The Obsession Connection

"Krazyworld", part 8! You may wonder if this fanfic is ever going to end, but trust me, it's getting there! Enjoy! P.S. If you are new to the club and have missed out on the previous parts, don't worry. After the fanfic is done being posted in the newsletters, I'll tell you where you can find the whole thing ;-) You can wait a few more days, can't you?

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Mayson Drake ran over to Clark and hugged him. Lois glared at Mayson. Mayson noticed the hippo and gave it an odd look.

"What are you two doing here?" Mayson asked. "I'm here on business."

Lois didn't believe her. "You're on Hippo Island...on business?"

Mayson didn't take her eyes off of Clark. "Actually, I'm in Florida on business, and I thought I'd come here for the day, just to see what all the fuss is about. Have you ridden The Terrifier yet?" she asked. "It's the most amazing roller coaster."

Clark glanced at Lois, remembering how she'd felt about The Exterminator. He'd bet his salary that she wouldn't very much like The Terrifier.

"I don't really like roller coasters," he told Mayson.

Mayson shrugged. "Oh, well, that's okay, they're not for everyone. Cute hippo, Lois...did Clark win that for you?"

"No, actually, *I* won it for me," Lois said matter-of-factly.

"It's...um, cute," Mayson said.

"Yes, you said that," Lois said.

Lois eyed Mayson like a cat that had just seen another cat cross into its territory. Mayson ignored this, and batted her eyelashes at Clark.

"So, where are you staying?" Mayson asked.

"Nowhere!" Lois said, before Clark could say anything. "And it was great to see you again, Mayson, but you know, darn...we have dinner reservations to go to."

"It's three in the afternoon," Mayson said.

"It's an early dinner," Lois shot back. "Come on, Clark."

"Bye, Mayson!" Clark called as Lois dragged him off.

Mayson waved.

Clark was laughing. "Imagine, running into Mayson Drake, of all people...of all *places*--here."

"This world is just so small," Lois said dryly. "And getting smaller," she added. "Oh look, Clark! The Flying Hippo ride! We have to go on that."

"Flying hippos?" He grinned. "Now there's something you don't see every day." He and Lois found the end of the line for the hippo ride, and when they were almost to the front of the line, one of the ride operators asked them, did they want to ride in one hippo or separate hippos?

Lois glanced the purple stuffed hippo in her arms, and decided to go with "separate hippos," just as Clark replied "one hippo, please."

Clark stared at her. "You want to be in separate hippos?"

Lois shrugged and nodded. Clark tried to hide his disappointment as he told the ride operator, "Two hippos, please."

What's the big deal? Clark asked himself as he climbed into his yellow hippo car. Lois, meanwhile, was discovering that there just wasn't room enough in her hippo car for the two of them--that was, her and the purple stuffed hippo. She squeezed and smushed and stuffed it, and--although it was a tight squeeze--both Lois and the purple hippo were able to be seated in that hippo car.

The ride began. Basically, the hippo cars just went up and down, and they all went around in a great big circle. On each car, there was a control handle that allowed the person riding in the hippo to control how high or low their car went.

The problem was, that big purple hippo in Lois's car was blocking the control handle. She pushed it over a little, but she still couldn't reach the handle, so she pushed the purple hippo over even more. She finally got ahold of the handle and made her car go as high as it could go.

And her purple hippo chose that very moment to fall out of the car. Down, down, down it went. Lois dared to look down below as someone hollered, "Ow!"

As Lois and Clark were walking away from the ride, Clark noticed the absence of Lois's purple friend. "Hey, where'd your hippo go?" he asked.

"You mean *this* hippo?" a voice spoke up. Lois and Clark looked down.

It was Bumper Boy! And he did not look happy.

"Yeah, that would be THE hippo," Clark said, not even sure he wanted to know how Bumper Boy had gotten it. He found out a moment later, though, when Bumper Boy said angrily, "This hit me on the head! I'm going to sue you!"

Lois rolled her eyes. I mean, please! The kid barely came up to her chin. "It's a stuffed animal," she said. "How badly could it have hurt?"

"I'm still gonna sue you," Bumper Boy said. "What are your names!?"

"John and Jane Doe," Lois said sarcastically.

The kid looked smug. "Well, Mr. and Mrs. Doe, you'll be hearing from my lawyer! And I'm going to keep this hippo, as evidence."

"You do that," Lois said. "Come on *John*," she said to Clark.

Clark grinned. "Coming, Jane."

* * *

That evening, Lois wanted to see it all. "Clark, there's a light show we just *have* to see. And the fireworks! And we still haven't been on Splash Fountain, the Rascal Rollerderby, or the Arctic Frenzy."

They had returned to Krazyworld (the actual park) for their second-to-last evening of their vacation. Neither one of them wanted to acknowledge that tomorrow night would be their last night there. Where had the time gone?

"All right," Clark agreed, as they headed toward the rides. Just as they were about to get in line for Splash Fountain, Clark noticed a sign that said the line for the Go-Cars was only five minutes long.

"Let's do that," Clark suggested, and they were soon getting into separate Go-Cars. Clark's car was in front of Lois's. They hit the gas pedals and sped off through the course. About halfway through, they had to slow down because there were some slow cars ahead of them on the track.

As they slowed to almost a complete stop, someone plowed into the back of Lois's car. Lois turned around. "Hey, what do you think this is?" she shouted. "Bumper cars?"

The woman in the car just grinned. She was missing two teeth.

Lois sighed and turned back around. The slow cars up ahead were speeding up, and she took off. That's when the engine of her car just...died. She took it personally. "Hey, how could you do this to me?" she yelled at the car. "Dumb car."

The toothless woman crashed into her. Again.

"Great, just great!" Lois muttered, repeatedly pushing on the gas pedal, hoping to get *something* to happen, but the car wouldn't budge. She looked ahead for Clark, but he and his car were long gone.

Someone crashed into Toothless Woman. "Hey, what's the hold up?" the man yelled. Lois turned around to look at the man, and realized that he looked familiar...it was the old guy--the one Clark had said he had gotten stuck with in the elevator that morning!

Lois shrugged her shoulders. "My engine died!" she called to the people that were starting to line up behind her.

"Cars," Toothless woman was saying. "You can never trust 'em."

"I used to be a mechanic," the old guy offered. "But that was back in the war. Now I'm a dentist."

"Isn't that fascinating?" Lois muttered. "How is that going to help me NOW?" she shouted.

"I...I don't know," Old Guy said. "But ya don't have to yell!"

Lois glared at the old guy. She was trying to picture what he would look like--toothless.

* * *

"Thanks for getting me out of that mess earlier," Lois was saying.

They were back at the hotel. They had just gotten home from watching an amazing display of fireworks at Krazyworld, and even though it was almost midnight, neither one of them was tired. Lois was lying on Clark's bed, and Clark was sitting at the desk, writing his parents a postcard.

"No problem," Clark said, not looking up from his postcard.

"How did you know my car had died, though?" Lois asked.

"It was pretty easy to figure out," Clark said. "When I got out of my car at the end of the course, and waited for ten minutes for *your* car and you never showed up, I kind of had a hunch that something was wrong. So I told one of the ride operators. I'm glad everything turned out okay."

Lois nodded. "Yep. A really cute guy named Phil came and filled my Go-Car up with gasoline. Phil...filled...hmmm, weird coincidence. *Anyway*, I'm not tired at all. Are you?"

Clark shook his head.

"Well, I hear the hotel arcade is open 24 hours," she said, with a sparkle in her eye. "What do you say...Partner?"

"I say you better watch out, because I am an expert at pinball."

"Well it just so happens, I am an expert at Skee Ball."

Clark grinned. "You're on!"

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To be continued in the next newsletter (it's almost done! I swear!)