Clark Kent heard the racket and turned over in his bed. In a daze of half sleep,
he promised that one of these days he was going to see that horrible rooster
on a spit coated with barbecue sauce! He heard it crow again and growled to
himself, and swore he was going to singe its tail feathers off. In the next
room he heard his father’s angry voice, a loud thump of dissatisfaction,
and then a window opened. Dad screamed out the window, “ROSCO! Shut the
hell up!” And then... “THUMP!” “SQUAWK!” Clark decided his father must have thrown one of his boots out the window at
Rosco as usual. Unfortunately, he’d probably missed hitting that horrible
bird, but had hit the chicken coop’s roof. Suddenly all the chickens were
piling out of the chicken coop and cackling with fright. Clark wasn’t
sure what was worse, waking up to Rosco’s racket, or his father’s
big mouth. He turned over muttering to himself and went back to sleep. He’d
just begun to dream something very nice about Lana Lang in a shimmering pink
gown and then… His alarm went off and it was already on a channel playing the local morning
show. “…like marching Hossofrats and they scuttle under the trucks
and get in the gears. This is Larry! Live on the Good Morning Smallville show
on WKSV! We’ll be right back after this…” Clark hated that
DJ! He was just way to happy for this time of the morning. He sat up and brought
his fist down on the snooze button, and there was a satisfactory crunch as the
radio’s case cracked. “CLARK! Did you just break your alarm clock again!” Mom shouted
from downstairs. “Uh!” he sat up frightened and immediately tried to hide the wreckage
of his broken clock in the drawer of the nightstand. “No, mom!” * * * * Chloe shrieked when her alarm clock went off. When she woke to music that was
fine, but waking up to that Larry the Lunatic was like being in some kind of
a freakish nightmare! He was one of those people who was far too happy, and
she’d always thought that he just sounded like a snyde dork. She picked
up her clock with one hand, and flung it viciously across her bedroom. Or, rather,
she tried. The damn thing flew as far as the cord allowed, stopped in mid-air
and then thumped to the carpet. She was utterly dissapointed and infuriated
that her clock was not destroyed, and it’d landed upside down. It was
still on too! Larry’s horrible happy voice leaked out of it, but at least
it was muffled into the carpet! If only she didn’t have to pee, she could
have gone back to sleep, she thought. She got up, and made certain to use the
radio as a stepping stone on her way out of her bedroom. * * * * Damn Larry and his stupid ideas about scuttling Hossofrats! Lex thought. He
sat upright in his bed and picked up his lamp and brought the base of it straight
down on top of the infuriating alarm clock. There was a satisfying crunch as
the case broke and the display flashed. Still the radio kept on playing obediently,
and so he crunched it again. There was a loud spark and a pop and then satisfying
silence, but Lex made certain to pound on the alarm clock once more for good
measure. Satisfied that the clock was indeed dead, Lex dropped the lamp. It
fell off to the side against the wall, but he didn’t care. As quickly
as possible so as not to lose any more precious sleeping seconds, he flopped
back on his pillow and grinned. The door opened a few moments later, and in walked Enrique, the butler. He
wore a snooty expression as he promptly used a small hand broom to sweep the
peices of the obliterated alarm clock into a waste basket. He went out of the
room to a supply cabinet in the hall, and opening the door revealed a month’s
supply of alarm clocks. He returned to Lex’s bedroom and put the fresh
alarm clock on the nightstand and righted the lamp. It was a morning routine
he was used to. “Sir, it is time to wake up now.” Lex opened his eyes and glared viciously at the next pillow over. “Go
to hell.” “Shall I kill myself first, sir? How would you like me to go about doing
so?” Enrique asked with a bland expression. “Quit being a wise ass! Go answer a door or something!” Lex groaned. “Very good sir.” Enrique said and crossed the room to the closet
to open the door. “I’ll have your clothes in one moment.” “GRRrrrrrrr…” Lex snarled and decided he was going to beat
Enrique with the lamp instead of the alarm clock one of these days.
The sun rose over Smallville in a cloudless sky, one morning in October, and
shone over the corn and wheat fields shedding golden light over the land. On
the Kent farm, a rooster stood on the peak of the hen house, just a dark silhouette
against the glowing orb of the sun. It raised its voice into the air, and sang
out the morning greeting.