© J Hardy Carroll
The young reporter stood at one end of a torn up sidewalk in the heart of his home town. The place was going through growing pains again as city workers discovered it was worth a longer commute from rural towns in exchange for affordable housing, a lower crime rate, and cleaner air. There were times when Clark wished he could move back here too, but his career kept him in the midst of the city, the world really.
He tried to come back once a month to visit Ma, but as always, he’d never be able to stay long. He had his job to think about, and then of course he had his other job that was continually demanding his time and effort. He was fine with the fact that the world would always need Superman. Sometimes though, he wished they’d let him have just a few days so he could have the freedom to visit Ma and to be just a country boy who was raised in Smallville.
I wrote this for the Sunday Photo Fictioner photo writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above to inspire crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 200 words long. My word count is 169.
This photo looked like a small, rural town being forced to grow to accommodate an influx of commuters. There are plenty of places like that near where I live in Boise, Idaho. But a growing town doesn’t sound particularly exciting, at least to me, unless you consider that just like any small town kid, sometimes Clark Kent wants to hang up his cape for a few days and go home to visit his Ma.
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
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While he’s there he could fix the sidewalk too. No rest for the superheroes.
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I think he just wants to be a regular guy for a few days.
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Don’t forget your glasses or everyone will know!
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Yeah. He’s wearing them. Actually, when I watched the old “Adventures of Superman” TV show, George Reeves really did look different when dressed as Clark. Of course the trick would be for Superman to avoid anyone he knew as Clark Kent. That never works out so well.
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Yeah. Definitely some holes in the story. But what can you expect from a couple of Jewish teenagers from Brooklyn who never read Conrad?
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Aw, what a sweet thought, Clark going home to spend some time with his mother. But alas, the work of a world-saver is never done. Clever take on the prompt!
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Thanks, Joy. I think the burden of being Superman would be enormous. After all, he was raised in a small, rural community and he probably had a lot of freedom to play, relative to being super powered. As an adult, his life will never be so unfettered again.
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I agree, going from the freedom of the open plains to the responsibility for the whole world is a heavy character arc to bear. The idea really appeals to my love for the “behind the scenes” views at legends and epic heroes, where the stories others tell about them don’t quite match their own personal, fallible, on-the-ground experience.
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It makes a lot of sense to me, Joy. He was raised in a Kansas farm family. Those are the value he’d cherish.
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You’ve shown us a side of Clark we’ve never seen before. He’s quite sweet! Nice one James.
The Other Side – my story
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Thanks. Actually if you think about it, that’s the person he’d have to be, Keith.
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Nicely done.
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Thank you.
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And i thought superheroes could fix anything. Well written, James.
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We can only hope.
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Nice. Superman should have some downtime.
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Agreed, Sascha. Let the rest of the Justice League pick up the slack.
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Just being a regular guy every once in a while would be very handy for the man of steel.
Good story James.
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I think he probably grew up as a regular guy and the powers put new responsibilities on him
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It seems that all jobs have a down side.
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Especially that one, Michael.
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