Part 7 – Avoidance
Olivia thanked the woman for her dinner, and walked down the main road of the village, giving polite greetings to those that called to her. She’d been in the village for just under a week after spending a day or two in a few of the main cities learning the Thai language. The village suited her perfectly. It was away from the tourist locations, a small village on the edge of the sea, surrounded by farms, and jungle. Her home for her stay was a small stilt-house, built primarily out of bamboo, but as it was a private home that was being rented to her, the cooking was mostly done outside and Liv did not have the patience or interest to learn how. Instead she walked into the main village and purchased her meals there, convincing herself she was helping the local economy and not being lazy.
Each night she’d take her dinner to the beach and eat while the sun set over the sea, trying not to think about home. It was hard. She’d returned twice to Alaska, retrieved the phone and called home, leaving a message for her parents, before flying to a new location and then hiding the phone again. They had to know where she was calling from by now, and she’d stayed away from any news, either on television, social media or the old fashioned newspaper, not wanting to see if they were ignoring her pleas to not look for her.
Or get
him to look for her.
Liv scowled at the thought. The last person she’d want to see was probably the most likely to find her, and she knew there wasn’t much chance of out-flying him. He’d had years of practice on her, and while being in such a secluded area had given her ample opportunity to practice at night, she still wasn’t keen on testing her limits. She was fairly sure she was invulnerable, which had its bonuses. The bugs wouldn’t bite her here, but she hadn’t attempted to do anything that would kill her if she wasn’t invulnerable. At home she’d hit her hand with a hammer a few times, getting increasingly bold as it didn’t hurt, and had discovered she couldn’t pierce her skin with a knife. That was when she’d refused to see the doctor her mom had made her see for all of those years. He wouldn’t have been able to take blood from her, and realized she was a freak of nature.
His freak of nature.
All those years she’d been so mad at her Mom, not stopping to wonder if her Mother had had any choice in the affair. Either way, it was Superman’s fault. Truth and justice was a hoax. If the world knew what that man had done to her Mom…
Her dinner finished, Liv stood, wiping the sand off her shorts. Every day she sat here, and every day she ended up furious at Superman’s deception. About to head home for the evening, she leapt in fright when a voice addressed her.
“We’ve been looking for you.”
She turned quickly, watching as Superman floated down to the ground, standing a few feet in front of her. “I told them not to tell you.”
“Liv –”
“No. You have no right to talk to me.” Her adrenaline was screaming at her to run, fly, get away from him, but her rational side knew she would never lose him without a good head start.
“Olivia, your mother is worried sick…”
“Oh no you don’t. Don’t talk about her. Haven’t you interfered enough?”
At Superman’s perplexed look, Liv decided to refresh his memory. “For years I thought my Mom cheated on my Dad. How else could I suddenly start being faster, stronger and smarter than everyone else, or even better, setting things on fire with my eyes? I hated her for years, not understanding why my Dad stuck around. Then I wondered, what if she wasn’t a willing participant? Is my Mom even aware of who my biological father is? Does my Dad know?”
He looked stunned, and stared at her wide eyed, seeming to stammer over what to say. Liv took a chance and rocketed off into the air, faster than she’d ever flown before. Within moments she was in neighbouring Laos, hiding in the trees, her heart hammering in her ears.
Was he following her? She couldn’t hear him, but she needed to get her heartbeat under control; it was interfering with her enhanced hearing. She stayed for a few minutes before venturing out, and under cover of the darkness and the jungle, swiftly ran towards the nearest large city. She could easily disappear for a few hours, hopefully evade Superman, and quickly return to her soon to be former home in the quiet Thai village, retrieve her belongings and move on.
****
“What do you mean she flew away?”
“She flew, like this,” he said as he lifted himself a foot off their living room floor.
“But she can’t?” Lois protested.
“Apparently she can.”
“Where is she now?” she asked as she took a seat on the couch, feeling a little shocked.
“I don’t know. She had a bit of a head start and once I got up in the air, I couldn’t see or hear her at all. She either stopped close by, or is long gone.”
“But she’s been calling from Alaska…” Lois trailed off, starting to connect events in their daughter’s life to the revelation that Olivia had inherited her father’s powers after all.
“Jimmy said different towers, so it’s likely she was flying back there, and changing locations each time. She was careful not to create a pattern, never the same time or place, and different days between. I can’t stay in the area indefinitely waiting for her to come back…”
“I know that,” remarked Lois, impatiently. “What else did she say?” She could see something was bothering her husband.
He ran his hand through his hair before answering. “She thinks Superman is her father.”
“Well, he is…”
“But she doesn’t know who I am. She thinks, or used to think, that you had an affair with him and she was the result.”
Lois stared at her husband in shock, for once at a loss for what to say, though it did explain Olivia’s anger directed towards herself for so many years. “But… how?”
“Her other thought, which she admitted was a more recent speculation, was Superman had impregnated you against your will. She asked if I, her dad, knew about this. I was so stunned, she took off and got far ahead before I had a chance to follow her.”
“Wow,” was all Lois could muster. “She was angry?”
Clark nodded. “I’ll head back, see if I can find where she’s staying. Maybe she went back.”
“Wait,” Lois said. “Take a change of clothes. She might be a little more responsive to you, than to… well, you in a different outfit.”
Clark kissed her, changed into the Suit, and was about to leave when Lois called out. “Clark, tell her the truth. We waited too long and it’s not fair to her. Tell her everything, and convince her to come home.”
He took off, and Lois, trying not to burst into tears, picked up the phone to call Martha. Despite the early hour, she knew Martha would be awake and anxious to hear any news.
****
The village was quiet when Olivia soundlessly entered the stilt-house. She quickly packed her few belongings in her hiking bag, cleaned the living space, and left an envelope on the table with the rest of the month’s rent and a note expressing her sadness at not being able to stay longer. She turned in fear as she heard
him land.
“I’ll scream,” she said as Superman gently touched down on the balcony.
He didn’t respond, instead shook his head gently, not venturing into the house.
“What do you want? I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Not here, Liv.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She couldn’t fly straight upwards without crashing through the bamboo roof and damaging the house, and she didn’t want to leave her generous hosts with that damage. The open windows were her next best option but that would involve changing vectors once she’d left the ground, something she was sure he could do much faster than she could. He was standing in the only large opening to the home, blocking her path, and she assumed that while she was super-powered, he would be faster and stronger than her.
She stared at him as he began to spin around, watching as Superman changed into a more casual attire; jeans and a t-shirt. What completed the outfit was a pair of glasses and she felt her mind working in slow motion as the dots connected.
“Dad?” she squeaked in disbelief feeling a little lightheaded. “I don’t understand.”
“Why don’t we head somewhere and talk, preferably somewhere we can’t be overheard. You pick the place, I’ll follow.”
Her brain still in a fog, Liv nodded, and as her Dad began to spin again, she turned her back to him as she called out. “Wait, just warn me when you do that, ok?”
“Do what?”
“Change,” she said, feeling her face heat up, grateful to be staring in the opposite direction.
“You can see that?” her father yelped.
“Yes,” she reluctantly responded, blushing furiously now. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen her Dad in undershorts before, but it was weird.
“Ready whenever you are,” he said and she turned around, still in disbelief at the superhero standing in front of her, his cape gently moving in the soft breeze. He lifted off the balcony as she walked outside, marveling at what she’d just seen. Her Dad was Superman! As she lifted into the air to join him, she tried to push past the initial shock, and focus on where they could go.
She found herself following what had become her regular flight path up towards Alaska, landing in a remote area of the north, the sun low on the horizon.
“Why did you fly around?” her Dad asked. “It would have been faster to cut across the ocean.”
Her awe and amazement disappear to be replaced by her anger flaring up. “I don’t like to fly over the ocean. You see, I didn’t have anyone to help me learn how to do all of this, so I had to learn by myself. I have no idea if I’ll run out of powers and suddenly fall into the vast expanse of ocean and drown. Better to crash on the ground if I have to.”
“Liv, I’m sorry about that. I would have helped you, and I still can.”
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed, she thought, somewhat shocked that she’d not only spoken to her Dad that way, but that he’d apologized and not chastised her for being rude. “Help me how?”
“I can help you get control over your powers, which brings me to the question of what powers you have.”
“No, you don’t get out of it that easily. Why didn’t you tell me? Shouldn’t that be something I should know by now?” She adjusted her volume to just over a whisper. “Does Mom know?”
He looked shocked by her last question. “Yes, she knows.”
“You both knew!” she exploded. “Who else knows?”
“Nana and Grandpa Lane didn’t know, but Grandma and Poppa Kent did,” he admitted.
“So when were you planning on including me in the family secret, or were you ever going to bother?”
“Liv, sweetheart, we were going to tell you. We booked a holiday and were going to surprise you, but you vanished.”
“Oh, no. You’re not blaming any of this on me.”
“Liv,” her Dad tried to say.
“Do you know why I left?” she continued, talking over him. “What do you think it was like growing up thinking you weren’t my real Dad, but this other super-you was? Only I didn’t know you were the same person. I spent years hating Mom because I thought she cheated on you, and I had to wonder if the city’s famous superhero was an unethical slime-ball, or something more sinister.” Olivia realized her accusations hit the mark as her father sagged his shoulders, before sitting down on a rock and resting his head in his hands. He looked defeated and while she was still seething with anger, she felt a little remorse at her accusations, now that she knew they were unfounded.
“Oh, Liv, I am so sorry you had to grow up with these thoughts,” he said, lowering his hands. “I’ll tell you everything, answer every question you have, but I need to ask you something first.”
She nodded, waiting for him to ask her about her powers again.
“I need to go pick up your Mom. She needs to be part of this, however, you know how much she hates the cold. How about we meet up somewhere warmer?”
Olivia was surprised at his question at first, but agreed; her Mom needed to be part of this conversation. As angry as she was with her Dad, they had both kept this secret from her, and a little voice deep inside reminded her that she should probably apologize to her Mom for being such a brat. But she wasn’t ready for that yet.
“Where are you thinking?” she asked.
“There’s a little island in the Pacific…”
“Yes, I see it,” Olivia interrupted, as an image, along with the location, popped into her mind.
“How?” he asked, eyes widening.
She shrugged, seemingly nonchalant, but internally stunned. Was this a new power? Could she read minds?
“Ok, we’ll figure that out later,” he said, clearly intrigued.
She could see the struggle in his expression, his desire to hug her as he’d always done. Still not quite ready for that, Liv hovered back a few feet away from his reach. He nodded his acceptance, and slowly lifted away from the ground.
“Don’t worry about the ocean, you won’t fall, and you won’t drown,” he called as he flew away.
As she watched him vanish into the distance, she tried to process the last few hours. Clark Kent, mild-mannered freelance reporter, was the world’s greatest superhero, and her father. As she left the ground behind, heading south towards the image of the island in her mind, for the first time she allowed herself to feel free and enjoy the gift of flight.
****
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