Part Twelve
David breathed slowly, trying to let the hum of the airplane’s engines lull him to sleep. His body and mind were tired, but he felt his muscles tense up in spite of the fact that he wanted to relax. He hadn’t slept the night before; instead, he’d paced the small hotel room until the room was a nauseating blur. He played the scene over and over in his mind. He was right to be angry with her. She had made an idiot out of him. Using him like a piece of meat when she needed to be serviced, then playing hard to get. She had said he was the only one, but how could he believe her when she had lied right from the start? The smartest thing he could do was get back to Huntsville and send out resumes. There was nothing keeping him there now.
When the clock had struck five in the morning, he decided to shower, dress and check out. With nothing else to do, he took a cab to the airport and wandered the empty corridors until it was time to board his flight. And his mind had continued to thrash over the events of the last night. She really played him for a fool telling him she didn’t date, she didn’t have relationships with men.
She was a slut. That’s what she was. She didn’t need long term relationships when she could have little anonymous intrigues on the side.
She was a sorceress, making him think she could do those high dives. The cliff probably wasn’t as high as he had thought it was, and it was closer to where he sat on the rock than he had originally thought. She just walked over and tapped him on the shoulder. It hadn’t taken longer than he’d thought. How could she do this to him? How could he have been so stupid to think he was in love with her?
That was his problem. He thought he was in love with a woman who couldn’t love back. She was probably having a good laugh right now while he hadn’t slept a wink. He felt like there was a void in his gut.
David closed his eyes as he felt the plane build up speed on the tarmac and then lift into the air. He pictured the nose cutting through the air, lifting the plane higher and higher. And in its place he saw the magnificent figure of a woman cut into the sky, jack-knife and dive, her strong muscles controlling the speed of her downward descent...and that perfect dive. She arose from the water soaring straight in the air, and he heard her sultry voice, felt her soft touch on his naked shoulder.
"No!" he said, and shook his head.
"Pardon me?" the man beside him asked.
"Sorry." He leaned his head against the window and once again closed his eyes, discouraging the man beside him from talking.
Why couldn’t he get her out of his mind? He needed to remember how perfidious she was. Yes, good word. That described her to a tee. She knew exactly what she was doing and she used him, tricked him into making love to her. What did she want to prove? That all men were ruled by their hormones rather than their brains...or their hearts? Well, he sure fell into that one. His hormones were raging that night, and he didn’t even try to find out who that woman was. A night of pleasure, a one night stand and he didn’t even try to find out who she was.
He wondered if she had left the belt as a clue. Go around all the houses of young women in Huntsville and find out whose robe matched the belt. He hadn’t. The fairy tale had ended when the sun came up that morning. And the fairy tale with Anna, he thought, ironically ended when that same sun came up this morning.
She wasn’t a sorceress as he had thought. She was just a woman who, wrapped in the glowing aurora borealis, created an unbelievable dream that he had read too much into.
Time to go home. Back to reality.
******************
Why hadn't she contacted Clark? The question wasn’t a new one for Anna. She had thought about contacting Superman, Clark, from the first time she read about him, but something had stopped her. Over time, she began to identify the reasons she avoided meeting Superman. Now she debated which reasons to tell him. She didn’t want to be an alien from outer space. No, she’d save that one. Clark was too comfortable with the Kryptonian part of himself, and he probably wouldn’t understand. But then since he was comfortable as Superman, he probably wouldn’t understand any of her reasons.
"Can I ask a question first?"
"Sure."
"Why did you become Superman?"
"That’s easy. I wanted to help."
"Can’t you help without adopting a secondary persona?"
"Before I became Superman, I did little rescues, but there were times when I couldn’t help out because it would give away my secret. I knew that I had these powers for a reason, and I felt that I could do more if I used them openly. I was stuck with how to do it...how to help and still keep my secret hidden. Then one day, when I first met Lois..." He reached over and held onto his wife’s hand. "...she mentioned bringing a change of clothing to work. And the idea of an outfit to hide who I was just formed. My mother made the suit. Her rationale was that the bright colours and unconventional style would detract from my face."
"And she was right...that and a pair of glasses," Lois said. "I can’t believe I let a pair of glasses fool me for so long. Duh!"
"There you go. I don’t wear glasses," Anna said.
"No one asked you to take on a secret identity," Clark said.
"Nonetheless, that was one of the reasons I didn’t contact you. I didn’t want to become the centre of attention. I use my talents whenever I can, in the best way possible for me."
"Interesting that you call them talents while Clark calls them powers."
"My mother started that. As a teenager, as I gained these skills, I was devastated after each one developed. I wanted to go somewhere to hide just in case my friends found out I was so different. It took me a while before I even spoke to my parents. My mother, once she understood how unhappy I was, started calling them talents. ‘You see,’ she had said, ‘everyone has a special skill they can do. And these talents are very different. Nancy is an accomplished dancer. Joe plays the drums. Annabelle has a beautiful singing voice. Bonnie is brilliant at mathematics. Each one is special. If they squander their talents, then they don’t benefit from the richness and the world around them doesn’t benefit from what they can give the world. You have that kind of talent.’
"Because of my parents, I accepted who I thought I was, but I decided that, unlike my friends, I had to keep these talents a secret, use them in secret. Let’s face it, these so-called talents were really weird." Anna opened her eyes wide and grimaced. "I helped out, but in the background. It was a challenge to see how much I could do without being exposed.
"So, I didn’t contact you because I didn’t want to be discovered as another superhero. I didn’t want to wear a brightly coloured uniform and be on the front pages of international newspapers and television. I’m far from being a superhero or any kind of hero. I’m a cop who does her job as best she can…well, maybe a little better than others."
"You could’ve contacted me and not go public."
"Maybe. Maybe not. The other reason was public reaction. One superhero is great. But two? That can be an alien invasion. Then all the good Superman has done is nullified because people begin to see him, and another Kryptonian, as threats. I didn’t want to ruin what you had going for you. You’ve done a lot of good for the world."
"I’m not sure you’re right."
"I’m not sure I’m wrong. Think about it. You’re a man, I’m a woman. Next someone gets the idea that we’ll procreate and with our children we’ll take over the world. That can be pretty scary."
"Actually, that’s pretty scary for me," Lois said. "Any procreating he does will be with me only, thank you very much."
Anna nodded her head and chuckled. "However, they don’t know that Superman is Clark Kent and married to Lois Lane. What they would see are two aliens. You two are in the newspaper business. Think about what fun the tabloids would have."
Lois patted Clark on the arm and stood up. "Since Anna isn’t a danger, then I’m going to leave the two of you. I’m sure you have a lot to talk about." She kissed her husband on the cheek and went upstairs.
"You’re lucky."
"Yes, I believe I am," Clark said, his eyes following Lois up the stairs. "A few years ago, I wasn’t sure that I could live a normal life, have a permanent job, a home, a wife. But Lois made it all possible...well, Lois and Superman."
"I’m afraid I won’t have a normal life. I’ll never have a husband and a family. there’ll just be me and when I die,--oh, god please let me be able to die-- there will be nothing left, no one to mourn."
"But you have parents and all those brothers..."
"Blood links. No children." Anna closed her eyes and shook herself. "I’ve never said that to anyone. Maybe I didn’t want to meet you because I’d start saying things to you that I don’t want to say to myself. Being normal was so important that I shut myself off from a lot of experiences."
"Like David?"
"Especially David. He used to think I had no patience for him. Now he just thinks I’m a hormone-driven freak. Oh, I really hate that word."
"Does he know you’re Kryptonian?"
"He saw me do some ..."She indicated quotation marks. "...super things, and we had a fight and I don’t know what kind of connections he’s made...and if he makes connections about me, he’ll make connections about you."
"If he knows the truth and you talk about it, it’ll work out. I’m sure you can trust him."
"He might figure out that you’re Superman."
"I think we can rely on him to keep it a secret. If it becomes a problem, I’ll have to deal with it. More importantly, you have to deal with David knowing that you’re Kryptonian."
"Doesn’t it bother Lois that you’re Kryptonian?"
"No. Not at all. In fact, she had a crush on Superman long before she fell in love with me."
"It bothers me. Maybe that’s another reason why I never contacted you. I was mad at you when I figured we were the same."
"Mad at me?"
" My parents and I had believed I was some kind of medical experiment. They figured the capsule they found me in was something a government was trying to launch into space, but failed. They adopted me because they were afraid I would be abused or sent into space alone. They kept me hidden inside a very warm family.
"When you appeared and I realized we had the same powers, I lost my mythology. I wasn’t a human experiment, a human being. Instead, I was an alien from outer space. I was a little green man...okay, woman. There was nothing my parents could say or do to make me see that I was the same person after that revelation. How could I be? I wasn’t me anymore."
Anna stood up and began to walk around the sofa, her hand brushing its back. "Eventually I was going to contact you. I was waiting for the right time." She stared at the family pictures on the wall. Lois and Clark’s wedding picture, his parents, her parents. "How do you know you’re Kryptonian?"
"Not long after Superman appeared, I was tracking down a story about a rogue government agency, Bureau 39. Lois found their warehouse filled with so-called UFOs. I found my space ship there with the S-shield on it. Inside the capsule there was a globe. We believe it was the guidance system, and somehow, it told me, Krypton. I was from Krypton. I took the globe home.
"A number of months later, the globe lit up and projected a series of holographic images of my birth parents explaining who I was and where I came from."
"Wow! I’ve seen the capsule that my parents found me in, but there was nothing there to indicate where I came from. Not even any writing."
"The space ship I found in China didn’t have a globe or anything else that might indicate where it came from. It didn’t have the S-shield."
"Neither did mine." Anna returned to the couch. "Where are the remains of the baby you found?"
"After Dr. Klein finished his tests, I flew the capsule and the remains to my parents’ farm where I buried it deep in the ground."
"I’d like to visit it. Pay my respects."
"I’ll take you, anytime you want."
Anna paused and thought about it. She did want to pay her respects to someone who was connected to her.
******************
David didn’t remember what led up to the waters parting, but he did know the exact moment. The car clock had read 3:03 p.m. He had been driving home from the airport, and when two and two suddenly made four, he felt as if he had been sucker punched. His breathing became so irregular, he had to pull over to the side of the road to catch his breath. When his mind was on his breathing, he was fine, but when he began to rethink his conclusions, he began gasping.
His mind clung to the moment when Anna’s hand had covered her mouth, and he had realized that she was his Cinderella floating up in the air, away from him, then quickly darting away. He looked at the clock. 3:03 p.m. He knew that Anna was like Superman. She had the same powers as the superhero did. He’d seen her use them at the lake. She had swum faster than any human being could, she had floated up into the air, wasn’t that like flying?, she was fast, and she had used her eyes to warm and dry him. Anna wasn’t a witch; she was a superwoman.
David leaned his head against the steering wheel and just absorbed that information.
No wonder she always wore her hair the same way. She was invulnerable...except she had gotten a hair cut in Metropolis...after she had been sick.
"Okay. Good. That means she’s not Kryptonite. She just got sick." he said out loud.
No. Not Kryptonite. Kryptonian. Kryptonite was that rock he’d read about. The rock that could hurt Superman. Too much of it could kill him. A little made him vulnerable...vulnerable enough for a hair cut?
David felt his chest tighten and his heart beat faster. Rubbing his temples where he was beginning to feel a headache coming on, he pictured the afternoon at the TAL warehouse where first Clark Kent wasn’t feeling well, and then Anna...
"Oh...my...god." David’s heart jumped into his throat. "Breathe. Slow down. Count to ten..." David listened to his heart slowly return to its normal rhythm. "Clark Kent is Superman," he whispered. "I don’t think I’m supposed to know that." He shook his head.
David waited for his hands to stop trembling, then very methodically, pulled his car onto the highway and carefully drove to the first coffee shop on the road. There was no way he could drive home now.
******************
tbc
I was just reading Lynn's The Butterfly Legacy when I realized that she referred to Clark's powers as 'talents' and used the same kind of analogies that I did. I wasn't aware I had used Lynn's concept when I wrote this section. I assumed it was mine. I was wrong. I'd like to believe that Lynn's idea crept into my subconscience and became part of my consciousness. In any event, I'd like to thank her for the idea and hope that she doesn't mind that I used it without permission.
gerry
