We find out at the press conference that an asteroid is heading straight to Earth. They are vague on the details, but I watch Lois as her eyes light up with excitement.
She turns to me, grabbing my arm, “Clark, there has to be more to this story… there’s something they’re not telling us about this Nightfall asteroid, and we’re going to find out what it is!” I can see her fervor for the story and it fascinates me. This is the famous Mad Dog Lane who would go to any length to hunt down a story. She’s a sight to behold, that’s for sure, a force of nature.
They dismiss us and Lois rushes off to call in the story. I’m suddenly stopped by a man with a grim expression on his face. “Mister Kent, might I have a moment?” he says.
I nod, and he pulls me aside from the rush of reporters around us. “I understand the Daily Planet has a ‘special’ relationship with Superman.”
I try to be neutral as I respond. “We’ve gotten our share of exclusives.”
“Can you get a message to him?”
“I can try,” I answer, wondering where this is going.
“I need to see him. Here. This evening.” He looks desperate as he requests, this and I’m wondering what exactly they want me to do. “Please,” he adds before rushing off.
Lois comes up to me, and again I’m awed by the fact that she’s actually still here with me. “What did he want?” she asks, gesturing to the man with whom I had just spoken.
I am hesitant, as I’m still uncertain how much she knows about me. “He was, uh, saying what a fan he is of our Superman coverage.”
She looks at me skeptically. “Well, all I know is that this asteroid is going to be front-page news. So let’s head back to the Planet, and I’ll show you how a real reporter does the news!”
*~\S/~*
I watch Lois as she types, captivated by her concentration and her unwitting feminine charm. I still don’t know how long this little wish of mine will last, but I can only hope that it will be forever. That I’ll always have Lois Lane by my side. I muse over how we have found ourselves in this situation – she obviously just sees me as a partner. And though I am delighted beyond words that she is here with me, I’d give anything to see that light of love in her eyes that I saw that first day I met her in my world, even if it was for him, that other Clark. My heart races, wondering if I’ve somehow been given a second chance with her – will we have the time to really get to know one another, to fall in love with each other?
She suddenly looks up from her keyboard and rolls her eyes. “Clark, would you stop staring into space? Now, this story is almost ready to send to Perry – did you get the name of spokesperson who debriefed us from EPRAD? I thought I had it in my notes but—“
“Dr. Llewellyn Mayfield,” I happily supply, glancing at my own notes.
“Thanks,” she says, as she finishes typing.
I nod and suddenly realize something. I have been so caught up in Lois, that I haven’t heard a single siren or call for help all day. This isn’t normal, as I usually have to duck out of the newsroom at least a couple times of day. But I haven’t heard a thing…
I suddenly decide to listen, panicked that I might have missed something important. I strain to hear anything outside the range of the bullpen, but my hearing doesn’t intensify. I simply hear the noises that surround me—Lois’ typing, the ringing phones around the newsroom, the shuffling of papers. But nothing that would require superhearing… I’m suddenly more than a little disconcerted. I pull down my glasses to x-ray the aluminum filing cabinet – but my eyes have no x-ray vision! I try to stay calm, thinking back to if I had been exposed to Kryptonite earlier… had the people running the funhouse known my weakness?
I stand up abruptly and Lois looks at me with a scoffing smile. “Whoa, hold your horses there, Clark. Where you headed?”
“Um…” I stammer, thinking. “I – just remembered a lead I need to follow up on. I’ll be back in a little while.”
I head to the elevator, my heart pounding. The two minutes it takes to ride to the ground floor seem interminable. At last, I arrive, and I head out the door and around the corner to a nearby alley.
I spin around – but not at superspeed. I finally accept what I knew in the newsroom – my powers are *gone*.
*~\S/~*
I look at myself despondently in the men’s room mirror. <<Was it a trade?>> I ask myself. Did somehow wishing to see Lois Lane again mean I had to give up my powers, give up being Superman?
My words suddenly come back to me, taunting me. “I would give anything to see Lois Lane again.” And by anything, the fates that be had chosen to take away my powers.
I realize am still wearing the Suit, though, as I peek under my shirt to be sure. Superman hasn’t entirely vanished, but my powers disappearing cannot be explained. I can only hope that I *was* somehow exposed to Kryptonite, and that my powers would return soon. I suddenly remember the meeting I promised to have later with EPRAD’s scientist. He expects to speak with Superman about the asteroid. My stomach drops as I wonder if they will expect me to do something about it – and here I am, as helpless as any regular man.
I pull myself together and head back to the bullpen. My eyes drink their fill of Lois Lane and I wonder how my world got so quickly turned upside down. Here I have the love of my life before me again, and yet I am lost without my ultra-ego.
I’m suddenly reminded of that old adage: “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
Lois glances up from her work as I come back to my desk. “Clark? Your father called while you were out,” she says casually. “Jimmy put a note on your desk.”
I feel as if I’ve just been stomach-punched. My father? I lost my parents when I was ten, in a car accident. And Lois mentions my father as if he’s alive and well, and that it’s normal for my father to call me at work.
I pick up the phone, recalling the number to the Kent farm – a phone number I haven’t used in over fifteen years.
The phone rings twice, and a woman answers. “Hello?”
I know her voice. It’s my mother. I never thought I would ever hear her again. I feel tears constrict my throat and know I must say something, anything before she hangs up, thinking I’m a prank caller.
I clear my throat and say, “Hi, Mom… um, did Dad call?” Those words feel wonderfully strange in my mouth.
“Clark? Are you all right?” she asks, and I’m surprised by how she can know in just a few words whether or not I’m okay. How like my mother…
“Yeah, Mom, I’m—“ but I stop, remembering that my powers are gone. “Well, I’m all right, but I’m not – super,” I say, hopeful that she will understand the implication.
“Oh, Clark… it’s not, the K stuff again?” she asks, and I wonder when and where she and --dare I say myself?—formed a shorthand for Kryptonite. I almost sigh in relief. Mom knows what Kryptonite is, and most assuredly knows I am Superman. I feel a rush of emotion, wondering what it would have been like to have grown up with parents who knew what I was capable of, and never fearing me like my fosters, but only encouraging me.
“No,” I answer at last. “It’s a bit more complicated than that…”
“Well, Clark, I’m sure you’ll be all right. Jonathan!” she suddenly calls. “Pick up, it’s Clark!”
Suddenly I hear my father’s voice say hello. I can’t believe my ears. My parents, alive, and talking to me.
“Son, what do you know about this asteroid heading to Earth?” my father asks. I try to concentrate on his words, but I am momentarily overwhelmed by just the sound of his voice.
“I uh, well, we were debriefed at EPRAD earlier... Dad, they want to see Superman later – but, I’m not feeling particularly super at the moment,” I say carefully, aware of the eyes and ears in the office. This is a delightfully novel experience for me – hiding being Superman and talking to my parents. I feel renewed energy at this turn of events, able to explore the world in a new light – even if it’s without my powers.
My father’s voice is reassuring and calm on the other end. “Clark, I’m sure everything will be fine. Go to EPRAD tonight and find out what we’re up against. And remember son, we’re here for you.”
I hang up the phone, awed by the caring support in my father’s voice. I look up to talk to Lois, and I notice something very strange. About to step out of the elevator is *me*. His eyes meet mine and he looks just as perplexed as I feel, but he stays where he is. I hurriedly move to the elevator and step in. The door closes and he pulls the stop on the elevator and we stare at each other a moment.
“You’re—“ he says, puzzled.
“I’m—“ I say, equally puzzled.
Suddenly, the answer hits me. Somehow the wish I made sent me to that parallel universe that Lois had came from. The man before me is the Clark Kent that I’ve envied – the one who has his Lois Lane to love, even if neither of them know it yet. I feel sick to my stomach and look away from his gaze.
“Do you know what’s going on here?” he asks cautiously.
I nod. “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy, but yeah… Clark, have you ever heard of a parallel universe?”
“In theory, I suppose.” He sighs, “But I guess *you* being here sort of makes that theory a reality, huh?”
I nod weakly.
“How did you get here? Do you know what happened?”
I feel shame for myself, a rare emotion. I can’t confess my sin, that I wished to see Lois again, but I have to give him some explanation so he can help me get back. Because obviously, I can’t stay here, as much as it breaks my heart. She is not my Lois—she’s his. This is not my world.
“I made a wish… a selfish wish that I had no right to make.”
He looks at me with compassion. I see the Superman in him that I wish I could become. I see the kind man that his parents had raised, and I feel that missing part of myself acutely.
“Where exactly are you from?” he asks, and he looks at me as if I’m a brother. His kind gaze is my own and I feel the urge to cry, unable to understand the injustice of my life – when my doppelganger seems to have it all worked out.
“From a world much like yours… only… I—lost my parents when I was ten in a car accident. And… I never had a chance to work with Lois Lane. She was—lost in the Congo a year before I came to work at the Planet,” I say, and I can see that he understands my pain, as he understands fully what I have lost.
He grabs my shoulder and squeezes it in a brotherly gesture. “I’m so sorry, Clark.”
I accept his sympathy, even as I resist resenting it. He means well, and I know his empathy for me is genuine – he is *me*, after all.
But I suddenly recall the situation with the asteroid. Since I was with Lois all morning, I’m not sure how much he knows. And I assume that since I don’t have my powers, he probably has his.
“Clark, do you know about the Nightfall asteroid?” I ask.
“I saw the eclipse this morning. But I’ve been off on rescues all day…”
“I went with Lois to the press conference. They aren’t saying much, but Superman’s presence is requested at EPRAD this evening. Clark, I think they want—you to stop it.”
He sighs resignedly and then looks askance at me, “Wait, do you have—powers?”
“In my world I do,” I answer wryly. “But they’ve been MIA since I ended up here.”
He nodded, “Well, at least it will help keep the myth alive that Superman and Clark are two different people.”
“You’re so lucky,” I mutter, despite myself.
“Why?” he asks.
“Because in my world, everyone knows my secret.”
He looks at me thoughtfully a moment. “I always wondered what it would be like if the world did find out… how bad is it?”
“Well, I don’t have a personal life… and I don’t have a Lois Lane to help me through it all.”
“I don’t exactly ‘have’ Lois,” he says. “She practically worships Superman, and I’m just her green jeans partner,” he shakes his head despondently. “I don’t know if she’ll ever see the real me.”
I see his vulnerability for the first time – the guy who is me and who I think has it all sorted. I realize he’s trying to figure this out as he goes, just like me. I also realize that I can help him.
“Clark, I learned about Lois because a future version of herself came to me… she helped me create Superman.”
Clark looks at me in shock. “She—what?”
I nod, “She and the writer HG Wells came to me—and she helped me become Superman – because of you. Give her time, Clark. You two are meant to be together,” I finish. Even though I envy him at times, it feels good to share that with him.
“Thanks…” He smiles. Suddenly he super spins into the Suit, and I finally get what Lois was talking about this Clark’s quick change. Spinning is much better than stepping into a closet!
“I guess I should head to EPRAD. Keep Lois company, will you?”
