Through Lana's Eyes

Chapter 6

Hourglass

Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long. For a while I plan to update weekly, unless I have time. Homework has been impossible lately. But over Christmas vacation I should be able to get a few new chapters up. By the way, I don't own any one. All the characters and some of the dialogue belongs to Alfred Gough, Miles Miller, and the rest of the writers.

With the extra time that she had from quitting cheerleading, Lana decided to work some more on her community service hours at the nursing home. She was coming out of one of the rooms with the cart of books when she saw Clark and Pete walking down the hall.

"Hi Clark, Pete."

"Lana, I didn't know you were volunteering here." Clark said. Pete said something under his breath.

"For a couple of weeks now. Are you part of the companion program?"

"Yeah. I'm reading to Cassandra."

"She's an interesting woman. Some of the nurses say she can see the future." She smiled and went down the hall to see Mr. Bollston. She knocked on the door.

"Mr. Bollston? It's Lana Lang." She pushed the cart into the room and saw that he was listening to a record of piano music.

"Lang." he said.

"The Langs moved to Smallville in 1938 took over a couple of Dust Bowl farms. Knew a bargain when they saw it." 'That's impressive.'

"You're a local-history buff."

"It's kind of my obsession. So, are you my next victim?"

"You don't look that scary to me."

"You should have know me in my younger days."

"I'm sure you were quite the heartbreaker." 'He's one of the nicer ones here. Some of them won't even talk to me.'

"How about a spin around the grounds and you can tell me what the Langs have been doing since 1938."

"Let me go get my coat." She walked out the door and down the hall to the coat room. As she passed by the nurse's station she told one of them that she was taking Mr. Bollston for a walk. She pushed his wheel chair out onto the walkway that ran all the way around the pond outside the nursing home. "It's so beautiful. I don't know why more people don't come out here." She stopped pushing him at an old boat dock.

"They're too busy watching television. Say, would you mind running back to my room and getting me a scarf? I don't want to catch a chill."

"Sure."

"Honey, you're a doll." She walked back up towards the house to get the scarf. She went into his room and found a scarf, but when she went back outside he was gone. She walked all the way to the end of the walkway, but still couldn't find him. When she went inside and told the nurses, they told her that he had most likely wheeled himself back inside. The nurse told her to go home and so she got a ride from Clark, who was getting a ride from Chloe.

"Thanks, you guys." she told them as Chloe pulled up to the Beanery. They had decided to get some thing to drink before Chloe dropped them all off.

"It's no problem." said Clark. She had been surprised to see how quickly he offered her a ride. As they walked in, Clark was reassuring her that it wasn't her fault.

"It not your fault, Lana."

"Do you know anyone else who's lost an entire old person in a wheelchair?" she asked him.

"Nope, that's pretty impressive, even by Smallville standards."

"Maybe he was kidnaped." suggested Clark. 'It's nice how he's trying to make me feel better.'

"Who'd want to kidnap Harry? He's just a harmless old man?" asked Lana.

"Maybe a koi turned into a piranha and ate him. You asked for my help. I'm just thinking out of the box." said Chloe

"I like your theory." the guy behind Clark said.

"You know, you might want to work on your eavesdropping technique." Chloe told him.

"Sorry. I'm new in town. I just heard this is where young people congregate." 'That is the first time I've ever heard a teenager talk like one of the people from the nursing home.'

"Yeah, we congregate here often." Chloe said sarcastically. Clark turned around.

"Hi, I'm Clark. The rude one's Chloe, and this is. . ."

"Lana Lang." 'How does he know that?' "Nametag was a big clue. So uh, good luck finding your missing old person."

"I think I'll go see Nell at the store." She got up, walked out the door, and down the street to the store.

That night when she went back to the nursing home she noticed that there was a bulletin board with pictures of all the people that lived there. Each person had two pictures; one from the present and one from when they were young. She found Harry's picture, but there was only the one from the present.

"I don't think that's going to help bring Harry back." She looked and saw Clark standing there.

"Clark, what are you doing here so late?" she asked.

"I came to see Cassandra, if she's still up. What happened to Harry's younger picture?"

"I don't know." 'I was wondering the same thing.'

"Is everything okay?"

"I met with the administrator, you know, to tell them what I knew about Harry. They police were there."

"Well, it's a missing person case. It's not unusual."

"That's not the reason. Harry Bollston's real name is Harry Volk. He was a murderer, Clark."

"A murderer? Why would they let someone like that stay here?"

"Because it happened sixty years ago, when he was seventeen. He served his time. I guess, they figured he was just a harmless old man who moved back to his hometown to die. Back in the forties he was studying to be a concert pianist. He was up for a full scholarship to the Metropolis Conservatory. But his teacher recommended somebody else."

"So he killed his teacher?"

"No. He said the teacher killed his dream, so he killed the teacher's dream. The man's son."

"That's horrible."

"I should go."

"Me too." said Clark. She walked over to the stairs and down to the door. The next day after school she got a call from Chloe telling her to meet her at the Torch office. When she got to the office, there was no one there. She walked around in the halls for a few minutes before going back to check if anyone was there. She it had been a few minutes before she noticed a wall of photos and newspaper articles. She noticed that they were tacked up on top of each other, so she started looking at the ones underneath. She lifted one up and saw the picture from Time magazine with her on the cover. 'Why am I up there with the monsters and the strange, unexplainable things.'

"Chloe, what. . .?" she turned around to see Clark come in.

"She's not back yet."

"Lana, what are you doing here?" 'I'm starting to wonder the same thing.'

"Chloe called me too. She said she had some info on Harry. When I got here, I started looking around. Found this." She pointed to the wall.

"Chloe calls it the "Wall of Weird." She believes everything strange in Smallville started with the meteor shower." 'So, I'm strange?'

"How about you, Clark? Do you believe that?"

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"Does that include me? I'm up there with the tree-headed calf anf the monster from Crater Lake."

"The stuff on this wall has nothing to do with you."

"Remember when you said people keep their darkest secrets hidden? Mine's out there for all the world to see. It's hard when everyone knows your tragedy. They treat you differently. Like you're gonna break."

"I'm sure they just feel bad and wanna help."

"I know. But all they do is remind you of the most painful momet of your life. How would that make you feel, Clark?"

"Like I wish I could go back in time and erase that moment forever." 'That's exactly what I was thinking.'

"I thought high school would be different, that I could finally start putting it behind me. But everywhere I go, there it is. Maybe I should just accept my destiny. All I'm ever gonna be is a little girl in a fairy-princess costume who lost her parents." Clark took a few steps towards her and said,

"I don't see you that way."

"I know you don't, Clark. You're the only one who doesn't." 'Thanks for that.' She turned and walked out of the office. She went over to the football field to see if practice was over, but she didn't see anyone. She walked out to the parking lot and saw Whitney getting into his truck.

"Whitney!" She ran over to his truck.

"Hey, what's up." He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I thought that you'd be at home by now."

"I got caught up with a project. Could you give me a ride?"

"Sure." They both climbed into the truck. When she got home she turned on the T.V. and saw that Harry had been found. The report said that according to Harry, he had been kidnaped, chained to a bed, and some kid left him there. She decided that the next day she would go over and see what had really happened.

When she got there, she saw that Clark was there too. Together they walked around the walk-way talking about Harry.

"So what happened?" Clark asked her.

"The police questioned Harry all morning. He said he was kidnaped by this kid who was obsessed with his old case."

"So, somehow, in broad daylight this kid got out of handcuffs smuggled Harry inside and chained him to a bed?"

"That's the official story."

"It may be official, but it doesn't make any sense."

"You could always add it to the Wall of Weird." She looked at him. 'Something's not right.'

"Clark, are you all right?"

"Not really, I think I'll go inside and talk to Harry." He turned and walked away. 'He was fine two seconds ago. How could he go from fine to sick in a matter of seconds.' She walked back inside, where she started pushing the book cart from room to room. About half an hour later one of the nurses came over to her.

"Mrs. Lang, have you see Harry around here anywhere?"

"Just when I went into his room for a few minutes. Why?"

"He's missing again."

"Oh no. I'll look around for a while. Did anyone check outside? I was out there a while ago, but I didn't see him."

"I'll have someone go outside and look." After a few minutes the nurse came back,

"They just got his wheelchair out of the lake." 'Clark would like to hear about this. She went to school and found Clark, Pete, and Chloe in the newspaper office.

"Harry's gone. They found his wheelchair out by the koi pond half an hour ago."

"I saw meteor rocks in that pond." Clark told them

"At least now we know how he's doing the time warp." Chloe said

"What do you mean?" she asked. 'Time warp? Is that even possible?'

"I'll explain later." Clark told her. "We gotta figure out who he's gonna kill next."

"Clark, take a look at this." Chloe held out an old newspaper.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a list of the jurors that worked on Harry's trial." Clark read off the names,

"Randolph Gage, Rita Garfield. He's killing the decedents of the jurors who convicted him."

"Talk about not letting it go." Pete said. Clark was reading the list of names. All of a sudden a strange expression came onto his face. 'What does it say?'

"Clark, what is it?" she asked.

"Look at juror number eleven." He handed the paper to her, and she looked at the list of twelve names. 'Hiram Kent. That's his grandfather. This can't be good.'

"Hiram Kent. Wasn't that your grandfather?"

"Harry's gonna kill my dad."

"What? Not that I want anyone to die, but wouldn't he come after you?" Chloe asked.

"I'm not really related to my grandfather remember?"

"I think I get it," Lana said, "he's trying to take away things from the jurors and since you're not biologically related to Hiram, Harry won't go after you."

"I gotta go." Clark told them as he walked out the door.

"Clark, wait!" Lana said, and she followed him out the door, but when she got out into the hall she didn't see him. 'That's weird.' She walked back into the office. "I went out there and he's nowhere in sight."

"That happens a lot; you get used to it after a while." Chloe told her.

'I guess that's just Clark being Clark. So I'll have to get used to it.'

"I'm gonna go home. Call me when you find out what happened."

"See you."

Later that night Clark called and told her what happened. He said that Harry had gone to his house and tried to kill his mom, but everyone was fine. As she sat upstairs she thought about the things that had happened that week. 'Life in Smallville just keeps getting stranger and stranger.'