Jimmy's absence made the apartment seem twice as large, ten times as stifling, and as silent as a cemetery.
Love this wording.
And yet...he was so much more in addition to that. The most human person I knew, I had told him, but he was also Kryptonian. The most honest person I knew, and yet he possessed a secret larger than any other I had ever discovered. The gentlest man I had ever known, and yet he had at one point possessed enough strength to almost single-handedly shove an asteroid away from Earth.
Very nice.
I looked for echoes of Superman, reflections of the hero I had worshipped, but all I could see was Clark.
Which is all he really wanted from you anyway, so it's all good.
It was shocking enough to realize that Superman had a brother--that Clark had a brother; to try to puzzle out their obviously complex relationship was almost too much. And yet I had to try, had to figure it out, had to make sense of the deluge of confused memories and ambiguous statements and oblique conversations drowning me in their heavy, enveloping depths.
How did two alien brothers--one who thought of himself as human, raised by human parents and living a human life; the other, I assumed, older so that he had held himself aloof and hidden until he could unveil himself behind a Kryptonian symbol--how did they face the changes that had occurred in their lives?
Close, Lois. But not quite. 10 points for trying though. But wait, doesn't she know that Clark is an only child?
Suddenly I knew--Clark thought his brother was dead.
I moved my hand to intertwine my fingers with his. "It's enough for me," I whispered.
And I wasn't lying when I told him that.
I already had my hand on the doorknob when his quiet, broken voice froze me as solid and as motionless as a statue. "Please, Lois...don't go."
"Like..." He shrugged. "Play board games."
"Board games," I repeated flatly. "Clark, if you don't think I'll find any answers outside, what makes you think I could possibly find them in a *board game*?"
He tried a tiny smile and another, smaller shrug. "At least in Trivial Pursuit, the answers are all typed out on the card."
"Now I'm not going to go easy on you."
*sigh* This has a double meaning, doesn't it?
What if I wanted more than friendship?
Awww! Love it.
"And whatever else might come up? Are we that, too?"
*does a happy dance*
. I won Monopoly fair and square; truthfully, I wasn't sure how Clark managed his real bills after the way he lost all his money so quickly
"Lois, he's gone. We don't know where he went. We picked up Mrs. Cox and his Indian servant, and they claim Luthor was in the building, but...we can't find him. He's gone to ground."
Uh oh! Something tells me that Cloneboy has a hand in this.
"There was also something else." Henderson paused--not waiting for a reply, but steeling himself to finish. "One of Superman's Suits, torn up, mangled, missing the cape. There's no blood on it, but beside it, we found a vial of what forensics thinks will match the alien tissue we found on the remnants of that cape your paper discovered after Nightfall."
Or did Luthor realize that Cloneboy was starting to fall for Lois and kill him?
His hands clenched into tight fists. He squeezed his eyes shut, his head tilted up to the last, disappearing rays of twilight's muted sun.
Love how this follow just the mere mention of the Kryptonite. Nicely done.
"Yes, he did," I replied soberly. "He hurt me every time he hurt you."
So beautiful!
And I knew then--knew without a single doubt or question--that I loved him.
So happy to see this revelation! *does another little happy dance*
"I don't have anymore. You know them all now."
Erm....not quite. There's still the small matter of Lois thinking that Cloneboy is your brother and that he's Superman.
Another fantasic chapter! I'm so glad to see Lois accepting the puzzle pieces that she's locked into place...and finding that she loves Clark for Clark. Well done!