Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
******************
"Lois, this is great stuff," Perry said. "An exclusive interview with – what're you calling him? Superman?" A note of dubiety.
"Perry, I know it's….it's kind of lame," Lois said, responding to the unspoken note of derision in Perry's voice. "But face it, it fits." She shrugged. "I mean, the guy flies, for God's sake! And he's really strong…"
"All right, Lois," Perry said absently, now well into Lois' article. His eyes widened. He drew in his breath and speared Lois with a glance. "He's an alien?"
"That's what he said, Chief," Lois replied. "And, given the abilities he's shown already, don't you think it's plausible?"
Perry's hand, holding the article, fell to his thigh. "An alien," he murmured. "An alien."
"He says he's from the planet Krypton," Lois interjected helpfully. She didn't seem as becroggled as Perry was, he noticed. Of course she'd had all night to think about it.
"Krypton? Where the hell is that?" Perry asked rhetorically.
Surprising him, Lois answered. "He gave me some astronomical coordinates. He told me where to look."
Perry turned to her. "And do you know your way around the constellations?"
"Actually, Perry, I do," Lois huffed. "I did take a course in celestial navigation." Sarcastically she added, "Not only that, I can find the Big Dipper."
"Oh," Perry said. He should have figured that Lois would know something about astronomy. So far he hadn't come across a subject that she didn't have at least a passing acquaintance with. "So, where is this Krypton?"
"I, um, actually haven't had time to look it up yet, Perry," Lois said reluctantly.
"Well, get on it! We want it all laid out for the readers. The readers who haven't taken a course in celestial navigation," Perry said pointedly. "Go!" He shooed Lois out of the room.
That was to read the article without her interjecting at every minute. Lois had written a bang-up interview here, and Perry needed to give it his full attention. He read it, then read it through again. If Lois didn't win a Pulitzer for this, Perry would eat his hat. If he had a hat anymore, which he didn't. Heck, he hardly had hair anymore. He finished the article for the second time and spent a moment just staring.
An alien. An alien. Humankind wasn't alone in the universe anymore. For just a moment, Perry wondered if Lois felt what he was feeling right now. He'd known it only a few times.
It was right when he'd started the program, and every day was a battle - working the program, fighting, kicking, screaming all the way. And one day the meaning of the AA proverb truly came to him. "It wasn't a victory…it was a surrender." He surrendered to a Higher Power, putting his trust and his faith outside himself. And suddenly he was at peace, with a numinous feeling of joy quivering at the edges of his perception. And the motto, "Happy, Joyous, and Free" suddenly became more than just a sarcastic slogan. It had happened one day and Perry just stared, dumbfounded, at the sudden epiphany.
Maybe Lois hadn't had any bad times like that, or maybe she was just too young, to understand that feeling. (Although Perry wouldn't put anything past Lois. She didn't talk about herself. And she was good at keeping secrets.) But right now Perry felt some of that same carefully taut, yet curiously peaceful excitement. An alien came to Earth, and did good deeds. Unasked for, unhoped for, he swooped down and saved reporters from falling helicopters and cats from trees. Like God's grace, his rescues were unearned, undeserved, yet freely given.
Then he wrenched his mind back to the newspaper. Up to this time the aliens had been the exclusive province of the tabloids. But the presence of this…Superman…meant that Earth had a visitor. From outside. Perry spared a minute to consider what the Inquisitor would make of this. No doubt they'd pull out some old covers, dig up some articles, to show that they'd had the scoop on any extraterrestrials from day one. Didn't they have an actual "photograph" of their pet alien shaking hands with the President? He laughed.
The Planet would lead the way, blaze the trail on real coverage of a real alien, not some made-up, Photoshopped person in a rubber suit. He gave the OK for Lois' interview to headline the front page, then looked at his watch. Just enough time to make it to today's Friendly Friday meeting.
*****************
Perry sat across the diner table from Clark Kent. Kent hadn't attended the last few meetings of the Friendly Friday group, but made it today. Perry was suddenly glad to see him there, and by mutual agreement they'd gone out for coffee after the meeting.
"What's up, Perry?" Clark said as a small-talk conversational opener.
"Lois wrote a great article on her interview with this…Superman guy," Perry said, getting right to the meat of what was bothering him.
"What'd she say?" Kent asked intently. No surprise that Lois had gotten an interview with Superman, Perry noted. Lois must have told him already. That made sense – they were semi-partners. Perry was still a little surprised. Lois had the habit of keeping big scoops to herself until the story had been turned in to Perry or the assistant editor. Usually Perry.
"It's big stuff, Clark," Perry said. "This guy, who she's now calling Superman, by the way –" the two men looked at each other and smiled "- says he's an alien."
Clark became very still. "An alien?" he repeated. "Like a UFO-type alien? I'm assuming he's not an alien from say, Bulgaria."
"An extraterrestrial alien," Perry confirmed.
"Do you think it's true?" Clark asked curiously. He seemed intent on Perry's answer, holding the other man's eyes.
"Well, it certainly answers a lot of questions about him," Perry said. "I mean, obviously no human could do the things he's shown himself able to do. Flying, picking up helicopters…" Perry took a sip of coffee, conscious of Clark's steady gaze. "If it's true, which, knowing Lois, it probably is, it changes everything."
"Gosh, I don't know how you'd go about fact-checking something like that," Clark said, apropos of nothing.
"Lois is reporting on what the guy told her," Perry said irritably. That had been worrying him too – how could you check on this Krypton place? He said to Clark, "Sure, this guy gave some astronomical coordinates and the science geeks are going to be wetting their pants in their eagerness to turn the telescopes there, but, come on, that doesn't help us with getting the newspaper out tomorrow morning." He took a cup of coffee and said decisively, "We'll report it as hearsay – what this guy told Lois. We'll get what confirmation we can from the astronomy guys."
"Don't you wonder how much confirmation they'll be able to give?" Clark asked. "I mean, this guy said he was from another galaxy. I don't think they can see actual planets that far away."
"How'd you know that?" Perry asked, curious. It had been in Lois' article, but had Clark read the article? He didn't think Lois had given Clark a copy.
"Oh, Lois mentioned it," Clark said, looking away.
"Whatever," Perry said, dismissing it. "But, Clark…"
"What?"
"If this guy, this…Superman, is really from another planet, this changes everything."
"Why?" Clark asked curiously.
"Don't you see?" Perry tried to get across his sense of wonder to the gawky reporter across the booth. "For millennia, man has looked up at the stars and wondered. What's out there? And now, there's somebody from out there. Not from our planet. We've had so many differences, fought about so many things, things that seem trivial now. I mean, what does an alien care about national boundaries? Or different tribes, or factions?" He restlessly stirred his coffee. "If I were an alien, I'd just look at Earth as one planet." He dumped another package of sweetener into his coffee, took a sip. "And now we on Earth have to act like one planet, too. I mean, it's going to change the way we think."
"That's, um, interesting, Perry," Kent said. He could make the Second Coming of Christ sound dull, Perry thought uncharitably. That was unfair, he told himself on second thought. The way Kent wrote, he couldn't be that boring.
"Well, if you're not into one-world stuff, Clark," Perry said shortly, "think about this. What about this guy? What's his motivation? All we know is what he said to Lois. He says he's from another planet and that he's here to help. Why?"
"Um…good karma?" Clark offered.
Perry snorted. "Clark, everyone has an agenda. I think you've been in the reporting business long enough to know that. How often do you see someone doing something just out of the goodness of their heart?"
"Well…." Clark said. He defended his position. "There's a lot of charity that goes unreported, you know, Perry. The stuff we don't publish because it's not newsworthy."
"Yeah. No denying that," Perry said shortly. "But how much of that is for tax write-offs? Or to buy good PR? Clark, you know and I know that true altruism is a rare bird in this world."
Clark smiled. "But you said yourself, Superman is out of this world."
Perry had to laugh. "Well, maybe." He took another sip of rapidly cooling coffee. "I guess I've watched too many Grade B sci-fi movies. I keep expecting the invading alien army to be following on this guy's footsteps. Have everyone lined up for slavery in the Andromeda galaxy or something."
Clark looked queasy. "You really think he'd do something like that?" he asked.
"I don't know," Perry continued. "We don't know. We don't know anything about him, except what he's told Lois." He stirred his coffee again absently. "Hey, to make you really paranoid – remember that Twilight Zone episode where the aliens came, and their mission statement was this handbook called, 'To Serve Man'?"
Clark gulped. "Yeah. It was a cookbook." He took a sip of coffee in turn. "Those Twilight Zones had some twist endings, didn't they?"
Perry nodded. "So, Clark, maybe I'm paranoid. But what if this guy is the forerunner of the alien invasion? I mean, with the powers he's shown so far, we wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him, or them. I've heard from sources off the record that a couple of people have shot at this guy and the bullets just bounce right off."
"What?" Clark asked. "Come on, Perry," he said in a disbelieving tone.
"That's what my sources have said," Perry said stubbornly. "This guy is bulletproof."
Clark raised his eyebrows and nodded skeptically. "Right."
"Really!" Perry persisted. The two broke gazes, drank coffee. Silence for a moment.
"Maybe you're not giving this Superman a chance," Clark said slowly, tapping his fingers nervously on the table.
Perry shot him a sharp glance. "What do you mean?"
"Well, assuming that no Imperial Stormtroopers or waves of attacking droids land for the alien invasion in the next week or so," Clark began teasingly, "maybe you should just look at what he's done so far."
Perry nodded. "He kept the President's plane from crashing, he saved some cops from getting shot, he put out a fire, he stopped a bunch of burglars, he even got some kid's cat out of a tree. He's been quite a busy little beaver, Clark."
"And he saved Lois. Don't forget that," Clark said.
"And he saved Lois," Perry said heavily. "I'm grateful to him for that. She was in a fix there, and no mistake."
"So, if this guy says he's here to help, and so far that's all he's done, maybe we owe him the benefit of the doubt." Clark made a positive statement.
Perry looked at him for a long moment. "Cynical newsman that I am, I'm always looking for the worst. And usually I find it. But maybe you're right, Clark." He gave Clark a wan smile. "Alien or whatever, this guy has helped us. So far."
"He has only…helped," Clark replied.
"And we do owe him. I mean, if the Daily Planet had lost Lois, it would have been….a bad day."
"Very bad," Clark agreed.
Perry sat straighter. "So I think that the Planet editorial will be about giving this…Superman the benefit of the doubt."
"Not on the invading alien armies?" Clark chuckled.
"I think we'll leave the paranoia up to the professionals at the Pentagon," Perry replied. "Right now, the Planet will focus on the awe and wonder of having proof of alien presence here on Earth. And on how this guy says he's here to help." He finished his coffee. "Ready?"
Clark polished off his own cup. "Yeah."
Perry paid the bill, and as the two of them walked back to the Planet building, he said, "Clark, you're a pretty good reporter. See if you can get Lois to introduce you to this Superman guy. I want you to look into him." Perry's reportorial instincts came to the fore. "Can you find his agenda? What does he want? Why is he here? He seems too good to be true – is he? Find the dirt! Everybody's got some!"
Clark swallowed. "OK, Perry, I'll do what I can."
Perry became more serious. "I want the story, Clark, but don't…do anything stupid. I mean, with what this guy can do...We don't know how he'll react to probing questions. If he takes offense to you...don't get him mad. I don't want to lose a reporter."
Clark smiled. "I'll put on my best behavior. I think I'll be OK, Perry."
The two walked back into the Daily Planet.
