I thought that, to make up for the long wait before last time...I'd do this one right away. Unfortuntually, I can't do much about Chapter length. Limited computer time, not to mention idea span and first-person limited POV...there's only so much I can do.
but here's the next chapter.
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“Superman!” Mommy exclaimed. “He’s gonna know something…”
“I know, Lois.” Daddy responded, and not in his Superman voice. “But we really need to talk.”
“Artemis knows, doesn’t she?” Mommy intrupted.
I jumped a little. Mommy knew? I didn’t know mommy knew!
“Yes.”
“Oh, Cl…” mommy stopped and corrected herself. “Superman.” I never hear mommy stop and correct herself. “Why’d you have to go and tell her?”
“I didn’t.” Daddy responded. “But…well…I’m sure you know about what happened in Portland.” There was a moment of silence, then “Lois…we’ve been over this…”
“I know, Clark.” I jumped again. Mommy had been going out of her way not to call daddy by his real name. Now she did, and she sounded really sad. “I just…every time he pulls something like this, I just get so scared that…” Mommy paused “What if it affects Artemis too?”
“It…does, Lois.” There was too much in that sentence, to many emotions for my 10-year-old mind to process. Even now I can’t quite put my finger on all the emotions he poured into those three words. Or into the long silence that followed.
Just when I was about to stop listening, I heard mommy whisper “dear God…”
“Lois I…”
“No, no Clark. It’s alright. You should go, though. I never really know when Lex will come up for bed.”
This was really more information then I needed, in its own way. Something about the way she said ‘bed’ was a clear indication of something much more. Much…worse. It kinda creeped me out. “I thought you…” daddy began, sounding a bit baffled.
“Stopped sharing a room two years ago? Yeah.” Lois responded. Once again, something in the way she said it provided far more information then I needed. There was another pause, when mommy suddenly said “Oh, I have another tape.”
“You mean…”
“Yes.”
“Already?”
“It’s always the day after she gets back. You just never show up until later.”
While this made only limited sense to me, it was clear they had some form of private communication that enabled them to understand each other’s only partial sentences. More silence, this one filled with movement. Then, mommy said “I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow.”
“How much are you planning to tell her?” Daddy asked.
“Not everything.” Mommy responded quickly. Too quickly. There was obviously something they wanted to hide from me. “Just about Lex, mostly.”
“Lois…” Daddy said, sounding very torn about something. “I thought we agreed not to…”
“That was when she was younger, Clark.” Mommy explained. “I mean, none of us wanted us blurting out at breakfast ‘you’re a bad man, Lex. Mommy told me so.’ But she’s ten years old now. She’s getting su…your hearing. She’ll find out on her own sooner or later.”
Another silence. A little movement. Then… “Artemis…” daddy said quietly. I’d been caught. “I know you’re listening. Mommy will explain everything in the morning…go to bed now.”
I stopped listening imminently; but I didn’t go to bed. Instead, I tuned in on Lex’s office.
“Yes.” He was saying. There was something indistinct said. I tried to listen harder. “Yes. Of course you’ll get all of it.”
He was on the phone, I couldn’t hear the response.
“Well, assuming you get results.”
“I didn’t think you wanted to get into that possibility.”
“That wasn’t a threat, Mr. Jenkins.”
“Very well. Now, keep in mind the value of what I’m entrusting to you.”
“Alright then, Mr. Jenkins. I’ll speak with you again tomorrow.”
Lex hung up, and began preparing to leave for the night. I listened to each and every sound…unable to identify most of them. The harder I listened the more I could hear, and the less made sense. Until I started hearing what was clearly breathing…and a thumping sound under it that I soon identified as a heartbeat. It was moving, Lex was moving. Footsteps headed toward Mommy’s room, not his own. I didn’t know if Daddy was still there or not…I panicked. Getting the full effect I laid back down, curling on my side in the position I usually woke up in, blankets half over my head. Then, I bolted into a sitting position, and screamed.
