“They kept the footage,” Lois said. Staring at her bag she felt a moment of fury. Agents had gone through everything and then hadn’t bothered to put anything back in her bag neatly.
“You should be thankful you got anything back at all,” Susan said. “They wanted to keep the camera but I talked them out of it.”
They probably thought that with her fired and with no camera she’d be less of a journalistic threat. They were wrong, of course. Lois had always been more dangerous with a keyboard than a television camera. It was just that television paid more.
Rifling through the bag again, Lois was satisfied that she had at least the basics back, including a last reel of blank tape.
“If they wanted to drag their feet on this they could,” Susan said. She glanced at the television, where the endlessly repeating loops of Clark were being played over and over. “You’d almost think they were trying to get on your good side.”
“I was already on their side until they started tossing my apartment and taking my things,” Lois said. “You’d think they’d give me a little credit.”
Glancing at the screen again, Susan said, “Like they are giving him?”
Lois scowled. “They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them in the eye.”
At first it had been isolated stories popping up, treated by the news anchors as a joke or a publicity stunt. There had been a stir over the initial video, with open speculation about the release of the next movie and how the movie company had pulled it all off.
As the tornado stories began to pour in, however, with footage, Lois had seen the first uncertainty in the eyes of the people behind the news desks. This wasn’t something they were prepared for, and most of them had been exceedingly cautious. None of them had wanted to be the first one to fall for the biggest hoax in history on air, to become the laughingstocks of the nation.
Even now, with an ever growing pile of footage and with story after story of footage, they were careful in how they described him. There was a sort of slyness to their presentation, as though they were sharing a joke with the rest of the world.
Their voices had begun to grate on her, the same news stories playing over and over, so she’d turned the sound down.
In the last footage she’d seen, he’d looked tired.
Lois knew how he felt. It had been an emotionally draining day, and she hadn’t slept in more than thirty six hours with the exception of a restless cat nap while in Federal custody.
She felt too exhausted, but almost too tired to sleep. She couldn’t get the last picture she’d seen of Clark out of her head. His face had been devoid of expression, his shoulders stiff as he’d moved lumber and unburied bodies. It was clear to Lois that he was hurting, and it was difficult to watch.
Lois started as she felt Susan’s hand on her shoulder. She looked up, finally tearing herself from the television.
“You need to be careful,” Susan said.
“What?” Lois was confused until she saw Susan glance back at the television, where they were showing a close-up of Clark’s face as he spoke to a fireman. “Oh.”
“It’s hard to beat being able to fly,” Susan said. “We all sort of grew up wanting to be swept off our feet, but he can do it literally.”
“I just want to help him,” Lois said. She pulled away from Susan and turned to pick up her bag. “It’s unjust what’s being done to him and my sister.”
“So you are telling me you have no interest in him?”
“He’s the biggest story in the world,” Lois said. “Of course I’m interested in him.”
“You know what I mean.”
Lois ignored her purposefully, opening the closet door and slipping inside to set the bag down in a safe place near the back. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to be having right now, and if Susan was less of a friend they wouldn’t be having it at all.
“He’s good looking,” Susan said.
“I’ve got eyes,” Lois said. Stepping back out into the hallway and closing the door firmly behind her, she said, “It doesn’t have anything to do with my helping him.”
“You risked your career for him,” Susan said. “Risked going to jail. That’s not like you.”
“I’ve risked plenty,” Lois said, stung. “I’ve been shot twice.”
“Stretching the rules a little, not breaking them and taking on the full force of the United States government. You know this can’t end well for you.”
“People have taken on the government before and won.”
“What happens if you succeed….get everything he’s asking for? He’ll get to go home along with the others and you’ll still be left behind.”
“There’s no guarantee that he can go home,” Lois said. “It looks like it would be too dangerous.”
“So he stays,” Susan said. “Are you going to share him with the rest of the world? It’ll be worse than being married to a police officer; they at least get some time off. He’ll miss dinner dates, anniversaries, holidays. You’d be a widow throughout half your relationship.”
Lois was silent for a long moment. “It’d be worth it.”
“Your life would be a circus. You’d have to deal with paparazzi, with constant media exposure to your life.”
Shrugging, Lois moved to tidy up the couch, fluffing pillows idly.
“You’d never have a life of your own again. You think that people like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears have odd lives, just wait…you’ll have tabloids talking about you having an alien’s love child and church people wondering if you are committing a sin by being with someone who isn’t human.”
“He’s the most human person I know!” Lois froze for a moment, shocked at the intensity of her response. In a lower voice she said, “He had a chance to go home and he didn’t take it. He stayed to try to save my sister and the others.”
When she was around him she lost some of her cynicism. Despite his fear he still had a sort of overwhelming optimism. He was loyal to people he didn’t even know, and that was a quality that Lois rarely got to see in anyone. He still had faith that people were good and worth saving. It was something that Lois had lost somewhere along the way, and being near him made her feel like there was still hope that there was something more than just the corruption, death and despair she saw in her work on a daily basis.
“So he’s a good man,” Susan said. “It doesn’t mean that you have to be involved with him as anything more than a friend.”
“I never said I was getting involved with him,” Lois said, looking quickly away. “He’s got a girlfriend back home anyway.”
Not wanting to see Susan’s expression of sympathy, Lois turned and dropped bonelessly onto the couch. She reached for the remote and switched the channel, pushing the button to turn the sound up.
She’d watched too much cable news and it hadn’t been good for her anyway.
She relaxed as the familiar music of the Tonight show began to play. She felt the couch depress beside her as Susan sat.
“I’m here, whatever happens,” she said. “Unless you get divorced. I don’t do those.”
At Lois’s expression Susan grinned. “I like my illusions about the sanctity of marriage the way they are, thank you very much.”
With that, Lois finally began to relax. Perhaps she’d been too hard on everyone else. She’d been expecting other people to believe something on television that she hadn’t believed even in person.
It had taken actually getting yanked into the air and flying to make her believe what she’d subconsciously known all along. How could she fault people for having the same disbelief she’d had, with far less evidence?
Video footage could be faked. It would only be when the evidence became overwhelming that most people would accept it, and even then there would be hold outs.
Some people still didn’t believe that man had gone to the moon.
The problem was that Lois didn’t know how long he had before the government tried to use him in some way, whether it was by holding the passengers hostage or using some other means to get control of him.
They wouldn’t stop until they found a way.
“They say there have been a lot of Superman sightings today. In related news, they’ve discovered drugs in city tap water. It sort of makes sense that he’d be seen in California.”
Lois stared at the screen and then glanced over at Susan, who shrugged slightly. The show had obviously been taped before the tornadoes had hit, or before the story had taken on any sort of credibility.
“They say he’s having problems with the government. Apparently the INS is after him for being an illegal alien…”
Lois sank down in her seat. It was going to be a long night.
*********
The loading dock was quiet, finally, all the reporters and bystanders and other people having finally left for the day. It seemed unnaturally empty, quiet in that overwhelming way that occurred only in the absence of excessive noise.
Jacob wiped his hands slowly on the rag. The last of the deliveries had finally come in and it was time to shut it all down. He’d lock it all up and then head home.
It had been overwhelming, the reporters and the crowds and the sudden influx of people making private donations while looking up in the sky as though expecting a repeat of this morning’s performance. The day had been incredibly busy, and he hadn’t had a chance to sleep the night before.
If the government of Myanmar cooperated, they’d actually be able to do a little good this time around.
Jacob could only hope that the interest in community giving lasted beyond this afternoon fad. There was only so much he could do with local churches without help from the wider community and corporations.
He struggled with the gate for a moment. It hadn’t quite fit since a truck driver had been careless, and now it was a struggle to slip it into the slot.
“Would you like some help?”
The voice from behind him made his heart jump. No one should have been in the yard with him, and he turned slowly before unconsciously straightening as he realized who it was.
It was him.
He stepped aside, and the man…and Superman stepped forward and did something he couldn’t see to the gate. It slipped seamlessly into place and taking the lock, he locked it.
“I see that people have been generous.”
There was something in his expression that Jacob hadn’t seen during the earlier trips, a kind of tiredness around his eyes. Other than passing references from reporters, he hadn’t had a chance to look at a television or do anything else other than work.
“For now,” Jacob said. “We’re the hot new thing.”
Superman smiled, his expression a little strained. “That’s not always good.”
He’d know, of course.
“What matters is the work.” Jacob finished wiping his hands and set the rag into a toolbox inside the docking bay. He pulled a rope attached to the sliding door overhead and a moment later the door came down.
“Why do you do it?”
“What?” Jacob asked absently as he pulled a second door closed.
“This.” The man in the blue suit gestured to the empty yard. “You’re in a terrible location, most people don’t even know what you do, and you never even get to see what you do make a difference.”
Sighing, Jacob turned. “I do get to see it make a difference.”
“I don’t get to hand any of this out, but I know it’s going to get there. It makes me feel good to know that I can help.” Jacob leaned against the brick wall beside the third door. “When it comes down to it, fame, fortune, none of the rest of it really matters. All that matters to me is that I’m doing everything I can to leave the world a better place than it was when I got here.”
The other man nodded slowly. “And what if you can’t do anything?”
“Then you try to do better the next time, or you move on to somewhere that you can help. Nobody can be everywhere and do everything. All we can do is our best.”
Silent for a long moment the other man finally said, “Well, if you’ll tell me which shipments are going to Myanmar, I’ll do my best to get them there.”
“You might try flying lower this time,” Jacob said. “I hear that a lot of the rice came out looking like popcorn the last time. Apparently space travel isn’t that good for them.”
The other man sighed and as he turned away Jacob thought he heard him mumble something that sounded suspiciously like “Everybody’s a critic.”
*********
The tap on the window woke Lois with a start. She turned slightly, and saw a familiar figure standing outside the sliding glass door.
Susan had long ago gone to bed, and so Lois quietly rose to her feet and headed for the doorway. She unlocked it, wondering why people in the suburbs seemed to think that a big door made out of glass was going to keep anyone out who wanted in.
He stood in the darkness, his face shadowed and she stepped forward.
“Clark?” she asked uncertainly. “Are you all right?”
He sagged slightly and she reached out and put her arm around him. “Why don’t you come on in?”
He nodded and followed her over to the couch. She switched the television off, which plunged the room into semi darkness.
“I’d turn on a light, but I don’t want to wake Susan’s little girl,” Lois said in a low voice.
“I cleaned bodies from the river tonight,” he said. At her expression, he clarified, “In Myanmar.”
“I’m sure people were grateful,” Lois said.
“That’s not why I do any of this,” he said.
Hesitating, Lois said, “Were you serious about that interview?”
“Which interview?”
“The one you told the reporter you’d already given me.”
He had the grace to look embarrassed. “I assumed you’d put something together from everything we’ve talked about over the last few days.”
“People need to see you,” Lois said. “Right now they only half believe in you, but there’s going to come a point where it sinks in that you aren’t just real, you are dangerous.”
“I’m not dangerous!” he protested. At her expression he lowered his voice. “I’m not! All I ever wanted to do was help.”
She reached over and took his hand in hers. “I know that. But if you want people to feel safe with you, you are going to have to let them think they know you.”
“I don’t want to lie.”
“You won’t have to,” Lois said. “People believe the version of you they see on TV. If they see a warm, caring person, it’ll help when the government starts labeling you as a terrorist.”
He drew in a short breath. “You think they’d do that?”
“Not if we tell the whole story before they can stop us,” Lois said “Once it’s out on the networks, it’ll be on You Tube and out on the net. They won’t be able to stop it.”
“And then they’ll have to make a decision in the light of day,” Clark said. “With the whole American populace watching.”
“With the whole world watching,” Lois said.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded. “Ok, let’s do it.”
