Lois didn’t know why she’d been called to the warden’s office, but she wasn’t about to mess up her record by being stupid this close to her release date. She walked through the open door with only a few shreds of concern tickling her mind and stood before the warden’s desk. The woman behind the desk stood and smiled. “I’m glad you decided to come by, Ms. Lane."
“I’m still an inmate of the federal corrections system, Mrs. Leeds. I go wherever you want me to go.”
“Not for long, though. Please, sit down. I want to have a chat with you before you leave us.”
Not for long! Soon she’d be out of this prison! It wasn’t the same hard time Lex was serving in Leavenworth, waiting for the appeals to stop his execution to run out, but it was prison just the same. Despite two years of iron-fisted self-control, two years of not allowing her emotions to show, two years of not letting anyone know what was in her heart and mind, she nearly cried out with anticipation.
Lois settled into the armchair as soon as the warden sat. “Yes, ma’am.”
Mrs. Leeds opened a file in front of her. “Ms. Lane, you have assembled one of the finest records I’ve ever seen in the system. In only two years with us, you’ve been credited with revitalizing our adult education process and taught a number of very productive classes for our unfortunate ladies. Since you arrived, we’ve had sixty-three graduates receive their high school equivalency diplomas, nine who have completed bachelor’s degrees in various majors, and two who have earned master’s degrees. You’ve also enlisted the aid of over a dozen inmates in your endeavor, almost all of whom have improved their own records in remarkable fashion. I almost hate for you to leave us.” She shut the folder and smiled at Lois again. “And while it’s not in your official record, I know that you talked at least three different women who planned to take their own lives down from that decision. I cannot commend you enough for the grit and resiliency you’ve shown all of us. Your example will shine on in this institution for years, and the women you’ve helped during your stay will benefit the most when they gain their respective releases.”
Lois was uncomfortable with the praise. No volume of good works she could perform would ever balance the scales for her ex-husband, the crap-eating rat snake, and all the evil he’d visited on the world.
But, as her grandmother had told her long ago, you got to bloom where you’re planted.
“Thank you, Mrs. Leeds. I hope someone can continue the classes here.”
“Oh, I can promise you that they’ll continue. I’ve just received word that the Bryan State Community College will take over the administration of the classes you’ve set up, and they plan to add more as soon as there’s enough interest. I’ve always believed that we need to show these women how to live outside the corrections system, not just tell them to obey the law when they get out. With your fine example before them, I think we’re going to have a model system that other wardens will want to copy. You’ll end up helping more than just the women in Bryan.”
Lois drew her body inward and shifted uncomfortably in the chair. “Again, thank you. May I ask when my release will be complete?”
“I have the paperwork right here.” Mrs. Leeds opened a second folder and frowned at it. “No, that’s not right,” she murmured.
Lois froze and panicked at the same instant. She wasn’t getting out! They were just playing with her! They were going to keep her locked up like a performing seal and bring her out to show her off when—
“That’s next week’s grocery requisitions. Ah, here we are.”
Mrs. Leeds opened a third folder and turned it around to show Lois, who finally remembered to inhale. “If you’ll just sign at the bottom where it says ‘Inmate Signature,’ you’ll be ready to walk out as soon as your suitcase is packed and you change out of your prison gray into your street clothes. Here’s a pen.”
Lois closed her eyes for a moment and got her breathing under control. She was getting out! They were really going to let her leave! She could go—
Where?
Wherever she wanted, as long as she obeyed the law. This was a release, not a parole. Her sentence was complete and she’d served the minimum with the rest discounted for good behavior. There would be no restrictions on her actions beyond those attached to any convicted felon. She’d paid her debt to society and was free to do as she wished.
Once again she questioned the wisdom of taking the plea deal the prosecutor had dangled before her. Two to five years in minimum security, he’d told her, or take your chances with a jury right after her ex-husband had been sentenced to death. It was a slam dunk for the government, he’d said. Juries are unpredictable, he’d told her. Take the deal or risk hard time until she was nearly eligible for retirement, he’d threatened. Her attorney, a green public defender on his second case, had reluctantly advised her to accept.
She’d taken the deal. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now? Not so much.
In theory, she could go anywhere she wanted as soon as she walked outside the prison walls. In practice, her choices were limited. She had no transportation, no money other than the maximum federal release stipend of five hundred dollars, no job prospects, no resume, and no one waiting for her. She could apply to a halfway house or for other post-release assistance, but she didn’t want to unless she had no other choices.
And maybe she didn’t have any other choices. She was alone with a cheap dress, a small suitcase, a few basic makeup items, a hairbrush, a travel bottle of shampoo, a toothbrush and small tube of toothpaste, and two changes of underwear. Not much to show for doing the right thing.
She mentally shook herself. So you’re alone! What else did you expect? You can’t be surprised by all this!
The pen didn’t wobble as she signed the last of the paperwork.
“Thank you, Ms. Lane. And even though you didn’t ask, I can tell you that your application to have your criminal record expunged is being processed by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.” Mrs. Leeds lifted a thin binder. “And I’m going to personally submit this addendum to your application detailing your good works and even better results to the court. I can’t promise you what they’ll decide, of course, but my affidavit does carry a bit of weight, and your prospects look very good.”
Lois smiled thinly. “Thank you. If that’s all, I’d like to see the outside of these walls as soon as I’m allowed.”
Mrs. Leeds stood and shook Lois’ hand again. “Of course. If you want to wait for the bus, we’ll give you a ride into town. Bryan, Texas may not be Metropolis, but I’m reliably informed that it beats a cot in this institution all to pieces, whatever that means.”
*****
Lois had hoped that Corrections Officer Janice would not be the one to open the prison door for her. Officer Janice was one of the guards who, despite working at a minimum security facility, liked to rule the inmates under her “care” with an iron fist. She was quick to use her baton and slow to listen. Lois had earned a modicum of trust from some of the other tough guards there, but according to the wardroom buzz, Janice hadn’t so much as smiled around any of the inmates since she’d joined the staff five years earlier.
Lois had never heard if Janice was the woman’s first name or last. And she refused to risk putting the question to her.
And, of course, Corrections Officer Janice’s was the last face Lois saw as she trudged out of the main gate to board the bus to town. The guard sneered at her and muttered, “We won’t see you here again, honey. Next time you screw up it’ll be Leavenworth or something worse.”
Lois avoided Janice’s gaze and nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” she muttered. “I understand.”
She refused to give the sadistic harpy any excuse to delay those final few steps to freedom.
Officer Janice glared at the top of Lois’ bent head, then pulled the door open and stood close by. She didn’t speak as Lois passed her, but she did growl low in her throat, much like a leopard guarding a fresh kill.
Not until the door clanged shut behind her did Lois release the breath she’d been holding.
The bus looked empty as she walked toward it. Bryan, and the prison near it, were in south Texas, and the early summer temperature was already past eighty despite the late morning hour.
She stopped at the door, hoping the driver would show up soon. The bus was uncomfortable at any time, and the longer it sat in the sun the higher the internal temperature would climb. The only relief was what the inmates called “twenty by fifty cooling,” meaning all twenty of the windows open as the bus raced down the highway at its maximum speed of fifty miles per hour. She’d get to town with her hair windblown and—
“Hey! Need a ride?”
The voice came from the behind her, near the back of the bus. She turned her head and glimpsed a tall man leaning against the rear fender. “I have a ride, thanks.”
The man chuckled and the sound tickled her memory. “Yeah, but I doubt they plan to stop at Arby’s for you. I hear the jamocha milk shakes there are terrific.”
Jamocha shakes?
She looked closer. It – it couldn’t be!
Maybe – maybe it could—
Her feet took a shaky step on their own. “Clark? Is – is that you?”
“None other than Clark Kent himself, the man, the myth, the legend.”
“But – but you’re not supposed to be here! You gave me your word!”
He tilted his head to one side. “I gave you my word that I wouldn’t come to see you in prison. I didn’t. You’re no longer in prison, so here I am.”
“But – you – I – how did you know—”
He laughed. “I did some checking on your release date, and I just happened to be in the area today, so I decided to drop in.”
Lois didn’t know whether to laugh with him or snarl at him. “You – you just happened to be in the area?”
“Yep. Hey, the offer of a ride is still open.”
She gestured vaguely at the bus. “I – as soon as the driver shows up, I’ll have a ride.”
“Ah, but not like this.” He waved at her to follow him and walked behind the bus.
Lois hesitated. If he were an illusion, an hallucination, she didn’t want to know, didn’t want him to disappear before her eyes. But – he sounded so real! If he were really there she wanted to see him, to touch him, to lean against his firm frame—
His head appeared around the rear of the bus. “You coming or staying?”
Okay, maybe he was real. And she had to see what was over there. A limo, maybe? Or just a luxury car?
She all but raced around the corner and saw it.
The blue-trimmed Mustang II. The Farrah Special.
The car glistened in the sunlight, as sleek and spotless as the day Lois had first seen it. “Oh!” she cried. “She’s still so beautiful!”
Clark stepped to the passenger door and opened it with a flourish. “Your chariot awaits, Madame. As does your midday repast at the restaurant of your choice.”
She tottered toward the car, then changed direction and grabbed Clark in a bear hug. She laughed through sobs as he returned her embrace and patted her on the back. “It’s okay, Lois. I’m here. I’ll stay here until you tell me to go away.”
Without looking at him, she said, “Please don’t go! Please stay!”
He spoke as if his voice were velvet. “I’ll stay. I promise.” His hesitant hand stroked her hair twice as if he were afraid she’d get spooked and run. “Are you hungry?”
She nodded without letting go of him.
He stood, holding her steady, anchoring her in reality and fantasy all at once, until he chuckled and said, “I can’t drive with you latched on to me like a lamprey.”
She laughed, then stepped back and slapped his massive chest once. He offered her a handkerchief and she blew her nose with it. “I want to drive! I want to see if she’ll hit warp ten and hold it on the highway!”
He smiled. “Sorry, but no. Your driver’s license is no longer valid, so I will have to chauffer you around until you get legal.”
“Don’t tempt me, flatfoot. You might end up with a long-term assignment.” She slid into the bucket seat and adjusted it as Clark all but skipped to the other side. She buckled her seat belt and leaned back against the leather headrest. “Ohh, I could really get used to this.”
His eyes felt good on her. She could get used to that, too, she mused.
As Clark turned the key and the engine purred to life, she said, “You know, we heard some stuff about Superman on the inside. Seems like he’s a real goody-two-shoes kind of guy.”
He shifted into first and accelerated smoothly. “Boots.”
“Huh?”
“Superman wears these calf-high red boots. And a bright blue body suit, red cape, and a stylized capital ‘S’ in a yellow and red emblem on his chest.” He shook his head and shifted gears. “His mother made it for him.”
“His mother – you’re kidding – wait, no you’re not, of course you’re not kidding.”
“Nope.”
“Wow. She must be a really wonderful lady.” Lois let out a long sigh and stretched out her legs. “I’d like to meet her someday.”
“She’d like to meet you, too.”
He hit third gear. If she hadn’t seen him shift, she might not have felt it. Her voice squeaked a little. “Really? She wants to – to meet me?”
He grinned and glanced over at her. “She said she wants to meet the woman I’ve been talking about for two years, because anyone I fixate on for that long has to be a good person.”
Her eyes shifted to the brush beside the road. “I don’t know about that.”
She barely felt him shift to the top gear as he answered. “You’ll have to let her be the judge of that. Assuming, of course, that you want to meet her.”
Lois watched the ground roll past for a few moments, then said, “Does she still live in Smallville?”
“Yep. I don’t know that I could move her out of that house if I tried. She loves it there. Says there are too many good memories for her to leave now.”
Good memories, she thought. I could use some. “Any good job prospects up there for a former jailbird?”
He grinned without looking at her. “A few. I can check around if you’d like. I’m pretty sure the local community college has a few openings on their faculty.”
She cut her eyes at him. “Sounds like you’ve been checking up on me.”
He lifted one hand in a “not-me” gesture. “Hey, I’m just trying to let you know what your options are. The teaching thing assumes, of course, that you don’t decide to get a jump on all those literary vultures and write your own story for publication. And, I have been assured, for a very nice profit.” He chuckled and eased into a curve. “That would teach those fumble-fingered loose-with-the-facts clowns not to mess with Lois Lane.”
Of course. She could write her own story, tell the truth her way, let people know that despite being a fool and an idiot and a blind squirrel that couldn’t find an acorn, she’d managed to help bring down the biggest criminal enterprise of the last half-century. They’d learn about Lex, how he’d threatened everyone around her, how he’d had Lucy murdered, how he’d beaten her and cowed her and—
Enough of that! she told herself. You can check into a Motel 6 until your money runs out or you can meet Clark’s mom and get a job there and write in your spare time. Maybe you could get a big enough advance to pay rent to Mrs. Kent, assuming they could get along together.
The decision all but made itself. “All right, Clark, Smallville it is.”
The car jiggled on the road for an instant, then straightened. “Sorry. You surprised me a little by agreeing so quickly.” Then his brow drew down and he sounded worried. “You mean that? You’re not just agreeing because you think I want you to?”
“No, I want to meet her. She sounds really nice. And I think it would be good for me to spend some time around as few people as possible for a while.”
He blew out a long breath. “I’m glad to hear you say that. And I need to confess that I did have another motive for picking you up at the front gate.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Seems that I’m not the only one who heard about your release. The feds wouldn’t let the press come to the prison to talk to you, so there are a dozen or more reporters and authors and TV news anchors waiting to ambush you in town as soon as you step off the bus. I plan to take you around the town on some back roads to the north side for lunch.”
She looked at him and smiled. “Once again, you’ve saved me from a terrible fate. That’s getting to be a habit with you.”
“Not a bad habit, I hope.”
She took his hand from the shifter and squeezed it gently. “Not bad at all. Hey, what about all the time you’re missing from your job?”
He smiled. “It’s so like you to be concerned about me. I’m really deeply affected.”
“Ha-ha and hardy-har-har. Wait, I think I broke a rib laughing. No, really what about it? You’re still a Metro detective, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m on a leave of absence for the next seven weeks. I went undercover for almost a year after we last saw each other – it was an investigation into Intergang, one you actually pointed us to with your testimony – and they weren’t too happy when I took the witness stand in open court. There were some threats made, one guy tried to ambush me with a knife about a month ago, and I took a bomb out of Farrah last week. So my boss sent me out of town to keep me out of Intergang’s crosshairs.”
Lois took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m glad you found that bomb. I wouldn’t have liked it if they’d wrecked Farrah.”
He gave her a mock-angry glare. “As I said, your concern for me is most touching.”
“Like you were in any danger.” She sat up and looked around. “So where is this fabled Arby’s you mentioned? And it better have Jamocha shakes!”
“I checked yesterday. They have them. Curly fries, too.”
“Good. I’m getting hungry. You’d better find it quick or you might lose a couple of fingers.”
He laughed. “Give me fifteen minutes and you shall feast, milady.”
She released his hand and leaned back again. The prison where she’d spent the last two years was a minimum security facility, one with no solitary confinement and no real punishments. Four women had misbehaved badly enough to be transferred to other facilities while Lois had served her sentence. Those who remained and followed the rules were given privileges not available at other prisons.
But it was still a prison. The inmates still had few real liberties. She had still been confined against her will.
No longer.
She was riding with a police detective from Metropolis, but not because she was under arrest or because he was protecting her life. It was her choice. He made it an easy choice, sure, but he hadn’t tried to force her or coerce her or even convince her to make it. He’d simply presented himself and his beautiful car to her and allowed her to make her own call.
Compared to the last seven years of her life, with her marriage to Lex, her prison time, and not counting the previous trip with Clark, this was truly paradise.
“How long before we get to your mom’s place?”
“Hmm. I think we’d better plan on one overnight stop. Oklahoma City is about halfway there by time and distance, so that would be a good place. Plus there are some nice hotels there.”
“Great.” She thought for a moment, then hesitantly asked, “Uh – would you mind – would it be a problem if – if we had separate rooms?”
“No, not at all. I thought you’d want that anyway.”
“It’s not because I don’t trust you, Clark, or anything like – I just – I need to be alone tonight.”
“Not a problem. You can even pick the floor this time, assuming they have an empty room there.”
She smiled, then laughed with him. He was as wonderful as her memories had insisted he was. It was going to be a good trip.
Maybe – just maybe – she still had a chance at a good life. And maybe – just maybe – that life would include Clark Kent in some way.
She smiled to herself as she suddenly remembered the story of Jacob and Rachel from the Old Testament. Because of the deal he’d made with her dad to marry her, Jacob had spent fourteen years as Rachel’s father’s partner in a sheep ranch, and because he loved her so much the time had just flown by. If she’d known that the past two years would end with her riding beside Clark in his car again, those years would have seemed like just a few days.
She found herself thinking about the seven weeks Clark had said were left in his leave time. And that he’d planned to spend it in Smallville.
Where she would be.
A tear of joy slid down her cheek. She captured it with her fingertip and looked at it as if it were the first one of her life.
No. It was the first one of her new life. She hoped it would be the first of many, many more.
# The End #
