As usual, I have so unbearably little time for feedback, so I'll just say that you've sure been cooking up a fine little mystery for us, Barbara. First Clark's crutches disappear. They are not exactly the kind of things you mislay - if you are an invalid who can't get around without crutches, you simply aren't likely to move your crutches around to too many unexpected places, either. And if you do happen to go somewhere unusual and leave your crutches there - but how would you get back from there without your means of support? - then your crutches are certainly big enough to make you notice them when you, our your wife, goes looking for them. Crutches simply aren't the kind of thing that will accidentally disappear!
And then, when Lois goes to work later that day, Jimmy doesn't know that Clark has been injured, even though he saw Clark when he visited them the day before. Except he claims he didn't visit them! And even though Lois and Clark know they were at work last Monday, Jimmy insists that no one has seen them at work since last Friday! Perry hasn't been able to reach them for days, and nobody knew that Clark was injured! And, for good measure, Lois's file about Carla has been deleted. Don't tell me, Barbara. It was never there, right?
What has happened? I don't blame Clark and Lois for speculating like this:
Something weird is going on, Lois. I called Henderson today to ask him if he had any news about the murder. He said that he had never heard of a Carla Seefeld,” he explained. “I barely dare to say it out loud, but we seem to be the ones getting crazy.”
They are getting crazy? Let's hope not. And I think not, honestly.
“You don’t mean that we imagined what happened this week? What about your leg?” Lois asked, refusing to believe what was becoming more and more obvious.
“Hurts like hell,” Clark admitted. “Must have happened.”
“Okay, let’s assume Carla didn’t die on Monday. Was there a fire at S.T.A.R. Labs?” Lois decided to give the whole idea a try.
Clark and Lois are unchanged. What they remember happening to them, clearly happened to them. It's just that the world around them doesn't remember anything. The crutches, Carla's file, Carla herself, the fire at S.T.A.R. Labs etecetera - all gone.
“Okay, so somewhere between Friday and Monday something happened to us,” Clark stated. “Let’s do a little brainstorming here. Any ideas?”
“Alternate universe?” Lois offered. “Tempus gives it a new try?”
Well, it sure could be Tempus who had moved them into an alternate universe.
“Virtual reality? Xavier has been able to escape or someone else has started to follow in his footsteps?” Clark brought in another idea.
“Have you opened any cupboards in the last couple of days? And don’t we need a virtual helmet or anything like that?” Lois mentioned.
Now that one is harder to believe in.
But how was it possible that they had been in another universe or wherever they had really been? The worst of all was that they couldn’t be sure what was real and what wasn’t. Had Martha and Jonathan really lost their farm? Unlike Jimmy, they remembered what they had endured during the week. Assuming it was indeed an alternate universe they had stayed in since the weekend, when had they left it? This morning? An hour ago?
Just weird....
“There is another possibility occurring to me,” Lois whispered to Clark. “What if we hadn’t been in another universe yesterday, but are now?”
Another possibility.
And I have nothing brilliant to add myself.
However, the last part of this chapter makes it look as if it was a friend of Lois and Clark who did something to them to protect them:
Somehow they had escaped his influence. He wasn’t really sure how, but it didn’t matter, anyway. He was prepared for it.
Lois and Clark have escaped the villain's influence, but it doesn't matter. Reassuring and scary at the same time.
All he needed now was to put the actors at the right positions. He would start with “p53”. Kent and Lane didn’t need his attention. They were smart enough to figure out on their own how they would solve this puzzle. If they didn’t, he would guide them to their destination, though he would be disappointed by the couple. He closed his eyes, concentrating on “p53”.
And this makes me feel as if the villain *wants* Lois and Clark to figure out his puzzle, because only when they do they can they be truly defeated by him?
Talk about mysterious, Barbara! I'm sure looking forward to the rest of this.
Ann
