Wow!!!
This is
very powerful... it makes me almost breathless with its intense emotions-- Jake's desperation and despair, and Lois's passionate and powerful words.
Poor Jake is so desperate to figure out how the woman in Superman's life copes that he is driven to call her. You portrayed her exactly right, and she put her finger on it, didn't she? It isn't that he doesn't love them, that he can't feel, it's that he's pushed it all so far away that he can't find his way back.
He isn't really focusing on invading Superman's privacy as much as he is focusing desperately on how they do it, how they cope. I think that if Jake is "fixable," he is probably going to be one of those people who quietly know "the secret" but don't act on that knowledge. As I said earlier, Jake is a reluctant samaritan, doing what he has to do for Superman because it's the right thing to do. He's not fully involved in his own life and his own reality, is not really living it-- he's just existing.
I'm also wondering how the children have been coping. They're still very young; possibly they aren't able to remember their mother. Jake refers more than once to the "years" since his wife died-- it could be just 2 or 3 years, I suppose. But if he's barely hanging on, just going throught the motions-- get up, feed them, get them to school, work, do chores, etc.-- are they existing in a barren world? No hugs? Or perfunctory ones?
I wonder if the sound of the child screaming will be a trigger-- I wonder if it's one of Jake's children. And if it is, and if there is a serious situation here, I wonder if it will be a breakthrough for Jake. And I wonder if Superman will end up being Jake's good samaritan in return-- if Clark is wincing with pain from the sound of the child screaming, it may mean he has enough powers now that he can help with whatever is going on, if the child needs saving...
Again, I loved the touches of humor. There's almost a whimsical feel to Jake's rambling thoughts as he picks up the suit and cape.
Very earthly fabrics. Surprising. I wondered why they didn't blow up when people threw bombs in his face? Shouldn't the spandex at least have had the little tell-tale fuzzies of wear?
And this--
Exasperation overtook me as she launched into another monologue, but I had caught up sufficiently with the conversation that I found the courage to interject. "Your lung capacity amazes me," I said with wonder.
He's still in there somewhere, the real Jake, the feeling one.
