Thank you, as always, to Carol, Beth, and Kelly for all their help!!
From Chapter 14
“You'll be happy to know that this young lady here says you haven't been bragging so much as telling the truth about Clark,” Mel said to Rachel, motioning to me. “She says he's doing just as well in Metropolis as you said.”
Clark flushed slightly, “Oh, I'm doing okay.”
Mel laughed. “Good to see Metropolis hasn't knocked the humbleness right out of ya'.”
Was he trying to say that city people weren't humble? I remembered my reaction to the fact that Rachel said I was almost as good as Clark and flushed a little.
“Okay,” Rachel sighed. “I've got to get back. I'll see you guys later?”
Clark gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Are you ready to meet my folks?” he asked us as Rachel walked out the door.
“And see a real farm,” Chad smiled at me.
“Come on, Toto,” I teased him. “We're finally in Kansas.”
Chapter 15
Clark's parents were clearly further out of town than Rachel was since we drove for about fifteen minutes before Clark turned onto a drive. “Where's the property line?” I asked.
Clark looked at me and grinned. “It's 120 acres, Lois. You can't see the property lines from here.”
I blushed. I still did not have a good feel for how much that was. “So, I don't think you've ever said – what do your parents grow on their farm?”
“Corn mostly, but dad believes in sustainable agriculture,” Clark said.
“What's that?”
“It's the practice of farming so that you don't effectively rape the land of its nutrients such that you can't use it anymore. Any particular crop uses specific nutrients from the soil and if you keep taking that, but never giving, eventually you won't be able to do it anymore,” Clark explained. “So, the way around that is to rotate crops. My parents almost always have a corn crop, but they rotate the plot of land they use for that each year and usually grow some alfalfa, too. Alfalfa's good for replenishing the soil. I think this year there's also soybean and wheat.”
“It seems complicated,” I said.
“It's the life of a farmer. My dad is good at it and it makes him happy,” Clark said.
“Any animals?” Chad asked as we got out of the car.
“Not at the moment. We had a couple of horses when I was a kid, but my parents haven't had any in years,” Clark said as the door to the house opened.
“Clark!” a blonde woman exclaimed as she ran towards him.
“Hi, Mom!” he said as he gave his mother a tight hug.
“You must be Lois and Chad,” she said as she pulled away. To my surprise, she came over and gave us both hugs. “It's so good to finally meet you. Clark only has good things to say about both of you.”
She turned around to lead us into the house. I turned to Chad and he grinned at me. Clark was right – I was going to like his mother. It was clear that like me, she was a bundle of energy. In fact, I thought she might even make me look sedentary.
“Jonathan, Clark's here,” she was calling out the back door as we came in.
“Come, sit down,” she said, gesturing to the table.
“Does this mean I can have some pie now?” a roundish man with a kind face said as he came in.
“No, you heard what the doctor said,” Martha scolded him.
Clark and his father embraced and then Clark introduced us.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Kent,” Chad said as he shook hands.
“Nonsense,” Mr. Kent said. “You're family. You know our secret. You have to call me Jonathan.”
“Now,” Martha came over. “Would you like a slice of apple pie or peach pie?”
“Go for the peach,” Jonathan said. “It's her specialty.”
“Peach,” I smiled.
“Sounds good to me,” Chad agreed.
Clark took out some buttermilk and poured it into glasses. “Willing to try buttermilk, Lois?” he asked.
“What is it?” I asked vaguely annoyed that he already knew Chad would try it. I wasn't a picky eater just because I was pickier than either of them.
Clark grinned and I could tell I wasn't going to like it. “It's the milk leftover after you churn butter,” he said. “It's a little sour tasting compared to the milk you get in the store.”
“I'll try some,” I said, although honestly, I didn't want to. I just was sick of Clark making fun of my attitude towards his home town. He placed glasses in front of all us, plus two extra – one for him and one for Martha.
Martha placed small plates with pie in front of us, and even placed one in front of Jonathan. “I made this one especially for you, without butter or shortening,” she told him as she kissed the top of his head.
He grabbed her around the waist before she could get away and leaned up to kiss her softly. “You spoil me,” he smiled at her.
“I know,” she smiled back at him before she escaped.
I looked over at Clark and realized he wasn't as embarrassed as I expected. I guess he got used to that. It was true that he never seemed too bothered when Chad and I teased each other in front of him. Now I guessed that was from watching his parents.
I took one bite of the pie and put my fork down. “That… is the best… pie I've ever tasted,” I tried to say around the food in my mouth. I knew it was impolite to talk with my mouth full, but the pie was too good to wait.
“Thanks,” Martha said.
“I told you,” Clark said.
I nodded, but decided not to say anything else. I was too busy chewing. I wasn't sure what I thought of the buttermilk, but I didn't dislike it enough to say anything about it to Clark.
After a few moments more, we all sat back, pleasantly full from the pie.
“Well now,” Martha said as she collected plates. “Maybe we could show you some of the farm before it gets dark.”
“It would be good to burn off some of those calories, too,” I said, already hoping to have another piece after dinner.
We all got up and put our jackets on and followed Jonathan out the door. “So, how long have you lived here?” Chad asked.
“I grew up here,” Jonathan said. “My dad owned the farm before me and my grandfather before him.”
“Wow,” I said. “How many generations does it go back?”
“Four, I think,” Jonathan said. “But it was smaller when it started. My dad grew it a lot when I was a kid and I just bought some more land from the Irigs a few years back.”
“Why'd they sell?” Chad asked.
“He's getting older and has some back problems. It's not as easy for him to plough as it used to be. I offered to help, but he didn't want charity, so we ended up agreeing that he would sell me twenty acres in exchange for my help ploughing his land as long as I can.”
We walked over to a building that I was guessing was the barn. Martha laughed as we entered. “This was Clark's favorite place when he was a boy. He used to burrow under the hay in the hay loft and stay hidden there for hours.”
“I bet you were a cute little boy,” I said to Clark.
“Oh, I could show you pictures,” Martha said.
“But you won't, will you, Mom?” Clark asked. “Didn't you get that all out of your system when you showed Rachel?”
“Oh, I don't know. I guess that depends. Will I get some super help tonight rolling the buck-eye balls?” she asked him, her eyes twinkling with laughter.
“If it will prevent you from showing Lois pictures, I'll make all the buck-eye balls,” he said and we all laughed.
Jonathan showed us some of the farming equipment before we moved back outside. “Over this way,” Clark guided us. “We need to show Lois and Chad the pond.”
“Oh, we definitely need to see the pond,” Chad said.
************************
By the time we got back to the farmhouse, it felt like Chad and I had known Martha and Jonathan forever. They were so different from my family – much more like Chad's. They were both so open with us and so friendly.
I was particularly impressed with the ease with which they accepted that we knew the truth about Clark. I know Clark said they had been concerned about that and I could understand why, but they seemed completely comfortable with it now. It reminded me of what that woman said. What was her name? Mrs. Dayton? She said that Clark was a good judge of character. It seemed like his parents thought so, too – if Clark trusted us enough to tell us his secret, than they should, too.
“Need help with dinner, Mom?” Clark asked as we came inside.
“I always like help from you, honey. You know that,” she said.
Watching them, I wondered about the comment from Mel earlier. Were his parents, too, hoping that Clark would settle down in Smallville with Rachel? I know he said his mother understood his desire to move to Metropolis, but understanding and wanting him to settle there were different things.
“Can we help?” Chad asked and I coughed. Would Martha really want my help?
“No, dear. You're our guest. But you can sit in the kitchen and chat with us if you'd like.”
I took a seat at the kitchen table and Chad sat beside me, taking my hand.
“I've read a lot of your writing, Lois,” Martha said as she and Clark moved around each other. It was clear that they had spent lots of time cooking together before.
“You have?” I asked.
“Of course. We get a Daily Planet subscription because of Clark, so it's the paper we read now.”
“I'm sure the Daily Planet offices are confused by the paper's popularity here,” Jonathan said.
“Who gets it besides you and Rachel?” Chad asked.
“Lots of people. Clark's a bit of a local celebrity.” Jonathan smiled at him from the doorway. “Not too many people from Smallville go off to the big city and make a success of it.”
I smiled. Okay, so they probably weren't waiting for him to come home. They were proud of him for what he had accomplished. I was happy watching him here. For some reason, more and more recently Clark had opened up, often unwittingly, about how hard it was to be different as a teenager. It was good to see his relationship with his parents and know that it couldn't have been all bad.
“Chad,” Jonathan said as he came into the room, stopping just long enough to place a chaste kiss on Martha's forehead. “Clark says you work for the hospital?”
Chad nodded, “I'm a pediatrician.”
“But the hospital is a mess and they are constantly asking for help in the ER,” I said.
Martha stopped what she was doing to look at us. “They do that? Are you really able to handle that type of thing?” she asked Chad.
“Not everything, but a lot of what comes in I can diagnose even if I can't treat it, so it's still useful when they're short staffed. It's the problem with being a resident,” Chad explained. “It hasn't been that long since I did my rotations in med school, so I'm the first to get picked when they need someone to cover somewhere else.”
“Wow!” Martha said. “I don't imagine that ever happens at the hospital in town.”
“Does it ever get busy?” I asked.
Martha laughed. “No, not really. The biggest things that ever pop up in the ER here are farming related injuries or children swallowing toys.”
“It must be so different,” Chad mused. “It must be so calm.”
Jonathan nodded. “I would think so, too.”
“Do you have a lot of doctors here?” I asked.
Martha shrugged. “There are a few at the hospital but most major things get referred to doctors in Wichita. We have two family doctors in town, but no specialists. Dr. Blum, the pediatrician in town when Clark was a child, retired a few years ago and I don't think anyone took his place. I think Dr. Skeptel takes all the kids now. And we're too small a town to get any other specialists.”
I smiled. Chad was right. It was awfully different here.
“You're here,” Clark said with a smile as the door opened.
“The fireworks are as set up as they can be until tomorrow night,” Rachel announced, coming over to sit on Clark's lap, “which means I'm off duty until tomorrow night.”
“That's wonderful, honey,” Martha said. “You've worked so hard on this. I hope you'll really get to enjoy yourself this year.”
“She will,” Clark insisted tightening his grip on her slightly. “I'm holding her to her word that she's off duty.”
************************
The Wind Festival was different than I had expected. It had a small town feel in that everyone seemed to know everyone else, but other than that it was your typical carnival type thing.
Clark and Martha had apparently stayed up late making the buck-eye balls and the candies were amazing. I kept making Chad go by their booth to get more.
We had lost track of Rachel and Clark some time ago, but I spotted them a few times and it looked like they were enjoying their time alone together. Chad, too, seemed to be in his element. I was having fun, too, but not like Chad. He was chatting with every person we came across almost, telling them we were friends with Clark and Rachel and assuring every person we saw, multiple times, that this was the best festival he had ever been to.
“Hey,” Clark said as he and Rachel caught up with us as we made another stop for a buck-eye ball. “Stop eating my mom's profits,” he teased me. It was true, Martha refused to let me buy them and while they were only ten cents apiece, I had had probably half a dozen already and the first day wasn't even over.
“Sorry,” I blushed and turned to Martha.
“Ignore him, Lois. He can help me make more tonight in no time. You eat as many as you want,” Martha smiled at me.
“Have you two ever been line-dancing?” Rachel smiled at us.
I looked up at Chad and smiled and he answered for us. “I've been a couple of times. Lois and I took lessons on our first date.”
“Really?” Clark asked surprised. “And here I was thinking you were a couple of city-folks.”
“Well, then,” I said, “why don't we show you how well a couple of city folks can line-dance?”
The four of us made our way to the bandstand, but were stopped a second later. “Rachel, Clark!” came an excited voice. A blonde woman approached us, holding a small baby in one arm and a toddler by the other hand. Trailing along behind them was her husband, I assumed. Even before they reached us, I knew who they were. As I had gathered from Clark's description of her, Lana was more stereotypically pretty than Rachel. I could easily picture her in some calendar for a Midwestern school. She made the perfect model for small-town living. Blonde, pretty, bubbly – she had a glow to her that spoke of happiness and health.
Her husband – what was his name again? Anyway, he was also attractive, although no more so than Clark which raised my estimation of Lana up a notch. He had a friendly smile that lit up his whole face and I thought I might actually like him even if he had left Rachel and Clark broken-hearted.
“Good to see you, Lana,” Clark said giving her a hug. “Pete.” He shook hands with Pete while Lana hugged Rachel and then Pete moved to give Rachel a hug as well.
Clark knelt down to be on eye-level with the toddler. “Hi, Emma,” he said and the little girl gave him a bright smile. Standing up, he asked Lana, “And this is Dave?” gesturing to the baby in her arms.
“David Michael,” Pete answered proudly. “He's eight months today.”
“He's adorable,” Rachel said as she put her finger out for David to grab.
“Lana, Pete, these are our friends from Metropolis, Lois and Chad. Lois and I are partners at the Planet,” Clark introduced us.
We shook hands all around and then the happy family moved off. “Are you guys still friends with them?” I asked.
Rachel shrugged. “Not friends really, but I think we're all over what happened when we were in high school.”
I laughed. “Were they ever upset?” What could they be upset about?
Clark smiled, “Probably not, although I never got the impression they were too happy to hear we had gotten together in college. But it's all water under the bridge now.”
“Well,” I said, “they seemed nice enough, but you're much prettier,” I said to Rachel conspiringly. It was what I would want to hear if confronted with Chad's ex, if he had one, and it was true. Lana was stereotypically attractive, but Rachel had a depth to her that made her look more interesting and more friendly. If I met them both on the street, I would definitely gravitate to Rachel faster than Lana.
“Well,” Clark said, putting an arm around Rachel, “that goes without saying.” Rachel smiled warmly and thanked us both, flushing slightly.
We moved back towards the dance floor and Chad and I tried to keep up with the moving feet around us. The truth was neither of us had line-danced since our first date and that was eleven years ago. After a few minutes of tripping over our own feet, though, Clark and Rachel showed us some steps and we did pick it up quickly, if I do say so myself.
By the time Rachel had to go to help with the fireworks, Chad and I were old pros at it, and we were all beaming from a combination of sweat and happiness.
