I own nothing. This story is for entertainment purposes only, so please read and be entertained. :)
So, Clark and his pa went out to do chores alone. The cows lowed unhappily, the barn cats slunk around with wide eyes along the walls and sides of the hay bales, the chickens clucked and fluttered and paced far away from Clark. So, he sighed as he poured feed out for the unhappy fowl. When Clark came up to his pa's side afterward, he said "I guess I don't know exactly what I can do as an alien, but it must not be what Moe could."
"Now Clark, cut that out!"
Clark's lowered head rose with wide eyes. "Cut out what?"
"Comparing yourself to other people. If you run em down while raisin yourself up you're becoming too proud. If you run yourself down while starin up at them you become shamed or bitter."His pa then gentled his tone while smilen at him. "don't worry Boy. You're not Moe. But ..." He raised a full milk pail and held it out to his son, "I know you can take that inside without breaking a sweat."
Clark grinned, took the full milk pail, and turned to stride across the barnyard with it. He did this a few times before he turned to see his mother standing in the frame of the open barn door in work boots and overalls instead of her usual house-shoes and plain dress. Clark stared at her a moment before blinking and asking "Ma?"
She smiled at him and his pa, who grinned at her before whistling. Then she said with a bit of cheek in her voice. "How about this? I'll help you all out here, then we'll clean up and 'you all' help me with breakfast."
Pa replied with a cheery "Sounds good to me." Clark found he could only smile.
He was startled again to hear his mother sing a song as she milked. While it stirred them up a bit at first, the creatures then settled down more than before she'd started though not as much as when Moe had been around. Clark tried singing a bit himself and found his own more ornery creature who leaned on him till he pushed back a bit began to chew its cud placidly and stand on its own four hooves. Clark then surprised himself by, as he sang the tune and also heard his pa join in, he felt his eyes well up. Moe was gone ... not there with them, never would be there with them again. He was out wandering around alone and afraid to tell anyone about his biology, history, or how he kept critters so calm probably. And it both stung and soothed him as Clark listened to his parents sing together and he sang along, that he didn't have to worry about that as much as Moe ...
Later, in the kitchen, his mom stopped letting him crack eggs for their breakfast. The yolk, white, and shell all flew too far when he tried twice. He had to do quite a bit of cleaning up. But he was good with measuring out the ingredients of and mixing them up together for the biscuits. They did end up a little on the heavy side, though. And his mother put that down to him "messing" with them too much. "Best to do as little as possible with biscuit dough dear," she said.
His pa then laughed. "Why don't we put him on bread kneading duty with those strong alien muscles of his Martha?"
His ma scowled at his pa. "Jonathan Kent, don't you get used to talking about such things lest we get too comfortable doing so and let something slip with company over someday." Then she turned a smile on Clark. "But he's right Honey. I bet you'd be real handy at the job of kneading bread. I'll let ya try it this afternoon."
And so it went. After that day his parents asked a lot more of him, but he found he could keep up along with his studies, at first he liked learning all the new things he could do since his parents were trusting in his new found strength and energy, and speed soon enough. But after he mastered these new tasks, he had time for thinking again, about Moe, and men in suits, and being an alien, and what the neighbors might think ...
What do you think now?
God bless
ScribeofHeroes
