In albis
The last costumer left the café at the same time that the phone rang.
"The Talon, yeah?" answered Martha.
"It's Clark, mum" said Clark from the other side of the phone.
"Oh! Hi sweetheart! I'm coming home in a half of hour, I just have to clean up and throw the rubbish, and that takes just fifteen minutes, ok? You can have dinner if you're hungry…"
"No, mum… I wasn't calling for that… I'm in Metropolis, with Chloe and the guys… we're helping her with the move, and we're going to stay here tonight… I called you to say you that I'm not coming home…"
"Ok, sweetheart, have a nice time with your friends!"
"Will you be ok?
"Oh dear… this is not the first time that I'm alone in the farm…"
"I know mum… but…"
"I will be fine, don't worry, sweetheart… See you tomorrow"
"Bye, mum"
Martha put the phone down and went into the back room with the rubbish. At that moment someone walked out the toilets, someone who had listened to all the conversation. The man followed her.
Martha hearted some steps at her back, she turned round but nobody was there… She threw the rubbish and then she came in again. When she had closed the backdoor someone take her from her back and push her against the door. She screamed and the man put a big knife on her neck.
"Be shut up or the first costumer of the morning will find your body covered with your blood" said the man.
Martha was breathing so fast, she was really frightened… that man put his hand on her shoulder and began to caress her… she couldn't bear that and she hit him with her knee. She could run away, but he took her before she arrived at the door and threw her on the floor. He sat over her and punched her twice, then he took out the knife again, and with it he cut her clothes. Martha tried to resist, but he was stronger and she couldn't move. When he took out her panties Martha began to cry…
Somebody was phoning when Clark arrived at the farm. It was nearly nine o'clock and his mother car wasn't there, so he thought that she was already at the Talon.
"Yeah?" He answered the phone.
"Am I talking with Clark Kent?" said a young woman voice.
"That's me. Who am I talking with?" Asked him.
"Is Martha Kent your mother?"
"She is… why?" He began to be worried.
When Clark arrived to the hospital nobody said nothing about his mother, he began to think that she was really bad. He couldn't put up with that alone and he phoned the person who was more related with his mother on the last months…
"Yeah?" said a man voice.
"Lionel? It's Clark."
"Hi Clark! What's the matter?"
"My mum is in the hospital, and I thought that maybe you could come and…"
"I will be there in a few minutes!!" said Lionel so worried as the same time that he put the phone down.
Clark was in the hospital waiting room when Lionel arrived running through the corridor. Clark stood up, Lionel stopped in front of him, breath a moment, and put his hands on the young man shoulders.
Lionel: Where's your mother? How's she? What happened? – asked so quickly.
Clark: Breath a little… - said Clark calmly – She's in that room, the doctors are with her… But they haven't told me anything… I just know that she has been attacked in the Talon… nothing else…
Lionel: Attacked?! – Exclaimed – What do you mean? Is she really hurt? Wha…?
Clark: I don't know… I really don't know… I spent this night out of home… my mum was alone… They phoned me just when I arrived… - he was really worried.
Lionel: Ok… don't worry – Lionel opened his arms and hugged Clark – You aren't alone… I'm with your mother and you and I will help you on all what I can…
Clark: Thanks Lionel… I didn't know who I could call… and my mother have trusted on you as much this last months that… you were the first person who came to my mind… - he was nearly crying, but tried to not – I just needed somebody to don't feel myself alone…
They sat down and wait in silence, looking at Martha's room's door, waiting for the doctors to come out.
Suddenly the door opened and two doctors, a nurse and a policeman came out from the room. Clark and Lionel walked to them.
Clark: How's my mother?
Doctor1: Are you Mrs. Kent's family?
Clark looked a while to Lionel and said: Yes… we both are. – Lionel looked at him in surprise.
Policeman: Your mother was attacked tonight… we thought that between eight and ten…
Clark: That's the Talon close time… I rang her nearly fifteen past nine… She was fine, then…
Policeman: Well… that reduce the time between fifteen pas nine and ten o'clock…
Lionel: Why ten o'clock?
Policeman: Because a neighbour saw somebody going out the café at that time… but she thought it was Mrs. Kent… so she didn't suspect anything until this morning…
Clark: This morning?!
Policeman: She was found this morning for one of the waitress… she was lying naked in the backroom of the Talon.
Lionel: Naked?! – now he was more scared than worried.
Doctor1: Mrs. Kent have been found with many injuries in her body, a big cut on her face and neck and another on her head…
Clark: But is she ok, or not? We need to know this!
Doctor2: She's alive… but she's in coma…
Lionel: In coma?!
Doctor1: Yeah… the cut of her head was a result of a felts or a big hit… it's the reason of her coma, and maybe of other problems which can appear after…
Lionel: But she will come back… she will wake up…
Doctor1: Maybe today, tomorrow, the next week, the next month, the next year, or never… we can't control it…
Clark: Can we go in to see her? I really want to see my mother…
Doctor1: Sure you can, but…
Lionel: But what?
Doctor2: There's something else that you should know…
Clark: What? What is it?
Doctor2: She has been raped.
Lionel: What?!
Clark: NO! That can't be truth!
Doctor1: It is. We made prove on her… she has had sexual relations…
Policeman: This kind of attacks are more usually than we want… just for rapes…
The three men and the nurse left Lionel and Clark alone, and Clark, angry with that situation, punched the column which was next to him and it broke down. The policeman, the two doctors and the nurse, and also all the people who was there turned to him… he, without say anything, went into the room.
Lionel watched to everybody, opened his wallet, and give a check to one of the doctors.
Lionel: It will pay this… excuse the boy… he lose the control.
Then he went inside too.
Martha seemed to be calmly asleep... Clark and Lionel put themselves on each side of the bed and each one hold one hand from Martha… She had a cut which began near her nose and ended on her neck… Lionel caressed it softly, with his hand shaking, he couldn't believe that someone had done that to that woman, to that perfect and sweetly woman who he loved as much.
Clark kissed his mother hand as softly as it was from a crystal sculpture… he felt sad for her, but he also felt rage against her rapist.
Clark: I want to kill him… - whispered while he let his mother hand.
Lionel: That would calm your rage, son, but never the hurt you feel inside of you…
Clark: But we have to do something! – he broke down and started to cry – She's my mum…! She's the best woman in this world…! The fucking man who have done this to her just deserves to die!
Lionel: No Clark… I also wish to have his face in front of me and shoot him on his front… but we're not going to help your mother doing that… and she wouldn't want us to search vengeance…
Clark: But…
Lionel took Clark's hand and put it between Martha's one and his one.
Lionel: Clark… what she needs now is to see us next to her… to see our love, our comprehension… she needs to see us together, because just at this way she will face this…
TO BE CONTINUED…