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Chapter 4: The Club
As Clark prepared to use his key to open the gate, Lana asked, “Where did you get that? Isn’t Lionel Luthor in charge of the caves?”
“Yeah, he’s the official conservator of the caves according to the state, but Lex was the one who made sure I could get in whenever I want…not that a locked gate would stop me, but it’s nice to have an excuse should anyone else come out to visit while I’m here.”
Walking through the opened gate, Lana said, “I’ve never really spent any time down here, so it’s nice to have a guided tour from someone who has.”
“It’s pretty impressive, Lana,” Pete said. “Clark doesn’t bring me here often, but its…"
RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Clark slumped in pain, bringing his hands to his ears in a futile attempt to mute the high-pitched shriek. He hadn’t heard this sound in months, but had no trouble recalling what caused it.
“Clark, what’s wrong?” Lana yelled, while Pete grabbed Clark by the shoulders to keep him upright.
Struggling to speak through gritted teeth, Clark rasped, “The key…arrrrggh…it hurts. You two stay here…I’ll be back…gotta get the key!” In a flash, Clark was gone.
“What’s this key that Clark’s talking about, Pete?”
“It’s this octagonally-shaped metal disk that originally came with his spaceship. It seems to act like a…a link between Clark and…well, I better let him tell you that part.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah. Clark says when the key calls him, it produces a high-pitched shriek that can only be heard by him. He says it really hurts, but cuts off as soon as he gets to the key and it doesn’t cause any damage. As fast as he moves, he’s home already, so we should see him back pretty quickly.
“Anyway, Lana…welcome to the ‘I Know Clark’s Secret Club.’ I guess now that there’s two of us, we should come up with a secret handshake or something,” Pete chuckled. “I’m glad Clark finally grew himself a brain and told you." After looking off into the distance for a few seconds, Pete's eyes returned to Lana's and he said, "There are a few things about this secret you should know that probably haven’t occurred to Clark, seeing as how he lives inside the secret.”
“This sounds like an initiation. So…”
“While you’re the center of his world, and I like to think I’m fairly close to it...if Clark even thinks someone needs help that only he can provide, he’ll drop what he’s doing with you in a heartbeat to go to the rescue. You remember freshman year when you and Clark were going to that Radiohead concert? He left you at the Beanery ‘cause he knew Sean Kelvin was after Chloe. I didn’t mind ‘cause you let me have the limo, but he saved Chloe at the cost of losing his first chance with you.”
“I’d forgotten about that! So that’s what happened. That’s so…so…noble! Here’s this sweet guy I was starting to think about in a more-than-friendly way and he just abandoned me…I was so disappointed. I blamed him, and he would never say what happened.”
“He will always sacrifice his interests for the greater good, and at times that gets difficult to take, not knowing if you can count on him. Every once in a while you‘re really gonna want him to be selfish, to let some else handle the problem, but it‘s not gonna happen.
“Second, and this is something you may have experienced already, Clark is seriously overprotective when it comes to his friends. If he thinks were doing something dangerous or stupid, he’ll try and stop us, and he’s not above using his abilities to do so. The really annoying thing about that is, he’s usually right. Still, unless it’s a matter of life and death, I’d like the freedom to make my own mistakes. I mean, three parents is one too many for me.
"Third, this secret is much tougher to keep than you’d think. Every time he does something great, you want to tell the world about it. But not only do you have to keep it secret, you’re gonna have to lie to people about what really happened. Sometimes, a credible lie is unbelievably difficult to come up with.
"Finally, there’s jealousy. This is one I have a very rough time with myself. Why him? You begin to think of the things you’d be doing if you were from Krypton. Me? I be the star tailback and linebacker in the fall, star point-guard in the winter, and ace pitcher and clean-up hitter in the spring. The girls would be on me like white on rice. Lana, what I‘m saying is that there are times when it‘s very difficult to be next to Clark, ‘cause that means you‘re in his shadow…and you‘ll always be less than he is.
"If you need to talk about being a secret keeper, give me a call, I know what it's like...well, I’ve got a flashlight, let’s take a look inside while we wait for Speedy Gonzalez.”
Comments are always appreciated!
As Clark prepared to use his key to open the gate, Lana asked, “Where did you get that? Isn’t Lionel Luthor in charge of the caves?”
“Yeah, he’s the official conservator of the caves according to the state, but Lex was the one who made sure I could get in whenever I want…not that a locked gate would stop me, but it’s nice to have an excuse should anyone else come out to visit while I’m here.”
Walking through the opened gate, Lana said, “I’ve never really spent any time down here, so it’s nice to have a guided tour from someone who has.”
“It’s pretty impressive, Lana,” Pete said. “Clark doesn’t bring me here often, but its…"
RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Clark slumped in pain, bringing his hands to his ears in a futile attempt to mute the high-pitched shriek. He hadn’t heard this sound in months, but had no trouble recalling what caused it.
“Clark, what’s wrong?” Lana yelled, while Pete grabbed Clark by the shoulders to keep him upright.
Struggling to speak through gritted teeth, Clark rasped, “The key…arrrrggh…it hurts. You two stay here…I’ll be back…gotta get the key!” In a flash, Clark was gone.
“What’s this key that Clark’s talking about, Pete?”
“It’s this octagonally-shaped metal disk that originally came with his spaceship. It seems to act like a…a link between Clark and…well, I better let him tell you that part.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah. Clark says when the key calls him, it produces a high-pitched shriek that can only be heard by him. He says it really hurts, but cuts off as soon as he gets to the key and it doesn’t cause any damage. As fast as he moves, he’s home already, so we should see him back pretty quickly.
“Anyway, Lana…welcome to the ‘I Know Clark’s Secret Club.’ I guess now that there’s two of us, we should come up with a secret handshake or something,” Pete chuckled. “I’m glad Clark finally grew himself a brain and told you." After looking off into the distance for a few seconds, Pete's eyes returned to Lana's and he said, "There are a few things about this secret you should know that probably haven’t occurred to Clark, seeing as how he lives inside the secret.”
“This sounds like an initiation. So…”
“While you’re the center of his world, and I like to think I’m fairly close to it...if Clark even thinks someone needs help that only he can provide, he’ll drop what he’s doing with you in a heartbeat to go to the rescue. You remember freshman year when you and Clark were going to that Radiohead concert? He left you at the Beanery ‘cause he knew Sean Kelvin was after Chloe. I didn’t mind ‘cause you let me have the limo, but he saved Chloe at the cost of losing his first chance with you.”
“I’d forgotten about that! So that’s what happened. That’s so…so…noble! Here’s this sweet guy I was starting to think about in a more-than-friendly way and he just abandoned me…I was so disappointed. I blamed him, and he would never say what happened.”
“He will always sacrifice his interests for the greater good, and at times that gets difficult to take, not knowing if you can count on him. Every once in a while you‘re really gonna want him to be selfish, to let some else handle the problem, but it‘s not gonna happen.
“Second, and this is something you may have experienced already, Clark is seriously overprotective when it comes to his friends. If he thinks were doing something dangerous or stupid, he’ll try and stop us, and he’s not above using his abilities to do so. The really annoying thing about that is, he’s usually right. Still, unless it’s a matter of life and death, I’d like the freedom to make my own mistakes. I mean, three parents is one too many for me.
"Third, this secret is much tougher to keep than you’d think. Every time he does something great, you want to tell the world about it. But not only do you have to keep it secret, you’re gonna have to lie to people about what really happened. Sometimes, a credible lie is unbelievably difficult to come up with.
"Finally, there’s jealousy. This is one I have a very rough time with myself. Why him? You begin to think of the things you’d be doing if you were from Krypton. Me? I be the star tailback and linebacker in the fall, star point-guard in the winter, and ace pitcher and clean-up hitter in the spring. The girls would be on me like white on rice. Lana, what I‘m saying is that there are times when it‘s very difficult to be next to Clark, ‘cause that means you‘re in his shadow…and you‘ll always be less than he is.
"If you need to talk about being a secret keeper, give me a call, I know what it's like...well, I’ve got a flashlight, let’s take a look inside while we wait for Speedy Gonzalez.”
Comments are always appreciated!
I LOVE IT!!!IT'S AWESOME!!!great chapter! PPMS!!!
I mean, it's been 4 DAYS!! (Even 4Ever only makes us wait 3!
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