Nightfall Honeymoon TOCWhere we left off in Part 15...“Clark?” he heard a voice call out. Kal ignored it, hoping the person would think they were wrong.
“Clark Kent!” she called out again.
Kal winced. He wasn’t going to escape her was he? He slowed his gate and turned around to smile politely at the pretty brunette woman who was approaching him.
“I thought that was you,” she said.
Darn! She hadn’t been positive on his identity, he could have ignored her.
“Hello,” he said, hoping he could fake a short enough conversation with her and escape without her discovering that he had no idea who she was.
“But, then again, a girl doesn’t forget the first man who made her orgasm during breakfast.”
Part 16Kal’s eyes bugged. He had done
what with this woman? “Excuse me?”
She laughed and patted him on the arm, reassuringly. “What are you doing out and about without your memories, Clark?”
His jaw fell open this time. “Who
are you?”
She gave him a saucy smile and extended her hand. “Lucy Lane, your sister-in-law.”
Now that she had said that, he could see the familial traits in this woman's face. Kal tentatively shook her hand, before lowering his voice, “Are you saying that I cheated on Lois with you?”
Lucy gave a full-throated laugh. “Like either of us would be alive after such a scenario. Lois would have filleted us alive and hung our entrails on a staff as a warning to others.”
He blanched and gulped at her description. “So, you are saying that Lois gets jealous then?”
“She’s just a bit possessive of her belongings,” Lucy clarified.
Belongings? Kal liked the idea that he belonged with Lois. “Then that comment about breakfast…?”
She was laughing again. “Martha’s taught you a thing or two in the kitchen, Clark. You’re an amazing cook.”
Kal exhaled in relief. Lucy had been teasing the amnesiac. That seemed to be quite the hobby. He was relieved, but not at all amused. “I understand you are kind of, sort of dating Jimmy.” He might not have any memories, but he did remember everything since he had lost them.
Lucy shrugged. “He’s a sweet puppy.”
Poor Jimmy. He had liked the kid. But two very different women had described him as a puppy. Not good.
“So, Clark,” Lucy said, changing the subject. “What are you doing back at your old stomping grounds?”
His brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“Daily Books. This is where you and Lois met. She told me all about it the other night. She said that she worked the newsstand and you delivered books and magazines with MDS.”
Kal must have given her a blank look, because she went on. “Metropolis Delivery Service.”
“Ah.” Finally, he knew for what MDS stood. But this wasn’t exactly the same story Lois had told him the night before. “We met here?”
“Yeah, Jimmy introduced you two in the back room,” she replied with a jab of her thumb towards a door with a pushbutton lock on it. “Lois told me all about it.”
He felt bad that he hadn’t recognized Jimmy at all. Although, Jimmy hadn’t recognized him as Superman either, which was good. It had probably been for the best since Superman hadn’t officially met Jimmy until this morning. Could it be just a coincidence that Kal ended up at the same bookstore where Clark met Lois? Was his subconscious mind taking him to places familiar to him, hoping to nudge a memory or two free?
“Did she tell you why we got married so quickly?” he asked her. That little fact was driving him insane.
Lucy lowered her voice. “This probably isn’t the best place to be discussing your relationship with my sister.” She threw him a pointed look.
Did Lucy Lane know that he was Superman? Clark’s parents had said that most people didn’t know. As far as they knew only Lois, themselves, and Perry White knew. Had Lois told her sister? Had Clark’s folks told Lucy?
“Tell you what,” she went on. “I’ll help you find whatever it is you’re looking for and then I’ll clock out. We’ll go across the street and share this amazing lunch your mom packed for me. There is way too much food for just one person anyway. And I’ll tell you everything I know about your relationship with my sister. Okay?”
Kal was so ecstatic that he reached over and hugged her. “Thank you!”
“Okay. Okay,” Lucy said, pushing out of his embrace. “I’ve only met you the one time and… What the hell! You’re family.” She grabbed him again and hugged him. “Mmmm-mmmm. I definitely know why Lois married you.”
He stepped back away from her. He might not have known much at the moment, but he knew what she meant by that.
Lucy smiled innocently at him. “You hug divinely.”
Yeah, right, sure
that’s what she meant. He wasn’t buying it.
Her smile turned mischievous. “And Lois has always had a soft spot for men who could hug.”
Kal raised an eyebrow at this woman, not knowing whether or not he should trust her. Or was she just teasing the amnesiac again?
“What are you looking for? Let me guess? A map book of Metropolis? I recommend the Thomas Guide. They’re the best,” Lucy said, actually skipping backwards and yet not breaking eye contact with him.
How did Lucy do that? Without hitting anything? Did she have eyes on the back on her head? Kal cautiously followed this strange woman.
As far as he knew Clark was an only child; certainly Kal was an only Kryptonian child. He could hear himself telling Lois, “
I always wanted a brother or a sister.”
Then he could hear Lois’s voice inside his head, responding, “
You can have mine.”
A small smile hinted at the side of his mouth at this thought, this memory. He guessed Lucy was kind-of
his sister now too. He would be more careful what he wished for in the future.
Lucy stopped in the Local section and pulled said map book off the shelf, holding it up for him. “So you can’t get lost.”
He hadn’t been planning on buying a map book, but now that she had mentioned it, it sounded like a pretty good idea. At least for the short term. Long term, he could leave it in Lois’s car... if she had a car. She had been driving a car when she left Mazik’s Jewelry, so she must have a car.
So, he would leave the map book in Lois’s car, if she gave him another chance, that is. He wondered how much of a dense idiot he could be and still be forgiven by his wife? It wasn’t a theory he wanted to test. He smiled politely at Lucy and said, “Sold. But I actually came in to find a book my father mentioned was one of my favorites as a child… Peter Pan. Ever heard of it?” He glanced at her hopefully.
Lucy patted his cheek. “You are so adorable, I could just eat you up.”
Kal swallowed and took a step back away from her reach. “Never mind. I’m sure I’ll find it myself.”
“Wait!” Lucy told him. “I’m sorry, Clark. This whole brother/sister-in-law thing is all new to me. I’m not quite sure how to act. I don’t have much experience interacting with Lois’s beaux, you know. No, I guess you wouldn’t know. Well, she didn’t have very many of them.” Lucy returned to the main aisle and headed directly to the Children’s section. “Did you want a picture book, story book, movie tie-in, Disney version, or the play?” she asked.
“Huh?”
Lucy’s speed talking had him reeling. Kal hadn’t known anyone could talk that fast.
“Everyone knows who Peter Pan is, Clark.” Lucy smiled indulgently at him. “He’s the little boy, who never grew up.” They had reached the Children’s section now. “Picture books, I think, would be best. It was written by J. M. Barrie, and he gave all his proceeds from his play to a children’s hospital in London. I played Tiger Lily in the Smallville High School production.” She winked at him.
Lucy had completely lost him again and he tried to keep his polite smile on his face. He had only been listening with half an ear. His mind stuck on the fact that Lois hadn’t had many boyfriends. His sister-in-law scanned the large bookshelf and he found himself in awe at the selection of stories for children.
Finally, Lucy pulled out a book and held it up to him. “I think you’ll like this one. The pictures seem the most fantastic.”
Kal shifted the map book under his arm so he could look at the picture book with both hands. It seemed almost ridiculous to be researching his own trouble with flying by reading a children’s book, but as soon as he opened the book he was mesmerized. Fairies and pirates and Indians and mermaids and lost boys and the Darling children. He closed the book with a satisfied sigh.
“Happy thoughts and fairy dust,” he murmured to himself with a chuckle and a shake of his head. Then he realized that Lucy was still standing next to him, watching him. He cleared his throat. “I can see why I liked this story as a child.”
“Are you sure you don’t have a brother?” she asked him.
“I don’t think so. The Kents said that I was adopted. That I had been abandoned.” In a spaceship, but no need to harp on the details. “Why? Do I remind you of someone?” he asked as he handed the book back to her.
“Why don’t you buy it?” she suggested. “I’d buy it for you, but I’m flat broke.”
“I’m afraid I’m not much better off,” he admitted with a sigh. “I was fired from MDS this morning.”
“MDS?” Lucy seemed confused. “So what? Don’t you work at that newspaper of Mr. White’s… The Daily Planet?... now?”
“Do I? That’s what Cl… my father said, too. But… But…” He felt so lost. How could he be a newspaper reporter when he couldn’t even remember a world-famous children’s book? It would be like being a deliveryman without knowing the streets of Metropolis. Or a superhero who could not fly. Useless.
Lucy put the book back on the shelf and grabbed the crook of his arm, leading him from the Children’s section. “Come on. You can buy that book another time. Let’s get you the map book for today. I think it will be most helpful.”
After he had purchased the map book, with Lucy’s employee discount – thank you, new sister – Kal waited at the railing overlooking the ground floor as Lucy went to clock-out. As he stared downstairs at the newsstand – or what of it he could see from the third floor without using his x-ray vision – Kal imagined seeing Lois down there, wearing a white, lacy dress. He could see other men coming up and speaking with her, but for the most part she gave them the brush-off. Then Lois had looked up at him. There had been something in her expression that told him how much she loved him – and it wasn’t a little. And how if she could fly she would float right up to him and…
“Hi!” Lucy’s voice knocked him out of his daydream. “Ready?”
Kal swallowed, wishing Lucy had given him just a moment longer with his thoughts. As it was, the image drained away like water through his fingers. “Yes.”
Soon, they were sitting on the bench in the park across the street. Lucy pulled out a chicken sandwich from a cooler. “Would you like half?” she asked with a chuckle. “It’s way too much for me. I think Martha’s used to making your lunch, because…” She flipped open the cooler and showed him the Gatorade, huge bag of chips, and Ding Dong that had accompanied the sandwich.
It didn’t seem too large of a lunch to him. “Thank you,” Kal said as she handed him half the sandwich.
“Here. Take these too. After that breakfast this morning, I’m really not that hungry,” she said, tossing him the chips.
“Thank you,” he repeated, realizing that he hadn’t had breakfast this morning. “You’re too generous.”
Lucy winked at him. “You’re the only brother I’ve got. I’d like to keep you around for a while. I mean, Lois is great and everything, but I’ve always wanted a big brother.” She grinned. “And trust me, I’ve tried to trade Lois in, numerous times, but I’ve had no takers.”
Kal raised a brow, not knowing whether Lucy was joking or serious. He opened the bag of chips.
“I don’t have to tell you, right? I mean, you aren’t thinking of walking out on Lois, right?”
He blanched. He had already done that, hadn’t he? Walked out on Lois? All he wanted to do was walk back in. He didn’t know if he was going to be able to do that though.
“Because you’re the best thing that happened to Lois since…” Lucy paused in thought and then sighed. “Ever. She’s had a pretty rotten streak when it comes to guys.”
Kal couldn’t understand that. He envisioned men lined up for the chance to go out with Lois. Those big doe eyes. That killer body. Her smile. Her laugh. Her lightning fast wit and mind. Her refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer attitude. Not to mention the way words sounded together when she wrote. “You said you’d tell me why Lois married me,” he said, directing his sister-in-law from going down the wrong conversational path.
Lucy took a bite of her sandwich. “Because she loves you, of course.”
It wasn’t the answer he had expected, especially after her warning inside the store. He dipped his hand into the bag of chips and brought a couple of pieces of salty goodness to his lips. The next moment he felt his heart race as Lois replaced her sister on the bench next to him. He could feel the warmth of the sunshine and saw how it made Lois’s skin radiate beauty as it caressed her face.
As soon as he swallowed down the chips the image of Lois was gone. He reached his hand back into the bag as Lucy continued speaking, entirely unaware what was happening to the man next to her.
“I mean, if you were Superman, why Lois married you would be a completely different story, but since you’re not…” She shrugged. “There’s no other reason except love. I mean, it’s not like Lois is pregnant.” Lucy laughed and then covered her mouth as her eyes went big. “Ooops. I wasn’t supposed to know that.” She tossed him a huge, pleading grin. “Don’t tell Lois I told you.”
Kal raised an eyebrow. Those potato chips in his hand on the verge of bringing that sexy picture of Lois back to the forefront of his mind. But he wouldn’t let himself be distracted and he dropped the chips back into the bag. Lucy had brought up two topics that needed further evaluation. “Excuse me?”
Lucy leaned closer to him and whispered, “The first time you and my sister made love was on your wedding night.”
Kal gulped and felt a flush crawl up his neck to his face. “Oh.” Nope, he hadn’t known that.
Lucy certainly knew the details of his and Lois’s relationship he was missing. But he wasn’t sure he should be picking them up third-hand. His curiosity won out as he lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Why? Were we saving ourselves for marriage?”
Lucy seemed thrilled to fill in the missing pieces. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, I know Lois hadn’t and you?...” She looked him over from head to toes, then shook her head. “Nope. Impossible. You’re too cute not to have had some woman jump your bones at some point.”
He knew his cheeks must have reddened at this examination. If Linda King was anything to go by, Superman didn’t do so badly with the ladies…
only Superman hadn’t shown up until after Clark and Lois were already dating. The other little thing that Lucy had said about Superman was nagging to be asked, but Kal wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it without Lucy connecting him to the man in blue. Finally, he just said, “I’m loveable, but Superman isn’t?”
“No. No. No. I didn’t mean it like that. And this is all conjecture, mind you, because Lois loves you. Head-over-heels in love…”
Every time someone said those words to him he felt the rug being pulled out from under him again. Lois loved him and he accused her of not doing just that this very morning. He felt guiltier by the moment.
“What I meant was she’d marry Superman just because of his not being able to get hurt thing,” Lucy went on with a wave of her hand to wipe the idea out of the air.
“Invulnerability?” Kal’s jaw dropped. That didn’t make any sense and he told Lucy so.
“Well, it’s not important. She didn’t marry him, she married you. I was just saying if he were sitting on this bench at this moment instead of you…”
“Why do think Lois would want to marry a man who couldn’t be hurt? Is she violent? A deranged killer or something?” he asked, pulling the Gatorade out of the cooler and taking a large gulp. He knew his words couldn’t be true, but he had to know what Lucy had meant by saying Lois wouldn’t have married Superman for love.
“No. Of course not. But Lois… You see Lois…” Lucy pressed her lips together with a pained expression. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything, Clark. I don’t want you blaming Lois for…” His sister-in-law truly looked sick.
“What? Please, tell me. I love your sister more than anything. Please,” he was practically begging. Who was he kidding? He
was begging. “I only want to understand her better.”
Lucy sighed. “Okay. But promise me you won’t blame Lois for your memory problems.”
“My memory? That has nothing to do with Lois.” Kal had no idea where Lucy was headed.
“I told you that Lois hasn’t had a lot of experience with guys, right? Well, there’s a reason for this. She’s jinxed.”
“Jinxed?” Okay. That wasn’t what he expected either.
“You know, bad luck. Lois has dated three, maybe four, guys… well, dated is the wrong word. Slept with. The first one died.”
“Died?” he gasped. Wasn’t that what Linda had said? “Did she…?” He couldn’t believe the words had even formed in his head. Of course, Lois hadn’t killed him.
“Lois had nothing to do with it,” Lucy reassured him. “The guy got bitten by a snake while camping. Lois was devastated by the whole event. She blamed herself for some reason. The next guy was in college, the student editor of the university paper. Lois had gone to him when one of her so-called ‘friends’ stole an article she had been working on. The next day, he threw her off the school paper, accusing her of trying to sleep her way onto the front-page.”
Kal winced. Not quite the same story Linda had told him. He knew that there had been something off with Linda’s version of the events. Lucy’s third-hand account made much more sense. No wonder Lois didn’t want him speaking of Linda, to Linda, or – and he winced again – suggesting that Linda was the person he apparently pictured while making love to Lois. Not that he ever would. He set down his sandwich. Now he knew why Lois had gotten so upset with him the previous afternoon when he had made that comparison.
“I’m not sure Lois ever really dated the next guy. I mean, she told Mom they were dating and, well, that might have been just to shut Mom up. All of us at the high school had assumed Mr. Blank wasn’t interested in women, if you know what I mean.”
Kal did and nodded for her to continue.
“Anyway, they were like this…” She put two fingers next to each other. “They ate out, watched videos in together, went to high school plays together, and even sporting events. That sort of thing. At the end of the school year, he got an offer to teach at a private school in Kansas City. Lois told me that they had just been friends, but…” Lucy shrugged. “Lois might have just been covering the heartache in discovering her boyfriend wasn’t really her boyfriend after all. Or worse, that she had sent him off to bat for the other team. A woman’s worst nightmare.”
He realized when Lucy said that Lois had ‘bad luck’ with men, she really meant ‘horrible luck’. These were the men with whom Lois had shared herself? Opened up to? Made herself vulnerable to? He was beginning to think he fit along with this group just nicely. And it wasn’t a feeling he liked.
“Well, the last guy was some roving salesman that came into Smallville a couple of times a month. They started dating and one thing led to another… It turned out the guy was married. Lois only found out about it when he told her afterward. She was livid, as you can well imagine. Anyway, his wife left him. Lois blamed herself for the break-up of the guy’s marriage.”
“That wasn’t her fault. He sounds like a real creep to me,” Kal told her.
“You and me both,” Lucy agreed with a sneer.
“I still don’t understand why you’d think Lois would have married…” Kal wanted to say ‘me’, but there was a reason they hadn’t told Lucy he was Superman, even if he didn’t know what it was. He was suspecting it had to do with her tendency towards gossip. “Why would she have been attracted to his invulnerability?”
“This is totally my theory, mind you. But, in her mind, Lois killed that first guy – literally. Killed her aspirations and a man’s integrity with the second. Killed a man’s desires for women with the third. And killed a man’s marriage with the fourth.” Lucy sighed. “And, right about now, she’s probably thinking she killed your memories.”
“That’s not true!” Kal defended his wife.
“See why I could have seen her rush into a marriage with the Man of Steel, because every man she touches seems to die in some way or another.”
“And Superman is invulnerable and can’t get hurt,” Kal stated. That was a load of crock. An ache burned in the pit of his stomach. “What can I do, Lucy? To reassure Lois?” He was at a loss on how to be forgiven by a woman who had been hurt so badly in the past.
Lucy grabbed the Ding Dongs out of the cooler, tore open the package, and handed one to Kal. “A grand gesture. Lois needs to see that you see a future for the two of you, even if you can’t see the past.”
Kal bit into the chocolaty cupcake, savoring the whipped cream center. A grand gesture, huh? He needed to tell Lois that no matter what, he wanted them to be together. For better or worse. In sickness and in health. That he loved her with or without his memories. He nodded. That was something he could do. How? That was another dilemma.
Lucy dusted off her hands. “I’ve got to head back to work. Do you want me to call Lois to come pick you up? Or Jimmy? Or the Kents?” she asked.
He patted the bag with his new map book inside. “I think I can find my way home now. Lois is probably busy at the Daily Planet anyway. I wouldn’t want to bother her.” Truthfully, he wanted to consider how to show Lois his ‘big gesture’ first.
“Okay. Good luck,” Lucy said with a wave. She dashed quickly across the street to the store. She turned and waved at him once more from the door before disappearing inside.
Lucy may have taken the cooler with her but she had left him with the Gatorade, chips, and the last few bites of his half of the sandwich. Without thinking, Kal pulled a handful of potato chips out of the bag and started to nibble on them.
Suddenly, that image of Lois sitting next to him in the sunshine was back. They were both sitting on this bench, having lunch. She had been eating potato chips too. He watched as her hand had dipped into the bag and the chips were brought to her lips. Then her tongue had come out of her mouth and licked her lips. He hadn’t blamed it in the least. He had wanted to lick those lips as well.
Lois had sighed. “There’s something about the rain – heavy rain – like we had the other night…” She had shivered.
Kal had continued to watch her, wondering if it had been him that had scared her when he had rescued her that night in the rain.
“But the sun,” Lois had continued. “The sun, like this, recharges my batteries. Makes me feel like I can take on the world. Do you know what I mean?”
He knew exactly what she had meant. He had felt an impulse to pull Lois into his arms and kiss her, but he had resisted. “Yeah,” he had finally replied, leaning his back against the bench. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Then one after another of her fingers had disappeared into her mouth to suck off the salt.
Kal moaned to himself as he remembered making love to his wife the previous night. He couldn’t think of anything else as he slowly, painstakingly, ate chip after chip just to keep that memory of Lois at the forefront of his mind. Him in the present and Lois – all those weeks earlier – ate that entire bag of chips together.
***
Friday – Mid-AfternoonLois handed the cashier her credit card with her lips pressed together. So much for having paid down her bill last month. If this kept up, she would start seriously considering accepting that settlement offer from Lexco for Lex kidnapping her a couple of weeks ago. But she didn’t want Lexco to think she owed them – or that they owned her as a journalist – by accepting said offer. As it was there was only about a grand left from the wedding money her father had given her. She heard a strange beeping noise emerge from her purse.
“Sounds like your beeper,” said the salesman and Lois’s heart jumped into her throat.
Clark!“May I borrow your phone?” she asked, pulling out the beeper and glancing at the number. She showed the salesman the number and he dialed. He owed her that much after the purchase she had just made.
“Daily Planet. James Olsen speaking,” said Jimmy on the other end of the line.
“Jimmy! Did Clark call?”
“Yeah. That was quick, Lois. Yeah. It was really funny. When I said that you weren’t here he asked to speak to me or Perry. Do you think he’s gotten his memory back?” Jimmy asked.
“I can only hope so,” Lois replied. “What did he say?” She pulled out a notepad and a pen and wrote down the address Clark had left for her.
***
Lois climbed up the last flight of stairs and paused outside the double set of glass doors. As much as she wanted to run inside, she took a deep breath. Her husband owed her an explanation before she ran into his arms.
Don’t you mean an apology?She opened the door. Clark and some portly man stood in the middle of a very dusty, extremely dirty, run-down room cluttered with debris. She had been expecting Clark to be alone and the addition of this other man threw her.
“What
is this place?” she asked with disgust.
Weren’t you going to stay quiet until he apologized?Clark ignored her question and introduced her to the man next to him. “Floyd, this is my wife, Lois.”
Floyd looked back and forth between them. “How about I give you a few minutes?” the man said with a jingle of old fashioned keys.
Lois passed him on the steps leading from the front door down to room where Clark stood.
At the door, Floyd sighed and said in a mock-optimistic tone, “Take all the time you need, even the weekend. My wife’s cousin is getting married on Sunday and we’ll be busy with that.” Then he rolled his eyes like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to be doing during the last weekend of September.
Take all the time to do what? Leave?“Thank you, Floyd,” Clark said, resting his hand on the decorative end of the banister. It came off in his hand. “Would you mind if we made a few repairs?”
Floyd looked at the knob. “I guess not,” he said before shutting the door behind him.
Repairs? Can’t we just condemn the place and go home?Clark set down the knob and spread out his arms in a ta-da manner, a big grin stretched from one ear to the other. “So, what do you think?”
*** End of Part 16 *** Part 17G Comments
