The Return of Ultra Woman
Chapter 18
The statement takes longer to pull together than I anticipated. I’m happy to be able to take advantage of Clark’s touchy-feely skills for the final draft. As part of the statement, I make a point to apologize to Ultra Woman for missing her press conference. My official reason is that I feared my presence would prove to be a distraction. Based on some of those questions, that justification will hold up. Eventually I get it to the point where I can stand to read it and I take it in to Perry. I’m half-expecting that he’s going to say The Planet was no place for something like this, but he surprises me. When I hand him the piece he glances at it and says, “It’s about time. I was afraid I was going to have to ask you for this.”
“Really, Chief? At first I hadn’t been planning to write anything like this at all.”
“Lois, because of your history with Superman, you have to give the public something. I’m planning to run this as a side-bar with the Ultra Woman press conference report.”
Between the Ultra Woman article and my note of congratulations, I was wondering if we were going to push Clark’s Guatemala story completely off the first page. I should have had more confidence in both Perry and Clark. The Guatemala story takes advantage of the fact that as Ultra Woman I had described Superman’s feelings of distress the previous evening. It makes me especially happy that I came clean about the last question I had been asked as Ultra Woman. Clark reports a very tastefully done interview with Superman that supposedly took place just before heading back to Metropolis. It has all the elements that make Clark’s stories so emotional to read. By the time I finished it, I was in tears. This feels like another Kerth nomination for my husband. The presence of something from both of us on the front page should further head off any questions of why we didn’t cover the Ultra Woman press conference for The Planet.
The rest of the day passes uneventfully. I do manage a call to Henderson and verify that the “lover-boy” crimes have stopped. Apparently, the very public demonstration that Ultra Woman was “spoken for” had the desired effect in that regard. I talked this over with Perry and he thinks it might be worth considering as a potential story for tomorrow. A lot will depend of what kind of Ultra Woman coverage our competition runs, and if any other news outlet runs a report on these crimes. Perry did ask me about an interview, either with Ultra Woman or with her and Superman as a couple. I asked that we wait until some of the newness wears off. These conversations are *so* much easier knowing Perry is in on the secret.
We leave the office at the usual time. We’ve barely picked Lara up from day care when Clark gets his first Superman call of the day. He doesn’t say what it is, but from the look on his face, it must be serious. He disappears into the stairwell just as Lara and I get on the elevator for the ride to the parking garage. The drive home is uneventful. As I approach the front of our home, I’m half-expecting to see Clark waiting for us. There is someone waiting – it isn’t Clark. My mother is standing by our door with an impatient look on her face.
“Hi, Mom. I didn’t expect a visit today.” I’m happy to see her and have some company until Clark gets home. It only takes an instant to realize she is not in a good mood.
In a gruff, almost angry tone she replies, “Lois, can we go inside? We need to talk.”
I’m wondering if she and dad have had a falling out. They haven’t remarried yet, but Mom once confided to me she liked the feel of dating and was afraid if they remarried, some of the magic that was back in their relationship would be lost. Well, whatever she wants to talk about will have to wait until Lara is settled. Fortunately, Mom seems relaxed enough to help and in only a few minutes Lara has dozed off in the front room. We move into the kitchen so we can talk without disturbing her.
“What’s bothering you? Would you like some tea?”
“Are you divorcing him?” The angry tone is back and now has a note of challenge.
I’m sure I look completely dumbfounded. “What!”
“I asked if you’re divorcing that bigamist husband of yours.”
Good grief! After all this time and all the worrying I did about telling my family about my powers, I still managed to blank on this. With all that has been happening the last 48 hours, I didn’t think about the impact the press conference would have on her. “No, I’m not planning to do anything. There’s a simple…”
She won’t even let me finish. “Lois, don’t tell me that wasn’t your husband I saw kissing that purple… slut. Not only was he kissing her… and doing so in a very provocative way… they both said she’s married to him.”
“Mom…”
“God Lois, it was hard enough to deal with the fact that you husband is an alien from outer space. But now he has an extra wife.”
I try again with a little more volume. “Mom!”
I have no luck with that either as she continues. “Sure, Clark seemed like a nice guy. I mean, he is Superman and all, but how can you let him do this to you?”
“Mom! He not married to anyone else.”
At just that instant, the front door opens and Clark comes in. I’m not sure this is a good time but given the nature if this “conversation” I don’t think there is a good time.
The door accomplishes what I have been unable to do and Mom pauses. He comes immediately to the kitchen and sees her. His greeting is a cheery, “Hi Ellen.”
“Don’t ‘Hi Ellen’ me. How could you do that to my daughter?”
He looks confused. “What did I do?”
“I saw you kiss that Ultra Woman slut!”
I wish she would stop using that word.
“You… You have a wife and child!”
She turns to me. “I want you and Lara to come home with me right now!”
I’m trying to think of what to say when Clark addresses me with what I swear is an I-told-you-so tone. “Lois, I…”
I think he’s really about to say, “I told you so.” but seems to realize this is not the time. His voice stutters for an instant and then picks up again. “Honey, would it be better if I get Lara and wait upstairs while you two hash this out?”
“No. I’d rather you stay here for this.” I need to get Mom calmed down so I can give her the rest of the story. “Mom, please sit down. I need you to listen for just a minute.”
She does seem a little confused at how calm both Clark and I are. I get the impression she thought she was going to find me heartbroken because of my two-timing husband. “Okay,” she says. “But I don’t understand how you can be so calm about all this. I saw him on television.” She points at Clark. “Did you see them together? He’s in love with that purple – person. It was unmistakable!”
She sure is making this hard, but at least she didn’t call me a slut again. “I know he is Mom.”
Now she looks positively shocked. “But…”
I cut her off. “Please give us a chance to explain.”
Even with her right in front of me, this isn’t easy. “Mom, I’m her.”
She just looks confused. “What?”
“I said I’m Ultra Woman.”
She’s just staring at me with a blank look on her face. I feel like I might have well said I have two heads.
“Lois, don’t try to protect him. I saw her flying in that… that skin-tight… thing!”
Okay, here goes. “Mom, watch this.” I spin into my suit.
I guess I really didn’t know what to expect from Mom when I did this. I had hoped for a positive reaction. She’s just sitting there with her mouth hanging open. When she does react, it’s not quite as positive as I had hoped. She jumps to her feet and charges at Clark. She starts pounding on his chest with her fists while screaming, “What have you done with my daughter?”
He grabs her arms and I can tell he’s holding her as gently as he can. “Ellen, you have to stop hitting me. You’ll hurt your hands.”
I pull the mask part of my suit off my head so there should be no doubt about who I am. “Mom, it’s really me.”
She won’t even look in my direction. Now her voice is interrupted by sobs. “My daughter isn’t an alien and doesn’t have powers. Who are you, and what happened to Lois?”
I can’t believe this is happening. This was my “nightmare” scenario but I never really expected this extreme of a reaction. This is the second time she’s used the “alien” word. I never realized how much it bothered her that Clark wasn’t exactly human. I’m realizing my mother has a streak of prejudice I never knew was there. Whatever she ends up believing about me, I’m worried about how she’s going to think of Lara. “Mom, it’s me. You know me!” My voice has taken on an air of pleading.
She still won’t look at me. “My daughter is human.”
That hurts. She may feel like she’s lost her daughter, but I’m the one standing here being rejected. For the first time I can remember since I got the powers, my whole body feels heavy. I pull out a chair and sit down. The feeling of tears on my face makes me realize I’m crying. I can’t believe how badly this has gone. She’s finally stops trying to hit Clark and she’s just standing there, staring at the floor. I make one more try. “Mom, it *is* me. Can’t you tell I’m the same Lois I’ve always been?” My voice catches once or twice. The powers don’t help you talk any better when you’re crying.
No reply. She doesn’t even bother to look up. I need to end this, at least for tonight. “Ellen, please leave.”
She finally looks up at me. “What?”
How can she be surprised? “You’re welcome back when you are ready to talk about my… change. As long as you don’t think I’m your daughter, then there’s no reason for you to be here.”
Now she’s staring at me with a look I can’t quite read. She gathers herself and starts slowly for the door. Her movements are lethargic. Then it hits me that she’s in no condition to travel on her own. “Clark, please make sure she get’s home safely.” Then I address her slowly retreating back. “Mom, please don’t do anything to hurt yourself. And *please* don’t use this as a reason to take a drink!”
With that she just stops. After a few seconds, she turns and, for this first time since I spun into the suit, she really looks at me. Finally, she begins to speak. “When you were seven years old I got you something special for Christmas. This was a toy you wanted very much and had made a special point to ask for. After you got it for Christmas, you and I spent a lot of time together with it. What was it?”
“Mom…”
“Lois, please. I need something to believe.”
It hits me that she called me Lois. Maybe we can salvage this disaster. “You got me an Easy Bake Oven. We did spend a lot of time with it but all I learned was that I hated to cook. I had never asked for it, and stopped using it as soon as you let me.”
She’s just standing there. Sometimes she can be as impossible to read as anyone. After a few seconds, she starts toward me. When she reaches where I’m sitting, she reaches out and gently places her hands on my cheeks and lifts my face so that I’m looking into her eyes. After only a second or two, her arms practically fly around me and I’m her daughter again. I can’t remember ever being so happy to be hugged by my mom. This must have gone on for nearly a minute before she pulls back and sits down beside me.
“Honey, I’m so sorry. But I don’t understand. Did you get some kind of genetic modification or something to be more compatible with Clark?
It’s so nice to have her smiling at me again. “Well, yes and no. There have been some modification but I didn’t ‘get’ them, at least not deliberately. Believe it or not, in some ways the powers are sort of like a disease.”
“You mean you caught… super… from Clark?”
“Actually, according to our doctor, I was infected by Lara.”
“What?”
“You see, there are things in Clark’s body that give him the powers. Normally they can’t pass from one person to another because generally they can’t live outside of Clark’s body. That was why Clark and I had so much trouble getting pregnant. Once I did get pregnant, they were passed to me from Lara. It took the entire pregnancy for the, um, infection to take hold and then another year for me to develop powers. They only showed up a few months ago. Remember the car bomb a while back? That was when we found out.”
She’s struggling to keep up but my mom is a smart woman. “But Lois, if you’re Ultra Woman now, who was Ultra Woman a few years ago.”
“Um, that was me too.”
“But you just said…”
“Mom, it’s really complicated.”
“But Lois…”
“I promise I’ll tell you everything. But, can you please help me figure out how to tell Dad and Lucy. I think I’d do just about anything to avoid going through this again.”
TBC
Bob
