EPILOGUE
Lois Lane hit the send key on her computer and LANed her story to the City Editor. It was the last of the wire service copy she had been handed to put a local spin on after she had sent her front-page story to Perry earlier. She and Clark had completed an investigative piece concerning the Water Department's goof in releasing surplus water from the reservoir even though a drought had been predicted for the summer months. It was nothing sensational, just the kind of bread and butter piece that made the Daily Planet the chosen newspaper of the well-informed public. She was through for the day.
As she began to gather her belongings to leave, she saw her partner and best friend, Clark Kent, head for the pencil sharpener with a fistful of number 2's. She knew he, also, was finished with his assignments because it was his habit, at the end of the day, to leave his pencil cup filled with freshly sharpened writing implements. And he cleared his desk of folders and papers, leaving it pristine in anticipation of the new day. She had often watched in fascination as he carefully filed everything he had been working on so that he could find each item quickly the next morning.
She looked down at the folders and papers covering her own desk. Scooping them into her arms, she dropped everything into her bottom left drawer and snapped it shut. A fervent disciple of the bottom drawer management system, she reminded herself it was time to go through the bottom right drawer to discard those items that time had rendered unnecessary and obsolete. Then she turned to watch her partner complete his end-of-day ritual.
She was both appreciative of and amused by his compulsive routine, which, along with incredulous and astonished, pretty much summed up how she viewed everything she had come to know about this unique man in the past five months. She thought of the night he had told her about his incredible powers, that same night they had brought down Lex Luthor. She had believed it was some tall tale he was spinning to hide the real reason why Lex's shots hadn’t killed him. But when she was pelting him with angry words about lack of trust and lying, and blasting him for destroying any chance they might have for a real relationship, he had lifted her in his arms and flown into the night sky, literally taking her breath away and leaving her speechless. It was the first of many flights to anywhere she expressed an interest in seeing. His generosity in taking her to the other side of the earth and back touched her somewhere deep inside. The joy she saw in his face at being able to please her unlocked feelings she had protected for too long. Finally, she retracted her prickles...at least, where he was concerned.
When Scardino went back to Washington, D.C., she had said good-bye without regret. She was glad Clark had kept his promise, even though there had been times when both of them seemed willing to break the barrier they had agreed on, and passion had taken possession of them. But he had backed away, and she would not utter the third request that she had vowed to withhold until she was ready to change her life and give it over to him completely.
Shaking her head, she mentally acknowledged that Clark had been right about so many things. She was used to having him around, and they had become best friends as well as partners, spending all their time together at work and afterwards, at her place or his. She could hardly remember when he wasn't there at her desk with a smile and a morning cup of coffee or cooking up one of his mother’s hearty farm recipes in his apartment kitchen. It meant she had to spend an extra hour on the treadmill and bicycle at the gym for a few days afterwards, but sharing his delight and enthusiasm as he talked about his Mom's cooking and his life growing up on the farm made her feel happy and at home in a way she had never felt before.
"Penny for your thoughts."
He was standing in front of her desk smiling the smile that she couldn't not return no matter how much of a killer day it had been. "Hi. Just thinking about our first flight together, and how much has happened since then."
A shadow of doubt lurked in his eyes. "Happy thoughts, then?"
She smiled. "Very happy." She stood, placed a hand on his chest and kissed him lightly. "What's our agenda for tonight? Anything special, or shall we just get a pizza and watch a movie."
"You read my mind. Are you sure you're not a paranormal?"
"No, but I have high flown friends who are."
As they entered the elevator, he asked, "Since you're thinking about it, are you sure you don't want to go flying?"
"Maybe later. I was just trying to decide which time was best."
"And?"
She laughed. "There have been so many good ones. Like the first time we went to that little Thai place in Bangkok or when we watched the sun come up over the Himalayas. You really know how to show a girl a good time."
"The pleasure's all mine, ma'am."
"I think the best time was that first trip to Kansas, when I met your folks, and you decided to become Superman. They were so proud of you. I have to admit I thought Martha's costume ideas were a little bizarre, but the suit turned out to be perfect. No one would ever guess that the flashy guy in the gaudy clothes was also Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter."
"Not even that suspicious investigative reporter, Lois Lane?"
"If I didn't already know, I'd probably be so smitten with the Super guy, I'd never figure it out."
"Are you trying to tell me something? Should I be jealous of my alter ego?"
The elevator had reached the ground floor. They exited as she took his arm and replied. "Don't worry. I'm crazy about both of you."
They walked out of the Planet building and down the street, where they picked up a pizza and the latest Mel Gibson video. Grabbing a cab, they headed for Clark's apartment and were soon gorging on pizza and facing danger with Mel.
They stopped the movie in the middle and made popcorn to munch until the film's end. Lois was content to lie back with Clark's arm around her, dozing and not quite following the action of cars chasing, thugs shooting, and Mel fighting. She thought he was really boring compared to Superman.
She had dozed again when she felt a bump against her, and popcorn pelting her face. She heard Clark roar, "No sleeping! Popcorn war!” and another handful of snowy kernels rained down on her.
She was instantly awake and throwing fistfuls of the snack back at her adversary. They were both ducking and laughing, scooping up fallen un-disintegrated ammunition from the floor, the couch, the table, scrambling over each other fighting for the white bullets, knocking each other down. She was having mindless fun, not stopping to think whether she should do this or that, but just reacting in the moment. And then it came to her with complete clarity.
This was how she wanted to spend the rest of her life: being with Clark, watching videos and having popcorn fights, sharing the laughter and the bad times, making him happy, living together, having children, being married. She was suddenly still, a surprised look on her face. She loved Clark. She loved Clark!
"Lois, are you all right? I didn't hurt you did I?"
"Clark, I love you."
"Yeah. So?" She'd said it many times at moments like this with different expressions in her voice. She'd never said it when he wanted her to or the way he wanted her to, when they were kissing and he was pouring his heart from his mouth into hers and telling her how much he loved her. She never answered him with the passionate conviction he longed to hear.
"I love you." She didn't sound surprised anymore. She sounded happy. "I really love you!"
Then he got it. She was trying to distract him so she could get him with the last of the popcorn in the bowl and win the fight. "It won't work, Lois. I'm not letting you get the last shot."
She commandeered the bowl, and upended it, pouring the contents over the top of her head. "There. You win the popcorn fight, Clark. I don't care. I love you." And she threw her arms around him and kissed him.
He instinctively put his arms around her and held her, looking down into her face, which shone with joy. "What are you up to?" he asked.
"I'm up to making the most important decision of my life, and I want you to be the first to know."
"Yes?"
"I've just decided that I'm in love with Clark Kent, and I thought you ought to know."
"Lois, are you playing some kind of game, because I don't want to play."
She was suddenly very serious. "I'm not playing Clark. Do you love me?"
"You know I do. I tall you about a hundred times a day."
"Do you still want to spend the rest of your life with me?"
"Now he was equally serious. "Of course, I do."
"Well, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you, Clark Kent, and I want it all, everything you promised: love marriage, children, everything."
His heart was thundering. "Lois," he murmured, lowering his head to kiss her.
The kiss was long and full of commitments asked and promises given. When they finally broke apart, Clark asked, "You'll marry me?"
"Clark, I love you in every way and more than I ever thought I could love anyone. I want to make love with you, marry you, live with you. Take me to bed, Clark. I'll marry you before or after, it doesn't matter. I'm committed to you forever."
"You really mean it?"
"Every word. There’s one condition, though. You have to promise to get rid of that awful portrait in your bedroom.”
“We’ll talk about it,” he said and kissed her, again, until she was breathless.
She gasped, “Oh, my.... Talk...yes, we can...talk later. Right now...oh, yes....” Then she whispered meekly, “Isn’t that three times?”
He nodded and crushed her against him, laughing happily. As his heart completed a joyous somersault, his lips met hers in a kiss that sealed their intentions.
He didn’t need the portrait anymore because he had her, but he would put it away and someday tell their children the story of how it brought their parents together. For now, all that mattered was that she was in his arms, and their life together was just beginning.
FINIS
END NOTES
1. Did you know the name of the movie that inspired this story? It is the 1944 black and white film, ‘Laura’, which Twentieth Century Fox calls a film noir. The screenplay, written by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt, was adapted from the novel of the same name by Vera Caspary. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, it starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Dame Judith Anderson. It won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Webb was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Preminger for Best Director, although the film itself was out of the running for Best Picture. It was a tough year that included ‘Double Indemnity’, a genuine film noir and ‘Gaslight’, a thriller like ‘Laura’.
2. Many people who have never seen or heard of the film know the song, a pop standard. Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics for the film’s musical theme by David Raksin, and the result, ‘Laura’, has been frequently played and recorded ever since.
3. Rooibos is one of my favorite teas. It is South African, and I know someone whose grandmother uses it to color her hair.
4. The Elvis story Perry told is fictional. The tale of the Dragon’s Teeth is a story from Greek Mythology.
5. The Lupara is a real shotgun and, for a number of years, was the favorite weapon of assassination by both the Sicilian and American Mafia.
6. If you like to do that kind of thing, I would be most interested in seeing a comparative analysis of the film and the story. The film is available in both videotape and DVD from any rental place with a good classics section.
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