Chapter Eleven Lunch was almost over when Lois saw Clark tilt his head and frown immediately afterwards.
“Lois…I gotta go. Here’s some money to pay the bill. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
With that, Clark disappeared out of the restaurant and the next thing that Lois heard was a sonic boom.
<Well….that’s just great. This must be what life with Superman is like. Disappearing at a moment’s notice to save the day. Hmmm…wonder what they have for dessert?>
Lois motioned to the waitress to come over and then informed her that she’d like to see the dessert menu. <So much for hypnosis,> she thought.
“Is the gentleman coming back?” the server, a girl of about 19, asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Lois replied. “I’ll have the chocolate crème pie. Thank you.”
~~~~~
Clark was halfway across the United States on his way to stop a dam from overflowing in the southwest when he realized that Lois had no place to go. <You’re an idiot,> he told himself. <You left her in a restaurant, all alone. Well, she’ll probably go back upstairs to the bullpen and wait for me there. Better make this quick.>
Lois ate her slice of pie slowly, savoring each morsel. <I guess I’ll go back to work. Hopefully Clark will get us a scoop, our first one as a writing team. God, that pie was soooo good.> She left the money on the table and headed towards the door.
A short man with a bowler hat was standing in front of the Daily Planet’s entrance. Spotting Lois exiting the restaurant and heading towards him, he quickly approached her. <Oh dear, where is Mr. Kent?> he wondered as he struggled with what his first words to *this* Lois Lane should be. He had not anticipated running into Lois Lane without Clark Kent by her side.
“Ms. Lane? I would so like to have a word with you,” he said politely in a crisp British accent.
“No more interviews today. I already gave a press conference; I’m done,” Lois said without even looking up.
“Ms. Lane. I’m not here for an interview. Perhaps you’ve heard of me…Herbert George Wells? I’m sure Mr. Kent must have mentioned me by now.”
“You! You’re the guy that can bring me over to meet the other Lois!” she exclaimed.
“I beg your pardon?” Wells said politely. “You want to meet the Lois of my world?”
“Yes!” Lois asserted. “Please? I need to see why Clark is so in love with her.”
<Oh dear. This might present quite a dilemma. *Where* is Clark Kent?>
“My dear, do you really think that’s a good idea? And I believe that Mr. Kent is quite in love with *you*, not your double. Where is he, actually?” Wells asked.
“I guess he had a Superman emergency. He disappeared in a flash. He warned me that he comes and goes a lot. Do you have your machine thing-y to take us over to the other universe?”
Wells had to suppress a smile. “Yes, Ms. Lane. But again…do you really think that this is a good idea? To meet your twin, that is?”
“Why, because she’s skinnier than me? Because Clark met her first and he’s hoping that I’m enough like her that he can love me the way he loves her?”
“I would think that you would want Mr. Kent to accompany you over to the other world. Don’t you want to wait for him to come back?” Wells replied, trying to buy some time.
“Listen, Mr. Wells, you came looking for me. It seems to me that this Tempus guy made three years of my life disappear. My mother and sister are dead and I didn’t even get to go to their funerals. You can help me fix that. From what I understand, your time-traveling meddling is what unleashed this Tempus character in the first place. Am I right?”
Wells nodded. “I’m afraid that is correct, and I apologize.”
“This is what I want you to do, Herbert George Wells. First, I want to go visit this other universe and meet the other Lois. Secondly, I want you to take me back to the day *after * I disappeared so I can tell my mother that I’m going to be missing for three years and not to drink herself to death. Thirdly, I want you to take me to see my sister Lucy the day *before* her plane crash. I’m going to find some excuse to keep her from boarding that plane. Then, we’ll come back to the “present” and hopefully I will have my family back. Then I’ll accept your apology. Okay?”
<Good lord, these Lane women are strong-willed, aren’t they??> “Quite so, Ms. Lane. Follow me, please.” Herb directed Lois over to the alley where his time machine was hidden.
Lois scrutinized the time vessel and finally turned to Wells and said, “This gizmo really works? Never mind, I’ll take your word for it. You’re here in *that* outfit, that’s proof enough for me. Let’s go to the other earth first. We can come back right away, so Clark won’t even have to know that we were gone? I don’t want him to worry. I seem to be his personal pet project.”
“Yes, Ms. Lane. Only a few seconds will pass for Mr. Kent, and we can stay in the other world for as long as you’d like.”
“Ok, Herbert George Wells…hit the button…or the thingy…or whatever makes this time bomb work! Let’s go!” Lois directed.
Wells couldn’t stop smiling. <This Lois Lane is quite the feisty one,> he observed.
Clark was just returning to Metropolis and flying at top speed towards the restaurant he had left Lois in when he spotted a shimmering light in the alleyway near the Daily Planet. He was mortified when he realized that what he was seeing was Lois and Wells vanishing in the time machine. It brought back the horrifying feeling he had felt as he’d watched Tempus kidnap her out of her own apartment. He couldn’t lose her again. He suspected where Lois had requested Wells take her: to meet her twin in the other world. That could definitely put a nail in the coffin of their fledgling relationship.
<I’d better get back upstairs and write up this rescue before the wire services get it. I’ll put both our names on it. Hopefully Wells will bring her back shortly. How is she going to feel after meeting her thinner twin? Is she going to hate herself? Turn into an anorexic so she’ll look like the other Lois? Yikes!> Clark thought to himself. <Hanging around Lois is already turning me into a thought-babbler!> He quickly spun into his work clothes and entered the Planet, waiting for the elevator to take him up to the newsroom.
Unbeknownst to Clark, outside in the nearby alley the time machine had re-materialized. Lois felt queasy from the movement of the dimensional portal. She reflected on the intense journey she had just shared with her new best friend, H. G. Wells, and marveled that virtually no time had passed in her world while her mind told her intuitively that she had been gone almost one week.
“Mr. Wells – Herb – that was unbelievable. I wish I could write a story about it, but no one would believe me. Do you want to come upstairs with me and see if Clark’s back? And if everything went as planned, there should be two very special people waiting upstairs for me.”
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Wells replied, turning on the cloaking device so the machine would remain hidden until his return.
Lois felt changed somehow, inside. And to think it had started out like this ...
~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~
Lois and Wells had re-materialized in the same alley, just in a different world, similar to hers but different in subtle ways. “This is the Daily Planet in the other earth, huh?” Lois said, looking at the spinning globe. “This world’s Lois and Clark should be upstairs in the bullpen this time of day. Let’s see if we can find them. They know you, right?”
“Rather intimately, I might say,” Wells revealed.
“Omigod,” Lois said as she attempted to exit the machine. “I feel like I’m going to throw up. This must be what morning sickness feels like.”
“Yes, Ms. Lane, you didn’t really give me time to warn you about the queasiness associated with crossing the dimensional portal. I think you’ll find that it passes after a few moments,” Wells explained.
Lois felt strange entering the Daily Planet of a different world. The newsroom was on the same floor as the one in her world, however.
The duo exited the elevator, and quickly entered the other world’s bullpen. They stood at the landing, trying to find Lois’ “thin-twin” and her husband. Suddenly, a woman with short dark hair barreled out the editor-in-chief’s office. As he needed to make an announcement to the reporting staff, Perry followed the woman out of his office. Lois was pleasantly surprised to see that the Perry White of this world was still the editor-in-chief and apparently had no political aspirations.
“All right, listen up, everybody -- anybody's who's not on anything concrete, is now on this Vixen character. I want features, photos, editorials - the works! I want to know everything there is to know -- who she is, where she's from, is she friend - or foe?
“Perry…. c’mon. What about the missing CEO’s?” the dark-haired woman said in a somewhat whining tone of voice. “That’s the *real* story here!”
“Lois! I want you and Clark to take the lead on this. This has ‘page one’ written all over it, now get me the exclusive!” Perry barked back.
The dark-hair woman sighed in frustration. “You know that we will – don’t we always?” she replied in a more subdued tone of voice.
<That’s the end of *that* discussion!> Lois observed. Suddenly she realized that the woman was - *her*! She looked at Wells and he nodded “yes”.
Lois followed the time-traveling inventor-writer at a bit of a distance as he headed towards the desk of this world's Lois Lane. “Ms. Lane? I’d like to introduce you to someone,” he said.
Lois still had fire burning in her eyes left over from her argument with Perry. Without looking up, she replied, “I’m a little busy right now, can’t see you that?” It was a split-second later that the voice and the English accent registered. “Omigod, Herb, is that you?”
“Yes, Ms. Lane. I want you to meet – well, actually – I - *we* - finally found her,” Wells stuttered, feeling very uncomfortable introducing “thin Lois” to her more buxom twin self.
Larger-Lois studied her thin-twin and felt strange looking at the most perfect version of a Lois Lane that she could imagine. Not one ounce of fat on her! Her face was smooth, no double chin. Her hair was short, with bangs, showing off her big brown eyes. Even though she was almost *too* thin, she still had a nice shape, with medium-sized breasts and great legs. <This is really weird, you’re *ogling* a thin version of yourself – is there something wrong with me?> she thought to herself.
Thin-Lois peeked behind Wells and her jaw dropped. Never in a million years had she dreamed the other Clark’s Lois might be a “big girl”! She just assumed that they would look exactly alike. <Oh, poor Clark. He’s lost his parents, Lana, and now *his* Lois is …large.> She finally found her voice, and, extending her hand, said, “You must be the Lois that went missing and was presumed dead. I’m so glad they finally found you. Clark was so lonely…” she trailed off, realizing that she had no idea if they were together, or if fate had dealt the other Clark another cruel blow – he wasn’t attracted to *his* Lois, after all the time he’d spent searching for her.
Larger-Lois shook Thin-Lois’ hand. “I had Herb bring me here. I know that my Clark met and fell in love with you. I can see why. You’re so beautiful. Why wasn’t I born with a figure like yours? I’m so jealous…”
“Clark isn’t in love with me, Lois. He’s been looking for you for at least a year. You’re *his* Lois. Meeting me just made him realize that his high school sweetheart was way wrong for him. You are the only one that can complete him, trust me.” <Please God, let what I’m telling her be true. Please…please…>
“You must mean Lana,” Larger-Lois said “She really sounds like a horrible woman. I’m glad you broke them up.”
“Me too. And she was …controlling… and … bitchy…and ..well, let’s just say that your world would have never had a Superman had he married her, believe me.” Changing the subject abruptly, she continued, “Pardon my saying this, but have you always had a weight problem? I never have,” Thin-Lois admitted. “It must be so hard.”
“You’re the kind of woman I’ve spent my life being envious of. ‘Never had a weight problem – I can eat anything I want’ – well, that must be nice. Yes, I’ve always struggled with my weight. Believe it or not, this is the thinnest I’ve been since I was in elementary school,” Larger-Lois disclosed.
“I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve had other psychological problems that screwed me up for a long time. No matter what, everyone has some issue to tackle head-on in life.”
“You? Psychological problems? Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Larger-Lois said in astonishment.
“Well, my father’s womanizing and my mother’s drinking would screw anyone up. And then there was this guy, Claude, that used me and stole my story….”
Larger-Lois’s jaw dropped. “Wow…. just like in *my* world. Amazing. And you’re thin and it still screwed you up, just not by overeating… “
“It sounds like we have a lot of notes to compare, don’t we?” Thin-Lois observed. “Why don’t we go downstairs and get some coffee?
“Didn’t your Perry just give you an assignment?” Larger-Lois replied. “Is it OK for you to take a break right now? I… we… can come back later.”
“Perry? He’ll be fine. The reporting team of Lane and Kent always brings home the best scoops and he knows it. This Vixen chick isn’t as important as the missing CEO story. He’ll see it my way before long.”
“Wow. You sound just like me. Where’s your Clark?”
Thin-Lois made a flying motion with her right hand. “Remember in this world, no one knows,” she said, imploring with her eyes that Larger-Lois wouldn’t blurt out loudly that she knew Clark was Superman.
“A pair of glasses really does it, huh? That’s weird," Larger-Lois remarked.
“Tell me about it,” Thin-Lois replied with sarcasm evident in her tone of voice.
Shaking his head and smiling, Wells followed the two women to the elevator. The expression “truth is stranger than fiction” echoed in his head.
~~~~~~~~~~
Lois’ mind was shaken back to the present as she and Wells rode the elevator up to the bullpen. She was filled with anxiety. Would they be there? Did it work? Did she save her sister and her mother? She would know as soon as the elevator door opened.
TBC…. Sunday.
