Superman

by Matt De La Peña

  Mark added with a straight face, “And we’re only asking for a five-year lease. Short term, low risk.”

  Clark watched his dad nod thoughtfully and read through the document Montgomery had handed back to him. It looked like he was considering the offer, which shocked Clark. Would he actually go for it? Jonathan had high blood pressure, so maybe he saw this as an opportunity to slow down. He passed the paper to Martha, who read through it again, too. She gave him a blank look when she passed it back, which meant she was skeptical.

  When Clark saw his dad slide the document across the table, he knew the deal wasn’t happening. “I’m sorry,” Jonathan said, “but we’re just not interested. We like farming our own land. This place goes back three generations in my family. When I went off to college, I swore I’d never return. But I did. And then I took over when my old man passed. Now it’s just sort of in my blood.”

  Montgomery smiled and nodded. “Well, you can’t really argue with that, now, can you? Listen, Jonathan, Martha, I respect where you’re coming from. And I admire your principles. Shoot, a part of me respects you two even more for turning me down today.”

  “We appreciate you seeing it that way,” Martha said. “We really do.”

  Now that Clark knew his parents weren’t selling, he continued upstairs, where he found Lana sitting on his twin bed, staring out the window. She was wearing jeans and a school sweatshirt, and her red hair was in a messy bun. Lana used to come over a lot when they were younger, but once they got to high school, things changed. Instead of going to each other’s houses, they met at more neutral sites. The All-American Diner. The library.

  He stood there a second, looking around his small room, trying to see it from Lana’s perspective. The faded posters of his favorite sports teams tacked up on all the walls. The blinking alarm clock that was off by over an hour. The bent Nerf hoop that hung over his closet door, and the lumpy old beanbags.

  Clark was almost eighteen years old, but his room made him seem like a child.

  He cleared his throat. “Hey, Lana.”

  She spun around. “So? What’s happening down there?”

  “Montgomery made an offer on the farm, but my folks gunned it down.”

  “Of course they did,” she said. “I bet it was a pretty hefty one, too.”

  “Sounded like it.” Clark looked out the window at Montgomery’s fancy black car. “You think he’s interested in the crater?”

  “Maybe.” She looked out the window, too, then turned to Clark. “I can’t help but think of the one on the Jones property.”

  “And the way they were digging it up, I know.” Clark shook his head. The police were aware of the men trespassing on his property, and they’d promised to make the Kent farm part of their rounds, but now Montgomery was trying to buy it? “So, what brought you over here, anyway?” he asked Lana.

  She pushed off his bed. “I think we need to talk, Clark.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t text you back. It’s just…I was studying for finals.”

  Lana ignored his excuse. “Have things gotten weird between us?”

  “I don’t think so.” Clark pulled out his rolling desk chair and sat down. A second earlier, he’d thought his parents might lease Montgomery Mankins part of their farm. Now he was talking to Lana about…Actually, what were they talking about?

  Lana sat back down on his bed. She was looking at him intently now. “Let’s just get this out of the way, Clark. So we can focus on more important things.”

  “Okay.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. A few seconds later, she tried again. “I shouldn’t have taken that tone with you last night. When I brought up Gloria. It probably sounded like I was mocking you. And that wasn’t cool. And it caused you to run away. Literally.”

  “When we were leaving the diner?” Now Clark understood. “That wasn’t it, Lana. Honestly.” Clark paused, trying to figure out how to explain his hasty departure. He couldn’t exactly tell her the truth. “Watching Sheldon yell at our server like that…It messed me up, I think. I kept replaying it in my head the rest of the night, trying to figure out if I could’ve done more.”

  Lana nodded. “I get it,” she said. “Still, I apologize. I didn’t mean it to come out that way. I was just surprised to hear about Gloria from Bryan and Lex. You usually tell me stuff first, and…Listen, if you like someone, it’s cool. Okay? And you can talk to me about her whenever you want. I won’t get upset or anything.”

  “Thanks,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. It was awkward talking about how this kind of conversation shouldn’t be awkward. “Same goes for you, too.”

  Lana grinned. “So are you going to ask her out or what?”

  “Who, Gloria?”

  “Yes, Gloria!” Lana play-punched him in the arm. “C’mon, Clark, don’t be so serious all the time. Look, we don’t have to talk about her if you’re not ready.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling self-conscious. “No, we can.”

  “I’m saying, though—we don’t have to.”

  Clark shifted in his chair. It was true. Growing up, they’d confided in each other about everything from school bullies to cow tipping to dealing with the expectations of their parents. This was the first time they were actually agreeing to not talk about something. And he didn’t know how he felt about it.

  “So, is everything okay, then?” he asked. “Between us, I mean?”

  Lana chuckled. “I think things will always be okay between us, Clark. That’s what I’m beginning to realize. Until they’re not. Know what I mean? And even then they’ll probably still be okay.”

  Clark shook his head, smiling. It was such a Lana thing to say.

  He stood up and went to the window when he saw Montgomery Mankins and his associate heading back toward the fancy black car. “Check it out,” he whispered to Lana. A driver walked around toward the rear passenger door, preparing to open it. But before he got there, Montgomery slammed the hood of the car as hard as he could.

  “Whoa, temper tantrum, anyone?” Lana said quietly.

  “Weird,” Clark whispered. “He seemed okay about my folks not selling when they were all sitting at the dining room table.”

  They watched Montgomery angrily clenching and unclenching his fist. He pointed at the driver and barked, “Open the goddamn door!”

  The driver opened it, but before Montgomery climbed inside, he turned and looked out over the farm one last time. Then he got into the car, and the driver shut the door. His associate got in by himself on the other side. Alone, the driver wiped a hand down his face, then returned to the front.

  As the car pulled out of the driveway and moved down the county road toward the highway, Clark turned to Lana. “What was that all about?”

  She shrugged. “When we interviewed him in his office, he seemed like such a cool customer, like he couldn’t even get mad if he tried.”

  “I guess now we see where Corey gets it from.”

  “You mean my boyfriend?” Lana said.

  Clark grinned. “Exactly.”

  Lana looked out the window to where the car had pulled down the driveway, leaving a thin layer of dust hovering in the air. She turned to Clark and said, “Now that we got our little talk out of the way, it’s on to the next order of business. We just have to figure out what that is.”

  Clark held up his phone for Lana to see. “I think it’s time for me to text Bryan about Dr. Wesley’s secret lab,” he said. “I’m going to take him up on that little behind-the-scenes tour he offered.”

  Lana smiled. “I like how you think, Clark.”

  He unlocked his phone and texted Bryan to see if they could visit the lab that night. It took Bryan less than a minute to hit him back:

  Just finishing up a workout. Me and Lex can swing by at 8.
r />   Clark wrote back Cool, then held up his phone so Lana could read the exchange.

  Just after dark, Clark finally heard the distant honking sound he’d been waiting for. He grabbed his backpack and made for his bedroom door, only to be cut off by his mom. “Your new friends?” she asked.

  Clark nodded. “We’re gonna hang out, maybe grab something to eat.”

  “They can use the driveway, you know.”

  “I think Lex is worried about his car getting dusty. You’ve seen what he drives, right?”

  “Oh, we’ve all seen what he drives,” Martha said, unimpressed. “Clark, before you go…” She held up the tattered, shredded remains of his jacket from the night before. “I found this in the kitchen trash this morning. You’ve got to stop doing this, son.”

  Clark cringed. There was nothing he hated more than disappointing his mom. “I know. I’m really sorry about that.”

  “I realize you want to practice your powers, Clark. But between you and me…we just can’t afford to keep buying you new clothes. Your friends out there may have unlimited resources, but we don’t. You understand, right?”

  “Absolutely.” Clark never wanted to cost his parents extra money. They worked so hard just to make ends meet. He wished he could at least tell her it was for a good cause. That he’d helped someone who was in real trouble. But he couldn’t.

  He had to own her disappointment.

  His mom’s face softened, and she reached up to tousle his hair, like she used to when he was a kid. “Now go tell those hotshot friends of yours to use the driveway next time. We don’t bite.” She went onto her toes to kiss him on the cheek, then left with his ruined jacket.

  Clark rumbled down the stairs and jogged along the farm’s gravel road to where Lex’s fancy red car was idling. Bryan got out of the passenger’s seat, and Clark climbed in back, saying, “Thanks again for agreeing to do this.”

  “The question is,” Lex said, “will we even be able to get in?” He hit the gas before anyone could answer, and all three of them were thrown back in their seats. He reached over a hundred miles per hour before he let off the gas and allowed the car to gradually slow down.

  “We’ll get in,” Bryan said.

  “Just so you know,” Clark said to Bryan, “your dad stopped by the farm today and made an offer to buy the place.”

  Bryan craned his neck so he could look at Clark. “You’re kidding. I’m guessing it was a waste of time?”

  “Yeah, my parents turned him down,” Clark told him. “But I think they were genuinely flattered by the offer.”

  Bryan shook his head. “Ever since my dad found out Wesco is buying up farm properties, too, he’s been out of control. He can’t stand competition.”

  That would definitely explain Montgomery’s outburst, Clark thought.

  “You heard about what happened last night, right?” Lex asked, making eye contact with Clark in the mirror. “That guy Sheldon Ealing from the restaurant claims he and his friends were assaulted by an actual alien. Like, from another planet.”

  “An alien,” Clark repeated. He’d had a feeling this topic might come up with Bryan and Lex, and he was ready. “Isn’t it weird how alien sightings and racism seem to go hand in hand?”

  “The thought of aliens alone disgusts me,” Lex said.

  “Maybe it isn’t normal to spend so much time outside,” Bryan said. “The quiet, clear nighttime sky must just overwhelm some people.”

  “Also they were drunk, right?” Clark asked.

  “But get this,” Lex said. “One of Sheldon’s buddies showed up at the emergency room claiming his hand had been frozen solid by the alien’s breath. Keep in mind it was almost sixty degrees last night.”

  Clark shook his head, playing along. He’d scanned the internet while waiting for Bryan and Lex to show up. He was relieved that the only stories he could find said the man was expected to make a full recovery.

  When they neared the outskirts of downtown Smallville, Lex slowed to a crawl along a street of nondescript, closed-down warehouses. “Not sure you guys heard about this,” Lex went on, “but apparently a couple of undocumented workers have gone missing lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if Deputy What’s-His-Name makes a statement that they may have been abducted by aliens.”

  This comment stung Clark a little. Lex was making fun of small towns again. But Lex was an arrogant, rich city kid. He just didn’t understand small towns. And that was his problem. What Clark chose to focus on instead was the fact Lex had heard rumors about the missing workers. The more attention the story received, the more people would want to do something about it.

  “There!” Bryan said, pointing toward a huge, mostly empty parking lot tucked between several abandoned warehouses. Clark knew this was a remnant of a different era, back when Smallville was home to a number of leather-treatment companies. Or skinhouses, as some of the old-timers jokingly referred to them. They’d all shut down long before Clark was born.

  He pulled out his phone and quickly texted Lana. He pinned his location to where Lex was parked and told her they were going into the lab. He slipped the phone back into his pocket without waiting for a response, saying, “This is where Wesco’s labs are?” It looked more like a ghost town, especially at night.

  “Where else can you find so much square footage?” Lex asked. “I bet it’s dirt cheap.”

  “I wonder if my dad knows how involved my brother is,” Bryan said. “He’d be pissed.”

  As they quietly approached a long stretch of dark, dilapidated structures on foot, Clark felt slightly anxious. There were no lights anywhere. No security guards outside. No front entrances. He wasn’t worried about his own safety. But the whole setup seemed sketchy, like the company’s main objective in being out here was absolute secrecy. And if that was the case, what was Wesley trying to hide?

  “Do we know where we’re going?” Lex asked Bryan, after they’d walked almost three blocks.

  “I think so,” he answered uncertainly. “Though it was always light when I came here before. I remember that we have to go in through the back.”

  Finally Bryan led them up to the structure he’d been looking for. It was a full four blocks away from where Lex had parked. Bryan pulled a key card out of his pocket as they reached a large industrial door around back. He lifted the cover of the small touch pad underneath a filthy window protected by rusted security bars.

  “You have a key?” Lex asked in a quiet voice.

  “My brother has a key. And I know where he keeps it.”

  “Wait,” Clark said, grabbing Bryan’s wrist before he could extend the card toward the pad. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I know I’m the reason we’re here, but I didn’t realize we’d have to sneak around like this.”

  “He’s sure,” Lex answered, pushing Clark’s hand away.

  “Bryan?” Clark said. “I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

  “I’m not gonna lie,” Bryan said to Clark. “I could get in deep shit if my brother finds out I borrowed his card. But I also know he’s out drinking with his buddies tonight. And that usually means he comes home late and passes out. I’ll be able to sneak into his room easily to replace the card.”

  “And Dr. Wesley?” Clark asked.

  “He’s at a conference in Metropolis today and tomorrow.” Bryan looked at Lex, then at Clark. “Last chance. You guys in?”

  “Hell yeah, we’re in.” Lex motioned toward the touch pad. “Let’s go.”

  “Clark?” Bryan said, staring back at him.

  Clark didn’t hesitate for long. It was time to be decisive. And he was almost positive that Corey and Dr. Wesley and Wesco were somehow connected to the men who’d tried to rob his farm as well as the men who had shot at him and Lana. He just needed proof.

  “I’m in,” he told Bryan.

  “Cool
. And check this out.” Bryan pulled a gold badge out of his pocket and hung it around his neck. “With Corey’s access badge, we can go almost anywhere in this place. Follow my lead.”

  “Just act like you belong,” Lex added, clapping both Bryan and Clark on their backs.

  A quiet beep was followed by the click of the heavy metal door opening.

  “I’ll do the talking,” Bryan told them. He pushed the door open the rest of the way, and the three of them walked inside.

  The place might have looked like a dump on the outside, but the inside told a completely different story. They walked down a short white hallway that led to a large lobby area. There was absolutely nothing on the white walls. The place was pristine and smelled like disinfectant. The few people Clark saw milling around in the distance were dressed in lab coats and wearing hospital masks. An armed security guard sat at a small desk that bordered a large X-ray machine. The man nodded at Bryan as they entered, then cocked his head toward Clark and Lex.

  “Potential investors,” Bryan explained.

  “This late?” the man asked.

  “My brother, Corey Mankins, wanted me to show them around.”

  The guard eyed them until Lex made a show of checking his Rolex with a huff. Seeing the expensive timepiece, the guard nodded and hit a switch under the desk so that two glass security partitions slid open. The three of them dropped their phones and keys into a plastic bin and passed through a metal detector.

  Clark collected his stuff on the other side, making a mental note about how tight security was. It seemed odd they would need metal detectors in a medical and agricultural research facility, especially since it was located on the outskirts of town.

  Bryan held up his badge to a second wave of security guards, who made them stop and sign in on a small computer tablet.