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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 653 Likes: 3
Columnist
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OP
Columnist
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 653 Likes: 3 |
One kid revelation down and one to go! Plus Lois finally gets to read Clark’s book. ♥️
Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description. ~Anna Quindlen
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 2,160
Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 2,160 |
Wow what a cliffhanger there. JP may be oblivious as to what is going on, but clearly Mattie isn’t especially when she asked about whether Clark was going to stay. Looking forward to how they address this with them both!
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched they must be felt with the heart
Helen Keller
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 686 Likes: 4
Columnist
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Columnist
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 686 Likes: 4 |
I love how perceptive Mattie is and how they are both still so hesitant.
I really feel for Lois asking for the divorce annulment because she doesn't want to start over again.
Spike: "There's a hole in the world...feels like we ought to have known."
-Angel
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Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 999 Likes: 19
Features Writer
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Features Writer
Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 999 Likes: 19 |
I think a divorce annulment is definitely the way to go, because she's right, they're not starting over, they're continuing their journey as they always have---together.
They're now just doing so in much more friendly terms. I also think they should tell their kids what's going on /now/, cuz it seems like all they're doing is dashing Mattie's hopes and confusing them....
Looking forward to more.
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,145 Likes: 3
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,145 Likes: 3 |
Wow. And again. Wow. This: It was truly a masterpiece; a sweeping epic that laid bare all the beauty of this planet, and she knew readers would find hope among the heartbreak.
But for her, it was so much more than a beautiful novel, because each vignette was a piece of their own story, every challenge was an echo of something they had faced together.
The soldier, duty bound to return and defend his village, leaving behind his wife in the big city where they fell in love. The newlywed, falsely accused and imprisoned in the castle dungeon, executed for a crime they didn’t commit. The secret admirer, too scared to reveal his true identity, losing the girl to another suitor because of his own stubborn pride. The young mother, dead in childbirth, leaving her husband to grieve alone.
She recognized in each story not just the universe’s refusal to give up, but their own. They had faced — and conquered — a millennium’s worth of challenges in a single lifetime. The details were changed, but the emotions were the same, and she recognized each trial, each heartbreak they had faced.
And she knew that when he wrote this, they were in the midst of their darkest trial yet, the one she’d thought had broken them. And yet he’d still obviously believed their story wasn’t over. He’d had faith that they would find their way back together to begin again.
It was an achingly beautiful testament to his love for her, and she found herself completely at a loss for a response. That would leave me speechless, too. And this: “I didn’t expect this,” he said, picking up the the thick stack beside it and flipping it over, blue ink showing on most of the pages as he rifled through them.
“Well, I didn’t expect this,” she countered, waving a hand at the manuscript. That could've been the start of a nasty fight. Maybe it would have been a year before. But they've gone through so much apart and together that her reading his manuscript just breaks down more of the Great Wall between them. Also this: “What do you want, Lois?” Dr. Booker asked. “Moving forward. You can’t go back and change anything in the past. What is your best case scenario? What would make you happiest?”
Lois hesitated. “I want...I want an annulment. A divorce annulment. You know how people get their marriages annulled, and they just pretend that they were never married. Like, oh sure, we were married for ten years and you were there at the wedding and you’ve been to our home, but now we got an annulment. We aren’t divorced; we were never actually married. Our marriage didn’t fail -- it just never existed! And then we all have to play along and pretend they were never married? I want that. But for our divorce. I don’t want to start over. I don’t want to get engaged and remarried or have some big recommitment ceremony. I just want our marriage back. Our home back. Our family back. I just want none of this to have been real. I don’t want it to count.”
There was a long pause, and Lois realized that whatever everyone else in the room had been expecting, it wasn’t this.
“You hate annulments. You think they are ‘ridiculous self-delusions’,” Clark said softly, putting air quotes around her words.
“Well, I changed my mind.” She sounded petulant, and she knew it. She hated it, but couldn’t stop herself. I had never heard anything about a divorce annulment. I'd never even considered the concept. It's brilliant, it's absolutely inspired, and I wish I'd come up with it. So I did a search on divorce annulment and found that yes, you can annul a divorce in Kentucky under certain conditions. My very brief Web search found only one firm there which discussed the issue, along with another site including a brief mention of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, and Nebraska where a divorce can be reversed. But legally that's a different thing, even though the result would be the same. My concern at this point is that Lois "doesn't want it [the divorce] to count." That almost sounds like denial, perhaps even a "ridiculous self-delusion." I understand her deep desire to be really, honestly, openly married to Clark, but those years are gone and she can never get them back. Their shared journey through those hard times to this point is part of their relationship, and it's a major contributor to where they are now, both separately and together. To ignore those hard times would be to ignore a big part of who they each are and who they are together. It makes me wonder if this is the next big hurdle they must overcome. And here I was concerned that you wouldn't be able to maintain the dramatic tension for the rest of the story. Silly me! This is fabulous, truly original and innovative. And it's beautiful. Two flawed human beings are fighting to become the family they once were and build it up to be even better. Clark's unpublished novel, and Lois' response, is the perfect vehicle to show the readers how far each one has come - and how close they are to that re-connection. It's a wonderful revelation of his pain, not only from his separation from Lois, but his conflict between his family and his duty to the world as Superman. It's also a genius-level revelation of Lois' depth of understanding for and compassion toward her (ex)husband. This situation is not unlike the stresses first responders experience in the strain between family and job. There are never enough hours in the day, never enough days in the week, never enough time to save everyone and still love and be loved at home. Powerful. Poignant. Penetrating. Using Dr. Booker to highlight the progress they're making is brilliant, too. And it illustrates the truth that a good therapist can help people be who they really want to be, both for themselves and for the ones they love. What's he going to say now? I can't wait to see what happens next.
Life isn't a support system for writing. It's the other way around.
- Stephen King, from On Writing
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,688 Likes: 1
Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 1,688 Likes: 1 |
I'm really enjoying this fic. I love how Lois and Clark can't help but love each other, despite circumstances. I'm so glad they're overcoming difficulities.
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 653 Likes: 3
Columnist
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OP
Columnist
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 653 Likes: 3 |
Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback! I'm so glad you are enjoying it. I'm glad the "divorce annulment" concept was a hit as well as Clark's book. And we'll definitely see more of Dr. Booker. She was integral in teaching them to process their trauma years before, and they both trust her to help them open up to each other and communicate as they work through this transition. As someone pointed out privately, Clark's book definitely is an homage of sorts to the Soul Mates episode. It's different in that the stories in his books are not past lives that they led, but reimaginings of struggles they faced in this lifetime set in the past. But it definitely is meant -- both in this story for my readers, and as a message from Clark to Lois within the story -- to be a reminder of the fact they are soul mates and have witnessed first hand how their love has been tested in this past and survived. The title of the book Time and Again, is taken from this bit of dialogue from the Soul Mates Episode. Clark/The Fox: Yeah, but why am I here? I mean, I'm not even from this planet. HG Wells: Perhaps Clark Kent isn't, but your soul -- comes from a place beyond planets, beyond Time. Where we all come from. You see, time travel has given me a glimpse at the Great Design. Enough of a glimpse to see that the power of this universe is energy, and the power of your love is what brings your souls together, time and again. That's the one absolute -- wherever she is, you are. I had never heard anything about a divorce annulment. I'd never even considered the concept. It's brilliant, it's absolutely inspired, and I wish I'd come up with it.
So I did a search on divorce annulment and found that yes, you can annul a divorce in Kentucky under certain conditions. My very brief Web search found only one firm there which discussed the issue, along with another site including a brief mention of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, and Nebraska where a divorce can be reversed. But legally that's a different thing, even though the result would be the same.
My concern at this point is that Lois "doesn't want it [the divorce] to count." That almost sounds like denial, perhaps even a "ridiculous self-delusion." I understand her deep desire to be really, honestly, openly married to Clark, but those years are gone and she can never get them back. Their shared journey through those hard times to this point is part of their relationship, and it's a major contributor to where they are now, both separately and together. To ignore those hard times would be to ignore a big part of who they each are and who they are together. It makes me wonder if this is the next big hurdle they must overcome. First of all, I love so much that you googled divorce annulment. It never occurred to me that anyone would do that. And I never imagined that such a thing existed. Secondly, as you suspect, the real issue here is Lois' self denial and her lack of understanding/unwillingness to admit how much those years affected them individually, as a couple, and as a family. As much as she might want, they cannot simply be swept under the rug and forgotten. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers, but you've just hit on the central theme for the second half the story. This will absolutely be addressed in detail. And I'm so glad that you posted this concern because it really affirms for me that the transition of "will they/won't they get back together" to "how do they heal this damage and move forward" is working in this section.
Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description. ~Anna Quindlen
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