“So, your first impressions of Smallville?” Clark asked as they drove to pick Jason up from Ben’s house.
“They don’t let ‘em out much, do they?” Lois said with a chuckle.
After a moment, Clark joined her, laughing about the conversations with the group. Clark hadn’t realized exactly how much he had changed in the seventeen years since high school. He was a stranger here now. The one who’d managed to make it in the big city, the one who’d gone off to see the world. The one who had wanted more than just running a farm. The one who was different.
The others hadn’t really changed much. Dave had changed the most – four years overseas in the military did that and his wife, Elena, was from Warsaw. Dave came back to run the family farm and seemed content with that. Chuck was a regional manager for the farm co-op based out of Wichita and his wife was in advertising there. Adam was the manager of the local McDonalds. Ed and Anny were both teachers. And even though he and Lois should have had things in common with Ed and Anny, even they seemed insular, uninterested in what was going on in the rest of the world.
“It’s a nice place to visit,” Lois added. “And it’s a definite change from Metropolis. Must be nice, not having to worry about crime or corruption, whether some super villain is going to end the world.”
“Instead you worry about whether the economy’s going to be good enough for you to sell your crops at a high enough price for you to pay off the loans you had to take out to make ends meet the year before. Whether or not the agro-giant across the border is going to contaminate your crops with GMO, making your crops un-sellable overseas. At least corruption’s only a minor issue. It’s hard to be too corrupt when everybody knows the mayor’s brother runs the local construction company. And the last death by violence in Lowell County was Jason Trask and that was ten, eleven, years ago.”
“I still can’t believe what Anny asked,” Lois said. “I honestly thought you were choking there for a minute. And Mara… I mean, how bigoted can you get?”
“Well, bigotry based on color and sexual preferences are politically incorrect even in rural Kansas,” Clark reminded her. “When you get rid of those all you have left are religion and national origin.”
He pulled the car to a stop in front of Ben’s house. Jim Hubbard was standing on the porch waiting for them. Jason was asleep on the porch swing. Martha was sitting beside him, pillowing his head on her lap. Jason’s thumb was in his mouth. Clark’s heart sank as he saw the grim expression on Jim’s face and the resigned one on his mother’s.
“Why do I have the feeling that tonight did not go well?” Lois asked as she climbed out of the car. “What happened?” she asked, resignation coloring her voice.
Jim spoke first, cutting Martha off. “You might try teaching your kid a little discipline,” he started. “If he was mine I’d take a strap to him.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing he’s not yours,” Clark said quietly as he mounted the steps to the porch and went to the swing. He gently picked Jason up. The little boy stirred, snuggling against the warmth of Clark’s shoulder.
“What happened?” Clark asked, looking pointedly at his mother.
“He was doing fine,” Martha said. “But when the game was over the other kids wanted to watch a movie. I thought they were going to watch a Disney DVD.” She frowned at Jim then went on. “The grownups were in the kitchen. Ben and I didn’t realize until it was too late that the kids had turned on a movie that was not appropriate. It opened with a graphically violent murder. Jason had a melt-down. It got a little out of hand.”
“A little out of hand?” Jim asked in obvious disbelief. “Martha, you saw what happened. That kid has a problem.”
In the darkness Jim didn’t see the glower on Lois’s face, or her clenched fists.
“Um, Jim,” Clark began in an attempt to defuse the situation. “We don’t let Jason watch violent movies or TV shows. We don’t even let him watch the news all that much.”
He saw Jim grimace and mouth the word ‘wimp.’
Clark hefted Jason higher on his shoulder so he could stand straighter. “Jim, in case my mom or Ben didn’t tell you… Jason saw his father gunned down in cold blood only eight months ago. Now, tell me again why a kid who wakes up screaming from witnessing things that trained soldiers have trouble dealing with deserves to get beaten?” Clark tried to keep his voice low, calm, to keep from waking Jason up. He didn’t quite succeed.
Jason stirred. “Mommy?”
Lois was right there. Jason was too heavy for her to pick up and carry any more, but she put her hand on his back to sooth him back to sleep. “I’m right here, honey. Clark and I are right here.”
“I’m sorry,” Jason murmured before closing his eyes.
“I know munchkin,” Lois told her son.
* * *
“The living room was nearly demolished,” Clark told Lois the next morning after breakfast. Jason was outside, chasing Shelby around the barnyard. “Somehow I don’t think Jason’ll be invited over to Ben’s house for a long time, if ever,” he added.
“And the whole town will know what a monster Jason is by lunchtime,” Lois added.
“Probably.” Clark finished putting the breakfast dishes away then took her into his arms. “Doctor Ricco warned us there would be set-backs. I’m thinking maybe bringing Jason here wasn't such a good idea. Maybe we should have waited.”
“Clark, we can’t let this sort of thing rule our lives,” Lois told him. “We have to work through it and go on.” She looked out the screen door to watch Jason. Shelby had gotten tired and was lying on the porch. Jason was in the middle of the dirt yard pretending he could fly. “One of these days he’s going to take off,” Lois commented. “Then look out world.”
“Not to worry,” Clark told her. “I didn’t discover I could levitate until I was about fourteen. I couldn’t really fly until I was out of high school.”
“That’s nice to know,” Lois said. “When’s the party your mom’s throwing?”
“About one,” Clark answered. “There’s a nice park down by the river, not far from the high school… I told Rachel I’d stop by and fill her in on what has going on when the FBI was allegedly after my mom and Ben. Do you want to come along?”
She shook her head. “I’ll stay here with Jason.”
“I’ll leave the car here for you,” Clark offered.
“Won’t Rachel notice you showing up in town without a car?”
“I doubt it,” Clark said. “And if she does… I used to jog home from school all the time.”
