Clark was working on a crossword puzzle. He was trying to figure out a 5 letter word for a communication device when the phone rang.
"Of course," he said out loud, "it's phone. That was so easy, it was hard."
He filled out the word in super speed and answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Get your mother on the phone!"
"Lois, is that you?"
"No, Smallville. It's the first lady. Get your mom!"
"Actually, the first lady has called here before."
"Would you quit playing around and get Mrs. Kent for crying out loud!"
"I'm not playing around and Mom had to go to the governor's New Year's party, remember?"
"Shoot! How could I have forgotten that?"
"Is there anything I can do?"
"I only get one phone call, so listen carefully. Tell your mom to go to Troutsville as soon as possible. Tell her I'm in the corner building on Main Street. It's the only brick building there and make sure she brings her pocketbook."
"What's going on?"
"It's none of your beeswax. You'll just laugh at me and I'll never live it down—I'm hurrying, Barnaby Jones."
"If you don't tell me, Lois, I'll just find out anyway. I promise I won't laugh."
"Don't you have any New Year's plans?"
"Not really. Now what's this big secret?"
"Fine," she said with a sigh. "Nothing stays secret in a small community anyway. I might as well tell you and get it over with…I was arrested."
"For what?"
"Speeding."
Clark covered his chuckling with coughing but the sound wasn't lost on Lois.
"Go ahead and laugh at my expense, and for your information, I was only going 5 miles over the speed limit."
"So you need someone to bail you out?"
"Yes, Clark."
"I'll be there as fast as I can."
"Don't go too fast. You can get arrested for that. Isn't that right, sheriff?"
"I'll keep that in mind. See you in a little bit."
"Okay, bye."
Clark was still laughing, when he got in the truck. It was a 10 minute drive to Troutsville from Smallville. Lois was going to owe him big time for freeing her. He thought about all the different ways he could use it against her. Blackmail was nice to think about but not very practical. Lois wouldn't go for that and he was too kind to do it to her. He wasn't too kind to use it in their arguments. He thought of a lot of jail jokes and comebacks on the way there.