DEATH TAKES A Holiday

A-ko's father to be finds out the hard way that a dark alley is not the only place you don't want to meet some people!


This night and this night alone, the place to see and be seen for the five
hundred of the wealthiest men and women in America was in the audience of the
Radio Center Music Hall. They were not here to see the Easter show or the
Christmas show or even the Rockettes. They in fact had each paid one hundred
thousand dollars just for the privilege of sitting in the audience and thus
earning the right to bid on the objects displayed up on the main stage.

The guest auctioneer for the evening's charity even was none other then the
legendary Man of Steel himself, Superman. Seated to his left were various
representatives from the United Nations and, more specifically, the secretary
in charge of UNICEF. Seated to his right was the almost equally famous icon,
Princess Diana, better known to the world as Wonder Woman.

The auction so far was a great success. One of Superman's capes went for over
three million dollars from a Texas oil man. Over five million dollars was
spent by the one time body builder and now famous Hollywood actor for an
actual martian rock that had been sitting alone of the surface of the red
planet less then twelve hours earlier. This hunk of another world had been
delivered to the charity event by the newest and perhaps last of the Green
Lantern Corps.

The high point of the evening thus far was the ten million-dollar bid made by
Bill Gates for a genuine cape and cowl from the infamous Batman.

Superman was handed a note from a young page, and after he read it, he banged
the gavel for silence. When he got everyone's attention, he said, "I am very
happy to announce that so far this evening we have raised almost thirty six
million dollars for UNICEF!" After the applause died down,Superman continued.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the high point of the evening. I want
you all to take out your check books and give warm welcome to my good friend
Princess Diana, daughter of Queen Hippolyta of the Amazon nation of Themyscira
and better known to all around the world as Wonder Woman."

Everyone in the audience stood up and clapped as Diana moved to the podium
carrying a long wooden box. As she passed Superman she gave him and angry
glare for talking her into this, but one little boy grin from her huge friend
completely disarmed her. She never could stay mad at him for any length of
time. Besides she thought, 'It is all for a good cause, and the money raised
here tonight will help feed and educate the poorest of the world's children.'

As she stood at the podium she slowly opened the box she had been carrying and
told the gathered guests, "Ladies and gentleman in this box that I am holding
is the object you will be bidding on."

She lifted the object almost tenderly and continued speaking. "Here in my
hands is the one true surviving sword of none other than Alexander the Great
himself. It has lain in the archives on Paradise Island for almost three
thousand years. If you wish to own a piece of history, the opening bid for
this historical treasure is five million dollars."

The bidding soon became both heated and emotional, as it quickly rose pastthe
ten million dollar mark. When it past fifteen a replanted oil sheik from the
state of Florida dropped out, defeated. At twenty five million dollars the
owner of Caesar's Palace, who had dreams of displaying the artifact in his
lobby folded his hand as if he was in a poker game. An at thirty five million
the dreams of a Greek shipping tycoon returning home to Greece in triumph with
the sword of his nation's national hero's sank like one of his rust buckets he
called a ship.

They all tried and they all failed until there were but two bidders left. Lex
Luthor of Metropolis and Gotham's own playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne.

Higher and higher went the bidding, thirty five million, forty million,finally
the last bid was forty two million dollars from Lex Luthor. Luthor was
confident, he expected the spoiled pretty boy playboy's next bid would be
right around the forty five million dollar mark. Luthor then planned to jump
the bid to an even fifty million dollars and drive the young punk out.

But all his careful plans crashed and burned when Bruce Wayne did the
unexpected and jumped the bid to an even seventy five million dollars!

Clark thought Luthor was going to have a stroke right there and then. His face
turned red, spit dripped put of the corner of his mouth and Clark could hear
his heart rate jump to over a hundred and twenty five beats per minute.

He turned around red faced and walked out the auditorium mumbling curses as he
stormed up the aisle and out of the famous theater.

As for Bruce Wayne looked up at both Superman and Diana smiled slyly and
winked at them both. Wonder Woman leaned over and whispered in her friend's
ear, "Was I seeing right, did he really actually smile at us?"

"Has been known to happen."

"Why do you think Luthor wanted the sword so badly?"

"More likely than not he hoped it had some sort of magical curse on it, that
way he hoped he could use it as a weapon to shove it in my back!"

"And Bruce?" she asked.

The Man of Steel smiled and answered, "He just wanted to make sure Luthor
never got his filthy hands on it."

With the auction over Clark and Diana stayed around a few more minutes to be
polite and sign autographs, but after an hour they both began to look for an
excuse to leave. It was then one of the theater's pages, a young girl of
fifteen or sixteen, came up to them and said she was sent by the music hall's
director to take them in his private elevator to the roof were they both could
leave and avoid the crowd gathered outside.

They both thanked her as they followed the young girl into the elevator. As
the doors closed behind them, Superman looked down at their young guide and
asked her if he had met her before.

She looked up at him and said,"That is in deed truly remarkable, Never has one
of my clients been able to know me at a second meeting. Even as rare as those
second meetings are, it still is most impressive."

"What do you mean by second meetings?" Diana asked.

"To most people I meet, I remind them of that child actress who played
Roseanne's youngest daughter on her TV show."

"You are the spiting image of her."

"Why thank you, Clark! I thought this image would look good on me."

"Clark?"

"Yeah, you know, Clark Kent, son of Martha and Jonathan Kent of
Smallville,Kansas."

She turned away from the shocked face of Superman and faced Wonder Woman and
said, "I am really surprised at your mother, Diana. I know it was for a good
cause and all, but I can't understand why your mother would let you sell your
father's sword like that."

Diana stammered, "Fath-father? I never had a father."

"Are you trying to tell me you still believe that fairy tale your mother told
you about the clay baby?"

She began to laugh out loud as she then added, "Who do you think you are
princess, Gumby?"

"Listen, young lady I don't know what's going on here."

"Yes you do, Superman!" she interrupted. "So why don't you use those famous
peepers of yours on the outside of this car and tell your lady friend here
what you see so she can know what is going on also."

Superman looked outside as he was told to do. He was almost sure what he was
going to see even before he looked. Diana asked him, "What do you see?"

"Everything is frozen," he said, "Everything and everybody, right down to
their very molecules."

"Not really, Clark or do you prefer Ka-el," the little girl asked.

When she didn't get an immediate answer she shruged her shoulders and said,
"What ever, what you are witnessing is but an illusion, time is moving as
normal as ever. It is we in here who are existing between moments in time."

"How else do you think I can service all my clients if I wasn't able to
perform this little trick," she quickly added.

"Trick?" asked Wonder Woman.

"For someone who is supposed to be blessed with the wisdom of Athena, you're a
little slow on the uptake princess. Your big friend here knows who I am. But
then, he does have the advantage over you of total recall."

"Leave her alone," said Clark, "If you're looking for a client, I'm your man.
Leave Diana out of this."

Their strange host shook her head laughed gleefully and said, "Wonderful! Even
now you're trying to steal someone away from me. Over the past ten years you
must have stolen millions of people away from my tender embrace and here you
are trying to rob me once again."

Turning to Diana she asked, "Need a hint princess? All right, the first time I
met Superman here was on a dirty Metropolis street in the arms of Lois Lane
after fighting the monster Doomsday! As for us Wonder Woman We had our first
meeting while you were lying in a nice clean hospital bed after that demon
bastard Neron tore your soul almost in half."

"DEATH! you're trying to tell me you're Death?" whispered Diana.

"Give the lady a cigar!" Death said, smiling.

Superman moved between Diana and Death and stood there blocking her path.

"NO!!!" screamed the Amazon princess as she realized what her friend was
attempting to do. She tried to stop him from sacrificing himself by pushing
him away from her. But even her own incredible strength was not up to the
task. So failing in that, she reached for her golden lasso that was always to
be found at her side in an attempt to compel him to move.

"Relax, heroes, I haven't come for either of you today."

Diana asked her, "If you are truly the manifestation of Death what do you want
from us?"

"After uncountable ages I have discovered that even I have a need from time to
time to meet and talk with someone in what you two would call a
non-professional level and who better to talk with than the two people who
walked away from my cold embrace?"

Seeing the looks on her quests faces the young girl assed, "If it seems
confusing,Think of that old Fredric March movie and call the time we are
spending together Death takes a Holiday."

"Just what are we going to be doing while you take your so called
holiday?"asked Superman.

"Talk of the past, present and future, specially the future. Do you know
someday, Diana, you will come across the writings of a Roman historian by the
name of Titus, who wrote long after the fact about your mother's little tryst
with a certain Macedonian."

"That's a lie!" protested the Amazon princess as she defended her mother.

"He will write of the time your mother and three hundred of her best warriors,
who after a little trip through time, rode boldly into the camp of none other
than Alexander the Great just after he conquered the Persian Empire."

"Your mother was splendered as she jumped off her horse, walked up to the
Macedonian king and boldly said, 'Since you are the greatest mortal to walk
the Earth, and I am the strongest woman, together we would have a child the
envy of Mt. Olympus itself!"

"Well after working on the problem for nine days and nine nights, your mother
got her wish and you came along a few months later the greatest specimen of
human kind to walk the planet. Or you were, until your

large friend here feel out of the sky one winter day."

"You expect me to believe this nonsense?"

"I promise you will someday," answered Death. "And it will cause no end of
trouble between you and your mother. But it is also equally true that it will
also

one day bring you even closer together as mother and daughter."

"What about you big boy, interested in walking down the misty corridors of
time to glimpse into your future?"

"NO!"

"Very well, then the past it is. After all the nearly countless millions of
lives you pulled out of my grasp, what did it feel like when you threw those
three monsters into my waiting arms? How many people did they kill Clark, on
that other Earth, Five billion, six?"

She shook her head saddly as she added, "I was forced to visit them long
before their time. Even I was saddened at the work I did that day. But when I
got hold of those three monsters that was sweet and for that I thank you. I
owe you much, Clark. Perhaps there is a little something I can do for you?
Maybe when it's time for me to visit your parents?"

Diana watched as her best friend's face turn white. The young girl saw his
distress and quickly added, "Don't worry they have many good years left before
I come for them. But this I can promise you, when it does come time for me to
call on them, it will be as an old and trusted friend. I will take each of
them gently by the hand to end their suffering and guide them to the reward
they both long ago have already earned for themselves."

Her smile quickly disapered as she saddly shook her head and added, "I only
wish I could say the same thing when it is time for me to visit Lois!"

"It will be when her life is taken from her no, more like stolen from her that
I will be forced to come to her not as a warm trusting friend to end pain, but
as some horrible screaming maniac to end life."

"No!" shouted Clark, as he seized her in his crushing embrace.

But he held nothing and the only thing he felt was the bone numbing cold of
oblivion. He fell to his knees in defeat as Diana fell to her own knees and
held her friend's weeping face to her bosom, stroking his hair, rocking him
back and forth, trying to comfort her friend from the death of his beloved.

"You bitch!" spat Diana, "Is that why you're here? To torture us? To torment a
brave and good man, the best hope for mankind. If you must have someone,take
me. Let him keep his Lois, his love, his one comfort in life."

"I am not Neron, "she answered Diana as her voice seemed to thunder out of her
small frame. "My name is not Satan, Amazon, you cannot make deals with Death."

A strange tinge of sadness seemed to infect her voice as she added,"Even if I
wished to, I would not know how."

For one of the few times in her life Diana began to weep. She felt Clark's
pain and because she cared about him so much, she also knew his feelings of
loss and grief and she wept accordingly.

The girl who would be Death spoke out, "There is compensation, there are the
children. There will be three, two girls and a boy. All of them will become
bright shining stars in the heavens. But your daughters Martha and Lois will
be very special."

"By the way, Diana, mind telling me why you would name your second daughter
after your husband's dead wife?"

They both turned to face her with looks of shock and bewilderment etched on
both of their faces. Seeing their confusion Death answered that confusing by

saying, "Yes, you two will be the founders of a great family that finally
begins the golden age by bringing peace, love and understanding to this sad
world."

Diana was suddenly ashamed, for the first time in her life, all the things she
had been searching for all the years of her life could come to her...but only
at the expense of the wife of the man she was now holding in her arms and the
woman who had become her friend.

The same man she had always loved and had kept hidden, ever since they met for
the first time all those years ago in Washington D.C!

"Our time together grows short," said Death. "You will remember nothing of
this of course, except perhaps in your dreams or as dark and faded memories as
these events unfold in the future."

The doors opened and three people got out: two friends talking to each other
and the third member of their group standing next to them unseen.

"Remember," Clark said, "Seven p.m. Friday for dinner at my folks place and
you will be staying the holiday weekend with the family."

"I promise," said Diana.

"Good!" said Clark, " Remember, either you come or Lois will have me sleeping
in the guest room."

The Amazon princess laughed and said, "Lois has you well trained now doesn't
she?"

He nodded his head sheepishly and grinned with out saying a word.

She smiled sweetly at him and asked, "An you wouldn't have it any other way
would you?"

"I suppose not," he answered her with a big grin.

With that the two friends laughed hugged once more and took to the sky,going
their separate ways.

As they left, standing there all alone, a young girl trapped in her duty
forbidden to change, not allowed to show mercy, in the end only allowed to
cry.

As she watched them fly off, she stood there all alone as she always had been
and always would be.