Previously...
Just then, I heard the back door opening. The only person who came through the back door was Dad. I ran and gave him a hug wrapping my arms around him.
“Hello ladies, is everything okay? I heard some commotion.”
“We are fine Clark. I’m just a little upset that my dinner surprise didn’t quite turn out.”
“Well, I am officially surprised.” He said as he kissed her on the cheek.
“I didn’t mean this kind of surprise!” Mom shot back.
Dad and I couldn’t help but laugh. Which was obviously the wrong thing to do after seeing Mom’s face. Jon came in from the living room. He was three and had obviously decided for himself to go check in on the kitchen. “Mommy, Was yucky smell?”
“Um, I’m going to order our usual.” I quickly picked up the portable phone and exited the kitchen to call in dinner. I didn’t really want to be in the kitchen when Mom reacted to Jon’s innocent question. Dad and I were already in trouble. The only person safe tonight was Lara, my younger sister.
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Later in the evening, after dinner (mine consisted of veggie lo mein, orange chicken, and egg drop soup) I sat down at my desk in my room and tried to finish my homework. Math was easy enough tonight and I finished it quickly. The problem was that I still hadn’t come up with an idea for the big essay in Mrs. Emersion’s 6th grade language arts class. Once I figure out how to start, the actual writing wouldn’t be so hard. In fact, I really loved to write; of course it is when I have a solid idea. I guess I got that gene from my parents- the writing gene.
I continued to sit, just starring at the light blue blank wall my desk faced when something strange happened. I got a flash of…Jon’s room. He was sitting on the floor moving blocks around. “That was weird.” I blinked a couple times and looked again. I saw nothing but my blue wall. I guess I am getting tired. I put my pencil down, and got ready for bed.
The next morning seemed normal enough, breakfast, gather my backpack, and head to school.
“Callie!” came a shout from behind me as I walked to Brighton Metro Jr. High. Turning I saw my best friend Marjorie running up to meet me. Her red curly hair bobbed up and down as she ran. I adore Jorie. She always makes things better, well… not always, but she is a wonderful friend.
“Oh, Hi Marjorie,” I waited for her to catch up. “So, how are you? Have you figured out what you are going to do for Mrs. Emersion?” The whole essay thing was still on my brain. You’d think I was a normal 13 year old, who just thought about, oh… I don’t know, the mall or boys or whatever. But school was really important to me. I actually liked it, most of the time.
“Na, I haven’t thought about it too much. Cal it’s not due for another week. Really, you stress too much.” Marjorie was a really easy going. I guess both of us together kind-of balanced each other out.
We continued to walk to school, when my vision went blurry. I closed my eyes and re-opened them. I could see inside the backpacks of the boys in front of us. Um… I could also see a lot more than I ever wanted to. I put my hands over my eyes, but it didn’t matter. I could see through my hands! I guess I must have started freaking out, because Marjorie stopped dead in her tracks.
“Callie, what in the world is wrong with you? Are you okay?” She asked confused and concerned.
I blinked again and rubbed my eyes. “You know what Jorie. I have no idea. All of a sudden my vision got all weird, and blurry…” I was going to continue to tell her, but she stopped me. I’m glad too, because she would have thought exactly what I thought. That I was losing my mind!
“Cal, you probably just need glasses or something. Tell your parents; they’ll take you to the optometrist. Doesn’t your Dad wear glasses? You probably just need them too.”
Well, what Marjorie said made sense, but I didn’t think seeing boys in just their underwear and seeing through your hand would be something that a pair of glasses could fix.
The ‘vision problems’ kept happening all day, and so did my strange ability to hear what other people were saying in other rooms. I couldn’t concentrate at all in Mrs. Richardson’s math class, because all I could hear was Mr. Burns in 8th grade Social Studies. I learned some cool things about American Government, but it wasn’t going to help my Pre-Algebra grade. You have no idea how hard it is to just look at what is going on, but be hearing something completely different.
Science class happened almost the opposite. We had a pop quiz on the periodic table, which wasn’t a big deal, because I knew what most of the elements stood for, but I couldn’t do the quiz. I couldn’t see the table or my quiz. I could see the plumbing connections and the foundation of the building, but my hand and the test didn’t appear. I tried to feel for the paper and my pencil and found the edges, but I had no idea what was on it. A couple times the paper would come into focus. All we had to do was give the chemical symbol for the different elements. I finally saw the paper just long enough to read the first couple elements then it disappeared again. I put the correct answer to number one…somewhere on the page. For all I knew I said Au was the date. Great. Now I am going to flunk my quiz. Maybe Ms. Peterson will give me another chance. That is if I could see the paper. Maybe I could tell her that I can’t take the test. She would then ask ‘why?’ And I would say…I can’t see the questions because each time I try to look at it I end up seeing the cracks in the foundation under your classroom! No, that wouldn’t really work. I decided on telling a half-truth. I’ll act like I’m sick. That way Ms. Peterson will let me call my parents and go home. I have to tell someone and I don’t think anyone but my parents would believe me. They have seen some really strange stuff working at the Daily Planet.
About halfway through the quiz I started to act like I was nauseous. It wasn’t hard, because I kind of was. “Um, Ms. Peterson?”
“Yes, Miss Kent?” she asked.
I know my face was making all sorts of contorted shapes, as I tried to just look at her face. Flashes of the classroom behind her and even the schoolyard kept popping up. Some kid was leaning against the wall smoking. Gross, why would you do that?
“I really don’t feel well, I need to go home.”
“Miss Kent, I think that would be a good idea.” She smiled and gave me a pass to the office.
“Um… Yes, I would like to speak to Clark or Lois Kent. This is their daughter Callie.” I waited on the phone for what seemed to be an eternity all the while my senses were still going crazy.
“Hi, Sweetie, Why are you calling during school? Are you alright?” My Dad asked kindly, but with a great deal of concern.
“I’m not feeling very well. Could you please come by and get me. I think something is really wrong with me.”
“I have an interview with the district attorney in 15 minutes. I’ll let your mom know. She can probably be there in about 30 minutes. Do you think you can hold out until mom gets there Cal?”
“I’ll try. I just really need to talk to you guys.”
I sat in the office trying not to look or listen to anything. I had a severe case of sensory overload. I just closed my eyes and tried to focus. It seemed to work, at least for a little while. Until I overheard my parents’ cell phone conversation, apparently Mom was driving to come get me.
“We probably need to contact Dr. Klein. She has never been sick before.” Dad said seriously.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Dr. Klein, he is a great friend, kind of like an absent-minded uncle. Maybe he could figure out what is going on with me. Then again, I didn’t really want to go to a doctor. He might refer me to a mental health clinic or something. “Crazy Callie” yeah, that would look good on the front of the school newspaper. Andrew, my student editor, would have a field day with that article.
“Are you sure she’s sick Clark? Couldn’t it be something else? You know. Didn’t you start to develop your powers around her age? Maybe she has done something and it is scaring her.”
Powers? What in the world are they talking about? Questions continued to flood my brain.
“Well, we already know that our kids have some of my genetic traits. Just the fact that the three of them never had so much as a head cold is proof in that. The question is what are they going to be able to do”
“Clark, I’m just now pulling up to the school. I need to go. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“I need to go too. I can hear the DA down the hall and I need to get to that charity event in London.”
London? My parents’ conversation was making less and less sense. The fact that I could even hear it was worse! I had already figured out that my brain wasn’t making this stuff up. It was too accurate to just be concocted by my mind.
A few moments later Mom pushed through the doors in the office. I was still trying to focus, but not having much luck. I couldn’t seem to push away what I was hearing down the hall. It was passing period and the voices of everyone flooded my brain. I was trying to push them out when I realized that Mom was looking down at me.
“Callie? Sweetie? Are you okay?”
I’ll I could do was shake my head. My mom walked to the secretary’s desk and signed a checkout form. The next thing I knew she was helping me into our Jeep. She had to help me because I couldn’t see the floor of the vehicle…let alone my foot.
I was doing better by the time we got home. I was trying to just focus on one thing at a time. It got to where I could only hear Mom and the background noise of the vehicle. Relief at last. I hadn’t said a word in the car; all of my energy had been focused on shutting out the sounds and only looking at what was in front of me.
“Sweetie, What is the matter? What is going on?” Mom said. I could hear the overwhelming concern coming from her voice.
I was lying on the couch with my head propped up on a pillow. Mom had come and sat right next to my legs. It was comforting having her right next to me like that. Mom couldn’t cook, but she definitely knew what I needed.
“I’m not really sure. You are going to think I’m crazy, but I can hear things I shouldn’t, and all day I have been struggling to not see through things.” I was almost in tears saying the words.
“Okay, well…I guess it is starting.”
“What are you talking about?” My brain started to race.
“Your powers.” She said matter-of-factly as she pushed one of my stray brunette hair strands from my face and tucked it behind my ear.
“My what?!”
“Callie, there is something your father and I have been keeping from you. We have done it for our whole family’s protection. It had nothing to do with not trusting you; we just didn’t know when the right time would be.”
I didn’t know what to say. My family obviously had a secret that my mom was about to reveal to me -one that involved me getting some sort of powers. The only person on this planet who had any sort of powers was….
“Superman! The secret has something to do with Superman doesn’t it?” I asked. Mom smiled.
“Yes, it definitely has something to do with Superman.”
I started to put two and two together. I had always known that my parents used to be friends with the guy. Mom had been really close, maybe too close. Jon had wanted all that superman stuff- action figures, t-shirts. Mom had turned him down flat, didn’t budge. Maybe she had an….an….affair and I was the result! She didn’t want the reminder of him in the house.
“You had an affair with HIM and I am the leftovers!”
“What? No. What I really need right now is for you to talk to your father. We were going to do this together.”
Mom reached into her pocket and began dialing Dad on his cell.
I had started to steam. Anger welled up in me and I was very confused. I just starred at the curtains, avoiding mom’s eyes. Luckily the “seeing through things” power wasn’t acting funny.
Suddenly, I felt my eyes heat up and next thing I knew the curtain was on fire. The smoke detector didn’t go off, perhaps, because I had turned it off the night before. I didn’t hear Mom’s conversation with Dad, but I did jump to my feet. Suddenly everything around me got really slow. Even the fire almost seemed to stop. I ran, normally- if you could call it that- into the kitchen, turned on the faucet, grabbed a large bowl, filled it with the slow moving water, ran back into the living room, and dumped the water on the fire. Things shifted back to normal speed when I stopped. The water had soaked the curtain, the carpet and the bottom of my pants.
The look on mom’s face was priceless, in that confused surprised way. She stood there in the middle of the living room with her cell in hand and mouth dropped. “Um. Hun, you need to get back to the house, now.”
I heard a gust of wind- that was oddly familiar- and in walked Dad.
“When mom said “now” he took her literally. But, how?” My eyes got really big and I looked intently at him.
He noticed the charred remains and soaked carpet around the curtains.
“Callie? Did you do this?” He asked.
I just burst into tears like the curtain had burst into flames and then nodded. The emotion of the whole day just took over. “You’re Superman, aren’t you!” I said sobbing. “My dad is Superman.” I said it the second time to try to convince myself of the reality of the situation. They both tried to come closer to me, but I just backed up.
“Callie,” Dad called. “We need to talk about this. I understand you are upset. Let your mom and I explain…” I couldn’t listen to him. He didn’t even sound like my dad any more.
I had to get out of there. I just glared at them. How could they have lied to me? I’m their daughter. Didn’t I deserve to know? I’m 13 for goodness sake! I’ve been old enough for a long time to keep a secret. Instead they wait until my new super powers emerge and about make me go crazy, without a single understanding about what is happening to me! Along with that, how can I ever trust them again? The two people in the entire world who I completely and totally trusted lied to me.
“ I…I can’t be here right now.” I stammered, still crying. I ran toward the back door and grabbed the knob. I was angry, frustrated, and confused. I pulled the door open with one quick movement. The door felt like Styrofoam in my hand. Before I knew it the entire door was off it’s hinges, and I was holding it in the air by the knob. I set the door down carefully, and fell to the ground.
To be continued...
