Abbey was standing in Perry’s office, feeling like she had just completed an interview as he reached to shake her hand.
“I’d like to welcome you to the team, Abbey Meadows. Jimmy here will show you around until you get your feet wet.”
Jimmy, the young man Abbey had seen yesterday gave her a winning smile. He seemed like a sweet guy, if a little over enthusiastic. She let herself be led out of the office for Jimmy to begin showing her the ropes.
She tried to concentrate on what he was saying, but she was distracted by her mission. The pieces had come together as she had mulled over her vivid dream of Superman. Lois could bring him back, and Abbey thought she knew how. She desperately needed to talk to Lois again, and thought running errands around the office wasn’t going to afford her many chances.
Suddenly, Lois was walking up to them, intent on the coffee machine nearby.
“So, I see you got the new intern position. Congratulations, Abbey.”
“Thank you, Miss Lane,” Abbey said, her mind clicking ahead, looking for a way to get Lois to talk to her more privately.
“Uh, Miss Lane?” Abbey began, “Could I---well, I started my report for class last night, and I had just a few more questions---”
“Leave them on my desk. I don’t really have time for much today,” Lois looked away, gesturing vaguely in the direction of her desk, as her cheeks flamed slightly in memory of how pointed the girl’s questions had been yesterday.
“Miss Lane. Actually, I had an idea. It’s about Superman.”
That got her attention. Lois considered a moment.
“What about Superman?”
“I think I have an idea how to--bring him back to Metropolis. On a more permanent basis.”
Lois was intrigued, if annoyed. Everyone knew Superman was strictly her territory. But she had run the well dry of ideas on how to catch his attention the last few months, short of throwing herself off a building, which she just wasn't inclined to do, no matter how upset she got. And without Clark there---well, Superman's abandonment of her had been almost too much to bare.
“Jimmy, I’m going to steal your new trainee for a minute,” said Lois, grabbing Abbey’s arm and steering her to her desk.
“No problem, Lois.”
Abbey sat down, facing Lois.
“OK, out with it. What do you got?” she asked bluntly.
Abbey sighed. How to explain without saying too much.
“I think… I think Superman is feeling dejected, feeling like he’s not needed in Metropolis so much anymore.”
“Not needed! Surely he **knows** he’s needed!” scoffed Lois.
“Does he? You said yourself he’s been in Europe a lot. You know about some of the horrors going on there. Maybe they are having an effect on him. I mean, I don’t think Superman needs accolades and keys to the city, but I think a reminder about what he means to us wouldn't come amiss. L--Miss Lane,**you** are the only one who can help him.”
“Me?” she asked. “How?”
Abbey could see the question had been swimming in Lois’ head for a while now. Lois had undoubtedly and unsuccessfully tried numerous times to recapture Superman’s attention.
“By telling him what he means to us. To you.”
Lois laughed a bit bitterly, though quickly recovered. “I barely talk to him anymore. I hardly think---”
Abbey gestured to Lois’ typewriter.
“Then write it. Write the best story about Superman that you can write. Tell him what he means to everyone. I think he needs it more than ever. Have the courage to write the story. Bring him home, Miss Lane. I know you can.”
***
((Lois sat in the quiet newsroom. All day long Abbey’s suggestion lingered in her mind, whether she wanted it to or not. Could she do it? Did she have the power to bring Superman back to Metropolis, back to her? Would he care what she wrote?
She had felt completely rejected by Superman, and she had never needed him more than when after Clark died. But she still believed in him, she had to. Even though she rarely saw him, rarely could speak to him anymore, he was still a symbol of goodness that was desperately needed, and he meant a lot to her. She felt she and Superman had a special connection. She couldn't explain it or label it, but she believed in it utterly. And maybe that connection would make him realize just how much she missed him and how much Metropolis needed him.
It was late when she finally sat down to write it, nearly midnight. But she knew she had to write this alone, with no distractions. This might well be the most important story of her life.
A World Without Superman
By
Lois Lane
"Superman came to our fair city a few short years ago, a stranger who quickly became a true friend and hero. We were all amazed by his strength, his abilities, but mostly by his feats of character and courage. The strongest man on the planet is also the gentlest of souls, the most compassionate among us. Now, while the world is torn apart by war and uncertainty, we need more than ever our hero and I believe, he needs us. The ideals that Superman represent are the ideals we all strive for, in everyday efforts to make the world a better place. Truth, justice---this, along with his heart, his quiet strength, his fortitude, his grace, shows us what it is to be good to one another, to always strive for a better tomorrow. His courage shores us up when we think the world is ending, his impossible feats a beacon for believing anything can happen. But more than that, Superman is kindness, generosity, and always there when you need him. I know the truth of his kindness, the courage of Superman because again and again he’s rescued me from danger and from despair. He’s been a friend to this city, a friend to me, asking for nothing in return but acceptance. Superman needs us to believe in him, accept him as a man, a man with extraordinary gifts, but a man nonetheless who needs friends and a community to support him. A world without Superman would be the darkest of places, with no light, and no hope in miracles. Superman, we need you to come back home, back to Metropolis. Back to us."
<<Back to me,>> she finished quietly to herself. Lois sat back from her typewriter, stretching a bit. She didn't think it was the best story she’d ever written, but it was the truth. Usually she wrote to take down villains, and here, she had set herself out to build up a hero. As clear as she could make it, it was true, and she hoped that Abbey was right, that having had the courage to write it would bring Superman back home.))
***
“A Kerth award? And maybe talk of a **Pulitzer**?” Lois stuttered two weeks later into the telephone. She nodded a few more times, a shocked look on her face. “Thank you…. Ok. Yes, I will.”
She hung up the phone and looked around. Her eyes caught Abbey’s and she waved for her to come over.
“Yes, Miss Lane?”:
“Well, your idea hasn’t brought Superman back, but I’ve just been nominated for a Kerth, and they are saying my name’s on the list for possible Pulitzer nominations!”
Lois looked so happy, happier than anyone had seen her in months. Abbey wanted to rejoice with her, but the article hadn’t had the intended effect. It was supposed to make Superman---**Clark** swoop down and realize he couldn’t live without Lois! So it was good news, it just wasn’t great news.
But she faked along anyway, “That’s wonderful, Miss Lane! Congratulations!”
Perry heard Lois’ shrieks of joy from his office. He hadn’t heard her do that since Clark was--- well, he had to find out what made her so happy.
As soon as she saw him, Lois was out of her chair with her arms around Perry.
“I did it! I’m nominated for a Kerth, and may even get a **Pulitzer**? I can’t believe it!”
“Aw, that’s wonderful, honey! For which story? Luthor’s return from the dead? Taking down the Church group?”
“No,” Lois said, calming down a bit. “The Superman editorial. A World Without Superman.”
Perry smiled kindly. “Good, I’m glad, honey.”
***
((Lois sat on the sofa, curled up re-reading her Kerth Award nominated story. She was still proud of it, even though it didn’t get the Pulitzer nomination she was hoping for. Pulitzers are reserved for miracle workers, she supposed. And since her article hadn’t made Superman magically reappear…well, there was always next year. Clark would have still been proud, though... As she read the article, enjoying her lofty phrases yet confirming their rightness in her mind, her thoughts drifted to Clark. She wanted to concentrate on Superman, as if she could conjure him up from the abyss of wherever he had gone, but Clark came unbidden to her mind instead.
<<He had been a lot like Superman in his ideals.>> Clark had been always striving for truth and justice. She felt the tears well up in her eyes, as she always did when she thought of her dead partner. He had been the best man she knew. Besides Superman. Yet, they were so similar--
Lois sat up, her eyes suddenly dry. She looked again at the archived photo in her article of Superman, in semi-profile. Most of the photos owned by the planet were with Superman in action, doing some amazing feat. This one was a candid photo she had managed to talk him into for Jimmy. It was the only one the Planet had of him, relaxed and close-up. That smile looked so familiar-- on someone else… <<I must be dreaming. I want him back so much that I will believe anything.>> Still, the reporter’s instinct is a hard one to kill. She couldn’t resist digging out the photo of Clark she had buried after it became too painful to look at on a daily basis. Her sniffles turned into a stunned choke.
They looked so much alike… exactly alike! She had never seen them together, and with their photos side by side, the resemblance was uncanny.
<<No, no, this can’t be! He wouldn’t do this to me! He wouldn’t!>>
All Lois could do was stare at the two photos. Was her mild-mannered best friend really Superman? And if it was true, **where was he**?))
***
Abbey was back in Ireland. A piece of the puzzle in place. <<Lois knows, or at least suspects.>> Is she supposed to know? Not that it hadn’t been done in the Superman story before, but she couldn’t decide if Lois knowing Clark’s secret was a bringing together of the story or more unraveling of their story in the wrong direction. Could the revelation bring them together, or would it drive the wedge between them even further?
Again she tried to think about her limited Superman knowledge. Was this a good thing? She remembered the old eighties movies, with Christopher Reeve. In those Lois would find out, but then ‘forget’ after being kissed by Superman or some such nonsense. Would that happen here? **Should** that happen?
She thought of what she knew of Lois from her interactions with her. This Lois seemed made of sterner stuff than a comic cut-out or doe-eyed damsel in distress. This might be Lois’ greatest test on the road to her true love, and if she came out of it, if they both came out of it, it would make their love more binding and stronger. If they passed this test, then maybe Lois and Clark’s story would be lasting and eternal, forever freeing it from campy comics and caricature, to live instead with the greatest love stories ever told.
***
Lois got to the Planet early the next day. When Abbey arrived, Lois had already drunk half the coffee canister and was asking for someone to brew some more.
<<What was she up to?>> Abbey wondered.
She peered at Lois’ desk, trying not to be obvious. Lois had a stack of archived photos of Superman on her desk, and the last two stories she had written about him before her editorial. She kept looking at the pictures, sighing with frustration, and then looking over at Clark’s desk.
“It can’t be true,” she whispered to the empty desk. Then looking back at the picture of Superman, “Can it?”
<<Poor Lois, she’s driving herself crazy.>> Abbey knew Lois needed absolute, irrefutable truth. She was terrified to believe the proof under her nose, because it would mean that the man she loved had truly abandoned her. Abbey could understand her not wanting to accept that, and knew that if Lois was persistent enough, she wouldn’t have to. But first she needed to get Lois and Superman in the same room together. Otherwise, Lois would never believe it, Clark would truly be gone, and their love story would simply disappear into oblivion. Abbey couldn’t let that happen.
“Have you tried to contact him?” Abbey asked.
Lois flashed angry eyes at Abbey. “This is none of your affair, Abbey. I’m sorry. Please, I appreciate your help, but this is my business.”
Abbey nodded, backing away. Abbey couldn’t confirm for her what she already knew. Superman’s identity was a well-kept secret in this world, not a part of pop-culture that everyone knew about. Abbey had to play that role, and simply be there to support Lois moving in the right direction.
“I’m sorry, Lois. I didn’t mean to pry. I just hope… I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
