-Chapter 5
Metropolis – 2016
He was not certain if it was because of his notoriety as the likely starting QB at Met U next season or because Lori tipped off the dean, but a seat was found for him in the Journalism 101 course. After the Christmas break, Lori joined him, arriving early to register for the journalism courses being offered in the upcoming semester.
Lori had returned from the visit with her family at Christmas, calling Clark "as soon as she got a signal" she told him. They arranged to meet on campus four days prior to the resumption of classes in order to register for next semester's classes. Clark told her that he had thought about a journalism major and decided he would test the waters. She was excited about Clark's decision as well, and she decided to take all core courses in the upcoming semester. This would allow Clark to catch up with her in the journalism curriculum, and she could help him with the Journalism 101 material since she completed it in the prior semester. Clark steered Lori to two of the core courses that he had registered for so they would be able to better coordinate schedules and study together.
Clark was easy to get along with, Lori thought. He had a gentle personality and for a football player, that seemed rare. He was very intelligent but a bit awkward socially that she found endearing and maybe not too different from herself. She never saw him angry, never noticed him being rude or discourteous to someone, and always holding doors open or picking up books being dropped by fellow students. She never heard him swear and rarely had a negative thing to say about anyone. To Lori, he was special in every sense of the word.
Over Christmas, Clark had told his parents about meeting Lori and what a unique young woman and athlete she was. She had suggested he consider Journalism as a major and Jonathan asked, "Who will run the farm when I'm done with it if you don't take it over, Son?" Martha said nothing but was clearly interested in what Clark had to say in the matter.
"Well, I don't know Dad," he replied, "but I'd hate to see you to sell the farm whether I'm farming or not," Clark replied. "At worst, once you got older and felt like you were through farming, you could lease the fields and just live in the house with Mom doing whatever you felt like doing in retirement." He paused, shifting his glance from one parent to another. "I could get a job at the Smallville Ledger, and still live here. I can always be here in an instant to help you out over the weekends no matter where I live." Both Jonathan and Martha seemed relieved with that answer.
"All we're worried about is that you're making decisions for the right reasons, Sweetheart." Martha gave him a sad smile. "It's not our place to tell you what to do with your life. If farming isn't what you want to do, then that's fine as long as that decision is one you've made and not made because of someone else. Maybe journalism is the field for you but think about your abilities and special gifts and where you could best put them to use." She looked at Jonathan. "Like always, we only want the best for you and that is for you to decide. Our job is to offer whatever advice we can give you." She patted the top of his hand. "We trust you'll make the right choices."
It was quiet and the Kents knew their days of making decisions for Clark had passed and that he would be moving on. It was a little sad, frightening, and yet, exciting to see what they had developed and now let loose on the world.
Martha looked at Jonathan and then Clark. "So, this new girl, Lori; tell us more about her."
Clark blushed. "I like her a lot," he began, "but I don't feel like I should be getting into a relationship right after what happened with Lana," he said.
"Right after?" Martha replied. "Sweetheart, that happened over half a year ago. I know you two were together for a while, but you need to let that go and move on with your life."
"Your mom's right, Clark. Lana made her choices, and I know they caused you a lot of heartache. You can't let her choices keep you from moving on because you're afraid you're moving too quickly. It's like getting thrown off a horse, Son. You gotta get back on it." He shrugged his shoulders and added. "If you like her and she's they type of person you want to be around, then don't let what happened with Lana be a roadblock."
Clark nodded slowly. "She is a nice person, Dad, and she's a lot different from the other girls at school. She's not at all like them and that's why I'm interested in her. That, and because I caught her staring at me in one of our classes a few times. I had to find out why and once I met her, I really came to like her."
"So is she a girlfriend or a girl-friend?" Martha asked, smirking.
"Right now, I'd say a girl-friend that might be on the way to being a girlfriend."
His parents had conceded that a decision about his future was his to make and with that, Clark figured that journalism was a way of at least being closer to Lori and at best, laying a foundation for a career.
When he first saw Lori, he was unsure of how to react. He wanted to hug her and even wanted to give her a kiss but he was not sure that she would be receptive after the Christmas break and time to think about their last time together. He was wrong. Lori almost ran to him and threw her arms around Clark's chest and hugged him fiercely when she saw him, and he returned her affection. She looked up and kissed him with the passion of a relationship far deeper than he had gauged it.
He was quite pleased to find his worries were misplaced. He had thought about Lori almost exclusively during the break, although a pang of regret, or perhaps pain, hit him when his dad mentioned Lana.
"I missed you so much, Clark," Lori said, and Clark felt the same. He wondered if Lori had ever had a boyfriend before because he did not feel like he spent much energy cultivating the relationship, even though he welcomed it. A girl as attractive as Lori had to have boyfriends, he thought. But then again, she had that reputation of being cold and aloof, a man-hater. She looked at him as though she could read his thoughts through his eyes. She smiled, took his hand, and led him straight to the Registrar's Office. "Once we're done at the Registrar's Office, let's go get a late lunch and catch up, okay?" Clark agreed.
It was cold, and a dry wind was blowing around a dusting of light snow. Lori held herself against Clark as they walked. "You haven't gotten used to the cold yet, have you?" he asked.
"Are you complaining about me hanging all over you?"
Clark sloughed off the question. "No, not at all."
"You're like a living heater," Lori exclaimed. "Keeping close to you helps keep me warm and I don't have to be acclimated with you around."
They entered a small café that was just off the campus. During the year, most of the students hung out at the pizza joint off campus or stayed on campus and ate at the student union. The small café was a place that they came on special occasions but because it cost more than what the pizza joint charged, it did not get the volume of business the rival restaurant received. They stayed above water but over break periods, things could get a little tight.
Most of the students had not yet returned to school and the café owners welcomed Clark and Lori in. They sat in the back in a booth. Lori moved from sitting across the table from Clark to sitting next to him. He liked that.
"I hope you don't mind me crowding in on you, Clark," she said. "I feel like you're just someone I should be close to."
"No," he replied. "I don't mind at all. In fact, I think it's nice that you want to be close to me, and you should be close to me," Clark emphasized. "I like you being close to me. You're safe when you're with me."
She looked at him with her head cocked. "Honestly, I've felt that way since I first met you, but that's a funny thing for you to say. Why do you say that?"
Clark stumbled. "Um, well, because I'm a football player and most people won't bother you if you're with me." It was the best he could come up with and Lori suppressed a smile.
"You're more than that," she said. "I'm safe with you because I know you well enough to know that you would never force yourself on me or goad me into doing something I don't want to do. I'm safe with you because people admire you, Clark, and no one looks at you and thinks violent things. I hear people talk and their admiration for you is not because you're a football player but because you're a decent person who people presume could be capable of great violence but has never once displayed a tendency to be like that. They respect that, Clark, and rather than bring out a challenge, you bring out the best in people. I think any decent person wants to be more like that." She paused. "At least that's what I think." She leaned into him. "And I like that you're always so warm!"
"I was a little nervous since our dance together. It was really nice, but I was concerned that you felt caught up in the moment and moved quickly." He shifted to look at her. "Lori, I thought about you the whole time we were apart, and all break, I wondered if you regretted kissing me." He looked down at her. "I didn't, and I was hoping that we could pick up where we left off rather than stepping back and adjusting the pace we're moving at."
Lori looked up at him with probing eyes and said, "Where we left off is right where I want to pick back up from, Clark."
She leaned her head against his side until the waitress came and took their order. Once she had, Lori leaned back against him, and Clark listened to the melodic rhythm of her heartbeat. "You know, I haven't had boyfriends in the past," she began. "I was always so focused on swimming and being a competitor. I had only a handful of friends in school," she admitted. "They were teammates, mostly. But I never did the 'girl-thing' of sleepovers, makeup parties, and all those things that adolescent girls seem to do. Swim team parties was about the extent of my partying and that was with the girls. Otherwise, it was swimming almost non-stop and my friends were the girls who counted on me to be my best.
"Boys never really entered into the picture," she confessed. "This is so different, so nice. Now that I'm here, the only other swimming goal I could consider is the Olympics but I'm tired of putting the rest of my life on hold for swimming, if you know what I mean? It won't get me very far."
In that one brief moment of exposition, Lori answered several of Clark's questions and he liked what he heard. "I know exactly how you feel," Clark replied. "I play football. I got here because of football. But I'm not going to be a professional football player. I know NFL players make a lot of money and that is alluring but honestly, I believe I can do so much more with my life than just score touchdowns and try to earn some NFL records." He paused and cocked his head to lay his cheek on the top of her head.
"Maybe like influence people through journalism?" Lori asked.
"Right!" He thought about it. "Or maybe journalism is a steppingstone to something even greater."
"Hey Clark!" one of his teammates called out. Clark looked up to see a sophomore teammate and his parents enter the café.
Clark looked up. "Hey Lamar," he replied.
Lamar Rawlings brought his parents to the booth where Clark and Lori sat, introducing them to Clark. Clark in turn introduced Lori to the Rawlings family and Lamar smiled broadly. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot of people talk about your prowess in the pool!" Lamar said. He stared at them both for a moment and sensing something special was happening between them, Lamar bid them a happy new year and the Rawlings moved to a table near the front of the restaurant.
They talked for about three hours in the booth. When the owner heard it was Clark and Lori there and they were the preeminent athletes on their varsity teams, she gladly let them sit there and talk. She sensed they were connecting on a level that most of the college students that came in did not and believed that once they connected like that, this would become 'their special place'. When that became known, it could be word-of-mouth advertising that could not be bought.
"Has your roommate come back to campus yet?" Lori asked. Clark shook his head. "Do you know when he is coming back?"
"Pete told me that he wasn't going to be back until the day after tomorrow." He frowned. "Why?"
She smirked and rolled her eyes, but Clark did not see that. "Because I would like a warm place to sleep tonight. My room is always so cold."
He thought about it for a second and realized what Lori was suggesting and smiled. "There's no place warmer than my place," he offered. "I think that Pete even cleaned up his part of the room before he went on break so…"
They had a last dessert and then left the café, and the sun had fallen well below the horizon. The cloudy, blustery day made it darker than normal, and the temperature had dropped noticeably from when they entered the café. Light, dry snow was accumulating on the streets and sidewalks where water once stood making the street and sidewalk icy. "Careful," Clark said and immediately grabbed Lori's arm as her foot slipped stepping onto the sidewalk.
"Wow!" she exclaimed. "It got so slippery, so fast." She tried to walk but slipped a bit more. "I'm not used to this."
Clark glanced around and using his heat vision, de-iced a strip of pavement up ahead of them. Steam rose from the street and Clark motioned toward it. "Up ahead, it looks like a steam line runs under the street. There shouldn't be any ice," he said. "It's probably safer for you to cross there."
They walked to the heated street crossing and started across. They were about halfway across the street when a delivery truck lost traction trying to stop and began sliding sideways toward them at a rate of speed that had caused the driver to lose control. He blew the horn as his headlights swept past them in the road as it continued sliding to its side.
Clark had only an instant to make a decision. He picked up Lori, dashed her beyond the sidewalk and onto the grass, set her on her feet and dashed to the truck to straighten its slide and heat the road ahead of it enough so that the tires could grab asphalt. He then dashed back to Lori's side. They watched as the truck hit the de-iced asphalt and ground to an abrupt stop in the road.
The darkness concealed Clark from casual observers but Lori knew what had happened. Clark knew that Lori knew what happened as well and did not what to say to her. Luckily, he did not have to break that ice.
"Whew!" she exclaimed. She looked at Clark. "That was close, huh?"
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Thanks to you I am. I guess you're right. I'm safe with you." She said nothing for a moment and then said, "Are we going to your room?"
"I guess so. Do you still feel like going?" he asked.
She smirked but Clark could not see it on her face. "It's too cold to stand out here and talk, and I sense there's something you want to tell me. So yeah, let's go warm up in your room." She wrapped one arm around him and he around her, and they headed to Clark's dorm room. They walked in silence toward the dorms.
This was all happening much faster than Clark had even considered. The thought briefly crossed his mind when he realized that Lori was hinting at spending the night with him but that was not an outright proposal to make love. Almost but not exactly. But now, he had no choice but to explain himself given what had just happened. He just did not know how she would react, and blurting out his secret to someone he had known less than four months was daunting to him. But, as he knew, he had no choice.
They reached the dorms and climbed the stairs to his third-floor dorm room. He x-rayed it for signs of an early return by Pete but that was not the case. He unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and let her in. He locked the door behind him and as he turned around, she reached around his neck and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. Clark felt the nervousness drain from him momentarily as he let himself enjoy the moment. When they broke, Lori said softly, "That's for saving my life tonight."
Clark's brow furrowed. "I'm not sure you would have been killed…," he trailed off.
"I may not have been killed but I would have been hurt and that could have ended my swimming career before its time." She looked deeply into his eyes. "So, you see, you did save my life, Clark. And in more ways than one," she added. She looked around the room and quickly sized up whose bed was whose. She pulled him to his bed, sat on it and patted the space next to her.
Clark smiled, sadly, and sat. "Lori, about that," he started.
She put a finger to his lips. "Sssh," she said. "There's something I need to tell you first. I have a confession I must make and maybe it will make things easier for you if I did." She took a deep breath and exhaled. "I have never willingly told anyone this before because I've always been afraid of their reaction and what might happen if I did." She searched his eyes.
"It's okay," he said, taking her hand. "I would be the last to judge you on anything you had to say."
"I'm a telepath," she said. "Do you know what that means?"
"You can tell communicate without speaking, right?"
She gave him a weak smile. "That's what most people know it as. But it's more, Clark. On a deeper level, it carries scary implications; privacy, deepest and most intimate thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams, all of the things a person thinks about. If I listen to thoughts, I can hear them."
His brow furrowed again. "So, you know what I've been thinking," he said slowly.
Her eyes welled up. "I do. I know about you and the secret you guard so closely. I know about your fears of exposure. I know about your dreams of living a normal life. I know what Lana did to you and how it tore you apart inside and I know what a man you are because of the way you handled it." Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I know you're worried about what I'll think and how I'll react knowing what you truly are." She wiped the tears away. "Clark, I've known all about your secret since I first saw you in class. I know you are not from Earth but that doesn't make you any less human than anyone else on this planet. I was going to wait for you to tell me and I know you thought about it because of what I wanted us to do tonight. But I can't let you torment yourself over it, especially after what you did for me tonight." She began to sob. "You're remarkable…you put everyone else…above yourself…your dreams…and I can't help but…"
Clark pulled her in and hugged her fiercely. "You've known for months and said nothing. You've wanted me knowing what I am but have said nothing, not to anyone." She sobbed but nodded. "Do you know what I'm thinking right now?" He released her and held her at arm's length.
She caught her breath and saw him smiling in wonderment. Her red, damp eyes searched his thoughts and a smile began to cross her lips as she nodded. "Yes," she croaked. "I think I do."
"And you're not bothered that I am not what I appear to be?" he asked to make certain.
She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. "Bothered? No, Clark. If that worried me, I would never have started a relationship with you. And if you were a telepath, you would know that I fell in love with you the day you agreed to help me at the Daily Planet party. It's why I kissed you that night. I know you've been denying yourself what you're feeling because you want to spare yourself the pain that Lana caused. I know you fear that a relationship with you would cause me pain when you had to tell me about yourself. I know how you feel about me. That's why I kissed you when I saw you today. I want you to know I love you, Clark Kent. I've thought about this over the break, and I want this.
"What you are is far less important than who you are. Who you are is why I love you and for the last couple of months, I just can't stop thinking about you. I was waiting for you to be ready to tell me," Lori said, and swallowed the last of her tears, "but after what happened just now, I don't want to wait any longer. So, I decided on the walk to the dorm to tell you what I've known for months and risk everything hoping you would be okay knowing that I have listened to your deepest thoughts and fears." She paused. "I want to make love with you, and the fact that you aren't from Earth isn't important at all because of who you are." The last vestiges of tears were gone, and she sniffed. "So, what was it you were going to tell me?" she said and laughed.
It was as though the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He never remembered feeling so alive and free of worry, liberated from that cage of fear and isolation. "That I've fallen in love with you," he said.
With that, Clark lay back and pulled her with him. She lay next to him, their arms around one another kissing passionately. He ran his hands across her broad, muscled back as she ran her along his rock-hard, chiseled back. "What now?" she whispered.
Clark looked at her and smiled. "Why are you asking a question you already know the answer to?"
They made love, fierce, wild, and passionate. Then, they made love again, this time slower, sweeter, and gentler, taking great care to explore every inch of each other's sculpted bodies, burning the image of it into their minds. She laid exhausted in Clark's arms and began to drift off, aided by the warmth of his naked body against her naked body. He smelled the last traces of Lori's perfume from the side of her moist neck, awakened by her body heat and the passionate lovemaking. Clark closed his eyes and listened to the slowing rhythm of her heartbeat as she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. There were things they needed to talk about but that could wait. He was in ecstasy and felt so unburdened that he followed her descent into deep sleep shortly afterwards.
They awoke shortly after 3 AM. Clark pulled two waters from his minifridge, and they talked briefly before making love again, and falling asleep in each other's arms afterwards for the final time that night.
For the next three months, Clark and Lori continued growing closer together. Even Clark's Spring football schedule and Lori's daily practice and workout did not diminish the time they spent together. Clark took Lori with him to Smallville where he could introduce her to his parents, and she stayed for the weekend while Clark worked helping Jonathan plant the fields. At night, the two would spend time talking with his parents and inevitably, questions came up about Lori's parents and where they lived. She told them that her parents have a home on Sugarloaf Key in Florida, but they are only there briefly as they both work at the Dry Tortuga National Park and stay there most days during the week, coming home only to do laundry and some housekeeping.
"Oh," Martha replied, "so they are US Forest Service employees?"
"No, they're contractors for the National Park Service. They aren't government employees," she added without much more explanation. "They aren't home very much now that I'm in college and keeping in touch is difficult since they live most of the time on their boat. Not a very good cell signal out there."
"I hope I get to meet them sometime," Clark said, and Lori nodded. "They work a lot but yeah, I'd love to take you there sometime to meet them. The Keys are a fascinating place to visit."
Although Lori stayed in Clark's old room and Clark stayed in the loft, Lori visited him and they made love there, erasing the stain of Lana's relationship-ending revelation and creating a new, positive memory for him to associate with the space.
When they got back to campus, Clark talked with his parents to gauge their reaction to Lori. They both were effusive with their praise for the young woman and her devotion to Clark. They commented several times about how happy he seemed to be and how happy she was to be with him. He did not mention her ability to read thoughts but did let them know that she discovered his secret after the incident with the delivery truck and icy street.
When the semester ended and the summer recess began, Clark had chores to help his dad with. He also had to take on a job at the local hardware store to earn some money for the next school year. Lori said that she fully understood and she, too, had family responsibilities to take care of over the summer. Lori got a waitressing job at a family-run roadside restaurant that was packed with tourists and locals alike all summer.
Between his job and helping with chores at the farm, Clark stayed busy and part of him was glad that Lori was not in Metropolis because he would have been forced to ignore her a lot of the time and he did not like doing that. They called and texted throughout the weeks, keeping each other apprised of their thoughts and activities. It was a little awkward, Lori working most nights until late and Clark working all day and having to try to grab five or six hours of sleep at night, but they made the most of their time.
"I'm going out to the Tortugas with my parents for the last month of the summer break," she told Clark. "I'll sort of be out of touch. There's no cell service and the only phone available is ship-to-shore radio relay and that's really for emergencies." She paused. "That's okay, right? I'll call when I can."
"Of course," Clark replied. "I'll miss hearing your voice," he added. "But practice will be starting next week and adding that to everything else, I'll be really hard to reach anyway."
"I love you," Lori said.
He echoed the sentiment, and they hung up, Clark thinking to himself how wonderful it was to hear the words and to be able to say it back to someone and truly mean it. Lori was easy to talk with and she was understanding, loving, and thoroughly grounded, he thought. There was not all the drama that he had experienced with Lana and even though they were separated for the summer, a condition that led to disaster with Lana, he had no doubt in Lori's faithfulness or loyalty to their relationship.
Over the summer, they had coordinated to register for two journalism classes in the Fall semester, along with a creative writing and a core history class. They would have four classes together and they could not wait to get back for their sophomore year.
Their reunion was awkward. Pete's mom had come to the campus to tour it and spend the final days before the semester began helping Pete with organizing and stocking up his food and beverage supply. They had bought him a small refrigerator that was three times the size of Clark's minifridge and had a dedicated freezer compartment. They also bought Pete a microwave and stand with storage beneath.
Clark thought that she would never leave, and those thoughts made Lori snicker every time she looked at him. Her situation was no better with two roommates, one of which always seemed to be there, and they had no place to be alone, but they had never attempted to be alone in her room.
When Mrs. Ross finally left, Clark politely asked Pete if he could find something to do for a few hours. Pete nodded, knowingly, and was barely out the door before Lori began stripping off her clothes with Clark not far behind. They made passionate love for well over an hour and a half, Lori climaxing over and over. When they finished, they were both spent and lay entwined together. Lori was perspiring but Clark was not, and she marveled at that fact. Both enjoyed the tactile sensation of their bodies connected and close.
Clark glanced at the clock display and suggested that they get cleaned up and dressed before Pete returned. "Are you hungry?" he asked.
"I could eat," she replied.
"Wanna try the little café across the street?" Clark offered. "I'm buying."
They headed over to the little café where they truly connected nine months earlier and had revisited many times. The owner welcomed them back to Metropolis the moment she saw them come through the door. She led them to "their booth" at the back of the café. "Business has really picked up since you first came here, and I am so grateful for it. I wanted to thank you for that, and now we're able to do this," she said. "So, I'd like to extend you dinner on the house tonight."
They ate and the owner had snuck a glass of wine over for each of them. "No good meal is finished without a good glass of wine," she said. "Just keep them out of sight," she added with a wink.
They ordered non-alcoholic beverages as well and sat there for two hours. In that time, something came up and it was a result of Lori hearing Clark's thoughts. She addressed it and while it was a strange way to communicate, it was an honest way and Clark liked that. "Yes, there is something on my mind," Lori said. "It's something bothering me, but it has nothing to do with us," she reassured him. "It has to do with stolen antiquities that my family told me about. My parents and grandparents and further back than that were connected to those antiquities, sort of a heritage thing. They were stolen and they are being sold on the black market." She took a sip of wine. "My parents thought I might be able to track some down and get them back if possible."
"Are they nearby?" Clark asked, perplexed at the situation. "How would you be able to track them down?"
"Apparently," she replied. "My parents wanted me to use the Met U library computer system for some reason. They seem to think they are more powerful than my laptop." Lori shrugged. "Who knows why older people always think bigger or more expensive is better?"
Clark grimaced. "Any idea how you track them down?"
She rolled her eyes. "I guess there is a black market site on the deep web that I may be able to find more information who's selling the stuff if I can just get to it. Just finding the site is pretty confusing. It's not like a regular search engine will find anything on the deep web. Once you get there, finding anything without venturing into a site you don't want to be connected to is difficult. Maybe that's why my parents wanted me to go through the library's computer. I don't know for certain." She paused and then reached across the table and put her hand on his. "But this is something they asked me to do, it has nothing to do with us, and I want you to know for certain that I couldn't be happier being back together with you again," Lori said.
Clark smiled. "Particularly the reunion."
"Yes, that was pretty epic!" She looked deeply into his eyes. "You're so unlike any guy I've known at all. They just pale in comparison to you. The way you think, the way you care about others, the decency in you is just remarkable, Clark. I hope you know that, and that you never lose it."
"I can't read your mind, Lori, but I don't think we're all that different. You have those qualities as well. I've seen them in you. You possess a level of personal integrity that I admire. You're so comfortable in your own skin when all the other girls are trying to be something they are not just for attention, positive or negative.
"I thought that about you the first day I saw you and I love that about you."
She smiled dreamily at Clark and sipped at the remnants of the wine in her glass. "Let me ask you something. You have all these powers and abilities. What are you planning to do with them?"
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Clark, I know you want to help people, to save them from suffering, pain, and fear. I know you care more deeply about others than anyone I've ever come across. I know that these thoughts cross your mind more and more and have become almost a burden for you. You long to make the world a better place but aren't sure how or what to do about it. Do you think it would help to talk about it? Is there any way I can help you figure that out?" He listened but did not respond immediately.
"I know you think it is your issue to deal with alone, but it isn't if I offer, right? I hate even asking because I know it's like intruding into a private conversation and if you don't want to talk about it, just tell me. I love you, Clark; I won't be hurt or mad if you tell me to butt out. But I know it's troubling you on a level most people don't even know exists and I don't want you ever to be troubled, you're too good of a person to have to feel that way."
"I have wondered," he said. "I've thought about how I can do more with the abilities I have but I don't know how to do those things and not be exposed." He hesitated. "Yes, it is troubling me and I don't mind you knowing. I don't want to burden you or anyone else with my troubles but yeah, I'd like to talk about this and if you have ideas, I'd love to hear them."
The restaurant had a few more patrons filing in, and Lori looked back when she heard the voices. She turned back to Clark. "How about if we go for a walk. Maybe somewhere quiet and private."
He smiled. "Sounds great. Not far from here is a little neighborhood park where they have some benches. Once it gets dark, no one will be there. Let's go there."
"Let's see; dark, no one around, benches. I like that sound of that because, after all, I'm safe with you."
After several weeks of surfing the deep web and entering dozens of chatrooms where all kinds of deals and offers were being made, Lori landed on the one chatroom site where someone was offering authentic antiquities for sale. She printed out the web address so that she could return directly to the site later on. She went back in her dorm room and researched article after article about tracing web addresses and IP addresses and how to tie physical locations to IP addresses. Learning that process took two weeks of research. Eventually, she found the origin of the IP address.
The person offering the antiquities was not a particularly sophisticated seller and with very little investigation, Lori found the physical location of the computer from which the offers were being made. Like her parents had indicated, the seller lived in a rundown part of Metropolis bordering an area known as Suicide Slums, and not far from the Hobbs Ferry Riverfront warehouse district.
Further investigation led Lori to Alvin Mickler, the man who lived at the rundown home from which offers to sell antiquities were being made. She was not comfortable approaching him by herself, particularly given the neighborhood in which he lived. She thought that Clark might help. The problem was that with football and swimming seasons in full swing, both of them were heavily engaged with practice, training sessions, competitions, games, and on top of that, a pretty full schedule of classes. The only time they seemed to have together was on Sundays. They made a plan, and Clark borrowed his parents' truck on a weekend when the team had a bye week.
Clark drove to the home, using x-ray vision, saw a man inside, and continued on, finding a place where they could park and wait to see if Mickler led them to a location where the antiquities were located. They waited for hours but Alvin Mickler never left his home except to go to a small bodega down the street for a six-pack of beer. "I've watched police shows where they have stakeouts, and they always seem pretty boring. I'd say they underplay how boring they actually are," Clark commented.
"Yeah," Lori agreed. "We should probably get out of here. I'm sure there's something you'd rather be doing right now." She looked at Clark and put her hand on his thigh. "I know there's something I'd rather be doing." She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "Thank you for wasting a perfectly good Sunday for me."
"As long as I'm with you, Lori, it's never time wasted." He smiled and then a thought crossed his mind. "Would you know one of those antiquities if you saw them? Could you describe them?"
"I could describe them, yeah," Lori responded.
"Are they something that he'd have in his home or would they need to be stored elsewhere?"
"Well, to hear my parents describe it, there are a whole lot of items and many would be rather large, I think. You know, antique sculptures and things like that. Some are really old, similar to ancient Inca artifacts. And they are just as valuable to my family's cultural heritage."
Clark thought for a moment. "What if I scanned some of the warehouses along the riverfront and described anything that looked like artifacts. Do you think you might be able to say?"
Lori thought for a moment. "Maybe. But if you see something that looks like antiquities, maybe you could sketch them out and I can send the sketches to my parents and they can look at them and tell me."
"Okay," Clark said. "But my sketches might leave a lot to be desired!"
Clark drove to the riverfront and he scanned each warehouse. Some were empty, some were populated with homeless people, but several were filled with articles. One had articles that could be considered antiquities. "There are things in this one," he said, pointing at a warehouse that had security lighting and cameras installed. "There are hundreds of things. Do you think that there are that many?"
Lori nodded. "Yes. These were stolen from a rather ancient civilization whose homeland became submerged in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Keys and disappeared from history. They were protected but a salvage crew found them by accident and rather than leave them in place, plundered them, and is now selling individual articles on the black market." She paused. "Those were my ancestors, Clark. There are very few known descendants, and my family is one of a handful of families in existence worldwide and their origins are kept very quiet.
"The stories are that these artifacts contain precious stones and metals. They are quite valuable if the stories are true and based on their age, they're valuable as antiquities, and shouldn't have been disturbed. The salvager obviously never reported them to the government either. That's why they're using the deep web to traffic the stolen artifacts."
"Why not get the police involved?"
"They know about it from a superficial position, but our 'tribe'," she motioned using air quotes, "doesn't want the notoriety. They want the artifacts back and returned to their original location." She hesitated and then continued. "Once they are located for certain, a small group is set to retrieve them and return them by boat to their original location."
They spent the next forty-five minutes outside of the warehouse and Clark made some sketches on the back of some old envelopes in the truck's glove compartment. "I'll improve these when I get back to the room," he told Lori. She looked at them and suppressed a snicker. "How many pieces do you want me to sketch?"
"Maybe five or six of the bigger pieces," she said. "My parents will be able to tell from those sketches whether or not they are the pieces tied to our cultural heritage."
Lori got out of the truck and went over to the warehouse itself and pulled herself up to the ledge of a window and looked in. Seeing nothing but crates, she dropped down and moved to another window roughly twenty feet away. She repeated the process, scanning the interior for anything she might be able to recognize. After dropping back to the ground, she walked along the riverfront checking all the doors and rollups to see if any had been left unlocked.
She returned to the truck as Clark was finishing up a sixth sketch. "Okay, I think this will be enough, right?"
"Yes," Lori replied. "Let's get out of here before nightfall. This is a creepy area."
Before they could get beyond the warehouses, a Metropolis police cruiser pulled behind them and turned on its lights. Clark stopped and two uniformed officers approached the truck from each side. "What are you doing out here?" the first officer asked.
"We're just looking at the warehouses and the riverfront, officer," Clark replied.
"Did we do anything wrong?" Lori asked.
"We got a call about a potential break in at one of the warehouses and was asked to come by and do a security check. Can I see some ID, please? Also, the vehicle registration as well." Clark showed the police his license and Lori provided a college ID. He fished the registration out of the glove compartment as well and provided it to the officer. "I'll be right back," the policeman told them and went back to his car.
Clark said nothing but Lori heard exactly what he was thinking. "They're running your plate to check to see if the truck is stolen," she whispered. "It's all routine." She looked at the officer standing next to her door. She smiled at him and looked back at Clark. "You don't want to know what he's thinking," she muttered. Clark said nothing and Lori replied, "That's right. Piggy thoughts."
The lead policeman returned with their identification and the truck registration. "Thank you," he said as he handed Clark their documents. "This isn't the safest place at night, Mr. Kent and Ms. Lemaris. You should probably head back to campus before the sun goes down."
"How did you know we were students at the college?" Clark asked.
The policeman replied, "Her ID, your arm. Nice game last week, Mr. Kent," he winked. "6 and 1. That's the best start Met U has had for as long as I can remember. Good luck, the rest of the season." He leaned into the window. "Be safe and have a good rest of the day you two," he said in a less authoritative voice before walking back to his patrol car.
When they got back to campus, Clark took the time to sit with Lori and describe what he saw as he was sketching the image. Pete came in and Clark told him about the encounter with the police down at the riverfront. "Jeez, what were you two doing down there?"
"Hanging out," Lori blurted before Clark could answer.
"Hanging out?" Pete replied skeptically. "Riiight!" He smiled mischievously. "I've known Clark all his life practically. He doesn't hang out anywhere except his loft. Making out, maybe. Hanging out, unlikely."
Pete said that he had been invited to one of the fraternity houses on campus and wanted to know if they wanted to come along. "I can't, Pete," Lori said. "I promised my parents that I'd get in touch with them tonight and they can talk forever."
"And I have to get the truck back to my folks," Clark added. "But thanks Pete. I'll see you when you get back."
"Take your time," Lori said as Pete was leaving. "We'll just be hanging out here for a few more minutes."
It was late before Lori got back to her room. She scanned the pictures Clark had sketched and they were not so bad as the ones he had sketched on the back of envelopes. If these were some of the articles stolen, her parents should be able to identify them from the sketches. However, she did not expect to hear from them for at least a week while they were on their boat.
It was the second week of November and the Bulldogs had become the talk of Metropolis sports radio. Heading into their ninth game of the season with a record of seven wins and one loss, they were destined to be selected for a post-Christmas bowl game for the first time since the early 1980's. Clark received a lot of the credit but in reality, it was the play of those around him that he had elevated with his play.
Similarly, Lori continued to make waves in the swimming pool posting school and NCAA records in the 2,000-meter freestyle and as part of the 4 by 800-meter relay. Although her accomplishments were overshadowed by Clark and the Bulldog team, nationally Lori was ranked amnong the top five swimmers in the nation.
In their Journalism 203 class, the dean arrived before class officially began and solicited volunteers to work at the Daily Planet Christmas Party, scheduled for the 23rd of December. "I know it's a tough ask. It's a little over a month away and being so close to Christmas makes it challenging, but if you remain here or live in the area, please come and help out. The Daily Planet does a lot for the School of Journalism and this is our way of paying it back." He continued to make his pitch but most of the students muttered that they would already be home by then.
Lori looked at Clark and he raised his hand. "I'll volunteer," he said. Lori raised hers and said that tentatively she would like to help, depending upon the availability of flights to Miami that night or the morning of the 24th.
"I actually enjoyed it last year, especially our dance. And look," he added, "you can stay with us at the farm between the break and the 23rd if you want," Clark offered.
Between that day and the 23rd of December, Lori heard from her parents that the items in the warehouse were indeed part of the plundered antiquities, and through a network of other descendants, had hired a team to recover and return them. They asked her to meet with recovery team leader to make sure he knew specifically where the artifacts were located.
With swimming competitions over until next Spring and Clark heavily engaged in preparing for a conference playoff game the weekend after Thanksgiving, Lori decided to use her time to photograph the warehouse and all approaches to it, and also try to catch Alvin Mickler and get a picture of him. She scheduled Uber drivers to take her to the riverfront where she would wait around until just before it grew dark and then return to campus. She spotted Mickler on her fourth outing and took pictures with her phone to show the people recovering the antiquities in case they ran into him.
When she told Clark about her activities, he was uneasy with her doing them. "The police came pretty quickly when you and I were there, so someone is watching the warehouse cameras, Lori. Do you think it's a good idea to snoop around there?"
She smiled. "I'm not snooping," she chuckled. "I'm just taking pictures of the waterfront." She listened to what he did not say and responded. "I'll be careful, Clark. No one will be paying any attention to me. I'm not going right up to the warehouse or anything. Stop worrying."
I worry because I love you, he thought.
"I know you do, and I love you, too," she replied. "You have a game next Saturday to focus on."
Met U Bulldogs won their conference championship game on November 24th and ended their season with a 9 – 2 record. They had been invited to play against Georgia Tech in the Outback Bowl on January 2nd, 2017, in Tampa, Florida.
Clark was excited to play in Florida and invited Lori to be there with him and his parents. She agreed and the school made arrangements for their rooms and game tickets. She also said she was able to get her flight plans nailed down and decided that she would fly to Miami early on December 24th, after the Daily Planet Christmas Party.
Lori also heard back from her parents about a meeting with a Mr. Randal Dandridge, the man who was organizing the recovery of the antiquities. That meeting was scheduled for December 9th, and she agreed to meet him near the waterfront and casually point out the warehouse.
Clark insisted on going with her. "Mr. Dandridge," he said, "may be recovering stolen items but he's doing it illegally. I realize intentions are good, but I don't think it's safe that you meet alone with someone who would commit a break-in no matter what the reason was. I want to come with you."
Lori was exasperated but realized that Clark was only concerned for her well-being and agreed. They met Randal Dandridge at the little café across the street from the campus at 3 PM. They chatted for a bit and then Dandridge drove them to the riverfront. He explained that he was going to use a boat to facilitate the recovery and return operation. They casually walked around the riverfront as Lori subtly nodded at the specific warehouse. Clark followed behind, keeping an eye on both of them. He x-rayed the building as he walked past it and assured Lori later that night that the artifacts were indeed still there.
For the next two weeks, the two were practically inseparable. Other than one different class each had, they were either in class or studying together after Clark's practices. They had little time to themselves until after the Christmas break that officially began on the 17th of December. Even then, Clark's practices limited his time with Lori, but on the 19th, they had a small celebration of one year since their first kiss. Lori had arranged for a dinner at the little café across the street and Clark bought her flowers and an anniversary card.
On the 21st of December, the football team had its final pre-Christmas practice and the two spent that evening and the next day relaxing and finishing Christmas shopping. Clark did not return to the farm and instead, they spent the next two nights in each other's arms.
On the 23rd, they spent the day helping set up the Met U banquet hall for the party. Lori and Clark once again were assigned to the check-in tables and were provided with the name badges to organize. Clark had last names beginning with A – M, Lori took those whose names started with N – Z.
When done, they went back to Clark's room and helped each other get dressed for the event. "I'm really looking forward to tonight," Clark remarked. "I sure enjoyed last year's event, especially the ending."
Lori agreed and then asked Clark to zip up her dress in the back. She turned back around, gave him a quick kiss, looked him in the eyes, and cocked her head. "No telling what surprises are in store for you this year, Mr. Kent," she quipped.