Part 2: SleepwalkClark didn't immediately return to Smallville due to an emergency that needed his assistance. It was a building fire, but fortunately he was able to put it out without too much trouble. One person had suffered some burns, and a handful of others had smoke inhalation, but considering the size and severity of the fire, it could have been much worse.
Tragedy averted, he flew over the city, taking a moment to enjoy the sunset that was beginning to drape across the horizon.
He loved watching sunrises and sunsets. The way the light and all the colors coalesced and seemed to pool in the distance. Vivid purple, pink, red, and orange. It was beautiful.
Before he could consider what he was doing, he had descended and had taken a seat on a bench in the park to watch it. His parents wouldn't mind, and something about it was just so relaxing.
His thoughts began to drift.
He could hear children playing nearby and a few of their parents talking. Cars were driving and birds were chirping in the distance but the colorful glow of the sun soon overtook it all.
O o O
Heather was a curious and bold little girl who loved to draw. She was now at the park with her mom because that was the deal: eat all of her broccoli and get to play at the park. Now she was especially glad that she had forced herself to eat the yucky baby trees. If she hadn't, she would have missed seeing Superman!
He had landed without a word not long after they had arrived and had gone straight to the bench to simply gaze at the sunset. He didn't seem to mind the reactions of awe and surprise by the people in the park and Heather wondered what it felt like to be him.
Did he ever draw pictures? Was he good at drawing? He should be, since he's Superman, right?
She picked up her chalk and got up, and, before her mom could dissuade her, went to Superman.
"Superman?" she asked, brushing her brown curly hair aside.
She ignored how the whispers quieted.
Superman blinked and turned his head toward her.
"Hm?" he hummed.
"Would you like to help me with my picture?" she asked, holding out her yellow chalk.
He smiled and took the chalk. "Sure."
She was ecstatic as she showed him what she had done so far. Her horse was a little crooked, but she thought it was better than the last one she had drawn. It was certainly better than Alice's at school.
"Uh, you can draw the sun and the sky," she prompted.
She beamed when he nodded and got down on his knees to draw a yellow shape beside her horse, copying the placement of the sun in real life. He then took the other colors and expertly blended them to make a perfect sunset on the two dimensional horizon behind the horse, never minding the chalk getting on his hands and knees.
"Wow!" she said. "Thanks!"
"You're welcome," Superman said before looking back at the drawing.
He picked up the dark blue chalk and floated himself over a bit, while still kneeling, to a clear spot on the sidewalk. He looked over at the real setting sun before focusing back on the chalk. Suddenly, his hand blurred, and Heather stared in bewilderment at what appeared as he finished.
Shapes and what she assumed were letters took up a whole sidewalk square. Triangles with lines and dots were intermingled with curves and rectangles. It was all very neat and appeared to be on straight, invisible lines.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Solar influx," he stated before frowning.
He quickly added a few more squiggles and shapes before leaning back to look at the whole thing. Apparently pleased with it, he handed her chalk back and stood up.
"Thank you," he said. "I'm going to go eat some pie now. Bye."
Heather smiled and waved before he launched himself into the air. A sonic boom soon followed as Heather's mom and a few other adults slowly approached and blinked down at what Superman had written.
O o O
The sound of chimes echoed around him and he felt peace.
He was wrapped in a soft cloth and felt a gentle hand brushing across his forehead as he was rocked back and forth.
A female hummed close above him, and a soft blue light ebbed through the room.
.
.
Spinning lights twirled above him as two voices spoke behind him. They were earnest and grim, but too far away to be understood. It was only their tone he could grasp, but that was enough.
Something was wrong.
.
.
Other images followed, but they went by too quickly and were too foreign to comprehend. Shapes and whirling gleams of light, punctuated by a soothing male voice. . . .
O o O o O
Clark made his way downstairs and to the kitchen. His mom was already fixing breakfast and he could hear the morning news on the television.
"Two eggs?" his mom asked.
"Sure. Thanks, Mom," he said as he fixed himself some coffee.
"Sleep alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, had some weird dreams though," he said, scooping some sugar into his mug.
"Oh, what did you dream?" his mom asked.
"About weird shapes and lights, and for part of the dream I was Superman, helping a little girl with a chalk picture. I then drew some strange letters and numbers before telling her I was going to get some pie," he said.
"That is odd," Martha agreed.
'Superman just flew down and sat on that bench. He seemed to be thinking hard about something but then he relaxed and just watched the sunset,' a woman's voice from the television said.
Clark moved over to see the screen, stopping beside his dad.
There was a reporter interviewing people at the city park. Beyond them was a line of people walking past benches facing west. What was particularly strange was that they would pause to stare down curiously at the sidewalk before walking on.
'And then?' the reporter inquired.
'My daughter asked him if he would like to help her draw. He smiled and said 'sure' as he took the chalk. He was so sweet getting down to her level, and he drew the sunset behind her horse, as you can see,' the mother said.
The camera crew approached the line of people and they parted to let them capture the childish but adorable drawing of a horse in front of a picture perfect backdrop of a chalk drawn sunset.
'After he was done, he then levitated himself there and did this,' she said, still excited but a bit bewildered as she pointed to the square beside it.
'Did he say what it was?'
'My daughter said he said 'Solar Influx' but she might have misheard or mispronounced,' the mother said.
'And then he just left?' the reporter asked.
'Yeah, after telling Heather goodbye and that he was going to go have some pie,' she answered, tickled by the thought of Superman eating pie for some reason.
"Uh, Dad, I thought that was a dream," Clark stated, alarmed.
"What?"
"That," he said, pointing at the bizarre writing on the sidewalk.
Martha joined them, just as bewildered.
"You mean you did this without . . . what? How could you do this while thinking it was a dream? And why did you write this? Were you sleepwalking?" Martha asked.
"I don't know. If I was, I don't know how. After I dropped off the kryptonite, I took care of a fire, and then I headed home, or at least I thought I did. But . . . I'm so confused," Clark said, uneasily sagging against the wall beside him, still facing the television.
"It'll be alright, son. We'll figure this out," his dad assured.
"What if I do something that scares people? What if I do something I normally wouldn't do? What if I do something and need to remember that I had done it?!" Clark asked, edging toward a panic.
"Clark, if you are sleepwalking, people don't tend to do much of anything beyond what they would normally do," Martha tried to calm.
"I'm not human. What people tend to do might not be true for me. I mean, look at what I did," he said, pointing at the image of the foreign looking text they were displaying on the screen again. "I don't even know what I wrote! I mean, what is that? Kryptonian?"
"It does look similar to the script that was on your ship," his dad commented.
"What should I do? Should I see Dr. Klein?" Clark asked.
"Well, this is likely a side effect of the new kryptonite," his mom said gently.
"But what can be done about it? How would knowing help?" Clark asked.
"Telling him can't hurt, honey. As long as he's trustworthy," Martha said.
"He is, but what do I say? 'Hey, doc. You told me to tell you if there were any delayed side effects; well, I think I might have slept-walked yesterday and wrote down gibberish in a language I can't read before telling a little girl I'm going to eat pie'?"
Martha and Jonathon both sighed.
"What do you want to do?" Jonathan asked gently.
"I don't know. Maybe I should just wait? Maybe that was just a one time thing?" Clark fidgeted.
"But what if it wasn't?" Martha asked.
Clark sighed heavily. "I guess you're right."
O o O o O
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