Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4)(57)

And then he kissed her. Softly at first, molding his lips to hers. When she began kissing him back, the kiss grew more urgent. He buried his hands in her hair, pressing her against him. They fit together perfectly. Like this was exactly where he belonged.

Clark reluctantly drew back, knowing he needed to slow himself down, though he could have kissed her full lips all night.

Gloria smiled against his neck and then rolled onto her back on the ice so that they were both staring up at the stars, still holding hands.

His head was spinning like a top.

His heart swelled in his chest.

Tonight he had learned that he was from another planet. That he was an alien who didn’t belong on Earth. So why did he feel so…human?





After walking Gloria back to her building, Clark wandered the quiet streets of downtown Smallville, trying to process everything that had happened. He pictured Gloria and him ice-skating across the pond, fingers linked, their eyes finding each other’s, the feel of her lips against his. He pictured Jonathan’s wounded expression as they stood across from each other in the old barn, staring at the half-buried spaceship. “You were safely tucked inside here,” he’d said to Clark, “wrapped in blankets.”

And now another face came to mind.

Jor-El.

His biological father.

What if he could’ve seen Clark with Gloria tonight? Not only safe on a planet called Earth but ice-skating. Holding hands with a girl he really liked.

Clark was beginning to understand what his biological parents had sacrificed for him. Yes, they’d strapped him into a cold spaceship when he was just a baby, all alone and left to fend for himself. But they hadn’t abandoned him. No, they’d given him a chance to live. And wasn’t that what every person migrating from one place to another was really seeking?

It was well after three in the morning when Clark finally checked his phone.

He had three messages from Lana, two from Lex, and one from his mom. Lana’s and Lex’s messages all said a version of the same two things: In the past several days, the number of people who had officially disappeared had multiplied significantly. And tomorrow night they were going to meet outside the library, minus Bryan, to go on a top-secret mission. Clark needed to be there by eight o’clock at the latest.

The message from his mom was different. She was worried about him. She asked him to please come home so they could talk. Her text was as straightforward as it got, but that didn’t stop him from reading it over and over, a lump rising in his throat every time.

He put away his phone, forcing the image of his mom out of his head.

He wasn’t ready.

Instead, he shifted his focus back to Lana and Lex. When had they started working together? It was way too late to call either of them back, so he spent the rest of the night wandering all over Smallville in a kind of emotional haze. He was able to see his hometown from a totally new perspective now. Through the lens of an outsider. But also as someone who had just gone ice-skating with Gloria Alvarez.

Life, he realized, was a profoundly complicated thing. It was filled with awe and wonder and beauty, but it was also filled with heartbreak and loneliness. Maybe that was what made it so precious. You could never know what to expect next, or who might step into or out of your world. And the truth was that we were all navigating the mystery together.

That was why it was so important for Clark to help people.

Because all life, he was beginning to understand, was really one life.

And what if everyone could see it this way?



* * *



—

He didn’t start heading for home until he saw the first few rays of sunlight climbing into the sky.

He made a pit stop at Alvarez Fruits and Vegetables, his heart dropping when he saw it boarded up. Carlos and Cruz were always at the stand before dawn on Saturday mornings—setting things up, stocking fruit, listening to their Spanish radio station. Clark peeked through the wooden slats. Only a few pieces of fly-infested fruit were still there. How could anyone think it was a good idea to put an end to their business? Who were they harming?

The Kent farm was quiet when Clark returned. He looked up at the old farmhouse and felt a strange sense of nostalgia. As if the childhood he’d experienced here was gone now, and something else had taken its place. He walked down the gentle slope toward the old barn, studying the crater in the field.

Clark pulled open the door and was relieved to see the spaceship still in the corner of the barn, covered only by the tarp. He was surprised Jonathan hadn’t piled all the junk back on top of it. But maybe once something so important was uncovered, it didn’t seem right to cover it right back up.

Clark removed the tarp and stared down at the capsule. It wasn’t quite as shocking to him now. It felt strange yet familiar at the same time. He undid the latch, and the top opened with a hiss.

He watched the hologram of his biological father again, this time concentrating on the man’s face as much as his message. He saw himself now. It was the man’s eyebrows. And his mouth and strong chin. Clark studied the details in the background, too. A strange picture of a robot. A rounded doorframe. Just beside his father was some kind of large control pad.

When it was over, Clark watched it again.

And then a third time.

This was as close as he would ever come to his home planet. To his own flesh and blood. And he wanted to soak it all in. After the third time through, he lowered the lid and stared at the spaceship, trying to imagine the state of his planet when his biological parents were forced to place him inside and send him off on his own.