Very good part, Dandello! For me, who isn't here for the A-plots, I must admire the way you write the things!
I like your Lois. I want her to be heroic, not galactically stupid and annoying. I loved her use of the tape recorder! You'd think that if she presented all the circumstantial evidence against Deter, there would already be enough to force the man out of business. Which makes me wonder about the man who hired Deter, too. Vincent Winninger? I don't remember - is he the one who is Deter's boss? In that case he can be up to no good. Will Lois really be perfectly safe seeing him for an interview?
I liked how you showed us that Clark was apparently not feeling very well after being exposed to low-level kryptonite radiation during Lois's interview with Luthor. But neither he nor Lois realized what the cause for his headache was.
I, too, loved how Clark was confused by his parents' reaction to the simple fact that their son can't remember Superman!
“You're sure you don't remember him?”
Clark sighed. “I'm sure. And it's driving Mom crazy. It's like I'm not remembering a member of the family. She's been reading psychology books and that's always a bad sign.”
Well... not that you can blame Martha in this case....
Because she is worried about other things regarding her son, too:
“She also can't figure out how I burned my hand, even though I told her how it happened.”
“How's your hand doing, by the way?”
“Healing up okay,” he said. “Hurts some, but Mom says there's no sign of infection.”
“That's good.”
“And she almost had a melt-down when I told her about my headache and that green crystal,” Clark went on. “She was sure I'd been poisoned by Luthor. This whole amnesia thing has her seriously weirded out. Dad too.”
Well, not wonder they are weirded out.
I like Lois's dream. You made us feel her despair in it. Superman had promised her that he would come back to her, and they would go flying again. But he is gone. And now she's sure that he's dead.
Anyway, my favorite part was how Lois took care of Deter. I loved how Clark came to her rescue, too, almost Superman-style.
I have to wonder if Deter is going to come to any conclusions regarding the real reasons for Clark's peculiar memory loss. I guess that a good and professional psychologist might start to wonder why Clark's amnesia seems so completely linked to Superman, and to what Clark himself was doing when Superman was preparing to leave to take care of Nightfall. And how he, Clark, had ended up at the Fifth Street Mission because he "fell"?
Maybe Doctor Friskin will figure it out? At least she is not a bad person, or I don't think so.
This is a fascinating setup and a very, very interesting story, Dandello!
Ann
