Lisa had been subdued since the day of the school fire. Lois hadn’t asked whether she’d set it deliberately, and Lisa hadn’t said anything. The shame in her eyes would have been there either way.
Meeting her father would have to wait, she’d explained already, until they reached the Kent estate. Lois could sense that Lisa was more and more disappointed with each passing day.
Even the last days of school, traditionally a time of tremendous excitement hadn’t lightened her mood. Lois could only hope that the change in scenery was going to be good for her.
Clark Kent hadn’t offered to get them a flight, and in an odd way it made Lois feel a little better. She was uneasy enough about accepting his largess; she’d spent most of her adult life earning everything she’d gotten the hard way. It felt wrong to accept charity all because a rich man wanted to keep a secret and another man wanted to keep his daughter close to him.
It wouldn’t be a good message to send to Lisa. Lois had a feeling that she’d already been looking for the easy way out with the bracelet.
The glowing reports by her teachers of her last few days hadn’t helped any.
***********
Lisa stared at the huge building through the trees. She hadn’t really noticed it the last time; she’d been too excited at the thought of meeting her father.
It wasn’t fair that her mother had already met her father and hadn’t even bothered to wake her up. What was worse, she’d gotten rid of the bracelet, and no matter how hard Lisa had searched, she hadn’t been able o find it.
For a few days she’d been popular and confident. She hadn’t worried about what other people thought, and she hadn’t worried that her father hadn’t come to see her. Life had been simple and clear.
Now everything was muddled and confused. The few true friends she’d had she was leaving for the summer. She’d never been away from Janice or any of the others for so long. She was going to meet a father she didn’t know, and for all her dreams and fantasies about just that, there was fear too.
What if he was like the fathers of some of her friends?
Not every daddy was good. Lisa had had an unpleasant education in this since her hearing had begun to develop, and even more so with her vision. She’d seen some of the things people were capable of doing to each other, and it was starting to affect her.
Even things she didn’t want to hear, she couldn’t shut out. Grown-up things, good, bad and embarrassing. Lisa knew more about what went on behind closed doors than she would ever admit to anyone.
As the station wagon wheezed up the hill, Lisa blinked and realized that she didn’t hear any of that now. She could hear the servants in various parts of the house, and the sounds of the trees and the wind, the fish and the small animals, but the horrifying cacophony that had surrounded her entire life for months now was gone.
The silence was thunderous. It wasn’t until it was gone that Lisa realized just how loud everything had been. Her entire world had been one huge bundle of noise, and although she’d gotten used to it, it had been affecting her mote than she’d realized.
Her ears rang with the silence, and Lisa closed her eyes for a moment to drink it all in. She couldn’t believe she’d been so nervous before that she hadn’t seen it.
This place was paradise.
***************
The rooms were huge and luxurious, with a view of the mountainside that wasn’t like anything Lois had ever seem. If the furnishings were a little too heavy and masculine for her taste, at least the beds were soft and the rooms had their own sunken bathtubs with Jacuzzi pools.
“Are you sure there aren’t any smaller rooms?” Lois asked.
The man carrying their luggage shook his head. ”Those rooms are for staff. As a guest, this is the smallest set of rooms in this wing of the house.”
“Are there many other guests?” Lisa asked brightly.
Undoubtedly she was wondering if there would be other children for her to play with. The Kent estate didn’t seem like the sort of place that was welcoming to children. Their noise and color would interfere with the peace and harmony of the place.
“You are the first in several years,” the man said. “Everyone who is here lives here. Your daughter’s room is next door.”
With that cryptic pronouncement, he was gone.
The room was half the size of her house. The mahogany bed frame was sturdy and polished; the quilts were heavy and lush. Pie wedge tables and antique chairs sat near a huge fireplace.
“Look at the bathroom!” Lisa said.
Black marble everywhere, with brass fixtures, a raised Jacuzzi tub and mirrors covering the entirety of one wall. The sink was a simple basin in the middle of it all, rising from the floor.
There was very little counter space, but at least the toilet was concealed and in a different room.
It was Lisa’s room that was the shock. Unlike Lois’s room, this room was bright and airy. A huge window covered one wall, with a spectacular view of the mountainside and the lakes below.
There were toys of every description scattered throughout the room, including videogames, dolls, some antique and some new, and some, including a teddy bear, that were almost human sized.
Clark Kent was still trying to buy her out, but this time he was trying to do it through her daughter. It would be easy to bribe an impressionable child, ignoring the fact that she would eventually have to return to a life that didn’t have this sort of luxury.
Lips tightening, Lois said, “Stay here.”
She was going to give Clark Kent a piece of her mind.
*************
Lisa stared morosely into the lake. The fish were swimming, and if she looked at them just right, it looked as though little fishy skeletons were floating through the air.
Her mother had told her to stay put, but she hadn’t said how long. Lisa had gotten bored and had made her own way outside to the lake. She could still hear her mother arguing with some of the servants in another wing of the house.
If she’d only asked, Lisa could have told her that Clark Kent wasn’t on the premises. He had a strange pattern of heartbeats, different than those of anyone else she’d ever met.
She blinked as she heard heartbeats coming not from behind her, but from above. She looked up and saw a flash of cape and a blue outfit.
A moment later, he was down. He stared at her, and Lisa wrinkled her nose. He smelled of oil and fish and the sea.
For a long moment he did nothing but stare at her, and Lisa wondered if he as waiting for her to say something. It was odd that she suddenly couldn’t think of anything to say.
Her mouth felt dry and her palms felt moist. This was the moment that she’d been waiting for her entire life, and she was messing it up. She’d hoped to show him that she was a smart and pretty little girl, that she was good so that he would always want to be with her and never go away.
Instead she was standing like a lump.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally. He almost seemed to be studying her face.
Lisa frowned. “Why?”
“If I’d known about you, I’d have been in your life a long time ago.”
Lisa couldn’t stop staring at him. He had the same exotic look to his eyes that she did. His skin was the same color as hers, his hair was the same.
Lisa nodded. She took a step forward, and frowned. “Why do you smell like that?”
“I was at an oil spill in Alaska,” he said. He looked at her and said, “You can smell things normal people can’t.”
“That just started last week,” Lisa said. She scowled. In a classroom filled with newly developing bodies, the smell of chalk, lab animals and other chemicals had been nearly unbearable.
“It gets better,” he said. “You’ll like it here. They don’t use any strong chemicals, so most of the smells are natural ones.”
“So it’ll always be like that if I stay around people?”
He shook his head. “You’ll get used to it. It’s just that when you are starting out your brain doesn’t know how to make sense of the new information it’s getting.”
“Will I be able to fly?” she asked. It was the one question she’d been dying to ask since she’d first learned of his existence.
“I hope so. It’s the best part of being what I am.” He hesitated. “Would you like to see what it’s like?”
Lisa stared at him for a moment, and then nodded. Her heart was suddenly beating rapidly. As he stepped toward her, she ignored the smell of fish and oil, and a moment later, his arm was around her.
She closed her eyes for a moment. It felt like coming home.
A moment later, they were airborne, and Lisa discovered a part of herself she’d never known existed.
****************
Lois cursed to herself. Clark Kent had invited her to his home, and he hadn’t even had the grace to be home when she arrived? She’d expected a little better of him.
She wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as though he’d given her any reason.
She glanced out the window as a flash of blue and red caught her attention. Her heart leapt in her chest as she realized that her daughter was in the arms of a stranger, flying high above the trees.
A moment of terrifying anxiety struck her all at once, and she began to race down the hall, looking for an exit. She hadn’t given her permission for any flying expeditions.
She’d wanted to be there the first time Lisa met him, to cushion the blow if he wasn’t what she’d expected.
Instead, he was doing something incredibly dangerous with her. What if he dropped her?
She’d spent her entire life protecting her, more than aware of just how fragile little bones were, how tender and soft young flesh was.
Superman was an alien, and by all reports he couldn’t be injured. What if he felt her too tight, broke bones or what if she wiggled too much and he lost his grip.
It was insanely dangerous, and it wasn’t she was going to stand for.
A moment later she’d found a door to the outside, and she was racing for the last place she’d seen them.
They were already setting down, and Lois slowed her pace as she approached. It wouldn’t do to lose her temper in front of Lisa, but she needed to have a long talk with the man of steel.
Lisa was already running up the hill. “Mom! Mom! Did you see! We were flying!”
The expression of joy on her face was something Lois hadn’t seen in a long time. It was then that Lois realized that the toys and the mansion weren’t the real danger. Lisa had never been all that interested in material things, and had in fact been more level headed than she had been.
But this…this was something that she couldn’t share with her daughter. This was something wonderful and amazing and mysterious, and it was easily the sort of thing that could turn a young girl’s head, no matter how dangerous it was.
Lois forced herself to smile at Lisa, and then turned to Superman.
“Is there any way we can talk?” she asked, her eyes glancing toward Lisa.
She had no idea how far her hearing had grown, but she supposed that he would have a better idea.
He nodded. Turning to Lisa, he said “Why don’t you head back up to the room and get unpacked. We’ll talk later.”
Lois bristled at the casual way he gave Lisa orders; as though he’d been her father his entire life. He hadn’t put the time in. He hadn’t stayed up all night when she was young. He hadn’t dried her tears, or sacrificed for her.
What gave him the right to move right into her life as though he belonged there?
“She can hear everything for miles,” Superman said.
Lois blinked, shocked. She hadn’t realized that Lisa’s abilities were that far advanced. All Lisa had told her was about being able to hear things on the other side of the school.
He held out his hand,” If you want to talk, we’ll have to fly.”
Lois glanced back at Lisa, who was obediently making her way back up the slope toward the mansion.
“Do you think she’ll be ok?”
“I can hear a lot further than she can,” he said. “I’ll keep us in earshot.”
Lois nodded. Before she could continue, he spoke in a normal voice. “If you need anything, just call out.”
It took Lois a moment to realize that he was talking to Lisa, who was already a hundred yards away. She glanced back in time to see Lisa raising her hand in acknowledgement.
He held out his hand, and Lois hesitated. This was exactly the sort of thing she planned on complaining about, but this wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have while her daughter was in earshot, not matter how far away that might be.
She took his hand, and a moment later his arm was around her waist.
Then they were flying.
