Chapter 1
It had been three days now since Lois had first seen the little note taped to Star’s front door.
Going on an astral journey to Woodstock ‘69. Should be bringing the good vibes back by Saturday. Peace and love. Star. Now, it was Monday, and there was still no sign of her esoteric friend. She tried knocking. Calling. Even reached out to a few of Star’s friends - the ones she knew by name - but none of them had heard from her either. There was no way Lois could let this go on any longer. As massive an invasion of Star’s privacy as it might be, she needed to make sure her friend was okay.
'You sure about this?’ Clark asked, glasses already half tipped.
He looked understandably uncomfortable, having spent most of his life actively avoiding using his x-ray vision to peer into people’s homes.
Lois offered an apologetic grimace. ‘Yeah, I think so. She’s never disappeared for this long before. And it’s not like we’re trying to spy on her or anything - it’ll just be a quick peek to see if she’s alive.’
‘Okay, just a peek,’ Clark agreed.
Lois bit her lip as she watched him lower his glasses all the way, scanning his expression for any sign of a worrying response. But his expression softened after just a few seconds, and he returned his glasses to their rightful place atop his nose.
Turning to her with a reassuring smile he said, ‘She’s fine. It looks like she’s asleep. I can’t see any sign she’s sick or in distress. Maybe she just needed some alone time?’
Lois reluctantly accepted that for now. Star was alive, seemingly in perfectly good health. What more could she do? But she still couldn’t shake the feeling something was off. Star had never been the alone time kind of person. Not to this extent. And if that was it, why would the note saying she’d be back Saturday still be up on the door?
She allowed Clark to lead her out to the jeep, even gesturing for him to drive today. Watching the familiar Metropolis streets roll by, her reporter’s mind began whirring away, running through all the possible avenues of enquiry.
By the time they reached the Daily Planet, she’d settled on her next step.
She needed to know more about astral projection.
***
‘This says that it’s possible for someone to get lost in the astral realm,’ Lois declared the next evening.
Clark looked up from the pile of laundry he was folding. It took him a second to catch on. His wife had a habit of voicing her latest thought trail out loud without clueing him in to the topic at hand, but he’d learned it was better to put the pieces together himself than interrupt her process.
Astral Realm. Star, right, of course. Lois crossed the room, planting herself next to him on the sofa, eyes still focused on the open pages of her book.
‘Listen to this,’ she continued. ‘Although rare, time distortions have been reported by some individuals who say what felt like only hours during their journey in the astral realm turned out to be days here on earth.’ She lowered the book and met his gaze. ‘Clark, this says one person even ended up institutionalised because they were gone so long. Their brain struggled to integrate back into the present.’
‘I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff?’ Clark asked.
Though if he was being honest, he was starting to get a little worried himself. He’d checked on Star a few more times over the last 24hrs, and although he’d seen her getting a glass of water from the kitchen, she still appeared to be sound asleep, operating on some kind of unconscious auto pilot. Regardless of what either of them believed about astral projection and mindscape time travel, it didn’t seem the healthiest thing for someone to be asleep this long.
‘I mean, I don’t… or I didn’t,’ Lois said, eyes drifting back to the book. ‘But you have to admit, we’ve seen some pretty unusual stuff over the years. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago our souls were transported back into the bodies of our past lives. Is this really so far-fetched?’
He couldn’t argue with that. ‘Okay, so what do you want to do? Break into her apartment and wake her up? Call the police, ask them to do a welfare check?’
Lois shook her head. ‘This says it can be dangerous to force someone out of an astral journey. It has to be their choice or their mind can end up stuck in the past forever.’
‘So what do you want to do?’
Lois hesitated, then pulled a little silver box from her pocket. Clark recognised it immediately. It had been given to them by a good friend, as a way of contacting him, if they should need it. For use in emergencies only.
‘Herb?’ he asked cautiously. ‘You think this is the kind of thing he meant for us to contact him about?’
‘Clark, our friend could be in serious trouble,’ Lois insisted.
Clark sighed. ‘I know, I'm sorry. It’s just… our time travelling adventures usually don’t go that smoothly.’
‘It’ll be different this time,’ Lois assured him. ‘For one thing, this has nothing to do with Tempus. If we take this trip, it will be on our terms. All we’re doing is finding our friend and getting her to wake up.’
As much as the idea of taking another tumble through time set him on edge, he knew he couldn’t fight her on this. She had that look in her eye, the one that told him if he refused, she’d just find a way to go on her own. And he cared about Star too. The woman had helped both of them on numerous occasions, and never asked for anything in return.
He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if something bad happened to her and they could have done something to stop it.
‘Okay,’ he conceded. ‘We can call him. But if he says no-’
Lois’ face split into a wide smile, already moving the dial on the little device to activate it. ‘Oh, I'm sure he won’t. You may not have noticed Clark, but I think the man kind of idolises you. I’m sure he’ll be happy to spend some more time with us.’
Clark cocked a brow. ‘Should it worry me that you seem excited about this?’
Lois flashed him her best innocent smile. ‘I’m just eager to help our friend!’
‘Sure,’ Clark said, though he remained unconvinced.
He knew that look. He'd fallen in love with that look.
As the device came to life, filling the room with otherworldly light, Clark scribbled a little note of his own and addressed it to his mom and dad. Just in case. Not that they could do anything if something were to go drastically wrong, but at least they’d know what had happened.
Going time travelling to Woodstock ‘69 to rescue our neighbour. Herb’s taking us. Hopefully be back before you ever read this. Love you. Clark. ---
A/N: Thank you for reading! Hope your enjoyed this little teaser. I'm not sure when i'll be able to continue on, as I'm also committed to writing another story for the keepsake collection, but hopefully can return to it in the autumn.
Note - my mum was a 60s/70s flower power hippy and always talks about that era with such fondness, so it feels close to my heart. I have been watching the Woodstock '69 documentary and reading a few collections of personal stories from the event to get a better sense of the world I'm diving into, and that in itself has been a fun research project for me, so I'm grateful for the challenge sparking this idea whether it gets finished or not
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