Bad Timing
“Lois. There’s a reason I run off all the time. There’s a very important reason, actually. I never really thought about telling anyone before… until I met you,” Clark said, beginning to visibly tremble.
“Well? I’m waiting,” Lois said, impatiently.
She looked up at him from her living room couch, her eyes wide and expectant. She was annoyed, but not really angry anymore. Dammit, she thought, I love him too much. I need a harder skin when dealing with him!
“Lois,” he said, taking a deep breath and looking for inspiration. “I’m Superman.” He released a long breath, relieved to have said it. That, he mused, had taken more courage than the time he had gone to stop the nightfall asteroid.
She sat there, a confused expression on her face.
Just as the thoughts started to process about what he had just said, there was a tap at her window.
Superman hovered just outside.
“Really, Clark, of all the things!” she said, getting up to let Superman in.
He stepped in. “Lois,” he said. “Lois Lane.”
“Superman, are you okay?” she asked.
“You are beautiful,” he said, as if he were seeing her for the first time.
Lois blushed. “Uh, thank you, Superman. Are you okay? Really,” she repeated.
“I’m great. I just wanted to tell you that.”
With a smile at her and then a brief look at Clark, he flew away. Just as quickly as he’d come.
“You were saying?” she said to Clark, her arms folded across her chest.
“I, uh, have to go, Lois…” he said, continuing to mumble as he ran out the door.
“Yeah, and next time, I want the real story! Not some story that *only* someone from Smallville, Kansas could have thought up! I mean honestly! In your dreams Kent! I want the real thing!” she yelled after him, knowing full well that he most likely had missed most of what she said.
He was long gone.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Who are you?” Clark said, running around the corner of Lois’s building, spotting the intruder. “Who sent you? You are an imposter!”
“It’s that obvious?” Superman asked, looking crestfallen. “Maybe I didn’t have enough gusto. My father told me to walk around with lots of gusto!”
“Who is your father? And how did you know Lois?”
Superman smiled. “Well, my father has a picture of her. I saw her in the picture and wanted to meet her.”
“Who is your father?” Clark repeated.
“I am not allowed to tell!”
“You will tell me. And you will not see Lois again. Ever. Don’t you dare go near her!”
“I can if I want to. I am here to stay,” Superman said, puffing his chest out. “Now there’s gusto!”
“You know, you couldn’t have picked a worse time to come here,” Clark said, under his breath.
“Oh yeah I could have. My father said he almost had me come here last year. I don’t know much about last year, but I bet this year is better.”
“Who is your father?”
“I don’t have to tell. And I can fly and you can’t. So see you around!”
And then he flew away.
Clark threw a hand up against his forehead.
He had finally told Lois his biggest secret. And she was probably about to call the mental ward to have him committed.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Hi, is this the Metropolis Mental Institution? My name is Lois Lane. I have a friend who thinks he’s Superman…. Really?... a lot of people think they are Superman?... A whole wing?...”
* * * * * * * * * *
