Tonight:
The sun had just set, and the twilight was beginning to fade as Clark Kent leaned forward and pressed the doorbell button before him, and then glanced nervously at his wife at his side. After a moment, the porch light was turned on, and the ornate front door swung open.
"Mister Middleton?" he said, and the man standing in the doorway nodded slightly. "My name is Clark Kent, and this..."
"...And this is Lois Lane, and you're reporters from The Daily Planet." He glanced down at the small person standing between them, and his face assumed a disarming grin. "Well! Hello again...Lara," he said. "Or should I say, Emma?" As Clark and Lois exchanged glances, he stepped back. "Won't you please come in? Of course, I knew you would find me; but I hardly expected it to be this soon!"
He led them through a well-appointed front entryway, and into a comfortable, well-arranged and spacious sitting room, which was extremely tidy. Adjusting the room lights, he gestured the three of them toward a wide sofa, then sat down in a comfortable armchair across the coffee table from them.
"Well," he began immediately, "my letter should have been delivered to you today, Ms. Lane; so since you are here already, *with* Emma, I would guess that the three of you have been engaged in a very revealing heart-to-heart discussion for the past couple of hours, and have just now decided to come by for the rest of the story."
As the man spoke, Clark's expression became guarded; but Lois' face darkened noticeably. "Mr. Middleton, this may be entertaining for you; but I ought to tell you that it's not scoring any points with us." She leaned forward in her seat. "I don't wish to seem rude, but I have to ask you: What are your intentions regarding our daughter?"
The man blinked. "You definitely are a good reporter, Ms. Lane; you don't hesitate to cut straight to the hard questions." He leaned forward in his turn. "What are my 'intentions'? Just one, actually -- that this young lady's happiness and safety," he indicated Emma with his eyes, "be never lessened in any way, either now or later, because of me." He leaned back again into his chair and continued. "As I told you in my letter, I am *not* a kook. I am also not a stalker. I promise you, neither you nor your daughter will ever have anything to fear from me."
Lois took a deep breath, and also leaned back in the sofa. "Then why all this? Why the mystery, the strange, anonymous letter, the -- the rest of it?" She waved her hand as if to punctuate her question.
"Because, Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent -- I know something; something which I suspect you'd rather that I not know. And I was sure that you would want to talk to me about it."
"But, as Lois says," interjected Clark, "why all this? Why not just contact us directly -- by telephone, for example?"
"For several reasons," Mr. Middleton replied. "One, I'm sure that I have guessed right that Lara...um, Emma...had not previously told you about her extraordinary abilities. I thought that my letter might force the issue -- sort of clear the air, as it were -- so that we could talk on a common ground, so to speak."
"Well, it certainly has done that. The last couple of hours at home were...interesting."
"Secondly," continued Mr. Middleton, "as I hinted at in my letter, I didn't find out Emma's real name until last week, when I did a word search on birth announcements for five to seven years ago in the Daily Planet archives..."
"But birth announcements don't include the name of the child," Lois interjected.
"I found that out," the man agreed. "Something to do with privacy laws, I guess. But I didn't know that, so I went ahead anyway; and a tiny article popped up, by someone named James Olsen, about the birth of a daughter to two Planet reporters -- complete with Emma's full name. When I saw who the parents were, I knew that there was no way you would have waited so long to find me if you already knew about the rescue. So I thought I'd provide a hint. But I was afraid of what someone else might find out if the letter were to fall into the wrong hands before it reached you. So I deliberately made it as vague as possible.
"Thirdly," he went on, "I have been a fan of you two for years. I confess I wanted to present you with a riddle, and see how quickly your investigation would lead you to me. And lastly, when Emma was rescuing me, I really didn't know that her powers were merely super, and not supernatural. I really thought that I was being saved by an angel."
Lois grinned as she glanced over at Clark. This was the first time she had ever heard his abilities referred to as 'merely' super. She turned back to their host. "So how long after your rescue did it take you to figure it out?"
"Not long. Only about ten minutes, really." He grinned at their incredulous stares. "You see, when Emma departed, I expected her to fly straight up -- to heaven, or something. Instead, when she left, she flew straight across the water, due west -- a little wobbly, I might add," he looked directly at Emma, whose return gaze managed to be at once abashed and indignant, "straight toward the little park on the shore. She reached a small hill, and disappeared into the trees on it. Then, ten minutes later, after Superman had righted my boat, he flew off in the same direction -- over the *same* hill -- and disappeared behind it. It was then that the penny dropped, so to speak. I tell you, for the next five minutes, I was frantically trying to get my boat's motor started. When I did, I made for the shore by the hill. But by then, they had already left."
Lois glanced again at Clark with a raised eyebrow. He was studiously examining his fingernails. She heard him mumble very quietly, "Oops."
"Mister Middleton, it's important that you not get the wrong idea here," she said. "We don't want a rumor started which implies that Emma's paternity is the result of an illicit relationship..." Emma rolled her eyes. Uh oh, she thought, big-people talk. She could always tell when things were being said which were not meant for her ears by the number of big words in a sentence. She let her eyes roam around the room. Off to the side, she could see through a doorway to a room with a large bay window. There was a dining-room table in the room, and on it was a very pretty package. Her attention returned to the conversation.
"I'm way ahead of you, Ms. Lane," the man was saying. "I not only have most of the puzzle pieces; I have all of them -- though the last piece didn't slip in until I saw Emma's birth article. Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent, no one would proudly give their daughter a Kryptonian name -- at least, it certainly doesn't appear to be from Earth -- if they had something to hide in that regard." He turned to Clark. "For the second time, it's nice to meet you, Superman. Or perhaps you prefer 'Mr. Kent'."
"Actually, I prefer 'Clark'. And this is Lois."
"And I prefer 'Walter'," said Walter. "So," he went on, "'Lara' was the give-away."
Emma thought that it was time to explain things. "Lara is my gramma's name -- my Krypton gramma. When Krypton 'sploded, she and my grampa put my daddy in a little baby-size space ship and sent him to live in Kansas with my other gramma and grampa, so he could be Superman and save everybody." She saw that she had a captive audience, so she took another breath and delivered the clincher: "And when I'm all grown up, if I want to, I'm gonna be Superman too, and save people's life." She added, "But my daddy's already Superman; so I guess I'll hafta be Superlady instead." She noticed that all in the room were staring at her and chuckling, so she fell silent.
She felt Clark's arm around her shoulder, and he said quietly, "Just remember what we told you, Puddin'. There's no hurry."
Lois leaned down and whispered something in her ear. She nodded vigorously, and reached out to take a manila envelope which her mother held out to her. She walked over and handed it to Walter. "This is 'cause I like you, and 'cause you didn't die. And 'cause you helped me save you."
Walter opened the envelope, and withdrew a portrait print of Emma, sitting on a stool before a background of pastel clouds, and wearing an immaculate white dress...*the* dress. He looked at her, and started to form a reply, and found that there seemed to be something stuck in his throat.
Lois, attempting to lighten the moment, glanced around the sitting room. "You have a lovely house, Walter. You keep it extremely neat."
"It, ah," Walter cleared his throat and tried again. "It belonged to my parents. They died in an accident a few years back. I've been trying to keep it nice for my fiance. She's attending her last year at a college out-of-state; but we correspond regularly, and we plan to be married as soon as she gets back in the spring. You don't mind if I tell her about all this, do you?" he added hopefully.
"Actually, we do mind," said Clark; and then to Walter's utterly crestfallen look, he added, "...at least until after the lucky young lady says 'I do'. Then we'll see." Walter nodded and gave him a grateful smile.
"Now that I've answered your questions, how about answering one of mine? How did you find me so fast? I knew that you would find a way eventually, but two hours? That's really impressive."
"That's why I'm the top reporter in Metropolis," put in Lois, grinning. "Anyone knows that good investigating is a matter of finding the right tools. So I married someone with super-vision." She smirked.
"What my *humble, unassuming* wife means," put in Clark, "is that I took a second look at the photo that came with the letter."
"Yeah, at *my* suggestion!" said Lois, punching him on the arm. Walter watched delightedly. Here were Lane and Kent in full flow.
"Anyway", continued Clark, "*we* noticed that you had re-painted your boat. Where you sat, in the photo, your leg was mostly covering up the boat's registration number -- deliberately, I would guess. But I was able to make out the raised outline of the old registration number *under* the paint. A five-minute phone call to a research colleague at the Daily Planet -- Jimmy Olsen, in fact -- and we had your name and address."
"Wow. As I said, the 'Hottest Team in Town'." Walter took a deep breath, and continued. "As I mentioned earlier, I wish no harm to Emma or her family. A month ago, I saw my life ending before my eyes. Then she descended, as if from heaven itself, and gave me years and years of fresh starts. She obviously had no training for what she did; and it must have been terrifying for her. But she didn't let that stop her, and plunged in anyway."
"She gets that from her mother," muttered Clark, which earned him a swat on the arm from Lois.
"Anyway," Walter continued, "There's no way I can ever repay her for that. So, if there is anything I can ever do for her -- anything at all -- she just has to name it."
Emma didn't understand about platitudes, however well meant. So she decided to cut right to the chase. She looked up at Walter, with wide, puppydog eyes, and said in her best wheedling voice, "Um...could...could I please have a ride in your boat?" There was a stunned silence, and then hearty laughs all around.
"Well, as to that," said Walter, "let's return to that subject in a minute. In the meantime, since you gave me that nice picture, I have something for you, too -- that is, if your parents don't object." He nodded his head at the package on the dining room table. Clark quietly lowered his glasses and glanced at the package...and blinked. He smiled at Emma, and nodded his assent.
She trotted into the other room, picked up the large gift, and returned to sit between her parents. It was wrapped in sky-blue paper decorated with white clouds and pink cherubs, and tied with a very ornate bow of what appeared to be the same satiny material as the dress in the portrait. She started in on the wrapping as her mother reached for the card. Lois removed it from its envelope and scanned it, grinning at the lame double-entendre, and handed the card to Clark.
To Lara,
With Undying Gratitude,
Walter Middleton
Emma had the paper off now, and her wide eyes danced as she took in the picture on the outside of the box, then pried off the lid and withdrew her treasure -- a child-sized, fluorescent orange floatation vest.
"Well," said Clark with a smile as he helped her to put the vest on and adjust the straps, "I guess that answers your question about a boat ride! What do you have to say to Mr. Middleton?" After Emma had suitably, and effusively, expressed her gratitude, Clark continued to Walter, "You know, I confess that I'm puzzled about something. Between your boat capsizing, you spending time trying to find a way to climb onto it by yourself, the ten minutes you spent under the boat, the fifteen to twenty minutes Emma spent trying to rescue you, plus another ten minutes on top of the boat until I happened to come by and spot you down in the water -- Walter, you were in jeopardy to one degree or another for the better part of an hour! I'm just wondering why, in all that time, you didn't do what everyone else in Metropolis does in dangerous situations -- why you didn't just yell 'Help, Superman'?"
Walter was by now sitting perfectly still; and the blank expression on his face was slowly changing to one of thunderstruck disbelief. His head began to slowly shake back and forth. "Do you know," he said as he felt his cheeks redden, "I never once even though of that!"
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