Smallville: Annual

Chapter 19

4/16/05 - 4:30PM  - Planet Houston BBQ - Outside of Houston, TX

        Clark sat in one of the many of the restaurant's outdoor benches.  After he and Diana had left Kansas they had flown all the way to Texas.  Diana then revealed from her bag a few thousand dollars as she suggested that the get a change of clothes.  It was a simple thrift shop that dealt in a good degree of clothing but also a few rodeo and various western clothing.  Clark ditched his work shoes for some respectable fitting cowboy boots and a blue shirt, keeping his jeans as well as his jacket.  Diana however was more enthusiastic with her disguise getting rid of the outfit and into something completely different.

        When she got out of the dressing room she wore a red plaid blouse, blue-jeans, a white leather jacket, white boots and a gray cowgirl hat with a red star.  It would appear they where an All-American farm boy and farm girl look to them as they left the shop together, but in a town's culture for the wild west nobody paid them any notice other than how physically attractive they both appeared.

        Diana had advised Clark to stick with her, knowing that though outside a major city she did warn him of the possibility of being caught on camera.  Before leaving the store she pulled some identification cards from her satchel which was the only thing she kept. All ready set for them to use Clark was George Alyn and Diana was Linda Walker.  Clark didn't have to convince anybody that he was a farm boy, but Diana was decidedly more flamboyant.  She braided her hair into a ponytail and unbuttoned a few buttons on her blouse to give the appearance of a feisty Texan farm girl.  Diana gave Clark her bag to carry while she openly wore her golden pistols on thigh holsters she had also purchased.  Clark was worried she'd be seen as hostile, but as he looked at a few tables he noticed a few openly carried more firearms than Diana did.  Texans.

        Diana paid for a large lunch/early dinner for her and Clark.  Two 3/4 lb burgers, two orders of curly fries, two cokes and a strawberry ice cream shake.  The proportions were very large and would be more than enough to keep them from being hungry for the rest of the day.  The place had a very humble setting which was supposed to have a space cowboy style theme.  Though it was more cowboy than space as he saw plenty of its customers wear regular cowboy hats than the aluminum cowboy hat that its waitresses wore alongside other flashy accruements. 

        Clark and Diana easily sat back and enjoyed their meals as they realized how much they needed this break.  Clark knew eventually that they were going to have to plan so he ate comfortably until he slowly realized that his meal was coming to an end.  Yet he did have one question for Diana that wasn't exactly pertinent.

"Why did you order only one shake?"

"Its my favorite food and if I saw you with a shake I'd be a little jealous, but if you want one for yourself..."

"No that's okay.  Still, I'd have ordered a pie for myself, but the best pie I've ever eaten is..."

"From your mother's kitchen.  I know."  said Diana.

        Clark then started to ache as he realized his parents were out there worried sick or worse.  But from his time with Diana and taking the time to trust her he had very little opportunity to think about them.

"Diana about that I ..."

"Finish eating first, then we'll talk."

        It took a considerable time to finish eating but even Clark had to admit this Planet Houston's was a great place to eat.  Sometimes he'd forget that with his speed he could go out and enjoy a rare delicacy within a few seconds if not a few minutes.  He and his old friend Pete Ross used to eat Shark Dogs freshly made from the Metropolis Sharks stadium within minutes.  According to Diana he'd run or actually fly to get some real delicacies a lot more often.  Authentic Chinese food, Croissants from Paris, real tacos from Mexico sometimes with a friend like her or Bart Allen.  She even told him how despite being superheroes, every day out of the year he and Bart would have a race around the world seeing who the fastest man in the world was that particular year like a pair of juvenile track stars.

        Clark had to admit almost everything Diana said about his future was sounding brighter and brighter.  Despite the threats she told him he had to face or what she told him happened to Hardcastle to cause him to come back in time in the first place.  Clark learned that he had friends and was apart of something great, a group of men and women dedicated to Justice.  For that was their name too.  The Justice League.  Diana didn't want to tell him everything, she still intended on obtaining the time machine before she needed it to erase the memories of everyone affected by her and Hardcastle's presence.  But he didn't want it to happen.  He had learned so much about his life that was promising, to have that taken away.  If only he had known all the good and bad that was to happen.  He felt would have obeyed Jor-El in a second.

"Would you?"  said Diana. "Or would you still attempt to stop it.  Good or bad Kal-El the decisions we have already made or what we will make are what drive us.  Even the oracle that advised my father couldn't reveal too much.  Knowing too much about one's fate could lead it to happen, but with more anguish to others.  Maybe it could have never been and in that moment the world could be destroyed."

"But I needed to know."

"You wanted to know, Kal-El.  There is a difference.  Perhaps some greater power out there doesn't want us to know for our own good.   If we really knew everything that came before us, we'd be living our life as if it was a script in a movie.  The movie may be great, but would we still enjoy it as much if it wasn't spontaneous? Without the emotions that drive us?  Without fear and anger but without true hope and real love.  Things like that can't be manufactured.

If I told you who you'd marry, who your greatest enemy became, what turned you towards Jor-El or what happens to your family will make you more a slave.  I believe our lives are predetermined to a degree, but if we become completely dependent on it then, there is no point in living."

        Clark guess he could understand that or maybe he couldn't.  It was just going to be so hard once this was over.  Besides of all the many things he had come to enjoy from finding out about his future was knowing that Diana was in it.  Diana who truly was beautiful in more ways than physical.  It was a little difficult looking away from her opened shirt, but as he looked into her eyes he could see a woman who bore hope and saw such promise for him.  He couldn't help but wonder, was she only a friend or something greater.  Maybe another missed opportunity like Chloe or Lana was when he was grasping at the idea that either could have been his girlfriend.

"Well, I guess we're done here." said Diana as she grabbed her empty tray on to Clark's finished tray.  Yet she still grabbed a big cold cup full of her milk shake as they grabbed their things. Clark took the trays and emptied them into the trash bins as they walked off their full stomachs, though Diana still dug with her plastic spoon some of her milk shake.  Though decided to offer Clark as small spoonful of her shake.  Clark enjoyed the taste of the shake though the spoon did hold a little bit of her saliva.  Though even that Clark didn't seem to mind and it wasn't just because it was a good shake.