The Life And Death Of . . .

[Robyn]

Spring of 1934:

 

"Oh look, Jonathan - it's a shooting star!" Martha exclaimed, pointing out the side windowframe of their battered old truck (the glass windows having long since been lost). Jonathan quickly braked the vehicle, not bothering to park it. The few travellers to pass through their corner of nowhere never used the long road going to their farm, and in any case there was hardly room for one vehicle to fit through. Stepping out of their truck, the middle-aged couple watched in awe as the bright speck moved downward across the evening horizon. "Naw, I reckon it's a meteor." ventured Jonathan after several moments. "It looks like it's heading awfully close," fretted Martha, but "Don't worry," her husband of thirty years reassured her "we haven't done anything bad enough to make God want to hit us with a meteor."

 

Getting closer, the speck became a streak of light, that arrowed over their shoulders a moment before a low rumble went through the earth where they were standing. Turning around, Jonathan yelled in consternation "Dawgonit! That's our corn field on fire!", and ran for the truck, his wife right behind him. They both knew that if the fire was serious, they had to control the spread before it ruined this year's crops.

 

Pulling in close, they saw only a few small fires, already dying, and a large mysterious object still ablaze. "Watch out, Martha." he warned, stepping close to investigate. Carefully, she disembarked from the vehicle and began to explore around the side of the object. "It must be the meteor," Jonathan commented, looking the object up and down, "but I've never seen one so smooth." Martha called out from the other side of the meteor "Oh, be honest, Jonathan Kent - when have you ever seen a meteor in your - oh! My goodness, there's a baby in there!".

 

"What?!" Jonathan cried out, alarmed. He was worried for his wife; they'd both been wanting a child of their own so badly for the last few decades, but the Lord had never seen fit to grace them with one. If Martha was hallucinating that she saw a baby in the meteor, she might burn herself trying to save it! Rushing around the perimeter as fast as his tired old legs could take him, he was startled to see Martha emerging from an opening in the other side of the object, carrying what appeared to be an honest-to-God human child in her arms. "Oh, the poor baby!" Martha exclaimed, "Let me take him back to the truck."

 

Jonathan helped set the baby safely in the truck where it couldn't wander off, and then sternly took Martha aside. "Now, you know we have to give this boy to the orphanage . . . " he began. Martha interrupted him, pleadingly "Oh, Jonathan? Couldn't we keep him, please? We've been trying for ever so long, and I just feel that the Lord has granted him to us out of His kindness, to raise as our very own . . . even if he isn't." Jonathan glanced about, thinking about it. Suddenly a creaking noise from the truck interrupted their discussion. Glancing back, they saw the most miraculous sight: the baby had stepped out of their vehicle, and was lifting the back end overhead with one hand! He gurgled and giggled happily at his accomplishment, looking at the Kents with a delighted smile on his cherubic face.

 

Martha screamed and burst into tears, burying her face in her hands. "Monster!" she shrieked through her fingers, sobbing, "Oh dear Lord, God has sent us a monster!". Jonathan was pale, but he took her by the shoulders and said "Now, Martha - you know that isn't true. Why, God would never send us anything like that for all our faith. No, it's plain to me that this is something special." he finished. "Wha-what could that be?" asked his wife, glancing up, sniffling. "Why, it's obvious;" Jonathan replied confidently, "Satan himself sent the little devil!", and, striding forward, he set about to rid the world of the greatest conceivable menace.

 

Martha stayed back and watched him, shivering. My, but he was so brave to go into danger like that! One blow, two - Jonathan grunted in pain and stepped back, surreptitiously rubbing his toes. Then he kneeled in close and reached out to wring the young creature's neck. At first it seemed like nothing would happen, then the baby's face twisted up in pain, and he flung out one arm, sending Jonathan flying 20 feet to land on some flattened cornstalks. Shrieking in pain and grief again, Martha hurried to her husband's side. Lying on the cornstalks, his body looked broken. Weeping, Martha tried to straighten out his body for the final rest, while behind her the baby continued playing Lift the Truck. As she cleared out the rocks underneath, she gasped in amazement to find a glowing green stone. Lifting it higher to examine it, she suddenly heard a crash behind her as their truck hit the ground. Looking back, she saw the baby lying on the ground, apparently helpless. Though she realized it might be a trick to lure her closer, guard down, she was too consumed with rage and sorrow to care, so she charged at the baby with the stone still in her hands, and, raising it overhead, brought it smashing down. Again. And again. Until there was just a bloody smear on the ground, where once lay a small child.

 

Summer of 1934:

 

Jerry Siegel paced the floor restlessly. He needed to come up with an exciting character if he and his friend, Joe Schuster, were to find publication in more than their school paper. Sighing, he decided to retreat to his favorite reading, science fiction. Picking up his purchases of the day, something fell out . . . "Tabloids." Jerry thought in disgust, but his eyes were caught by the front headlines:

 

Alien spaceship lands on farmers' cornfield to deliver Anti-Christ!

 

Martha Kent (53) is being hailed as a hero by local farmers, after she heroically took it upon herself to slay the Anti-Christ, sent to their cornfield by the Devil in the form of a small baby. Her husband, Jonathan Kent (55) died battling the Anti-Christ; Martha is collecting signatures for a petition to the Vatican to have him nominated for sainthood. Of her own accomplishments, Martha is remarkably humble; "I only hope," she says, "That any God-abiding person, in my situation, would do the same."

 

Full story on page 3.

 

Excited at first, Jerry's spirits quickly fell. The story contained exactly the kind of heroism that people liked to read during the Depression, and he felt inspired by it - as if he could use it to breathe new life into his current project - but it would only be good for a single panel . . . unless . . . his hopes rose again. What if it was the baby that was the hero? It couldn't be a baby, exactly, but what if it grew up and became . . . Jerry Siegel paused, struck by a vision.

 

A vision that would become legendary. A vision of . . . Superman.

[Vanguard00]

Re: The Life And Death Of . . .

 

Well, that was...um...dark. Good read, though. You should just start a "Robyn's Random Writings" thread and post whenever ya have something.

[Robyn]

Re: The Life And Death Of . . .

 

Well' date=' that was...um...[i']dark[/i].

 

That was why I put it in the "Dark" Champions forum

 

Good read' date=' though.[/quote']

 

Thanks!

 

You should just start a "Robyn's Random Writings" thread and post whenever ya have something.

 

I wouldn't call it random, I was here last night and then I started this thread, and about an hour later, viola, a realistic take on the Superman Creation Myth

[Vanguard00]

Re: The Life And Death Of . . .

 

I can see we're going to have to keep an eye on you...