Inside Clark Kent
Clark Kent was sitting on his sofa, feeling slightly dazed. He’d packed most of his belongings into boxes that were now cluttering his floor. Being able to do everything at super speed had its downsides, because now he didn’t know what to do with himself. He just stared at the TV screen without really paying attention to the show he was watching.
Inside his head, however things were a little heated. Anger was playing darts and used a large picture of one Daniel “Call me Dan” Scardino as his target. With every arrow he threw, he muttered expletives that didn’t bear repeating.
Fear was watching him and flinched with every expletive that left Anger’s mouth. “Watch your language. What would Mom say?”
Anger just growled. “The hell I care. She’s not here, is she?”
He threw the next dart with such force that the screen began to flicker.
“You’re going to break something!” Fear whispered.
Sadness approached them from behind. “I believe it’s my turn now.”
Anger and Fear both jumped in surprise.
“What are you doing here?” Anger demanded. “I thought you were busy moping in one corner of Clark’s mind.”
“I’m not just moping,” Sadness whispered. “Clark has every right to be sad. And now let me use the screen before you smash it to pieces.”
Anger folded his arms in front of his chest, ready to explode every moment. But Sadness wasn’t ready to give in, either and reached for the set of arrows in Anger’s hands. Their struggle turned into a fight that lasted for a couple of seconds. As they were done, both held their sides, panting. Surprisingly, Sadness had managed to win the upper hand and held the arrows up.
“I said it was my turn,” he said triumphantly.
“That’s unfair. Why does only Clark have superpowers?” Anger grumbled. “I’d have won the fight if I had them, too.”
“We do have superpowers,” Disgust chimed in. “It just doesn’t matter because we all have them.”
Then Sadness pressed a button and the screen switched to a picture of Lois. He hit another set of buttons to load up some of Clark’s memories, all of them happy ones. Sadness started to turn them into sad ones.
As if on cue, Joy rushed to the console. “Are you completely insane? She hasn’t broken up with us, yet.”
“Oh yeah?” Anger shouted. “And what do you believe she’s going to do? Show up to kiss Clark senseless? After all the disappearing he had to do?”
Joy shook his head. “We could still have Clark tell her his secret. I bet that will be a game changer. Come on, come on. Let’s pick up the phone.”
Joy pushed Sadness away from the console. “I’m going to take over control now.”
Fear started to tremble. “Tell her his secret? She’s going to dissect us like a frog!”
Anger fumed. “Oh, would you please shut up? Do you actually still believe in the non-sense Dad told us?”
The five emotions stared at the screen with breathless anticipation as Clark picked up the phone and started to dial Lois’ familiar number. The heard the dial tone reverberate through the Headquarters. But Lois didn’t pick up. Clark hung up.
“Oh, damn! Damn, damn, damn.” Anger jumped up and down, tearing his hear and tried to get hold of his arrows again that Sadness was still clutching to his chest.
“I said it was my turn,” he said firmly.
“You can whine later, I need to destroy something,” Anger shouted.
“But not the phone,” Fear squealed. “You did that one time too many. The guy in the phone shop already knows Clark’s name. That’s freaky.”
“We can always fly somewhere else,” Anger grumbled.
“Would you stop it, please?” Joy begged. “I think I’ve heard someone knock at the door.”
Joy pushed a set of buttons and Clark stood up and walked toward the door. He opened it.
Lois was standing in front of him, smiling tentatively. “Hi.”
“It’s her!” Joy exclaimed giddily. He did a little dance next to the console.
Disgust rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think you should react?”
Joy sobered. “Oh, yeah.” He reached for the button, but Sadness and Anger had chosen to take over at exactly the same time. So three hands hit the speak button.
The result sounded pretty wooden. “Hi.”
Lois peered into Clark’s apartment. “You planning a yard sale?”
“That’s it,” Anger tried to stare Sadness down. “Give me the darts.”
“Keep your shirt on and let her speak,” Joy admonished.
Lois drew a deep breath. “Wait, wait. That's a form of distancing. My therapist – I know, I have a therapist, can you believe it? - she says I say things like that to distance, so we don't really have to deal with anything and it's very complicated and linked to a lot of boring childhood trauma and... can I come in?”
Once again, Sadness and Joy both hit the button to let Clark step aside. He did it with a neutral expression on his face.
Joy folded his arm’s in front of his chest. “Oh for Heaven’s sake. Could you please let me take over?” He pointed at Lois. “She’s here. Let’s hear her out and be friendly. Can we do that?”
Sadness pulled a face, but didn’t object. He stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers and huffed.
Lois entered the apartment and continued to speak. “ Itold Superman I just want to be friends... that there's someone else... And Dan and I –“
Anger stormed to the front and gave Joy a hard shove, pushing him aside. He hit a button with full force. “Look, Lois, if you came here to tell me that you and Dan are...”
Joy, Sadness, Fear and Disgust all pulled Anger back from the console with joined forces.
“Are you completely insane?” Fear hissed. “Do you want to have Clark end up hurting her? You know very well that you can’t press the buttons like that! Remember what happened to the barn when Clark was little?”
Anger still grumbled, but let himself be manhandled away from the console.
Lois was talking again. “We're not going to see each other anymore.” Suddenly, she seemed to have noticed the state of Clark’s apartment. “This isn't just vacation packing, is it? This is forever packing.”
Joy sprinted to the console before any of the other’s had a chance to do so. “I was thinking of moving but...now I'm not so sure.”
Lois seemed shocked and angry. “What, you were just going to slip out of town, not even tell me? Maybe send me a post card from –“ She broke off in mid-sentence. “Distancing, distancing. Sorry. But this is... I mean, leaving ,I didn't expect this.”
Sadness approached the console and – much to his surprise – Joy stepped aside and let him take over. “Lois, we haven't been very happy with each other lately. And it's my fault and I think I should –“
Fear jumped up and down, clutching his mid-section and started to tremble even more. “You’re not going to let him tell her his secret, are you? You can’t do that!”
Disgust lay a hand on Fear’s shoulder. “But without telling her the secret, how could she ever respect her? We keep lying to her. That’s despicable.”
“Would you two shut up, now? We need to hear that!” Joy shouted on the top of his voice.
“Yes, it is your fault,” Lois said. “And my fault. We let ourselves get distracted and we let ourselves get hurt too easily and we work too much and we argue over stupid things... all so we can hide from each other and I'm sick of it, Clark. Because the only reason we hide is, we're scared”
Joy pressed the next button, before anyone could stop him. As a result, Clark sounded hopeful. “Of what?”
“The fact that we're partners... best friends... and this .”
All of a sudden, Lois launched herself at Clark in a passionate kiss.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Fear squealed. “What’s she doing there? Move back, move back, move back.”
Disgust covered his eyes with his hands. “She’s going to kiss him. Oh, boy. Please let it not be sloppy. I hate sloppy.”
“Just hold it right there!” Joy shouted. “We’ve been waiting for this for over a year now.” He pushed another set of buttons and let Clark return the kiss with equal passion. “This needs some music, boys!” He giggled and pressed another button until violins started playing in Clark’s head.
Disgust rolled his eyes. “That’s so cliché!”
Lois ended the kiss, still staying close to Clark “If you want to run away from this, tell me now.”
Joy did a little dance. “I won't run, Lois. I'm ready for the next step if you are.”
As they kissed again, Joy turned toward his fellow emotions. A huge grin was plastered across his face.
“Party time, boys. I think it’s time to build up the Relationship Island.”
Disgust shook his head. “There’s such a thing as a Relationship Island? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
The End
