June 21, 2005
Week 9 - Impossible Dreams, Prelude 2
Episode 2
“Mr. Powell!” Lucy almost screams. “You can’t print that! It would destroy us!”
“I… I… I have to…” Powell says. “I’m a… I may work for a dumb little magazine, but I’m… I’m still a journalist… this is a big story… I have to write the truth…”
“It’s not the truth! My father does not think that comic book characters are real!”
“I’m… he does… he says it over and over…”
“No! It’s just… just a game… just a way of avoiding…” She looks away. “Mr. Powell, you promised me that this would all be off the record. If you’re really a journalist, you have to honor that!”
“No… I… that only applied to what you told me yourself… not to the interview… not to stuff I saw and heard…”
Lucy’s eyes begin to tear and she looks at Powell. “Please… you don’t understand… My father’s company… I’ve… there’s been a struggle for control… if you write that my father is insane, my cousin will be able to push me… to push him out…”
“I’m not going to say he’s insane… just that he doesn’t realize that comic book stories are made up…”
“It’s not true! My father has not lost touch with reality!”
The door opens and Donald Lamont walks in. “Ah! Mr. Powell! It’s fortunate you have not yet left! I have something to show you for your article.”
Lucy bites her lip. “Daddy… don’t you think you’d better…”
Lamont reaches into his pocket and displays a plastic trinket in his palm. It is a green ring with a small lantern carved on it.
“Um…” Powell says. “That’s a Green Lantern’s ring…”
Lamont laughs. “Oh no! Of course, this is simply a replica… not an actual Power Ring!”
Lucy’s body relaxes and she glances triumphantly at Powell.
“It was, however, presented to me as a trophy by the Green Lantern of Earth,” Lamont continues. “Several years ago, after I provided him with information essential to the defeat of the villainous Sinestro…”