Once again, Sam was the only one up before daylight. There'd be more grumbling when he woke them up, but the best time for fishing was early in the day. Early birds got the worm and so did fish.
"Come on, everyone! If we act now, there'll be fresh trout for lunch. Rise and shine!"
Like yesterday, Clark made breakfast while he and John Henry gathered the supplies. They were all out on the two inflatable boats the sun was above the horizon.
He was on a boat with his grandchildren while the rest of the adults took the other.
It was so quiet you could hear the grass growing. It would have been one thing if the silence was companionable, but a tenseness hung between the children that he felt compelled to break.
"Anyone got a bite yet?" he asked.
They shook their head. Natalie didn't bother to speak at all.
He'd retired to get closer to all his family, and it was the hardest mission he'd ever been given, but he would fight harder than he ever had and win. "That's okay. It's early yet. Read any good books lately?"
Is that what one typically asked their grandchildren? He wasn't for sure. Up until now he hadn't been much of a grandfather. Oh sure, this was far from their first fishing trip, and he showed up for Christmas and birthdays. Most of the time. He just hadn't invested much into the relationship partly from lack of time and partly because he just didn't know how.
Natalie spoke. "I haven't even thought about reading in a long time."
"Ditto," Jonathan said. "I think the last book I voluntarily cracked open was on my high school football plays."
That gave him an opening. "You going out for football this year?"
He shrugged. "I guess. It's probably my best chance at getting a full ride to college, and I've always loved the sport. I know there's some money set aside for our education, but it's probably not nearly enough."
"I'm probably going to community college. My grades suck, and I don't have half the extracurriculars Jon does," Jordan said.
"What about football?" He was trying to keep his tone neutral, but he'd never approved of Jordan playing, not with his powers. There was just too much risk of exposure.
"Not this year. And try not to look so gleeful about it."
"Well, I can't say I'm not relieved. What about band? You used to have an affinity for music if I remember correctly."
"There's a good opportunity to mark me as a geek for the rest of my high school career at Smallville."
"But you enjoy music, right?"
"Not the performance aspect of it, but yes."
"Did you enjoy football?"
He gave a defeated sigh. "No, I just liked that for the first time in my life I wasn't the kid everyone picked on. I was popular, more or less."
"That's a poor reason to do anything. You do something because it's right or it's right for you. I know in your world right now it seems like other teen's opinions of you matter more than anything else, but they don't. There's a whole bunch of things that matter more and picking electives that you're not only good at but find fulfillment doing is one of those things."
He mumbled his agreement, and Sam wondered if he had come on too strong, but the kid seemed to be thinking over it carefully.
Jonathan drove the conversation from that point on talking about the latest video games, which seemed to be a topic all three of his grandchildren enjoyed. Kids and their technology. He was grateful for the reprieve though because he was out of ideas on ways to get them to talk.
Over the course of the morning, they all caught at least one fish. Once on shore again, Lois came up to him. "I heard what you said. Thanks for talking to Jordan about following his interests. I know he's going to be struggling this year to find out where he fits in the high school scene, and I think your talk will really help him."
"Just trying to do my job as a grandparent," he said honestly. Though he'd be lying if he said it wasn't nice to have his daughter's approval for once.
She smiled. "Well, keep it up. You're pretty good at it."