"???" A thin muscular man with dark hair and large black eyes bent over a web cam that was set-up in the corner of the ornate, windowless room. He checked and re-checked the wires before settling himself down into the chair beside it, punching codes into his laptop with the greatest of ease. If all did not go off without a hitch then the Boss would be very unhappy, and they all knew what that meant—Ken had met his 'unhappy' end last week for screwing up during the last transfer. He swallowed down the lump of fear that momentarily formed in his throat just as his comrades were entering the room.
Two large, identical-looking bald thugs dragged an unconscious man into the room. Their looped arms were the only things supporting the unkempt looking person in question, as was evidenced by the way his feet trailed limply behind him. They dropped him down in a chair and Lenny chanced a look at their captive. His hair was overgrown and matted with dirt, as was his few inches' worth of beard. The clothes he wore were tattered and caked with a mixture of blood and grime from previous beatings, and the exposed parts of his skin sported several large purple bruises.
But what startled Lenny most was what happened next. Bruce and Guy had been muttering to themselves since they entered—what about, Lenny had no idea. After dumping their victim into his seat Bruce circled behind only to yank him up roughly by the hair; it became apparent that Guy wanted to get a few more hits in. He searched the man's face as Bruce yanked and their eyes briefly locked. The look Lenny received startled him; there was simply no fight left in the man in the chair.
With a heart-wrenching crunch Guy's right fist connected with the man's left cheek, sending him flying off the chair with its force and breaking Lenny's brief eye contact. He felt a shudder creep down his spine.
"That's enough gentlemen."
Smallville, May 17, 2007. The next morning Lois awoke early…well, early by city standards, and got ready to begin the day researching her farm boy partner's past. A quick breakfast downstairs in what passed for a dining room and a Styrofoam cup of coffee in her hand and she stepped out onto the street and headed straight for Town Hall.
It was a large brick building that looked like it had been erected around the turn of the last century, and it was set apart from the rest of the town by a small patch of green grass. A large American flag flapped in the breeze from the white flagpole that stood in the middle of the green…how quintessentially American, Lois thought as she strolled past. As she shoved her shoulder against the stuck wooden door she discovered that the interior of the old building had been remodeled in recent years to suit the Town's purpose, making room for new offices, creating outlets for electricity and installing cable for hook-ups to the internet. The placard on the wall in front of her listed the various offices located within the building, which she perused until she found the department she was looking for: the Town Clerk's Office followed by an arrow pointing to her right. Lois took off down the hall in that direction.
She opened the door and was greeted by the dinging of an old time bell that hung just above her head on the door frame. There was a high counter in front of her, and behind it were two vacant desks and several sets of filing cabinets. Her sharp eye caught a glimpse of the pamphlets strewn across the counter in front of her; they told of local events, tips for raising livestock, and a bit about the Town's past. The latter she quickly shoved into her purse for later perusal before a plump young woman came out of a room at the other end of the office. She looked to be in her early 30's, with auburn hair styled in a fashion that hadn't been in vogue since the late-1980's, and a bright purple outfit that hurt Lois' eyes to look at.
"I thought I heard that bell!" she exclaimed cheerily, "I'm May Turhewn, and you're not from around here, are you? But of course you're not, it's a small town and I know everybody, so I'd know you if you were from around here. What can I do for you today? Did ya get lost on the way to the Wichita State Fair? It happens all the time…now what you gotta do is…"
Lois was startled by her appearance, not to mention her attire, but quickly regained her reporter's composure and cut her off. "No actually, I'm not lost. I came here to gather some information on the Kent family."
May stopped mid-sentence, a puzzled expression crossing her face. "Now what doyou want with the Kents?" she asked, a slight defensive edge to her voice. Thankfully, Lois had come up with a contingency plan on the plane the night before.
"Well you see, I'm a genealogist and I was hired by a Mr. Clark Kent to research his family tree. It's a birthday present for his…"
"…Mother?" May interjected. "Oh he is such a sweetheart! How thoughtful of him! Oh I could just eat him up! You know, Clark and I went to high school together, though he was a year ahead of me. Never was very popular, not like Brad Byrons the quarterback, but Clark was still a nice guy nonetheless…but look, here I am running my mouth off again! What kind of information did you say you were looking for, Miss…?"
"Streete, Ella Streete. Let's see…how about we start with the birth certificates, then any death and marriage certificates for the last 100 years or so, if you have them. It'll give me an idea of where to go from here…" Lois replied. By asking for all the records she could avoid suspicion then if she had just asked for Clark's birth certificate alone; the information would also help her learn more about his parents.
"Why don't you have a seat over there and I'll see what I can wrestle up," May said, pointing to a small table with two chairs in the corner behind Lois. "Actually, before you do that, would you mind just signing in here? It's policy for anyone who comes in here looking at our records."
"S-sure, that's n-not a problem at all," she said, taking the pen May offered her and looking at the blank spot on the page she was supposed to fill in. She got out an L before catching herself, quickly going over it and turning it into an E before signing the rest of her Mother's maiden name to the Smallville Records Registry.
"Thank you kindly, now have a seat and I'll be right back with that paperwork you asked for, Ella." And with that May turned to the filing cabinets around her to help locate all the necessary documents.
Lois took her seat in the corner, her back facing the office, and let out a barely audible sigh. She was used to bluffing and stretching the truth when it came to her informants, but to outright lie to someone so naïve and overly-solicitous as May Turhewn just seemed so…so…Wrong…what I'm doing here is so wrong, her conscience piped up. But Lois, if we want to get the goods on Kent, we need to keep up this pretence. Besides, if you want to blame someone for your guilt, blame Perry; he's the one that sent you on this assignment anyway. If he'd just given you a story worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and kept you in Metropolis then you wouldn't have had to deceive anyone! her lesser scruples reasoned.
She was still busy dueling it out with her conscience when May reappeared and dropped several manila folders in front of her, effectively breaking her out of her reverie. The dust that swirled up caused both of them to cough violently.
"Well," May started to say before she was choked by another cough. "This is…what I've got…so far. More coming," she finished, walking back behind the counter.
Lois brushed away the dust that still floated in front of her and looked at the records. Death certificates, marriage certificates…Aha! Birth certificates…she couldn't help but smile to herself as she pictured her 6'4" partner as a helpless little infant and wondered how big he was when he was born.
Joseph…Hiram…Jonathan…CLARK! Gotcha!!! She pulled out the least yellow and frayed looking document from the batch and poured over it eagerly. Clark Jerome Kent…Mother: Martha Clark Kent, well that's interesting…explains how he didn't get stuck with the name Hiram…Father: Jonathan Joseph Kent…wait, what?? Her eye fell upon the date May 2, 1977. But Clark just turned 33 last month, not 30. Why would he lie about his age?…She also noted several spaces that were left blank, such as the child's length, weight and eye color, as well as the name and signature of the physician attending the birth.
"Excuse me?" she called out to May after pondering the possibilities for a moment, "I think maybe you grabbed the wrong Kent family file! It says here that my client was born in May 1977 but he told me it was April 1974." Lois got up and waved the birth certificate like a flag. May strode over from her desk to inspect it.
"No no, Honey, you're reading it all wrong. That's the date the document was filed. There's his date of birth…" she exclaimed, pointing to another date on the page.
"So then why the three year delay in submitting his birth certificate? Certainly that's unusual."
"Well it is for most babies but you see that red letter A in the upper right hand corner? That indicates an adoption."
"Cla…my client was adopted? He neglected to mention that," she said more to herself than to her companion as she frowned down at the page.
"Well it's fairly common knowledge around here, though by the way he acted you'd never know it. I don't think he ever once wondered about his real folks; always treated Mr. and Mrs. Kent like the real thing."
"I see," Lois replied, without really seeing anything beyond her own confusion as she turned back to her seat. How could Clark not mention that he was adopted? This omitted bit of her partner's history stung her personally in a way that even she couldn't quite explain. It also led her to wonder what else he had refrained from telling her all these years that they'd been 'friends'.
She continued to scribble notes in her notebook and look over some of the other documents that May had handed her, including a second pile freshly dug up from the back room. He was a fourth generation farmer, his great-grandfather Joseph Kent having purchased the property in 1894 from a Mr. Jethro Wheeler for $250 even, quite the tidy sum back in the day. His grandfather and father had been born on the property, and Clark's parents had married there in 1954…the groom was 21 and the bride was 20.
Then Lois came to the articles of the Kent family past that truly shocked and saddened her; the birth and death certificate of a baby girl born to the couple in August of 1963. They had named her Mary, and she spent less than a day with them before succumbing to her premature birth.He would have had an older sister…she thought, a tear coming to her eye…Oh God how awful for his parents! Two salty drops slid down her cheeks as she empathized with the family she had yet to meet face-to-face. If anything had ever happened to Jason…she got even more choked up at that possibility, knowing how close she'd come a couple times when he was younger and still fragile. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind and turned a couple more pages before hitting upon the third most shocking revelation of the morning; Mr. Kent was dead.
Lois pulled out the death certificate for Jonathan Joseph Kent, dated September 19, 1992. The sheet in front of her simply stated that he had died of a massive coronary at the age of 59. The only personal item Clark had on his desk at work instantly popped into Lois' mind; it was a picture of him and his parents taken when he was a teenager, the red barn house and fields framing them in the background. No wonder I assumed he was still alive. But you know what they say about people who assume…Lois let her mind wander as she contrasted the family photo with the information presented before her. Oh Clark, you were only 18 when he died. How awful! She had arrived in Smallville with the intention of digging up some "dirt" on her squeaky clean partner and was beginning to realize that she was in for more than she bargained for. She was about to replace the certificate back in the folder when a yellowed piece of newspaper fell out. Apparently, a previous Town Clerk felt that Jonathan Kent's death deserved a little more dignity than most and they had included a clipping of his obituary from the Smallville Tribune:
Kent,
Jonathan. A lifelong resident of Smallville, at 59 years of
age.
He is survived by his wife of thirty-six years Martha (nee
Clark)
and son Clark. Mr. Kent died suddenly of a heart attack
while
working on his farm Saturday afternoon. His final moments
were
spent surrounded by his family before succumbing to his
ailment.
A wake will be held on Tuesday, September 22nd, from
11
AM - 2 PM at McCorgin's Funeral Home in Wellington,
followed by
a Funera service at 10 AM on Wednesday,
September 23rd. The family
have requested a private burial at the
Smallville Cemetery after
the service, but invite all family and
friends to join them at
their home for refreshments afterward.
He will be missed by
all who knew him in this life--may he
rest in peace.
She re-read Mr. Kent's obituary one more time, then placed it gently back in it's folder before pondering the facts before her. Who knew that Clark Kent, Mr. Gee-That's-Swell himself, had such a sad and lonely past? It was as if the bumbling co-worker she knew in Metropolis was a completely different person from the one represented before her in print.
Lois scribbled a few more notes as she gathered up the documents to hand back to May, all the while wondering what other secrets the small town held in store for her.
