Chapter Five – The Super Serum
When Jacques had said that they had an early flight, he wasn't kidding. Kim knew that were it possible, they would've left the last night, rather than in the morning, given the situation. She had checked their one suitcase, and carried only a purse onto the plane with her at five AM the next morning. Kim and Jacques had both left their supersuits back in their house in Metroville, and Kim had also left her various super accessories. She would be spending a lot of time with Jacques this week—Jacques, not Gamma Jack. And she would put her other life on hold just for this week.
Jacques still looked very tired when they were boarding the plane, so Kim gave him the window seat and persuaded him to sleep. "I'll tell you when we land," she promised. He leaned his head against her shoulder and quickly closed his eyes, still totally drained from the day before. Once, Kim remembered, he had told her that his power was especially energy consuming. After all, he used radiation waves, and there was some great power there. And great power used up great energy. Her mind strayed back to the fire extinguisher incident, but didn't dwell there long.
"You and your boyfriend seem extremely close, Miss." Kim turned her head slightly and saw an old lady sitting across the aisle smiling at her.
Kim returned the smile, but shook her head. "Oh no, he's my husband." She admitted.
The woman looked truly taken aback. "Your husband? But you two are so young! Why, you must be in your early twenties, at most!" Her radiant green eyes in confusion.
"Ah…we married young. It was arranged by our parents," Kim explained, making eye contact.
"An arranged marriage? I thought those things were stopped long ago! I didn't think anybody did that anymore. …You do love him, though, don't you?" the woman asked eagerly. She was apparently one of those hopeless romantics.
Not wanting to let the woman down, and half believing in it herself, Kim replied, "More than anything in the world." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jacques's furrowed eyebrows smoothen.
--
About an hour later, she gently shook Jacques awake, telling him that the plane was landing. If he had heard her conversation with the old woman, as she suspected, he showed no signs of it. He seemed greatly refreshed after the one-hour nap, though, and cheerfully led Kim out of the plane holding her hand. They only had to wait for 10 minutes in the baggage claim before their large suitcase came out.
"Are you sure you packed enough?" he was asking her.
"Quite sure, Jacques. You know I'm a very careful wife," she smiled. Jacques had his arm wrapped around her waist and stubbornly pinched her.
"Not careful enough to be at home when I call, though. Don't you ever do that to me again, woman. I almost had a heart attack when you wouldn't pick up." He snapped, though his tone was more playful. "You dames just come and go as you please."
It had been quite some time since she'd been in New York…she hadn't been home since right after the honeymoon, and that was just to pack her things and get ready to move. The air in Metroville was cleaner, and the people nicer, but New York was her home. Jacques rented a car, and they drove off towards the hospital where his dad was.
Much to Kim's surprise, Mr. Dubois wanted to speak to her before he spoke to his own son. She gingerly sauntered into the room and the nurse left, shutting the door behind her. "Have a seat," her father-in-law said to her, his voice hoarse, but the French accent still prevalent. She had learned from Jacques that he had had a bad fall and broken his hip. Kim nodded, and sat at the chair at his bedside. "These past few years, I have always wanted to tell you something, but never could. My pride, you see…it was too great. A Frenchman apologizing to some American girl! Fie!"
"Apologize for what?" Kim asked gently.
"I do not want you to think that I tricked you into marrying my son for some arbitrary reason. I knew about his powers, but I thought that you could accept him anyway. I thought…that you could handle him, because no other woman I'd met could. You had a strength beyond your years, Kimberly." He explained, speaking slowly so she could catch every word. Kim suddenly felt very guilty for her fears, the anxiety she felt the first few years of their marriage before she had discovered her powers. "Jacques, you see, he wrote me some time later, telling me that you feared him like Beauty feared the Beast. 'Il est incroyable!' I was thinking, because with just a few words, your wonderful strength was defeated."
"I apologize deeply for that, père. I simply…I did not know how to respond. I no longer am afraid of him, but I fear that the time for apologies has passed. I fear that I cannot understand him, nor can I ever hope to." This was her deepest, darkest thought. She hadn't told anybody about this, and here she was now! She was telling it to her father-in-law who was on his deathbed.
"Écoutez, écoutez moi!" he snapped impatiently. "Believe me now when I say that boy loved you! He wouldn't have married you had he not! Whether he does still, I do not know. But he was absolutely smitten with you!" This came as a huge shock. Kim would have interrupted, but she had no idea what to say. The old man continued, "He told me, 'I must have her! Whatever it takes, father, she must be mine!' And once he had you, look what you did! And now the two of you are…so far apart. I blame myself for that. Je me blâme. Please forgive me, Kimberly. You were too weak. You have no powers, and you feared him."
"Ah, mon père." She suddenly understood everything. Kim stood up, and walked to the window, opening it. She pulled hydrogen into one hand, and oxygen into the other. The two gases were invisible, of course, but she knew they were there. She turned back towards Mr. Dubois, and concentrated on combining the gases in both her hands. Within a few moments, she had a beautiful, perfect sphere of water between her hands, spinning around and around. She walked back and sat down by the bedside. "I have powers, too, you see?" she crooned.
"When…when did this…!" he could not hope to react conservatively. "Does Jacques know?"
Kim shook her head. "I learned about my powers just a short time ago. I have kept them a secret, just as I hope you will continue to do for me," She smiled. She lowered the sphere into an empty glass on the table beside her, and it filled halfway with water.
"Why, then…why should he continue to work on that 'super serum'?" Mr. Dubois muttered. "It was for you!"
This was new information. "What…super serum?" she furrowed her brow in confusion.
"That is enough. I have said enough, and more than enough. I will not divulge your secret, but you must promise me that you will love my boy!" he was changing the subject on purpose, but not wishing to upset him, she let it go.
To put him at ease, Kim took his hand in her hands and gently massaged it. "I already love your son more than anything else on this earth. I no longer fear him, I only seek to understand." Again, it was a half-truth.
Mr. Dubois laughed bitterly, and then coughed a few times. "Bah! That Jacques does not deserve such a virtuous wife! Nurse!" he yelled the last word. "Bring my son in!" When Kim moved to leave the room, he stopped her. "You stay, femme de mon fils idiot!"
When Jacques was admitted into the room, Kim moved to the other side, letting him sit beside his father. "Il y a une grande leçon à apprendre. Understand this wife of yours, and may you strive to deserve her!" Jacques gave Kim a sideways glance, wondering what she and his father had spoken about. "And," he added. "You should forget about that 'super serum'! C'est inutile maintenant!" Full of his old pride still, Mr. Dubois dismissed the two of them, not letting Jacques get a word in edgewise. The couple left the hospital together and got into the car without another word.
As they got closer to the hotel, one question lingered in Kim's mind. "What is the super serum?" she asked Jacques while they were still in the car.
"Another time, Kim. Another time." He sighed, obviously still trying to figure out the meaning behind his father's words. For her part, Kim couldn't help but feel that trouble was brewing on the horizon.
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Translations to the French:
Il est incroyable –
It is incredible
Père –
Father
Écoutez (moi)
– Listen (to me)
Je me blame –
I blame myself
Mon – My
Femme de mon fils
idiot – Wife of my idiot son
Il y a une grande
leçon à apprendre – There is a great lesson to be
learned
C'est inutile
maintenant – It is useless now