(The Present Time of this Storyline - Clark is six years old)
Jonathan and I could not figure out, though we tried our best, what had made Clark sick. And so we decided it best just to go with life as normal.
The next time we saw Lana, we were picking her up the next Monday to go to the bus stop. Clark ran up her porch steps, rung the doorbell and stood on his tippytoes to peek through their window.
Soon the door opened, but it was Nell.
"She'll be out in just a second, don't worry. We just got a late start this morning, we stayed up all night watching chick flicks. It was her idea, now that she's a woman, she told me."
I laughed. Clark teetered back and forth on his heels, ignoring grownup talk, just waiting for his best friend to get out here.
And around the doorway she whipped, jumping out onto the porch.
"Hellllllo." She said in a funny accent. But I didn't notice much beyond that, because Clark had fallen and was rolling down the steps.
"Clark!" both Lana and I screamed, I ran after him. But at the bottom of the steps he seemed fine, just a little shaken up. "What happened sweetheart?"
"Is he alright Martha?"
"I'm...I'm fine."
Lana began to skip down the steps, rushing to his side. But suddenly I saw Clark's eyes open up wide, and immediately he backed away from her. She stopped, confused by what game he was playing now.
Nell, oblivious to the strangeness of the situation made her way back into the home. I continued to watch the two, as Lana would step forward, Clark would step back. As though he didn't want to be near her.
She giggled nervously, her little plastic koalas hanging from her hair, shaking. "What are you doing?"
"Um, nothing."
"Why won't you let me near you?" She asked as she tried hopping closer to him. He just ran back a few more steps.
"No...no reason."
"Clark. Stop it."
But he didn't. I didn't interfere. It seemed as though whatever it was that was making Clark sick, was Lana. Eventually, she gave up chasing him and came back to walk beside me. Clark walked far ahead of us, his head hung low. Lana watched him confused, and hurt. I put my arm around her.
"Boys sure are weird." She told me.
"You have no idea."
The rest of the way, and at the bus stop Clark kept his distance. Lana stood sullenly next to me. This was very wrong. And yet I felt helpless as to what to do. It was all so wrong. If my Clark and Lana weren't next to each other, I'm not sure how to explain it, but everything just felt wrong.
As the bus pulled up, Clark lingered, waiting for Lana to get on first, so he could obviously sit somewhere else. I sighed. Lana looked between us, sighed, and boarded the bus, heading toward the back, their usual seat. Clark got on afterwards and sat in the front.
As the bus drove away, Lana looked out the back and waved without smiling.