The Experience of Being Alive

Chapter Fourteen

"Back so soon?" One said. One was manning the special request desk this time.

"Thought I'd try another spot in the same book." Binny said as casually as she could.

"Yes. Your first choice doesn't last very long, does it." You want an existing one again or would you like your very own copy this time?"

"How many existing copies are there this time?"

"Also, just the one." One said. "I guess it's not that popular a place."

"It's no Misselthwaite Manor." Binny tried to sound casual in her banter with One.

One nodded and sent Binny on her way.

The wheat fields stretched endlessly in every direction. Kansas couldn't have felt more different than Krypton. At least Binny assumed it was Kansas. The book never explicitly mentioned the name of the small town in which the Kents found the crash-landed Kryptonian ship. And though Binny had never been to Kansas, this place sure looked right.

Binny tried hard not to think about what would happen if her father wasn't here either. She'd been so sure that he'd be spending time in this book, that she hadn't given any thought to other methods to find him. Binny worried that she wouldn't have any other ideas on that front.

Binny put her nervousness out of her mind for the moment and scanned the horizon. The sun was setting so everything was drawn in bright relief. As she spun, she noticed a barn in one direction, and slightly beyond it a house. Binny started walking.

As she walked, Binny noticed smoke coming from the chimney of the house. That was a good sign right? For there to be a fire in the fireplace, there needed to be someone there to light it. At least Binny thought there did. She was never quite sure any more of her assumptions about the Stacks as she had been wrong so often.

But as Binny approached the ramshackle old farmhouse, it did look like there were signs of life. The unintelligible sounds of talking inside. Little noises of people moving about. And the smell... it smelled so good. It smelled like, it smelled, like, well, home. That's what it smelled like.

Binny rushed through the front door. Two young men, sitting at the kitchen table turned around, startled at her sudden entrance. They couldn't have been more than 18 or 19. Maybe younger. Neither of them were Binny's father Jay.

"Hello young lady." One of the men greeted Binny. He had a stub nose, and heavy stubble on his face. He looked 'shlumpy' as Binny's mother was sometimes prone to say – like his clothes were purchased in all the wrong sizes. "I'm Sammy."

"And I'm Joe." The other man introduced himself. He was thin, though it was hard to tell in his baggy suit.

Joe and Sammy looked distinctly 'old timey' to Binny. "Oh hi. I'm Binny. I think I'm in the wrong place."

Crash. Binny's head snapped around to the source of the sound. Binny looked on the floor and saw the frying pan sitting there, it's contents spilled beyond its confines. Sunny side up eggs were all over the floor. Standing above the dropped pan, was a man, his eyes wide and his smile ridiculously expansive. The yellow light from the lone light fixture in the kitchen reflected warmly off his mostly bald head.

"Hello sweetie." And then turning to Joe and Sammy. "Guys. This is Binny. This is my daughter!"

¤

Binny could hardly get a word in for the first minute. Partly because Jay was asking her so many questions and partly because he was squeezing her so hard in an extended bear hug. When she finally wriggled free she said, "Dad. Dad. Give me a minute, and I'll explain."