Previously...
“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.
*****
Continued...
“Sorry, I’ve never done that before.”
Mom and Dad looked at me. Their concern was genuine, but Dad had a slight smile on his face.
“I have.” came my Dad’s voice. “Do you remember Grandpa Kent’s old red truck?”
I nodded remembering the beat up farm truck. “I took off the passenger side door, when I was 14.” Dad chucked at his memory and smiled at me.
My face softened. He did understand, and he was probably the one person on this planet that could. I still hadn’t forgiven my parents for not telling me sooner, and trusting either one of them was going to take more time.
“Callie, please talk to us. We want to help you through this, but first we need to make sure you are okay. My powers came on gradually over a period of several years. It appears that yours are manifesting themselves in less than a week. We need to go see Dr. Klein.”
Dr. Klein is the guy who delivered all the Kent kids. He is our family doctor who is more of a research scientist at STAR labs than a physician. Now it made more sense- Dr. Klein knows about Dad and us.
I just nodded. If anyone could help he could. We loaded up in Mom’s jeep, Mom drove while Dad sat in the back seat with me.
“Dad, I have so many questions I don’t really know where to start.” I looked out the window at the buildings and shops of Metropolis. I couldn’t look at him.
“That’s okay, Callie.” He said in the most reassuring ‘dad’ voice. “I can understand how frustrated and confused you are. I went through a lot of this without anyone except your grandparents, and they didn’t have any idea what was going on. They thought I was some sort of government experiment or something. At least, you know who you are.”
“But that’s the thing. I’m not sure I do anymore. This week, well really just today, seems to have turned my world upside down. You know it’s not everyday a teen finds out they have superpowers and that their Dad is an alien!”
“I have to give you that,” he said. We both laughed a little bit.
The mom parked the SUV in the back lot of STAR labs, and called Dr. Klein on her cell phone. Apparently she needed Dr. Klein to clear the main areas so no one saw us going in. It was funny, this is how we had always made doctor visits, but I had never realized that this was an odd way to see a doctor. After hearing mom’s conversation, I knew that this was definitely not normal. Dr. Bernard Klein emerged from the back door and ushered us inside.
After exchanging our greetings, Dr. Klein put me up on the examining table. The paper made that awful crinkling sound as I sat down. “So I hear we are experiencing the onset of some superpowers?” He said in a very serious voice.
“Yeah, they kind of started last night. And I can’t really control them yet.”
“Which ones?”
“Seeing through things, hearing, and just a couple hours ago, heat vision, speed, and strength. The door felt like Styrofoam.”
“Well, okay. I need to do some tests Callie. Is that okay with you?”
I just looked over at Mom and Dad for the answer. They smiled and nodded together. I turned toward Dr. Klein and told him it was all right with me.
"I’m going to draw some blood for a couple tests." Dr. Klein pressed the needle into my skin, and I guess I broke the needle. I wasn’t looking, but I heard the needle fall to the floor.
“Okay, well we have lots of powers progressing right now. You might want to add invulnerability to that list.”
“Dr. Klein, what could have caused such a quick change in Callie? My powers came a lot more gradually.” My dad asked.
“Clark, I would suspect it is because she’s a girl. Changes in girls occur sooner and sometimes faster during puberty.”
Dad and Dr. Klein looked at my mom. “So this is my fault?”
“But, she is only half-kryptonian. I know we had even suspected that our children would only get some of the powers. Callie is manifesting almost all of them.”
“Apparently the Kryptonian genes are dominate, at least here in Callie. We will have to wait and see for Lara and Jonathan.”
I looked at dad shocked. *There’s more?*
*Yes, sweetie, there’s more.*
“Um… Dad. Did you just say something?” He looked at me surprised.
"Callie could you just hear that?"
I shook my head. “You just said there was more.”
“Dr. Klein we need to add telepathy to that growing list.”
“I didn’t know you were telepathic.” Dr. Klein asked. He looked puzzled at Dad.
“Only with other Kryptonians.”
Dr. Klein did several other tests on me. He gave me a metal device and told me to squeeze it gently. I did and he took some readings. Then he told me to squeeze it harder, but not as hard as I could. Each time I held the device and squeezed it his eyes became bigger. Finally, he asked me to squeeze it as hard as I could. It crushed in my hand like a hollow ball of aluminum foil.
“Oops, I’m sorry Dr. Klein.” I said awkwardly handing back the crumpled ball of metal. I was a little embarrassed that I had messed up his little gadget.
“That’s okay Callie, you did what I asked.” He said kindly, but I could tell I messed up something that wasn’t easily replaced.
The rest of the afternoon, Dr. Klein performed more and more tests. Everyone wanted to find out what I could do. Dad was right there with me; except for the few times he had to leave. I actually knew why he left all the time now. I could hear the cry for help too. Mom had to head back to the Planet to pick up Jon from daycare and be home in time to let Lara in, but she said would be home later with sub sandwiches. I was about to ask her how we were going to get home, when I realized who was standing next to me. Dad was standing there in the Superman suit, arms crossed across his chest, cape swaying toward the ground. He smiled at me with a normal ‘dad’ smile. He had just rescued someone from a car that had crashed. No wonder Mom didn’t want any pictures of superman in the house; Lara, Jon and I would have recognized him immediately.
The tests continued into the evening. I still had a really hard time controlling things. My vision and hearing weren’t as bad as they were earlier. Dad taught me how to focus so I wasn’t hearing or seeing things I really had no business hearing or seeing. My favorite power, and the one I was best at controlling was the speed. We hadn’t tested it completely, because we simply didn’t have enough room at STAR labs. The more we tested my abilities the closer I felt to my dad.
By the end of the day, they got me fitted for glasses - really cute black designer frames. Dr. Klein was fitting them with regular glass, so they wouldn’t mess up my vision anymore than it already was. Dad told me that the glasses are not just a disguise, but also a way for him to remind himself to not use his powers. Apparently heat vision doesn’t like to travel through glass, and if it does some reflects back and makes your face warm. So that was why he always pulled his glasses down and looked at his coffee. He was warming it up.
“Thank you, Dr. Klein for all of your help today.” My dad said in his ‘superman’ voice.
“You’re welcome, Superman.”
We walked out of the back door and looked around to make sure no one could see us.
“Callie, I think you have been through enough today. I don’t think we need to do any flight tests tonight. How about a relaxing trip back home?”
“I think that would be a good idea.”
He scooped me up in his arms and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Gently he floated us up and sent us speeding toward the star filled sky. I could feel the rush of wind on my face. I felt the safest I had ever felt in my entire life. All the lack of trust I had felt for my parents during the day melted away. I completely trusted my Dad. He did what he did to protect our family. Looking down at the city and being held in my Dad’s strong arms made the whole experience dreamlike. I was afraid that I would somehow wake up.
“So, Callie, what do you think?’
“I…I think it is amazing.” I was trying to take in everything I could. The city lights reflected on the glass and steel buildings in an array of color. The crisp air swirled back my long dark brown wavy hair. “Do you think I will be able to do this on my own someday?”
“Cal, if today is any indication…you will, and probably sooner than I did. I didn’t learn how to fly until I was 18. It is one of those things that takes a lot of practice.” He paused perhaps remembering how he learned how to fly.
I could see the top of our house and the row of tall poplar trees that bordered our back yard approaching. I was beginning to understand why mom and dad had chosen our house. The trees provided perfect cover for Dad to land. I guessed there was going to be a lot of things that were going to make more sense now that I knew.
Superman gently came to a landing and set me down. He spun quicker than I could see and before me was the dad I have always known. I turned around and hugged his solid neck thanking him for the ride. I would never forget it.
We walked through the place where the back door normally would have been and I remembered the events of earlier. Mom had placed the door back up, but it still wasn’t really connected to the wall anymore.
Lara and Mom were sitting at the table eating sub sandwiches and potato chips when we walked in. Jon sat aloft on his booster seat picking at a piece of turkey. I think he was trying to see if it would stick to his hand without him actually holding it. Gross.
“CALLIE! Are you okay?” My fourth grade sister asked. “Cus, I heard that you were sick and had to leave school. That is kind of cool. I wish I had been sick, because Ms. Morgan made us take our spelling test today and I didn’t do so great, but was really cool was that Sierra shot milk out of her nose at the lunch table and… Why do you have glasses? They look kind of funny. Is that what made you sick?”
“Lara, finish your sandwich, and don’t talk with your mouth full.” Mom had saved us all with the superpower of ‘momness.’ Lara just made her 'squeunched' up face and took another bite of her sandwich. I love my sister, but sometimes I think she is the most annoying creature on the planet. The thought of her getting superpowers one day kind of scared me. Dad made his way around the table and took his seat next to Mom grabbing an unwrapped sandwich. I was hungry too, so I quickly sat down too and started to eat.
“Cal, you never answered my question!” Lara bellowed.
“Oh, yeah well…” I looked toward mom and dad not quite sure what to say. I brushed a thin piece of lettuce off my lip. “ I wasn’t sick. I was just having some really bad…headaches? It turns out I needed glasses, like Dad.” I was hoping she was buying my story. Lara looked at Dad for conformation. He nodded.
“Oh, well, I guess they look ‘okay. Are you going to eat the rest of that bag?” I rolled my eyes and passed her the barbeque potato chips. Lara wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. She could have looked through my lousy lie in two seconds, but apparently she didn’t care. Controlling the powers was hard enough, now I was going to have to start making up stories. How did Mom and Dad manage for so long?
The rest of the evening proceeded rather normally. I was getting a lot better at controlling my vision and hearing. Of course, I still had the occasional sensory overload, but Dad continued to help. The three of us, Mom, Dad, and myself decided that I wouldn’t go to school tomorrow. They didn’t want me doing something “super” on accident, and Dad still wanted to take me out and see what else I could do. I didn’t argue.
Jenn and Jorie both called to find out how I was. I gave them the same story that I had given Lara. That night I laid awake in bed, thinking about all the times that Dad had rushed off to be Superman the times that I just figured he didn’t want to be there or that he had lots of work he needed to finish. I also remembered the time he stayed to watch me play the Jr. Softball Championship. He looked like he really wanted to go, but I was up to bat and the game was hanging on me. I told him to stay; I needed him to be there. And he did, and that day a bank got robbed, no one was hurt, but Superman hadn’t shown on the scene until later and the robbers had gotten away. Dad was miserable the rest of that afternoon. I didn’t understand why, until now. A wave of guilt and understanding washed over me. Those robbers weren’t caught because I wanted my dad to see me hit a stupid softball. I hadn’t put two and two together, until now. I thought about a variety of events in the Kent household. Everything made more and more sense knowing.
To be contninued.
