Adventures at the Museum
By Elisabeth
Rated Fic-G

Martha rubbed her neck as she made her way across the parking lot and into the museum. A few days into the trip, her whole body has started to ache. But this was probably the only road-trip her family would ever take, so she tried not to ruin it by complaining.

Clark sped past her and ambled up the steps, two at a time. Martha supposed all ten-year-olds had this much energy, speed and endurance—didn’t they? Still, it made her feel old to grit her teeth past every pothole and bump on the road while her son played spaceship in the back of the station wagon.

“Back still stiff?” Jonathon wondered.

“I’ll manage,” she assured him. She leaned into him, gladly accepting the hand he offered.

“You still think this trip is such a good idea?”

“Yes,” Martha reassured him, squeezing his hand to emphasize her support. “I know you’re a farmer, and I know traveling in the summertime doesn’t sit well with you, especially long enough to drive halfway across the country and back. But your cousin really needed the work, even if it is for such a short time. And for once in our lives we had the money set aside to pay him and take a vacation. But most importantly, this is probably the only chance we’ll ever get to travel, all three of us, on a trip like this. So yes, I think this trip is a good idea.”

Jonathon smirked at her. “Just wondered if you’d changed your mind when your body started to mold itself to the car seat.”

“It’s a little late to change my mind.” Martha smiled back.

Jonathon glanced around The Metropolis Museum of Science and Adventure. “I wonder where Clark has wandered off to?”

There was so much to look at that Clark raced ahead as soon as he reached the museum door. He didn’t even glance back to notice as the gap between his parents and himself widened. Inside the door was a life-size model of a dinosaur. If you pulled the levers, his head would swing out as if he were truly moving. Beyond that was a tethered miniature hot-air balloon—actually, a balloon that combined gas and hot-air to enable farther and longer trips. He skipped the room with the floor-to-ceiling computer inside to find more interesting exhibits. Around the corner he found a model of the Amazon rain forest; the water flowed down from an upper floor to make it look like a waterfall from a tall cliff.

He was just reading about the water cycle when a small boy—maybe two or three years old—bumped into him. The kid sidled up next to him and pretended to read what Clark read. Clark ignored him.

After awhile the boy wandered away, poking behind this corner and snooping behind that. Clark couldn’t quite say why he kept an eye on the tyke, but it was a good thing he did.

Moments later, the boy fished around in his pocket, finally coming up with a house key. He fiddled with it for awhile, looking for a place to put his little treasure. Spying an electrical outlet he shoved the key in as far as it would go.

Clark was pretty fast, so he jumped to push the little boy out of the way before he injured himself. At the same instant, another kid about the same age as Clark jumped to the rescue.

Three kids flew across the room, the last two landing in a tangled heap atop each other.

“Sal? Bobby?” The women’s voice was high-pitched as she frantically ran across the room. “My babies! Are you boys all right?”

She scooped her toddler into her arms, looking him over carefully. Clark and the older kid sorted out their own bodies, standing carefully and examining arms, legs and everything in between.

When it was clear that everyone had survived intact, the woman became furious. “If you had died, I would have killed you both! You two are going to be the death of me someday!”

~*~

“It’s only a little rice, Clark. Give me a break. It’s not like he doesn’t have another four cartons. Now, where is that sweet ‘n sour sauce?”

“Lois, we pay all of our other snitches. Why are you always trying to filch a little of Bobby’s payment off the top?”

“It’s not like he minds.”

“Of course, he minds. He always catches you. And then, he pouts.”

~*~

From his vantage point down the street, Bobby smiled. Lois was so busted. Clark was right – Bobby did always catch her – although Clark had no idea why.

Ever since that day in the museum, Bobby could hear things no one else could hear. While he didn’t have vision like Superman, he could also see things way far away. He was tough, too, and fast. Plus, he could eat like an eight-year-old and still keep his thin-as-a-rail good looks.

He had walked away from the electrocution unscathed, feeling only a strange sense of power as it washed over him.

He’d been fast enough to save Sal, as well. The doctors at the E.R. spent a lot more time examining his little brother, since he had obvious entrance and exit wounds. But since the kid’s heart never stopped and they never found anything wrong, they eventually released Sal with a clean bill of health.

Although, even to this day Sal still magnetized watches so they ran backward after he’d worn them two, three days. And for a few weeks, the television would change channels every time his kid brother walked by. That was kind of cool. Ma never believed him when he said he didn’t hit no buttons.

Ma never believed Bobby about the things he could hear or see, neither. She said he read too many comic books, which was true. But with Ma, if it wasn’t in Britannica, it wasn’t true.

What Ma didn’t believe made Bobby into the best snitch in Metropolis. He could see and hear everything that went down on the street from a block away. It kept him both alive and in business.

It also kept his payments to be in full.

Bobby crept into the backseat, hoping to scare the newspapermen into next week, but he could never sneak up on Clark.

After the usual ‘Hi, How-are-you’s’, Bobby took inventory of his sack.

“What is this? Where’s all my rice?”

Clark simply raised an eyebrow to Lois as he handed it over.

Yeah. Life was good.

~*~*~*~*~

Author’s Note: With special thanks to James for my inspiration. He pitched me an idea over dinner one night. I shot his idea down as too lame but then took it in a whole new direction myself. Also, I owe him my thanks for convincing me ‘Bobby Bigzap’ was a bad title.

Muse’s Note: Yeah, I like her idea a whole lot better than my original idea that Bobby was Clark’s long lost brother or that he was the result of his grandfather being an earlier launch from Krypton.