"Will you come to my birthday party, Mrs. Kent?"
Of course I would, I was helping Nell plan it. "Yes, sweetheart." Lana grinned and began to run after Clark. And Pete Ross.
Yes, I had begun to let Clark play with other children. It was about time too. He needed to experience the world outside of Lana, and us. And Pete and he had become the best of friends.
It happened after our terrible incident with Brian. Jonathan had rushed home, and taken Clark and I into his arms. Claiming to never leave home again. I laughed and told him then we'd be awfully tired of him after a while. But as he held me, he knew I was relieved to have him home again.
Clark wasn't mopey or sad, which a small part of me had been fearing he might be. But instead, he engaged Jonathan and I in a series of discussions about why bad things happen to good people, and what should be done about it.
I can't say I was surprised. I wonder, if with time, Clark will use his abilities to defend those who can't defend themselves. I have no doubt in my mind that if the occasion rises, he will.
Sadly, he and Lana were not spending so much time together nowadays. Which is when I began to let Pete over more often. And even let Clark spend an afternoon or two over at the Ross's home.
It turns out the trauma that Nell went through, is what it took for her to take an interest in Lana's life. Lana had trembled several days afterward. We had done everything we could for her, but that poor child had seen so much devastation in her life, it was difficult to console her.
I was folding some clothing in our laundry room, when I noticed the tv had gone off.
I peeked my head around the corner and saw Clark with the remote in his hands, sitting absolutely still, staring intently at Lana. Was something wrong? I dropped a small plaid shirt and began to move towards the pair.
As I edged along the side I saw Lana shivering, even though it was a beautiful warm, sunny day. The house had become silent, and that's when I could hear Lana weakly gasp for breath as tears slipped down her cheeks. Her eyes were red and puffy. How long had she been crying like this? All afternoon? She hadn't turned away from the tv yet, but knew Clark was looking at her.
Clark slowly held out his hand toward her, palm up. His tiny fingers earnestly swayed, waiting for her to respond. She turned her head, keeping her eyes on Clark's hand. And then timidly raised her hand and placed it in his.
He topped her hand with his other hand and just held it there for a minute. I wondered if I should intervene, to try and help Lana, but something told me that Clark was what she needed.
He didn't say anything, but his peaceful face soon turned into a calming smile. There was a glow about Clark which seemed to spread from his heart to his fingertips over through Lana's delicate hands, and up throughout her.
Lana didn't smile, and tears softly continued to fall down her face. But there was a warmth in her eyes now. She wasn't crying for the same reasons. She took a shaky breath, but had stopped shivering. She gazed with wonder at Clark.
He scooted over closer to her and held her in his arms as she rested her head on his shoulder.
It was a mesmerizing scene, and I had a hard time getting back to my chores. Everyday, I'm simply amazed by Clark's ability to strengthen the human soul, without even uttering a word. My life is blessed when he's here. I had a feeling that Lana would once more triumph in the face of disaster.
Nell and Lana were always together now. At the flower shop, at home, laughing, singing, and just being content with finally having a family. I smiled, even though I missed that cherubic face being at my house each afternoon.
"Clark and Lana sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Pete called out.
I looked over where Clark and Lana were standing in the middle of our front yard holding each other's hands. Immediately, with embarrassment, they let go. Pete laughed at his joke, as most little boys do. Clark's cheeks had begun to redden as he turned and looked at Lana. She, on the other hand had put her hands on her hips and was staring at Pete.
"Peter Ross. I saw you kiss Abigail Fallon today, underneath the slide. Are you her boyfriend?"
I almost laughed out loud. Pete had suddenly gone pale with the mention of Abigail's name. He began to stutter. But then Lana laughed and said,
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
"Me neither." said Clark.
"As long as you don't tell anyone that Clark and I are going be married." Lana suddenly skipped away giggling. Leaving both boys with open mouths and wide eyes.
I found Clark up in the loft the day of Lana's party, intent in his work. Moving closer I gasped with surprise at what Clark had created.
A miniature village of wooden fairy statues stood around little wooden houses.
"Clark, this is beautiful! Did you make all of these?"
"Yes."
"How come I never knew?"
"I wanted to keep it a secret." He smiled at me and held one of the fairies up for my inspection.
I took the small object, no more than 4 inches tall, delicate, light, and simple, it was a mark of Clark's hard work, and effort that he had put into it.
"They're my present. For Lana."
Each creation before my eyes bore the care and affection he felt for his best friend. I sighed.
"Clark, you're a very good friend. And a good boy. You take time for everyone you know, considering what would make them happy. Although, I've never seen you accomplish something of this magnitude. You should be very proud. She's going to love them all."
He grinned. "I hope so."
We gathered together his craft into a nice little empty trunk we found in the loft. We tied some pretty ribbons around some lilacs and placed them through a metal hoop at the top of it.
Clark was excited. His gift looked beautiful. I could tell he was looking forward to making her happy.
We walked over early to help set up the decorations. Nell greeted us and let us in. Lana came bounding down the stairs in a light blue jumper and a tiara in her ebony hair. Nell had let her put glittery sparkles on her cheeks, and she looked every bit the birthday girl. She was excited as well and gave us a big grin.
"Wow! Clark! That's beautiful!" She said, admiring the trunk he held in his arms.
"Oh, honey that must be heavy, let me put it down for you." Nell picked up Clark's trunk and was surprised by the weight of it.
"Wow, strong little guy, huh?"
After placing it near a glass table, Nell turned back towards us, clasped her hands together, and said,
"Well, let's get to it."
All four of us made our way over to the kitchen where Nell had been baking up tons of delicious confections. Much too fancy and rich for six and seven year olds in my opinion, but Nell wanted to do this.
I started helping with cooking, as Nell led Lana and Clark over to the dining room table where she had set out organized piles of little toys, candy, and trinkets.
"Okay, now these are for the goody bags. Put one of each item into each of these little baggies. Those are for the boys, and these are for the girls. Got it?"
Lana and Clark nodded their heads, smiling. I'm sure they were smiling because they were more excited to be able to handle and play with the little toys before anyone else, more than put together treats for the other children.
We put on some music, and got to work. Finishing baking, and decorating, along with some singing, and dancing.
It was quite amusing to watch my little Clark groove to the music. I and Nell would show them some of our moves, which made us all laugh, but then Clark and Lana tried to imitate us, which made all of us laugh so much, we began to tear up. The kids held hands and shook their little tooshies back and forth, and galloped all around the house.
We got the prizes ready for the winners of games, and we even had our own game of tag when we went outside to bury the hidden treasure. We came back in acting like pirates, and quickly went back to ourselves as the first guest arrived. This was going to be a fantastic seventh birthday party.
As the children kept arriving, they engaged in a game of freeze dance. Nell let Lana take control of the boombox, as she led me back to the kitchen.
"Martha, I wanted to show you something." She opened a cupboard and took out a little lead box. Opening it, she revealed to me a captivating, almost magical looking green jewel bound to a silver chain.
"It's my birthday present for Lana. I had it custom made."
"It's enchanting . What stone is that?"
"It's actually made from the meteors. The very one that took Laura and Lewis's life. I think that so much bad luck came out of it, there can only be good luck left."
Haunting. I picked it up. It almost seemed to glow as it reflected a dazzling display of green light against my skin. I felt a shiver flow across me. Strange, and yet so enrapturing, as if it held a viewer spellbound to it's beauty.