The Return of Ultra Woman
Chapter 19
It’s amazing how much better the evening gets after Mom accepts that I’m really me. Once she’s past that big step and believes I really am still Lois, her Lois, her medical background surfaces and she starts wanting to talk about what the changes are and how they happened. I’m just starting to struggle with explaining things when Mom cuts me off.
“Lois, have you told your father yet?”
“No. Clark kept telling me that I needed to tell both of you and Lucy, but I kept putting it off. I guess I was dreading the possibility of just what we went through earlier.”
Now she looks apologetic. “I’m sorry I reacted so badly. But you have to admit, you gave me a series of shocks. First, I see your husband very publically declaring he is married to a super woman. Then, you turn out to be her. You have to admit that you aren’t from Krylon.”
Clark clears his throat. “Ellen, my planet was called Krypton. Krylon is a brand of paint.”
I glare at my husband. Is he trying to convince my Mom that I need to go home with her anyway? He pales under my gaze and quickly decides that discretion is called for at this time. He glances around nervously and says, “I think it’s time for Lara to get her bath,” then departs.
After he leaves the room, I try some damage control. “Please forgive Clark on the Krypton thing. It was his home after all.”
She actually laughs at this. “Don’t worry about it. I think it’s genetic that men have to correct their in-laws whenever possible. So, like I was saying, we need to get your dad over here. He’ll probably react better than I did anyway, and he’ll love hearing the science behind what’s happened to you.”
While Mom calls Dad, I go up to check on Clark and Lara. As soon as I’m in the bathroom, I get the apology.
“Honey I’m sorry about the Krypton – Krylon thing. How mad is she at me?” He delivers this little speech with his primary attention still on Lara.
I move up beside him and give him a kiss on the cheek. “Apparently a certain level of clueless behavior is expected in son-in-laws from whatever planet. Mom just shrugged it off. She’s trying to get hold of Dad and I’d appreciate it if you are extra careful the rest of the evening.”
“I will be.”
It’s fifteen minutes later when Dad arrives. Mom and I are playing with Lara when he comes into the room followed by Clark. After the usual greetings, which includes a kiss for Mom no less, Dad turns to me and asks, “Is this about the appearance of Ultra Woman?”
I know he’s quick but I didn’t expect this. “Um, yes.”
“Are the powers for real or is it some kind of trick?”
“Daddy, I don’t understand the question.”
“Lois, I saw your press conference as Ultra Woman. By the way, your costume is very striking. Anyway, do you really have powers just like Clark?”
I turn to my mother. “Mom, did you tell him on the phone?”
She looks confused. “No. I know the rules. Never say anything about Clark or powers or any of that stuff on the phone.” She turns to daddy. “Sam, how did you know it was Lois?”
“I didn’t, at least not until Clark appeared. When Ultra Woman first said she was Superman’s wife I thought she was someone trying to, I don’t know, blackmail Superman or something. Then Clark appeared and I knew Ultra Woman was Lois.”
I’m sure I have a stunned look on my face. “Daddy, how did you know?”
“Well, the television coverage of your press conference was good. They showed a close-up of the two of you together. Princess, I’ve seen how Clark looks at you many times. As soon as I saw the expression on his face when he looked at Ultra Woman, I knew it was you inside the purple suit.”
He pauses for a second as Clark reaches out and squeezes my hand. Daddy sees the gesture, and points at our now clasped hands, and continues. “See? It’s little things like that. You two should probably be careful when you are together in public as Superman and Ultra Woman. If you make many appearances, I suspect your friends that see you together often might notice the same thing I did.”
That got me thinking about Jimmy’s comments. “I think one of them almost picked up on it.” Then I proceed to tell everyone that Jimmy had mentioned that seeing Superman and Ultra Woman together reminded him of Clark and me.
When I’m finished Clark says, “We need to think about bringing Jimmy in on the secret.”
While I’m considering a reply, I notice Mom looking particularly glum. “Mom, what’s wrong?”
She sighs a heavily. “Your father knew it was you. Even your friends that don’t know Clark is Superman noticed the similarities. I feel more awful than ever that I didn’t see it and then overreacted so badly.”
“What happened?” Dad asks.
Before I can reply Mom jumps in. “I didn’t recognize that Ultra Woman was Lois. After seeing the news and the pictures from the press conference I thought Clark was involved with someone else. I came in here on a tear and… Well, I made a real mess of things. I’d rather not get into the details but if you really want to know, I’ll tell you about it later in private. For now let’s just say that I made a fool of myself because I didn’t trust either Lois or Clark.”
Now Dad speaks up. “Ellen, you shouldn’t feel too bad. You were thinking about protecting your daughter. I’m the one that’s still sorry every day that I’m the source of so much of your distrust.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence until Dad turns to me and asks, “So are you going to explain to me how you have powers like Clark?”
We spend much of the next hour working through what we can explain. We have enough of the information to cover the generalities but not the details that Dad wants. Finally, I ask Clark the question that’s been in the back of my mind for some time. “Do you think Daddy can talk with Dr. Klein?”
He thinks this over for a minute. “I can ask. But, well I’m sorry Sam, but with your background I don’t think you can get a clearance to have official access to Star Labs.”
Daddy looks so disappointed, but then Clark continues. “However, we have cultivated a public friendship with Bernie Klein. We can invite him over for dinner some evening that you were also invited. I’m sure he’ll be happy to bring along some of our confidential medical files so you can have a look.”
He perks up considerably at this. “Do you think so?”
Now it was my turn to be upbeat. “Clark’s right. Bernie’s a nice guy and you’ll love talking shop with him. Although, sometimes he tends to start running on and on about the physics of how the powers work.”
Dad is practically giddy. “I’d love to try to keep up with all that.”
There was another break in the conversation and Mom asks, “What about Lucy?”
My head jerks around and I find Clark staring back at me. “What should we do?”
His reply is a simple, “Call her. If she’s home alone we can fly out and talk to her tonight.”
It’s already 9:00 pm so there’s a good chance Lucy is home. I only hear two rings before she picks up.
“Hello?”
“Hi Lucy, it’s Lois. How are you?”
“Great!” She sounds excited. “I saw the news from Metropolis today. What do you think about that woman?”
“Maybe we can talk about her later. Clark and I just finished talking with Mom and Dad about some private family matters. There are a few issues we’d like to talk to you about, but not right now. Are you going to be at home for a while?” I hope she can figure out what I’m driving at.
There is a brief pause. I guess she’s thinking through what I’m really trying to say. “Yeah, Sis. I’ll be at home all evening. I don’t have any company or anything so we should be able to talk whenever you want.”
“Thanks, Lucy. We’ll talk in a little while.”
When I hang up the phone, I realize everyone in the room is waiting for me. “She saw the press conference. It would probably be a good idea for us to zip out there and tell her what’s going on. Mom, Dad, would you mind watching Lara while we go tell Lucy?”
They exchange looks and sort of nod in unison before Dad answers. “We can stay, but I hadn’t planned to stay overnight. How long do you expect to be gone?”
“I don’t know, maybe half an hour or so.”
They both look surprised at this. “Will that leave you any time to talk to Lucy?” Mom asked.
“Sure,” I reply. “If it’s just the two of us we can get to California in only a few seconds.”
They both look a bit stunned at this but the only reply was an “Oh,” from Mom. It takes considerably longer to get ready for the trip than the actual flight. It might have been quicker but this was the first time Dad had seen the spin-into-the-suit trick and he asked to see Clark do it a few times.
In less than five minutes, we’re ringing Lucy’s doorbell. When the door opens, she doesn’t seem at all surprised to see us. “Come on in and sit down,” she says.
“I’m glad you were able to figure out what I was trying to say in the phone call,” I say.
“It wasn’t too hard. I remember your rules about that stuff when talking on the phone. I was surprised you got here so quickly. I didn’t realize you could go coast to coast that fast.”
“Yes, we can. So, do you want to ask questions or would you rather us just try and explain?”
“This is about Ultra Woman, right?” she asks.
“Yes,” I reply.
“I have some ideas but why don’t you tell me and then if I need to, I’ll ask questions to fill in the blanks.”
“Well, I’m Ultra Woman. And I do have powers just like Clark. It turns out that under just the right conditions, the abilities can be passed on to another person.” I pause for a minute. She sure seems calm.
Finally, with a note of typical Lucy impatience she says, “Well, what else?”
Now I’m surprised. “What do you mean, ‘what else’? Isn’t that enough?”
“I guess so. But I figured all that out before you phoned. I thought you had some big shocking news to tell me.”
This finally moves Clark to speak up. “Lucy, we thought this was ‘big shocking news’. You should have seen what happened with Ellen.”
Lucy perks up at this. “Now *that* I want to hear about.”
Now I’m confused. “You mean I develop super powers and take up the ‘hero’ business and you aren’t curious about the details?”
She just shrugs. “Sis, I figured out a long time ago that your life was just plain crazy. I mean, even before you met Clark and got involved with Superman, how many times were you almost killed?”
“Well…” I start to reply but she cuts me off.
“Think about it. In the last half-dozen years or so, you almost married the fourth richest man in the world who turns out to be a criminal mastermind. Then, you take up with your partner who turns out to be Superman. You told me you’ve been to other dimensions and you’ve traveled through time. After all that, how could you possibly expect me to be surprised you now have super powers?”
I guess she’s right. I’m struggling to find something to say when she leans forward with a mischievous look on her face. “So, you’ve *got* to tell me what happened with Mom! For that, I want all the details.”
***~~~***
Later, as we’re heading home, I’m still in shock at how calm Lucy had been about the whole “super powered sister” thing. I had been sure we would spend a long time talking about Ultra Woman and powers but all she wanted to talk about was Mom. She kept going back and forth on if it’s funnier that Mom thought the Clark had married a second wife or that she thought I was some kind of fake-Lois. I have to admit that after seeing how both Lucy and Dad reacted to my being Ultra Woman, it did make Mom’s reaction seem even more over-the-top. The good thing about Lucy’s under-reaction to the news was that it makes it easy to get back to Metropolis on time.
To be concluded...
Bob
