Clara Kent Superwoman

Chapter 12: 18th Birthday - Part 2

$500,000, $ 5-0-0-,-0-0-0, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars, Half a Million, and her estranged grandfather had just handed it to her like a birthday card.

"It may seem quite extravagant to you Clara, but the way the economy is beginning to trend, the tax involved and university tuition rising I thought it best to ensure you could choose any university you wanted. Oxford, Harvard, or if you decide so, Metropolis University will be open to you. The world is highly competitive, you deserve every advantage. A student loan will have you in debt for more than 20 years. I give you this money, not as a bribe for your affection, but in hope that I can make you future better, and that in time we can know each other better. If you want, you can come with me as my assistant to some special events, and your mother has told me of your interest in journalism and I've read some of your pieces. You could always come with me to court; to see what courtroom journalism is like. You don't have to decide right now, the money is yours; you can do what you wish with it."

In the absence of decision making power, Clara reverted to courtesy.

"Thank you, Grandpa" Clara said, and hugged her Grandfather again.

Martha chose this time to intervene; Jonathan was still standing stonily by the couch.

"I think I hear the timer, who wants lasagne?"

The meal was almost pleasant, the adults made an effort to push the money from their minds and the silence was almost amiable. But every time Jonathan or William's eyes glanced each other's way the tension level rose. Jonathan Kent did not want this man in his house. He was absent from Clara's life and now he thought he could buy her. Jonathan Kent had been a farm boy in the big city, studying Business Agriculture at Metropolis University, when he had met the love of his life, Martha Clark, who was studying Law. William Clark had never approved of their association, even Martha has been hesitant, she'd turned him down the first four times he'd asked her out. But it had blossomed into something wonderful, and Clark has been furious that his plans for Martha to take over his Law practice were replaced by plans for marriage and a family. Jonathan Kent, farm man, would never be good enough for Martha Clark, Lawyer. But, when he had proposed, Martha said yes, and that created an insurmountable canyon between Clark and Kent. Jonathan would always be the man who ruined Martha's life, took her away from a bright future into the sticks to raise cattle and bale hay.

When they'd adopted Clara, Martha had hoped to reconcile with her father, they had invited him round to meet her. Clara had stayed very quiet as she hadn't spoken English when they first found her and when she did speak it was in words they didn't understand, but she was always very tactile and not at all shy. They'd told everyone she was abandoned before social services picked her up, and that she was probably the daughter of immigrants, to account for her lack of verbal communication. William Clark was very taken with Clara; he had given her a stuffed rabbit, it was an almost exact replica of one Martha had as a child. Clara had been delighted, carrying it around everywhere by the ears, babbling in what they now knew as Kryptonian. After time English had replaced her mother tongue and it had been lost to her. She'd named the rabbit "Clarkie". Jonathan had tried to be polite for Martha's sake, but Clark had insisted they needed financial help for Clara, he just couldn't let go of the past. Jonathan had to admit he couldn't either, they'd had a final argument that had greatly upset both Martha and Clara, and William Clark had not darkened his door until today.

Jonathan had always known his wife had kept in contact with her father, even if she didn't. But he would never have expected Martha to invite him back into their lives without consulting him. However, it was done and William Clark had done what he always did, involved money. The Martian had somehow spooked his wife and she must want her father around for his legal abilities as well as for family.