Chapter 14 by Zeebop

How Does Lois Respond?

Make Her Stop

Guilt washed over Lois Lane, sudden, strong and fierce.

How could I be doing this with my own mother?

She grabbed the thin wrist in her hand.

"Mom...no. I mean, we can't. This has gone too far. I'm your daughter."

Instinctively, Lois realized she had put steel into her voice, just like her mother had when she was a girl. The older woman stared her daughter in the eye, hand not moving from the waistband of her daughter's pants.

"Let go of my hand, Lois." Ella Lane said. And it was real steel, the same voice that had scolded her for bringing boys home or not flushing the toilet, the voice that said she had put up with all of her daughter's shit and could remember all of it, even the things that Lois had nearly forgotten.

But Lois Lane did not let go of her mother's wrist.

"No," she said, striving to keep any childish peevishness out of her voice. "Mom, I don't know what's gotten into you, but this isn't right. We need to stop, to talk this out..."

SLAP.

The hard impact of her mother's palm against Lois Lane's face brought back other memories. Ella Lane had taken a seeming delight in spanking her daughters, even when they were grown. The older woman had never been malicious in her punishment, but when it was called for she was harsh and uncompromising.

"Do not," Ella told Lois, "tell me what I do and do not want, what I can and cannot do. You have no idea what I've been through...for you..."

The woman was trembling now, eyes wide with fear, whole body shaking.

"We have so little time together Lois...so little time..."

Ella leaned forward, and for a moment Lois was afraid that she was going to strike her again, but instead the older woman wrapped her arm around Lois and hugged her close.

"Mom, I..." Lois was lost for words for a moment. She wanted to comfort her mother, to say it would be alright, that they would get through this together. But somehow those sentiments felt flat and false. Ella Lane raised her head, staring into her daughter's face with tears in her eyes.

"We can..." Lois started. But then it was too late.