Hi all! I've written a really strange tale, even if I say so myself...This story, though complete for the Lois & Clark arc, is part of a larger piece that I'm working on. I'm not sure if it 'works' or not yet, so I'd appreciate what you think about the premise. My idea is a graduate student (Abbey) who is searching for her own answers about love and life, gets a letter telling her that the great heroes of literature are missing from the pages of the world's books and that she has the ability to set things to rights. Each story has a virtue that must be regained as the hero and heroine find each other once more. I'm still shaky on the why the heroes go missing and I'm wondering if I'm stealing too much from other great stories... Anyway, I started out with lofty love stories which are mentioned in this story like Wuthering Heights and Gone with the Wind. But I've been on a Superman kick lately, and thought, why not? Once I started writing it, it took off and I was helpless to stop it!
I've actually already submitted it to the archive, but am now thinking I was too hasty, cause I think it still needs some work. It's not super long, but I will post in chunks to give some time to digest it...
Disclaimer: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Superman property of Warner Bros. No infringement intended.
Key:
<<thoughts>>
((outside of Abbey's immediate experience; implied that she's reading the events))
**emphasis**
Abbey saw a comic book peeking out from under James’ papers. A slow smile crept over her face. <<So the bookish man also likes the simpler things in life.>> She pulled it out thinking about the stress of the last few days, the bizarre events and the satisfying endings that were beginning to show their original strains in the pages of the books around her. Slowly, she was finding the pieces to the puzzles, bringing each character back into sync with his or her prewritten history. Maybe a comic book was the diversion she needed.
She laughed softly to herself. It was a Superman comic book. Her little brother had loved Superman growing up, and she had secretly always had a thing for the big guy. But her smile faded as she read the title, “A World Without Superman.” <<Oh, no, not him too…>>
Abbey opened the first page, fearing it would be like the other books, sans one of the most iconic heroes of all and with a heroine bereft. She felt the inevitable transformation as she began to read.
“Lois Lane sat at her desk, certain she had a Pulitzer Prize winning story…”
Superman
The colors blurred into garish reds, blues, and greens around her. Ink seemed smeared into everything, a waxy sheen with shaded dapples of ink as the streets of Metropolis took shape around her. It felt like New York, yet brighter, more alive, humming with an innocence that the Big Apple had lost long ago. She walked inevitably towards the globe of the Daily Planet. She didn’t know what she had to do, but she knew who she needed to find, Lois Lane.
As the elevator climbed to the third floor news room, the paints seemed to dry, and the world around her began looking real again. The building was still dated, a classic from the thirties, but it was solid in its own reality, and almost looked brand new. She wasn’t in a comic book anymore… it was a real place, with real people.
Abbey walked towards the bull pen, stunned. She had never seen such productivity. Copy boys racing here and there, Perry White, editor-in-chief, screaming orders, “Two more hours till the paper gets put to bed, people! Lois, how’s that cover story coming?”
“I’m almost done, Chief,” Lois said, not looking up from her typewriter. Abbey watched Metropolis’ famed reporter doing what she did best. Lois Lane’s sleek black hair swished as she shuffled through her notes, making small piles on her desk.
“Jimmy! I need that report on the series we did last fall about the Chilean drug cartel. Hurry! I’m putting the finishing touches on here, and Perry needs my copy!”
“I’m on it!” called Jimmy, an eager young man, waving his work-in-progress folder.
Abbey watched closely. Lois, she knew from pop culture, was a driven journalist, and Abbey saw the evidence of it in her every movement. Lois was professional, polished, and looked like she could steam-roll anyone who got in her way or caught her in a bad moment. When she had looked up again for Jimmy, Abbey caught an intense fire in her eyes, though dark circles where there as well as a clenched jaw.
There was so much going on in the newsroom that Abbey could wander and investigate a little before talking to Lois. She wasn’t sure what she’d say yet, anyway. Abbey noticed an empty desk across from where Lane sat. It should be Clark Kent’s desk.
Abbey’s eye then caught a series of stories on the far wall. They were award-winning front page stories, mostly written by Lois Lane and more than half were about Superman.
<<So he’s here. He’s somewhere in the story! Then it was Clark Kent who I needed to find. Maybe this won’t be so hard after all…>>
Abbey thought a moment through the Superman canon that she knew, trying to piece together the puzzle a bit more. She looked back at Lois. This wasn’t a comic book, all these people looked very real. A memory triggered… she remembered a television show that had been on in the nineties about Lois and Clark. Was that the world she had somehow got caught up in? Though as she looked around, she noticed the setting wasn‘t the nineties. Lois was wearing a navy blue suit, which would be classic in any era, but the line on the back of her stockings and the shape of her heels, and her makeup, all bespoke of an earlier era…. Abbey turned back to the articles, studying the years. 1936, 1938.… The thirties! When the original Superman comic books took place! But being reminded of the television show oddly made Abbey’s goal much clearer. Lois was meant to be with Clark, not Superman. That was the great love in the Superman story, Lois and Clark’s love, not Lois and Superman‘s.
Abbey sighed. <<So who will I need to look for first? Clark Kent or Superman? >> In the other stories, the hero had been lost, absent from the world they were supposed to live in entirely. She thought this case might be even more complicated because of the dual identity thing. But one thing was for certain, Lois needed her Clark much more than she needed her Superman.
Abbey wandered back over to the award-winning stories. She looked for a Clark Kent byline, but didn’t see one anywhere. Wait, there was one…
“Can I help you?” Lois came up behind her, making her jump out of her skin. Lois was on her way to Perry’s office, and had no time for lost tourists, but didn‘t want anyone nosing around where they shouldn‘t be either. That was her job. “The last tour group left over an hour ago, and we have a paper to finish…”
“Oh, no! That’s not why I--why I am here,” Abbey thought quickly. She had to think of something to get Lane interested in her enough to talk to her. Abbey gestured to the articles about Superman. “I’m just finishing school--college--in journalism,” she lied, glibly. “And I’m a huge admirer of your work. I know you are a very busy woman, but I was just wondering if I could maybe ask you a few questions over lunch tomorrow?”
Lois was flattered, if a bit annoyed. Most young grad students were too scared of Mad Dog Lane to even dare ask to meet with her. And it had taken gumption to just walk into the news room and ask her. And if there was one thing Lois could respect, it was gumption.
She sighed. “Be here at 11:45 sharp, tomorrow morning. I’ll have fifteen minutes before I need to leave for a press conference. Don’t be late. And bring me a cream cheese bagel!”
With that, Lois sped away, making a beeline for Perry’s office. “Here you go, Chief…”
****
Abbey watched Lois from across the street as she left the Planet. Lois was about to hail a cab, but thought better of it for some reason. She seemed to sigh, and started walking up the street, away from the busy downtown area. Abbey decided to follow her. She needed to learn as much about Lois Lane as she could before she met with her tomorrow.
Abbey followed Lois discreetly as she cut through Centennial Park. Lois didn’t seem to be aiming towards home. In fact, she sort of was just dejectedly wandering. After a hard day at work, maybe Lois just didn’t know how to wind down, so this was what she did.
At last she sat down on a bench. Abbey sat on a bench behind a bush behind Lois and spied on her. As she watched, she suddenly felt like the worst kind of voyeur. Lois was hurting deeply, and she needed a friend, not a spy.
Lois sighed painfully, and then started to feel the welling up of the hurt that she’d been trying to mask for the last three months. She knew if she said his name, all hell would break loose and she’d never be able to stop crying. But not saying it… that seemed a worse crime against him, against what he meant to her.
“Clark…” she said brokenly, her heartbreak caught up in a single sob as she at last said the name that haunted her, broke her heart, and gave her solace.
“Oh God, Clark! Three months! It‘s been three months, and it still hurts like yesterday!” she cried, giving into the tears that she thought might never stop.
Abbey wanted to say something, to try and comfort her, but she knew she couldn’t. She had already presented herself as an admiring up and coming journalist, and to try and talk to Lois now would only be humiliating for Lois, who Abbey was sure, wouldn’t want the world to know the depths of her feelings, to have to explain why she was in this terrible state of emotion. Best to save her questions for tomorrow morning.
After a few painful minutes, Lois eventually calmed down a bit. She seemed to be in a struggle with herself, needing to mourn, yet feeling foolish about doing it here in a public park.
“Get a hold of yourself, Lois!” she chastised herself. She smoothed her dress suit, and stood up. With a deep, steadying breath, she slowly made her way home.
Abbey watched, not wanting to spy further. She knew what questions she needed to ask tomorrow. She just hoped Lois Lane would be up for them.
