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Clark picked the newspaper from the kitchen table, scanning the article again, eyes stopping at the decades-old photograph.
“You okay?”
His wife stood behind his chair, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I’ll be fine.” He sighed. “You didn’t pull any punches, did you? ‘Death of a Tyrant’.”
“No more than he deserved. He spent the last twenty years trying to kill my husband. Not to mention the damage he did this city. I don’t really get why you’re hurting so much. I know you were friends, once, but it was a long, long time ago.” His hand slipped away, and she squeezed his shoulder. “If it’s too hard for you, I’ll call Perry and tell him I can cover the funeral.”
“No. I want to do it. Clark stood and took her hand, leading her towards the living room sofa. “Did I ever tell you how we met?”
“Something about a car crash? You pulled him out of the water, he got suspicious, started stalking you?”
“It wasn’t really like that. Not at first. Not for a long time.” He sat down, and she sat beside him. “I always wanted a brother.”
“I have a sister. You know you aren’t missing much.”
“That’s not the point. There was this connection between us. The first thing I ever did to Lex was hurt him. The day my ship crashed.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” she protested.
“Doesn’t matter. The first time I met him, I saved his life, that’s true. He hit me with his Porsche, knocked out the bridge into the water and passed out. When he woke up, I’d pulled him out of the crash. No wonder he was suspicious.”
“A lot of people were suspicious of you, Clark. Hell, the first time I met you, you were naked with amnesia. You think that’s not suspicious? Didn’t mean I made it my life’s work to find out your secrets.”
He smiled and raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“Well, not right away. And not in a scary ‘I’ve got money and power’ kind of way.”
“Look at Lionel. I wonder if Lex ever had any choice at how he turned out, with him as a father.”
“He was your step-father.”
“I was an adult. And I don’t like to talk about it.”
“I know.” She sat closer, held his hand tighter. “So you saved Lex, he was grateful and you became friends.”
“That’s just a piece of the story. Because two days later, he saved my life.”
“You never told me that.”
He could still feel it. The weakness. The nausea. The fear.
“Quaint football team custom. Pick the biggest loser on campus, tie him to a stake in the cornfield and leave him until someone finds him. They called him the Scarecrow.”
“That’s horrible. But what does it have to do with you?” She could see the pain in his eyes. “Not you. They couldn’t do that to you.”
“Lana had a necklace with a piece of the meteor rock that killed her parents. Yeah, morbid, I guess.”
“Kryptonite.”
He nodded. “Whitney, her boyfriend, was jealous. Put the necklace on me and hung me in the field. He didn’t know what it was. What it would do.”
“Clark. I’m sorry.”
“Well, compared to some of the things that have happened to me since, it’s nothing. But I was a kid, and I was scared. It was poisoning me, slowly. If nobody had found me it could have killed me.”
“But someone found you.”
“Lex. Lex found me. Saved me. And after that we were friends. Heck, we were brothers.”
“But still. Afterwards, all the things he did. What happened with Lana...”
“It was an accident. I know I blamed him for a long time, but it wasn’t his fault.”
“Lots of things were.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Lots of things were.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently, then rose from the sofa. “I’d better get going. I remembered to pick up my black suit from the cleaners, didn’t I?”
“No, I did. It’s in the bedroom closet.” She stood and lay her hand on his forearm. “You want me to come with you?”
“I’d rather go myself, if you don’t mind.”
She hugged him. “I understand.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Thanks.”
“You have to say goodbye to an old enemy.”
“I have to mourn an old friend.”