ve been making up all this stuff so that you are safe, and you react like this. I ‘ve been looking after you since the day you were born, I ‘ve denied everything for you, and that ‘s the way you thank me. Watch your moves, missy. Whether you like it or not, I am the boss here, and we ‘ll do as I say!”
“Who put you in charge?” Rachel bent her head slightly to see through Sharlynn’s eyes. Even though Sharlynn’s shoes had higher heels than her boots, she was still standing just less than 6 inches taller than her.
“I had the idea, and I made it happen. Who did you suppose that would be in charge? You? You would be dead by now if it wasn’t for me! It was me the one you called when you were in danger! “Sharlynn, please, come, it ‘s an emergency! I ‘m in deep trouble and can’t get out of it. Please, come as soon as possible, I need help!” Did you forget? Or there has ever been a time you needed help and I refused to help you, or you needed something and I didn’t give it to you? You ‘ve been living in this world 28 years now, and I ‘ve always been by your side. So don’t blame me for being indifferent!”
It was a funny scene, though. Sharlynn, shorter, less thin and dressed in a gray suit, with coat and skirt, talking like that to Rachel who was wearing a pair of jeans and a white shirt, looked like her mother, trying to make her teen daughter realize what she’s done for her. And there really wasn’t a big difference between their ages.
Lois and Clark were surprised. These women were a big mystery. They were both right, and yet they were both wrong. Clark, especially, couldn’t understand how easily could they change their roles. At first, Rachel had tried to hide themselves, while Sharlynn insisted that they should be revealed. Then, they had spent a pleasant… time, with Rachel, and after that Sharlynn had insisted not to tell them the truth.
Just then did he realize that they had left lunch time a long time ago, and they hadn’t eaten anything. His stomach had noticed that, too. Boy, it had been a long, long, loooooooong, day.
“It’s not like you ‘re innocent!” Rachel replied loudly.
“I ‘m…”
“For God’s sake, stop!” Lois interrupted, walking between them. “There’s no reason for fights between us now! We have to be united!”
“Unite yourself with her.” Rachel commented in a low, furious voice, turning her whole body to the right and putting her hands into her pockets.
“Right, and you ‘re supposed to be accusing Sharlynn for being indifferent.” Lois commented, ironically.
“What do you want? Do you know what ‘s going on here?” Rachel turned to Lois again, her eyes sparkling. “You have no idea what’s going on with us, and you can’t blame us for anything, even if we fight with each other about it. She’s my sister, and I can fight with her if I want to. What ‘s your problem? Do you think that you are the boss of the situation? Do you know what we were talking about when you left?” She was almost trembling.
“No, tell me.” Lois provoked her.
“She was denying to let us tell you the plain truth! Because you don’t know everything yet! And who knows the way you ‘d react, if you did!” Rachel had a crazy smile on her lips and an equally crazy look at her eyes. Her tone was the most ironic Lois had ever heard, and her head and hands were shaking unnaturally. She seemed to have gone insane.
Lois was quite scared, but her curiosity was bigger than her fear. After all, this was the perfect opportunity to make Rachel tell them everything that was behind this situation.
She wore her brave look. “So, if you want to know the way we are going to react, just tell us.”
“OK, here goes.” Rachel warned. “And you,” she pointed to Sharlynn, “can cover your ears with your hands, if you think you don’t wanna know what’s going to happen.”
Sharlynn gave her a frightened look. She had realized that her sister was way out of control now.
“Well. First of all, Jane is our sister.” She put her arms around Jane’s shoulder. She was talking as if she was teaching the Thorns History to Lois and Clark, with a demure look. Her voice was still ironic – that bitter taste of irony that fills you when you think no one can understand you – and her eyes were still sparkling, but she was calmer now, and not trembling as before. “She is the second daughter of my father and my mother, because, one and a half years after Sharlynn was born, Jane was born. And my parents didn’t have enough money, so they gave her for adoption, and she was adopted by Peter and Karen Jackson, who gave her her name. And one year and a half later I was born, and three and a half years later John was born. See? Piece of cake. And that’s when Daddy left.” When she pronounced the word “Daddy”, the irony overflowed. “Sharlynn can still remember him. So do I, but not really much. Oh! Jane had told you that Rachel Thorn didn’t ever meet her father! That ‘s wrong! She lied! But who cares?”
Rachel’s words sounded strangely sensible, like the delirium of a drunk man who just wants to tell the truth, without thinking about the consequences, but he can’t quite put them in words, as a normal person would do, and just talks, talks, talks, without thinking twice.
“As you can imagine,” she went on, “we had no idea about Jane’s existence. Do you know how did we find out? Piece of cake, too. Jane’s foster parents and the rest of their adopted children, three, by the way, died in a car accident after coming back from a journey in Chicago, and Jane wasn’t with them, because she had stayed home, with her husband! Simple as this. And then, she found out that her husband was a criminal!” Now she lowered her voice, like a story – teller who reached the most interesting part of the fairy tale she was narrating. “Did you know that Thomas Welson, a family man, with three children, who owned a small coffee shop at Baldon Street, was the head of the Black Team? She didn’t!” She raised her voice again, and, waving her hands as usual, began walking around the room – or, more precisely, around the five people in the room, who were looking at her, puzzled, and didn’t dare to interrupt her, but were just following her with her eyes and listening to her carefully. “But she found out! Because she overheard a phone call! And she came here to find these “Thorns” she heard about, and she found us! And we thought it was strange that we were so much alike. And then, we had this idea that she could be given for adoption, and guess what? She was! She found the papers at her foster – parents house! And she came with us, sending her children to an orphanage! And she didn’t tell anything to her husband, but he found out! And now he ‘s after her, too! And that ‘s why he raped her! Because she preferred to help her siblings, rather than joining his team!
But what you don’t know, and she doesn’t know either, and only Sharlynn and I know, and now all of you are going to know, too, because I ‘m going to tell you, are the relationships between the four of us! See, Jane regarded us as a gift from the heavens, because she had lost her other siblings, Rachel Corinne, Bernard and Harold, in that car accident! Remember that I told you that Jane didn’t gave my name to her daughter, because her sister’s name was Rachel, too? This wasn’t a lie! It was! Whatever, under these circumstances, it wasn’t difficult for Jane to learn to love us as she loved them! I, on the other hand, was feeling very sorry about her, because her husband was a criminal, and now she was fighting against him, and she had to leave her kids in order to do it, and she was helping us suffering so many things! And I appreciated her help, and I learned to love her as much as Sharlynn and John! John loves her, too, you know. And Jane also loves him, and she loves me, too, and most of all she loves Sharlynn! Because she thinks that Sharlynn protects her risking her life! But Sharlynn just pretends to love her! She doesn’t love her, or at least she tries not to love her, and she doesn’t trust her, and she hasn’t told her everything! And whenever she tells me something, she tells me not to tell Jane anything! And she yells at her with no reason, and she doesn’t let her take care of John for too long, with the excuse that she doesn’t know how to take good care of him! And she doesn’t want to leave her alone, and she doesn’t let her go out of the apartment, and when she needs to go, she always tells her not to leave the apartment even if her life is in danger, because, she says, she would be in even greater danger if she went out! And do you know why she does all these things? Because, in her opinion, Jane is a spy of the Black Team!”
