Chapter Eight Disclaimer: This story references past lives and reincarnation, which was a topic specifically mentioned during the series "Lois and Clark, the New Adventures of Superman". The author does not wish to have the readers believe that by mentioning past lives or reincarnation I am trying to influence anyone's religious beliefs. I hope not to have offended anyone in this regard.Eduardo kept his word and wrote a tasteful article about Lois’ mysterious arrival in the Congo. Suffering from amnesia, she called herself “Jane Smith”. She had recently recovered her full memory. In regards to her relationship with Clark/Superman/Kent, he wrote,
Lois would have been a colleague of Clark Kent’s had she not disappeared. Metropolis Mayor Perry White missed his former star reporter terribly and would often tell Kent how talented a writer she was and that he was sure she had taken off for the Congo on a gun-running story she had been working on. Superman made it his personal mission to find Lois Lane; when he finally located her, he felt she deserved to have a night out on the town after all of the years she spent at the “Doctors Without Borders” camp, giving selflessly to the orphaned children there.
Rumors of Lane and Kent being an item are unfounded. The two just met and no doubt will share a professional relationship, should Ms. Lane return to her former position as senior journalist at the Daily Planet.
Several days after the rebuttal article appeared, Lois sat down with Bridget and played the “pros and cons’ game with her in regards to her immediate game plan.
“Ok, Lois, first off, if you go home, you get to work with Superman. That’s a plus,” Bridget began.
“And he’s in love with a thinner version of me,” Lois argued. “So that’s a good and bad point.” Lois had shared Clark’s fantastic story with her, knowing that she would keep an open mind about it.
“Well, we haven’t done that hypnosis session yet; I think that we’re going to explore some things that go beyond your present life. You may be overweight to protect yourself from something that happened in a past life,” Bridget theorized. “If things go right, your weight problem may become a non-issue.”
“Here’s another reason to go home: to visit my father and give him Hell. That’s going to be worth it by itself,” Lois said.
“Here’s a reason to stay: the kids will miss you, and so will I,” Bridget countered. “We’ll never have as great a teacher as you again.”
“Aw, thanks,” Lois replied, feeling emotion well up in her. “But – Clark promised he’d bring me here anytime I wanted. I’m not going to forgot about my two years here, not at all.”
“The world needs another great reporter, Lois. One with integrity and guts. You know, I really think you know what you need to do. It’s time,” Bridget told her softly.
Lois stared into space for several minutes, then ultimately agreed with her, saying, “You’re right. I need to face the media and get it over with. I need to get back to a comfortable routine. I need to go home in order to see if that’s what I really want.”
“You need to be dating Superman,” Bridget added. “It’s clear to me that the man is in love with you. You just can’t let yourself believe that someone could love you, or that you’re deserving of love.”
“Yes, Ms. Psychologist!” Lois replied, laughing. “I guess we should do the hypnosis session and get it over with. When’s a good time?”
“How about tonight, after the kids are mostly asleep? The camp will be fairly quiet then.”
“Ok, let me ask Clark if he can make it. I really want him in the room, for some reason.”
“That’s fine, Lois. Go ahead. I have a few patients to attend to. Catch you later.”
Clark had been hanging around the camp, helping out with supplies, repairs, whatever needed to be done. He felt that he was neglecting Metropolis, but it seemed as if Lois was on the verge of making a decision, so he continued to linger. When Lois approached him about attending the hypnosis session that night, she also advised him that *they* were going home soon. He gave her a big bear hug in response to the news.
.
“Lois, that’s so great! You can stay at my place until you find a new apartment, of course. That is, if you want to.”
“Like *that* won’t get the press in an uproar,” Lois said, picturing tabloid journalists lurking outside on the balcony, taking pictures of her as she walked around Superman’s apartment and having them end up on the cover of the National Whisper with the headline: “BBW girlfriend Lois Lane parades around naked in Superman’s love nest”. She smiled inappropriately at her own vision.
“They won’t know, Lois. When I was first ‘outed’ as Superman, I found an air vent in the building that was wide enough to use as an escape hatch. I dug a trench from the basement of the building to an alley several blocks away. Every once in a while, I come in thru the balcony window so it gives the poor bastards spying on my building something to do. Most of the time, they have no clue when I come and go.”
Lois laughed. “Only a fellow reporter would have sympathy for their plight. You’re hysterical, Clark. I think we need to find you another secret identity, that’s what I think. Because since you’ve been outed, if I hang around with you, my life will be an open book too.”
“Well, we don’t have to live in Metropolis, Lois. I mean, we can commute to the Daily Planet easily enough….unless you like city living?”
“Whoa, mister! I thought we were talking about my living with you until I got an apartment…now it sounds like we’re an old married couple, buying a house in the suburbs or something,” Lois exclaimed. “I know you’re used to doing things at super-speed…..”
Clark blushed a bit. “Sorry, Lois. But I was thinking that I kept my parents’ farm in Smallville for sentimental reasons. So many times I wanted to sell it, but something told me that I would regret it someday if I did. It’s about 1000 miles from Metropolis, but we can make it in 15 minutes. Just think, fresh country living, 100 acres of private farm land…no media attention….I could fix up the second floor for you as your own private apartment, and I could live downstairs. We’d be room mates, that’s all.”
“Smallville? That’s really the name of the town? I thought when people said you were from ‘Smallville’ they were being sarcastic, like it was their own private slang for someone coming from a hick town. Oh, I’m sorry, Clark,” as she noticed his crestfallen expression at her snark about his home town. “I know you lost your parents when you were young, and I’m sure you have a lot of sentimental memories of your time growing up there. I might be bored out there in the middle of nowhere, to be honest, but if I’m going to have no privacy in Metropolis, it might be a viable option to consider. Thanks for the offer.”
“Well, even though there’s no Chinese restaurants in town, I can get us authentic Chinese any time you want,” Clark said, smiling again. “And, I am a pretty good cook, if I do say so.”
“Wow…good looking and you’re at home in the kitchen, too? Hmmmm….I may have to give this serious consideration. In the meantime, Bridget wants us to meet her in her tent at 8:00pm. Is this going to be weird for you, listening to me being hypnotized? I mean, I’m so strong-willed, I’ll be surprised if she’s even able to do it….”
“Well, that’s why it’s important to have people that you trust in the room with you. The more comfortable you are, the easier it is to allow your subconscious mind to take over. It’s gonna be fine, Lois. You’ll see,” Clark assured her.
“You promise me that whatever comes out in this session will be disclosed to me? I don’t want anything hidden from me.”
“I promise, Lois.”
~~~~~~~~~
Bridget gave Lois instructions to count down from 100, along with taking in deep breaths, and relaxing her feet and hands. New age music played in the background. Finally Lois was in a relaxed enough state that Bridget felt she could start the session.
Bridget: “Lois, I want you to remember the last day you were in Metropolis before you disappeared…May 16, 1992. Describe to me where you are and what you’re doing."
Lois: “I’m arguing with Perry about traveling to the Congo. He thinks it’s unsafe and I’m telling him that if I was a guy, he’d send me in a heartbeat. Perry finally gets mad and tells me the discussion is finished for now. When Perry gives me *that* look, I know it’s pointless to continue to argue with him.”
<I’m going to have to ask Perry how he does that,> an amused Clark thought to himself.
Bridget: “What happens next?”
Lois: “That scumbag Claude comes over and suggests that we should go to the Congo together. I basically tell him to get lost, that I stopped trusting him years ago. Talking to him always gets me upset afterwards.”
Bridget: “Why, Lois?”
Lois: “Because it reminds me that I let my guard down with him and he made a fool out of me, stealing my story and then humiliating me with our coworkers. He told everyone that he’d never date a porker like me - he just wanted information on my story. It was really hard to show my face in the office, but I just threw myself into my work and eventually became the top reporter in the bullpen. But it still hurts to think about it, even now.”
Clark sat there, silently wanting to kill someone for the first time in his life. <Michaud, you’re lucky that I’ve promised myself to never take a life>.
Bridget: “OK, so after you spoke with Claude about going to the Congo, you got upset. What happened then?”
Lois: “I intercomed Perry and told him that I had a family emergency, which was bull, so I could leave for the day. I had to go home and crash, it seemed to be the only way to handle things when these emotions build up in me.”
Bridget: “So what time did you leave?”
Lois: “It was a little after one o’clock, I believe.”
Bridget: “Did you go straight home, Lois?”
Lois: “Well…I did stop at the Met Chocolate Factory….I’m embarrassed to admit.”
Bridget: “Don’t be embarrassed, Lois. You’re with friends who love you. Do you remember what time it was when you got home?”
Lois: “Probably close to 2:00 o’clock. I took two tranquilizers leftover from my near nervous breakdown from the Claude incident, and some Melatonin, and crashed on my bed.”
Bridget: “What’s the next thing you remember, Lois?”
Lois: “I’m in Africa. There’s a tall man with brown hair. He’s carrying me, because I’m still really groggy. He drops me in front of the camp – this camp- and he says, ‘you wanted to go to Africa, Lois….here you are. Too bad you’re going to miss meeting the love of your life. We could have found out if he loves Lois Lanes ‘in sickness and in health, till girth does us part’. Ah, how I love irony.’ Then he touched something that looked like a hand-held calculator, and he – just vanished, right in front of my eyes.”
Clark was practically twitching in his seat, visualizing Tempus holding Lois and taunting her.
Bridget: “What happened next?”
Lois: “Someone finds me and is helping me stand up. Omigod – it’s *you* Bridget! You found me! You’re asking me my name and how I got here and I’m still so out of it I say the first thing that comes to my head – ‘Jane Smith’.”
Bridget: “Did you know that your real name was Lois Lane?”
Lois: “Yes, but I’m so disoriented I’m afraid that someone kidnapped me because of the story I was working on, and so I’m afraid to tell anyone who I really am. I don’t know who I can trust.”
Bridget: “Ok. Lois, I think I know the rest of the story from there. Let’s talk about you and how you feel about yourself. How do you think the world looks at you?”
Lois: “Well, I think people think that I’m smart and they respect the work that I do, but they also feel sorry for me because I’m fat and I’ll never have a boyfriend.”
Bridget: “Lois, I want you to think back to a time in your life when you didn’t have a weight problem. Can you remember how old you were then?”
Lois: “Yes, I think I was in first grade.”
Bridget: “How did it feel not to be overweight?”
Lois: “Well, no one picked on me. It was really nice.”
Bridget: “When did you start gaining weight? Do you remember what was going on in your life?
Lois: “Yes, my father stopped coming home every night and my mother was drinking. She was very upset. It made me very insecure so I started sneaking food into my room at night.”
Bridget: “So you turned to food for emotional support? Eating made you feel more secure, somehow?”
Lois: “Yes, I guess it always has. But then it makes me fat, which makes me feel insecure about my looks, Plus, I had this beautiful older sister with the perfect body. I could never measure up to her.”
Bridget: “Lois, I want you to go back even further, even if it’s not this lifetime. Remember a time when you were thin, and you had a partner that you were in love with. Can you describe your life to me?”
Lois (after giving it some thought): “Yes, it’s 1849 and I’m living in the Midwest. My husband is the sheriff in town and I have three children.”
Bridget: “Do you recognize anyone in that life to be someone you know in your present life?”
Lois (rather incredulously): “Yes! Clark is my husband, and my three children are my sister, and my mother and father!”
Bridget: “That’s actually quite common, Lois. Those that believe the soul reincarnates say that in each and every lifetime we plan to be with our loved ones, just in different roles. Tell me more about your life there, Lois. Are you happy?”
Lois: “I’m happy for most of my marriage. My kids grow up and move west, so I don’t see them much. Wow – maybe that’s why my father moved to California in this life? My husband – Clark – and I are really in love. We have a good marriage.”
Bridget: “Look at yourself in the mirror in this life, Lois. What do you see?”
Lois: “I have long light brown hair, wow – I have a great body! I’m wearing a long dress with frilly sleeves. We live in a farmhouse and in this life, I love to cook – and I’m really good at it. Uh-oh. There’s somebody coming to the door. Clark’s not around. Should I answer it?”
Bridget: “Go ahead and do what you actually did back then, Lois. No matter what happens, you’re safe now. Try to view it as if it’s happening to someone else.”
Lois: “There’s four men at the door. They’re asking for Clark – except in this life, his name is Jonathan. They’re yelling that he put them in jail but they escaped and they’re out for revenge. They’re saying that if they can’t kill him, they can get to him through me. They’re grabbing me, ripping my dress off, saying that I’m so sexy – oh, no – they raping me, one at a time! Stop! Stop!” Lois was breathing heavily and her arms were flailing in the air as if she was trying to get away from someone.
Clark interrupted the session at this point, unable to hear any more. “Bridget, please bring her back. I can’t hear this,”
Bridget: “Lois, I want you to skip ahead a day. What happened next?”
Lois (her breathing starting to slow down to a normal pace): Clark – Jonathan comes home and he finds me all bruised and bloody in a heap by the door. He takes off on his horse to find a doctor – Dr. Lang - and brings him back. After the doctor examines me, he gives me something to make me sleep. Before I doze off, I hear him and Jonathan talking about the attack. Dr. Lang tells Jonathan that he’s a target because he’s the Sheriff in town and he’s got such an attractive wife. He warns him that he better keep an eye out for them, because there’s a bounty on their head and that maybe he should leave town with me for awhile till things cool off. Jonathan says that maybe he’ll send me to California to stay with the kids for awhile. I must have fallen asleep after that, because I don’t remember anything else.”
Bridget: “I want you to look ahead one year in this life. What happened in that year?”
Lois: “I died. I refused to leave my husband and the four of them came back and this time, after they raped me, they slit my throat and left me there to bleed to death. I remember thinking as I was lying there that if I had been fat and ugly, this wouldn’t have happened to me.”
Bridget looks at Clark and they both nod knowingly realizing intuitively that this incident is the reason for Lois’ weight problem in this life.
Bridget: “Lois, I want you to know and believe that your looks had nothing to do with your murder. These men wanted revenge against Clark. You must realize that remaining overweight is not good for your health. From this point on, you will no longer look at food as a safety net. You will eat healthy foods. You will no longer eat when you’re not hungry. You will realize that you are deserving of love and that you are a beautiful person and gradually you will bring your weight down until it is proportionate with your height. You will no longer blame yourself for what happened to you in that other life.
“At the count of five, you will start to become aware of your surroundings; four, you are remembering everything that happened during this session; three, starting to open your eyes; two, becoming aware of where you are; one, you are fully awake and feelling wonderful.”
Lois suddenly sat up and looked at Bridget and Clark. “Bridget – I just realized that *you* were Dr. Lang in that other life. And Clark – I remember being in love with you. We were great together. Wow.”
“Where in the Midwest did we live, anyway, Lois?”
“You’re going to laugh – but I believe that it was Kansas.”
TBC – Friday
