STRENGTH OF THOUGHT
By Michael MacKenzie
BOOK ONE
Prologue
Tacloban, Philippines
Ligaya curled herself up on the cool concrete in front of the General MacArthur monument. There were no people here at this time of night, and the silence was blessedly peaceful; nothing but the waves gently lapping on the shore, crickets, and her thoughts. Her own thoughts. She felt sane for the first time in weeks.
She rolled onto her back and looked up at the statues of General MacArthur and his companions, half a dozen figures twice the size of the original men frozen in the act of walking through a pool of ankle-deep water. The moon was big and bright, so she had no trouble seeing them. “I shall return,” he had said, and he hadn’t been lying. Now he waded eternally in bronze on the shore of the nation he took from the Japanese in World War II. Ligaya had recently gained an appreciation for statues. They were so quiet!
“Maupay nga gabi, Ligaya.”
Ligaya sat up and looked in the direction of the voice. Ever since things started going crazy, no one had ever been able to approach her unnoticed. Until now, that is. She was even more surprised when she saw her visitors: two Amerikanos. But hadn’t one just spoken to her in her language?
“You speak Waray-Waray?” she asked.
“Yes,” the tall man said, still speaking Waray. “It’s a good language. I like to speak it.”
The man was shockingly white. He couldn’t have been in the Philippines for long. Yet his Waray-Waray was flawless.
“Does he know how?” she asked and pointed to the shorter man.
“No. He’s not like us.”
“What do you mean?”
The man just gave her a condescending smile.
“Have you ever been to America, Ligaya?”
“No.”
“Would you like to go?”
“No.” She stood up and prepared to defend herself if the need arose. “My family is here. I want to stay with them.” As Ligaya spoke, she realized that she couldn’t read these men at all. The tall man spoke, but she had no idea what his motivations and goals were. The short man was just like the statues behind her. She should’ve been relieved, but instead, she was afraid.
“That’s a shame,” the tall man said. “But you’ll get over it.”
Ligaya backed away from her visitors. She didn’t like these men. “I need to go home now,” she said and turned to leave.
“No, please, don’t go,” the tall man said casually. Ligaya’s legs froze and refused to do what she wanted them to do. “We have lots of amazing things to show you.”
Ligaya reached out to shove them away, but she found that her ability to push was gone. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
“Amazing things to teach you,” the tall man continued. “Now come with us to America.”
She had no intention of going with them, but she didn’t have a say in the matter.
PART ONE: Alex and Michelle
Chapter 1: First Date
Lethbridge, Alberta
“Sorry, what?”
“What?”
“I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
Alex rubbed his temple. “Sorry. This headache must be making me crazy.”
Michelle laughed. “Aural hallucinations, eh? Must be quite the headache.”
“It’s a real bugger, all right. I don’t think I’ve ever had one this bad.”
“Maybe we should do this some other time, then.”
“No way. I don’t go on many dates, and I’ve been looking forward to this all week.”
“It’s just me, Alex,” Michelle said with an amused grin. “Not much to look forward to.”
“Oh, come on! You’re loads of fun. We’ve been friends for, what, four years now? And I’m not tired of you yet.”
“Just you wait. People usually get sick of me after four and a half years.”
“What about Andrea?”
“Andrea doesn’t count.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s Andrea.”
Alex laughed. “I’ll let her know you said that.”
Michelle punched him in the arm.
“Hey, now!” Alex said. “No hitting the driver.”
There was a short moment of silence then. Michelle looked over and admired Alex’s profile. She decided to tease him a little more.
“Tell me something, Alex.”
“Okay.”
“If I’m so fun, why did it take you four years to ask me on a date?”
Alex glanced at her and shrugged. “I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to asking girls out,” he said. “I had to build up the nerve. Besides, we were always hanging out with the same crowd, so we saw each other all the time as it was.”
Michelle smiled at this. She had expected him to joke his way out of answering the question, but she was glad to get his honest feelings.
Alex rubbed his temple again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to do this when you’re feeling better?” Michelle asked. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“I would mind,” Alex said. He patted her knee. “Don’t worry about it; I’ll be fine. The pain isn’t constant. It just comes and goes. Besides,” he leaned over to open the glove compartment, “I have a secret weapon.” He reached in—Michelle liked how close he got to her as he leaned over—and pulled out a bottle of over-the-counter painkillers. He closed the compartment, straightened up, and showed her the bottle.
“That’s quite the secret,” she said. “Are you sure you can trust me with it?”
“Nobody likes a smart-ass.”
“Apparently, you do if you asked me on this date and won’t even let a bad headache and hallucinations stop you from going.”
“Touché,” Alex conceded. “Does East Side Mario’s sound good to you?”
“Sounds lovely.”
* * *
Michelle was having a great time with Alex. She had always enjoyed his company ever since they had met, but they didn’t get a lot of time to be alone together. She was pleased to discover that he was just as enjoyable one-on-one as he was in a group. She had wanted Alex to ask her on a date for quite some time, but it took him a while to catch on and, as he said, build up the nerve to ask her. It may not have happened as soon as she had wanted, but it was happening now, and that’s all that mattered to her.
It was a Friday evening, so the restaurant was full. The sound of dozens of simultaneous conversations filled the place, but not so much that Michelle and Alex had to raise their voices to hear each other.
“How are we doing tonight?” their waiter asked as they looked over the menu.
“Not bad,” Alex said.
“Can I start you off with something to drink?”
“I better just get a Coke,” Alex said.
“I’ll have a Sprite,” Michelle said.
“Great,” the waiter said. “I’ll be right back with those.”
With a sly little grin on his face, Alex watched the waiter walk away. “What are you smiling about, Mr. Cook?” Michelle asked.
“He wants you so bad,” Alex said and turned his gaze back to Michelle.
“How do you know that?”
“I can just tell.”
“I didn’t notice.”
“Trust me. He was practically drooling.”
“I’ll just have to take your word for it, I guess.” Michelle looked at her menu. “What should I get to eat?”
“Anything you want,” Alex said. “Personally, I’m in the mood for chicken.”
The waiter returned a minute later and set their drinks down in front of them. “Are you guys ready to order?” he asked.
“Yes, I think we are,” Michelle said. Alex’s head snapped up, and Michelle saw a startled expression on his face. He was looking at the waiter—who, in turn, was looking at Michelle—and she saw an angry expression replace the startled one.
“I’m sorry, Alex,” she said. “Were you not ready?”
“What? No, I’m ready. It’s just…” he paused, uncertain.
“What’s wrong?” Michelle asked. “Is your headache acting up again?”
“Kind of, yeah, but that’s not it.” He looked at the waiter, who was looking back at him with mild confusion. “I thought you said something.”
“I asked if you were ready to order,” the waiter said.
“No, after that,” Alex said.
“I didn’t say anything after that.”
Alex looked at Michelle. He didn’t say anything, but the look on his face asked a clear question: “Didn’t you hear it?” She hadn’t heard it, so she just shook her head and shrugged.
“Never mind,” Alex said. They gave their orders to the waiter, and he left.
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Really, don’t worry about it.” He popped two pills into his mouth and washed them down with some Coke.
“What was that all about?”
Alex laughed, clearly embarrassed. He leaned forward and lowered his voice so that people at neighbouring tables wouldn’t hear him. Michelle leaned forward to hear him better. “While you were telling him that we were ready to order, I could’ve sworn that he said, ‘Man, you have nice tits!’ ”
Michelle laughed. “Are you serious?”
“You didn’t hear him?”
“No. And I was looking right at him. He didn’t say anything except to ask if we were ready to order.”
It was Alex’s turn to laugh. “Man, this headache really is making me crazy,” he said.
“Maybe it was somebody at a different table,” Michelle said.
“Maybe,” Alex said. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s change the subject.”
“Okay. What should we talk about?”
“How was work today?”
“Pretty good. I let slip to one of my classes that I had a date tonight. They wouldn’t let it drop, and they expect a full report on Monday.”
“Don’t you just love junior high?”
“It sucked when I was a junior high student, but it’s good now that I’m a teacher.”
Alex smiled. “I bet all the boys are in love with you.”
Michelle kicked his foot and laughed. “What is with you tonight? You think everyone has a crush on me.”
“How can anyone not have a crush on you?”
* * *
After dinner, they went to a horror movie. It was very intense and frightening at times, and Michelle took advantage of those moments to clutch to Alex. She was thrilled when he responded with an arm around her shoulders that stayed there for most of the movie.
“This has been nice,” Alex said as he walked Michelle to the front door of her apartment building.
“Mmm,” Michelle agreed and took Alex’s hand. “Thank you for dinner. It was wonderful.”
“No problem,” Alex said.
“And thanks for the scary movie.”
“It was my pleasure.” He gave her hand a brief squeeze.
They arrived at the door and turned to face each other. “We should do this again sometime soon,” Alex said.
“You have my number.” Michelle considered inviting him in. She had a personal policy against doing that on the first date, but this was Alex. She had known him for years. But she remembered his headache that he was so valiantly trying to ignore and decided it would be better to let him go home and rest.
“I’ll be in touch,” Alex said. “Thanks for a great evening.” He gave her a hug. It was nice, but she had hugged him many times before. Their group of friends was always hugging.
After the hug, Alex smiled and said good night. She responded in kind. As he turned and began to walk away, she wished that he had at least kissed her.
Alex stopped in mid-stride and cocked his head as if he were listening to something in the distance.
“Alex?”
He turned and faced her again. Michelle looked at him with amused curiosity.
Alex walked the three steps back to her and caressed her cheek with one hand while the other hand went to the small of her back and gently pulled her to him. She went willingly and melted into his embrace as their lips met. It was a sweet, gentle, lingering kiss. Exactly as Michelle had imagined their first kiss would be. She didn’t want it to end, but it eventually did.
Alex’s blue eyes shone. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now,” he said.
“I’ve wanted you to do that for a while now,” Michelle replied.
“If we both wanted it, why didn’t we do it sooner?”
She poked him playfully in the ribs and said, “Because somebody didn’t pick up on the signals.”
“I picked up on them. I just wasn’t sure if I was interpreting them right, and I didn’t want to make an ass of myself.”
“What made you make your move tonight?”
Alex ran a hand through her hair. “I almost didn’t,” he said. “But as I started walking away, it just dawned on me that you wanted a kiss, and I was more than happy to oblige.”
Alex ran a hand through her hair. “I almost didn’t,” he said. “But as I started walking away, it just dawned on me that you wanted a kiss, and I was more than happy to oblige.”
Michelle again considered asking him in. He must’ve seen it in her eyes, because he answered as if she had spoken it aloud: “I better not. I’m meeting Chuck at 8:30, and I should try to sleep this headache off.”
“My poor baby.” She slid her hands up and down his back.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You better. We can go to Andrea’s party together.”
“It’s a date.” He kissed her again.
Chapter 2: Golf and Squash
“So you two are a couple now, eh?” Chuck said as he teed up his ball on the first hole.
“Yeah,” Alex said and took a few practice swings with his driver.
“How does it feel?”
“Wonderful. I should’ve asked her out long ago.”
“Isn’t that what I told you?” Chuck stepped up to his ball and looked down the fairway. “You should listen to me more often.”
“Sure thing, Chuck.”
Chuck hit his ball. “Aw, shit!”
* * *
“He finally kissed you?”
“Finally? Andrea, it was our first date.”
Michelle and Andrea stepped onto the squash court. “Technically, yes,” Andrea said. “But the sparks have been flying between you and Alex for a while now. You’ve had a crush on him for over two years. We all had a pool going for when you two would kiss, but nobody won because we didn’t think it would take this long.”
“Oh, you did not!”
“We did!”
“We only have the court for half an hour,” Michelle said. “Let’s rally for serve.”
“Don’t change the subject on me,” Andrea said. “You have to tell me about your date.”
Michelle smacked the small black ball with her racket. It bounced off the far wall, but Andrea made no move to hit it, and it bounced across the floor to the wall behind them.
“I guess I serve first,” Michelle said.
* * *
Alex swung his club. His ball arched into the air in an eruption of sand, and it landed on the green about ten feet from the hole.
“What’s par on this hole?” Chuck asked. He was out of the woods now and had just chipped onto the green.
“Four,” Alex said.
“Damn,” Chuck said. “The best I can do is double bogey.”
“I’m putting for par,” Alex said as he retrieved his putter from his bag.
“So did you get any last night?” Chuck asked.
Alex feigned ignorance. “Any what?”
“Any action.”
Alex hunkered down behind his ball and lined up his putt. “Looks like it breaks to the right a little. What do you think?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Chuck said. “Did you and Michelle get it on?”
“No, we just kissed.” Alex straightened up and putted. The ball rolled smoothly across the ten-foot gap and stopped six inches to the left of the hole.
“That didn’t break at all, did it?” Alex said.
* * *
“That’s seven points for me,” Michelle said and wiped the sweat off her forehead. “How many do you have?”
“Six,” Andrea said as she retrieved the errant ball and tossed it to Michelle. “Did you stick to your rule last night?” she asked before Michelle served. “Or did things end with the kiss?”
“What, my three date rule?”
“Yes.”
Michelle smiled.
“You did break it, didn’t you?”
“No, I didn’t,” Michelle said. “I was going to, but Alex had a headache.”
* * *
“A headache!”
“Yes,” Alex said. “A headache.”
Chuck laughed. “You passed up sex because you had a headache?”
“It was a bad headache.”
“I thought women were the ones who used the headache excuse.”
“It wasn’t an excuse. This was the worst headache I’ve ever had. I could barely stand up by the end of the night.”
* * *
“He tried to pretend that he was okay all evening,” Michelle said, “but I could tell that he was in a lot of pain.”
“Will he be able to make it to my party tonight?” Andrea asked.
“I don’t know,” Michelle said. “He told me that he’s going, but I don’t know how he’s feeling today.”
* * *
“How are you feeling today?” Chuck asked as they arrived at the second tee.
“Fine,” Alex said. “No trace of a headache. I’m taking Michelle to Andrea’s party tonight.”
“Ah, yes. Andrea’s party is tonight.”
“Are you going stag?”
“No, I invited a girl from work to go with me.”
“That red-head you’re always talking about?” Alex asked as he teed up.
“That’s the one.”
“Can’t wait to meet her.” Alex hit his ball. “I think I’ll have to take a Mulligan on this one.”
* * *
“Hang on to him, Michelle,” Andrea said in the locker room after they were done playing.
“That’s the plan,” Michelle said.
“I like Alex a lot,” Andrea said. “You’ve dated a lot of pricks in the past, and now you have a nice guy. He’s a keeper.”
“I know,” Michelle said.
“He’s marriage material,” Andrea persisted.
“Slow down,” Michelle said. “I’ll take it one step at a time. We’ve only had one date. I’ll worry about marriage later. I’m only 25.”
“If you were a Mormon, you’d be an old maid by now.”
“Good thing I’m not a Mormon.”
Chapter 3: Andrea’s Party
So far so good, Alex thought as he got ready for Andrea’s party. No trace of a headache today. The headache that had put a damper on an otherwise perfect evening had been gone when he woke up. Even four-and-a-half hours of terrible golf hadn’t brought it back.
Alex glanced at his watch after combing his hair. It was 8:30. Almost time to pick up Michelle. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
Five minutes later, Alex parked his car at the curb in front of Michelle’s building. He looked up at her fourth-floor window as he got out of the car. Her apartment was dark. A frown creased his brow as he headed for the front door. Where was she? Then the front door opened and she came out looking absolutely stunning. Alex’s frown vanished.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey, you.” Michelle took Alex’s hands and they kissed.
“You didn’t look happy as you walked up,” Michelle said as they walked to the car. “Is your headache still bothering you?”
“No, I’m fine,” Alex said. “I guess a good night’s sleep was all I needed to get rid of it.”
“So that must mean you were frowning because you didn’t want to see me tonight.”
Alex groaned. “I see you’re going to be my headache tonight.” He opened the passenger-side door for Michelle. Before Michelle got in the car, she turned and faced Alex with the open door between them.
“In all seriousness,” Michelle said, “why were you frowning?”
“I didn’t think you were home, because your lights are off,” Alex said. “I didn’t know you’d be waiting for me at the front door.”
“Ah.”
“So, you see,” Alex said. “You couldn’t have been more wrong about why I was frowning. It was because I thought that I wasn’t going to see you, not because I was going to see you.”
Michelle leaned over and kissed him softly. “I’m glad I was wrong,” she said as she got in the car. Alex closed the door behind her. As he walked around the car to the driver’s-side, he couldn’t rub the stupid grin off of his face.
* * *
“Hey, there they are!” Chuck announced. The room filled with the sound of applause.
“You guys are such losers,” Alex said, but he couldn’t help smiling. He had never been any good at pretending to be angry. He looked around to see who was there. Andrea, of course, was there. Chuck was there, too, with his redheaded friend. They seemed to be pretty cozy. Aside from them, Alex saw six other of his good friends: Rick, Dan, Krista, Sherry, Cynthia, and Maren. With the exception of Chuck, whom he had known since elementary school, he had known all of them since his first year of university. Even now, three years after they finished their educations, they were still close.
“Geez,” Michelle said, “we tell two people, and all of a sudden everybody knows that we’re dating. Sometimes I think you guys have nothing better to do than sit around and talk about Alex and me.”
“You have to admit,” Cynthia said, “this is a pretty hot bit of gossip. It’s the biggest thing to happen to our group since Rick and Sherry moved in together last year.”
Michelle turned to Rick. “Do me a favor and propose to Sherry so the heat is taken off of us.”
“No, we’re talking about you guys right now,” Rick said. “Don’t try to weasel out of this. We’ve all been waiting for years for you two to get together.”
“Well, we’re together,” Alex said and put an arm around Michelle.
“It’s about damn time, too!” Chuck said. “Somebody get that man a beer!”
* * *
Alex and Michelle were separated for a while after they arrived. Sherry, Cynthia, Krista, and Maren wanted Michelle to give them all the details from last night. Alex smiled as he watched them talking out on the balcony. They hadn’t told him what they were going to talk about, but Alex knew them well enough that he didn’t need to be told. He found it endearingly amusing when they did things like that. No doubt, Michelle had already told Andrea everything, and then Andrea would’ve told the other girls everything. Michelle wouldn’t really have anything new to tell them, but they still needed to hear her tell it.
Andrea was playing the part of the perfect host. Alex felt a tinge of guilt every time he attended one of her parties. She spent so much time waiting on her guests that she couldn’t possibly, in Alex’s opinion, enjoy herself. Whenever Alex said something, she would assure him that she did, indeed, enjoy her parties, and she would tell him to stop being silly. Alex had given up talking to her about it years ago.
Alex sat next to Chuck. As he did, he introduced himself to Chuck’s date. “My name’s Mindy,” she said as she shook his offered hand.
“Pleased to meet you, Mindy,” Alex said. “Are you having a good time?”
“Yes, you’re all very nice. I was afraid that you’d all be like Chuck.”
This brought laughter from everyone, especially Chuck. “He’s one of a kind,” Dan said. “And we thank God for that every day.”
“Hey, Dan,” Chuck said. “I just remembered something. Your mother wanted me to give you a message.”
“Yeah?” Dan asked, grinning at the inevitable jab before Chuck even delivered it. “What did she say?”
“Hold on, I wrote it down.” Chuck reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. From where Alex was sitting, he could see that it was just an address scribbled in Chuck’s barely legible writing. Chuck pretended to read what wasn’t there: “She said, ‘Chuck, tell that bastard son of mine to kiss your ass.’ Would you like to do it now or later?”
“No time like the present,” Dan said. “Bring those hot buns over here.”
Chuck leapt to his feet and charged butt-first at Dan’s face. Dan leaned back in his chair and deflected the oncoming cheeks with both feet so that Chuck landed on the couch between Rick and Andrea. Alex joined in with the laughter of his friends. This was the kind of social activity that he loved most. No loud music. No excessive drinking. No large crowd. Just a small group of his close friends sitting around having a good time. He glanced at Mindy and saw that she was enjoying herself as much as the rest of them. He also noticed the way she was looking at Chuck and smiled for his best friend.
“Hey!” Maren called from the balcony door. “What’s going on in here?” She walked in with the rest of the girls behind her. Alex caught Michelle’s eye and smiled. She smiled back and winked as she came over to him.
Andrea stood up and let Cynthia sit in her place. All of the other seats were taken, and Michelle hadn’t sat down yet, so Andrea said, “Let me get you a chair, Michelle.”
“Go ahead and get a chair,” Michelle said, “but you sit in it. I have a place to sit.” She sat down on Alex’s lap and put her arms around his neck.
“Are you guys all caught up?” Rick asked as Sherry snuggled up to him.
“Yup,” Sherry answered. The conversation continued, but that’s when Alex stopped listening. As his friends spoke to each other, a searing pain stabbed into his right temple. The headache was back.
Nobody seemed to notice Alex’s pained look. He rubbed his temple with his hand in a vain attempt to relieve the pain. The room suddenly seemed too cramped and noisy. “Hey, Michelle,” he whispered. Michelle turned her head to look at him. He had regained his composure, so she didn’t see the pain in his face. “I need to step outside for some air.”
“Are you okay?” Michelle asked. She seemed to sense that something was wrong with him.
“My headache is coming back,” Alex said. Michelle caressed his cheek and gave him a look of sympathy that made him fall for her even more, and she stood up to let him stand.
“Where are you two headed?” Andrea asked.
“Balcony,” Michelle said. “We need some fresh air.”
“Sure,” Chuck said. “Fresh air. Gotcha. Have fun.”
Alex managed to smile despite the pain and gave Chuck the finger as he stepped through the sliding doors onto the balcony.
“Is it as bad as last night?” Michelle asked.
“Worse,” Alex said. He sat in a plastic chair with his head in his hands. Michelle gently rubbed his back. He heard her say something else, but didn’t quite catch it.
“What was that?” he asked without looking up.
“I didn’t say anything,” Michelle said.
Alex laughed. “Two nights in a row,” he said. “I hope I don’t develop a habit of imagining you saying things.”
Michelle ran her fingers through his hair. “Do you want to leave?” she asked.
“Give me a minute,” Alex said. “Let’s see if this passes.”
They were silent for a moment as Alex drowned in the pain. This headache really was worse than the one from the night before. There would be no ignoring it and carrying on with the evening if it didn’t go away this time.
“I didn’t realize it was so bad,” Michelle said and knelt down in front of him so she could look at his face. “How did you ever make it through the evening last night?”
“It was our first date,” Alex said. “I didn’t want to screw it up.”
Michelle took one of his hands—the other one still rubbed his temple—and kissed it. “You’re so sweet,” she said. “Do you want me to go in and ask Andrea if she has any Tylenol?”
“That would be great,” Alex said.
“I’ll be right back.” Michelle stood up again and went inside. Alex heard laughter from the living room as she opened the door. He heard Chuck greeting Michelle, and then his voice was cut off as the door closed again.
Alex was alone for now. With nobody around, he let the pain take him completely. His face clenched in agony, and he bent over until his head rested on his knees. The headache, which had started in the right temple, had spread straight through his brain and to the left temple. It felt like a spike had been driven through his head. He clenched his fists at the sides of his head and moaned.
What’s wrong with me? Alex thought. Is it a migraine? I’ve never had migraines before. This sucks. Just as things start working out with Michelle, these damn headaches start interfering.
Michelle was probably on her way back by now. He didn’t want her to see him hunched over in misery like this; it would just worry her. Alex sat up and forced the strained look off of his face just as the balcony door slid open again.
“How are you feeling, Alex?” Michelle asked. She held a glass of water and a bottle of Advil.
“Same,” Alex said and tried to smile.
“Is Advil okay?”
“Yes. Thank you.” Alex took two pills and washed them down with the water.
“You took terrible, Bud,” Michelle said and put a hand on his shoulder.
“And I tried so hard to pretty myself up for you,” Alex said. “You must be so disappointed.”
Michelle bent over and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re still the best looking guy at this party,” she said.
“Except for Chuck, of course,” Alex said.
“Well, duh,” Michelle said. “That goes without saying.”
Alex laughed. It was weak, but it was sincere. Michelle smiled with him. When the laughter passed, they looked into each other’s eyes for a moment.
“You think we should go,” Alex said.
“Yes,” Michelle said. “But you don’t want to leave your friends.”
“We haven’t gotten together like this in a while. I don’t want to miss it.”
“You’re in more pain than you’re letting on. I can tell.”
Alex was silent as he considered his options: go home early and rest, or endure the pain and stay with his friends.
Michelle surprised Alex by guessing at what he was thinking. “Could you even put up with the pain if we stayed?” she asked. “Judging by the condition you’re in now, I don’t think you’d enjoy yourself anyway.”
“You’re right,” Alex conceded.
Michelle knelt in front of him again and took both of his hands. “I’m so sorry, Alex.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Alex said. “These damn headaches keep getting in the way of our fun.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I know, but I can still be sorry.”
Michelle smiled. “You wanna get out of here?”
“No,” Alex said. “But we should go, anyway.” He stood up, not quite steady on his feet.
“Do you want me to drive?” Michelle asked.
“You probably should,” Alex said. “Do you know how to drive a standard transmission?”
“I know the theory behind it, but I haven’t had a lot of practice. Don’t worry; we’ll be fine. Let’s go say good-bye to everyone.”
Chapter 4: Noisy Neighbors
Alex dropped his keys on the kitchen counter and turned on the overhead light. He went directly to the cupboard and found a bottle of Tylenol. He shook two of them into his mouth and dry-swallowed them.
It was Monday now. The headache on Saturday night had gone away after a few hours, and he had been fine all day Sunday.
Alex opened the fridge now to see if there was anything quick and easy that he could eat. He didn’t feel like making a big production for dinner. The headache had returned, but it wasn’t as bad as the ones that came before. He could still function.
This morning, he had been fine. He had gone to work in good spirits. It was sometime after lunch that a dull ache crept up on his right temple. It had gradually gotten worse over the following hour, but the pain had leveled off and hadn’t changed since.
Alex spotted some leftover spaghetti and picked it off the shelf. He got a frying pan out, put it on the stove, and plopped the mixture of noodles and tomato sauce in it.
The telephone rang.
“Hello?” Alex answered as he spread the spaghetti around so that it fried evenly.
“Hi-ya.”
“Hey, Michelle.”
“How are ya?”
“I’m okay. Just cooking myself some supper. How are you?”
“Tired. It was a long day. How’s your head?”
“It’s been better, but it’s nothing like it was at Andrea’s party.”
“Are you going to be alright?”
“Yeah. I’m just going to sit around and relax tonight.” Alex stuck a finger in the spaghetti and decided that it was warm enough. “You wanna come over and relax with me?”
“I’d love to,” Michelle said, but followed it up with a sigh. “But I have a lot of marking to do tonight.”
“And yet you find the time to call me.” He dumped the reheated spaghetti onto a plate and took it and the phone into the living room.
“Of course,” Michelle said. “If I don’t get to see you, I should at least get to talk to you.”
“I wish you could come over.”
“So do I. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Just maybe?”
“Definitely maybe.”
“Isn’t that the name of an album?”
“What?”
“Definitely maybe.”
“I don’t know. Could be.”
“I’m pretty sure that it is. Something from the mid-90s. Oasis, or something.”
“I never listened to them much.”
“Of course not, you’re from Coaldale. You only listen to bands like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin.”
“When have you ever heard me listen to AC/DC or Led Zeppelin?”
“Never, but I didn’t know you in high school.”
“Never, but I didn’t know you in high school.”
“Obviously. Otherwise, you’d know that I listened to country music in high school.”
“Oh, you’re kidding! I think I just lost my appetite.”
“It was only a phase. Don’t you remember when country got really popular and everyone liked it for a couple of years?”
“Yes, I remember. It was hell. I resisted. I stuck with alternative rock. Our Lady Peace and I Mother Earth all the way, baby!”
Alex heard a moan from somewhere out of sight. Not sure where it came from, he looked around the room. He didn’t know what he expected to see, and he didn’t see it.
“I should really get going,” Michelle said. “Those essays aren’t going to mark themselves.”
“Just give them all Bs,” Alex suggested.
Michelle laughed. “Just throw the bell curve right out the window, eh?”
“The bell curve is a load of crap anyway.”
“Maybe so, but I’m not just going to give everybody a B. I’ll see you later. Call me tomorrow.”
“Will do. Have a good one.”
“Love ya.” Then a click as she broke the connection.
Alex sat there for a moment looking at the phone. “Love ya,” she had said. Wow. Not quite “I love you,” but pretty close. And only after two dates. A smile passed over his face, but then disappeared when he heard another moan. It was a little louder this time. He could tell that it was female.
“Hello?” Alex said. “Is somebody here?”
There was another moan, louder still, and drawn out longer. This time, Alex picked up a definite sexual tone to it. At the end of the moan, the same voice said, “Oh, God, yes!”
“That’s Julia!” Alex said to the empty room. Julia lived in the apartment next to him. She was a 21-year-old legal secretary who lived alone, although tonight, apparently, she had a guest.
He heard her gentleman caller then. He let loose with a streak of dirty talk that Alex was shocked to hear. How could he talk to her like that without getting slapped? He waited to hear Julia’s objection, but it never came. She just kept calling out to God and saying how good it felt. Not a very reverent prayer.
Alex had never been able to hear what was going on in Julia’s apartment before, or any of his neighbor’s apartments, for that matter. Maybe she had never been this noisy in the past. Had she never had sex in her home before? Alex found that hard to believe. He had often seen a guy with her who was obviously her boyfriend. Maybe they just hadn’t had such loud sex before.
He turned the television on in an effort to drown them out. Listening to them not only seemed an invasion of their privacy, but it also served as reminder that he could never seem to find the opportunity to sleep with Michelle. His damn headaches always interrupted.
It was playoff time in the NHL, so Alex flipped to CBC to watch Edmonton play Dallas. Lethbridge’s hockey loyalties were interesting. The local TV stations and newspaper supported the Calgary Flames, which was the closest NHL team geographically. The actual population, however, was split roughly in half between Calgary fans and fans of the Edmonton Oilers, with a few wildcards thrown in who cheered for teams that actually won consistently. Alex liked hockey, but he wasn’t a passionate fan. When he did watch it, he usually cheered for the Oilers.
The Tylenol hadn’t kicked in. It had always worked for him before, but ever since his bad headaches had started, no medication relieved the pain at all. At least it was just a mild ache this time. He rubbed his temple and passively watched the game. One of the Oilers leveled a Star, and the referee blew the whistle and stuck his arm straight up.
“Bullshit!”
Alex twitched in alarm. Who had said that?
“Penalty my ass! That was a clean hit!”
The voice seemed to be coming from the apartment above him. Alex relaxed. It was just his neighbor from upstairs watching the same game. Alex had never heard any noise from the man living up there, either. What was with people tonight? Why were they so loud? As his neighbor ranted some more about the officiating, Alex took his empty plate back into the kitchen.
There wasn’t any more noise coming from Julia’s apartment. They must’ve finished. He did, however, hear another one of his neighbors, this one another man around Alex’s age. He was listening to music and singing along with it. This was getting out of hand. Was the insulation in the walls rotting away? Or was everyone being especially noisy tonight? Maybe they had always been this noisy, and Alex just hadn’t noticed. That didn’t seem likely, though. He had been living in this apartment for two year; why would he just be noticing his noisy neighbors now? He should tell the landlord. But not tonight. He just wanted to relax. The hockey game waited for him in the living room. He took his tie off, unbuttoned his shirt, and sprawled on the couch to watch it.
Chapter 5: Michelle’s Place
Michelle was anxious to get Alex alone. This double date with Chuck and Mindy was fun, but she yearned for some privacy with Alex, and she could tell that Alex felt the same way. Since their phone call on Monday, she and Alex had seen each other three times, including this evening, which was Friday. They hadn’t done much of anything, though. Michelle had a lot of marking again on Tuesday, so she only saw him for half and hour in the early evening, and they were both tired from work. On Wednesday, they watched a movie at Andrea’s place with a bunch of their other friends. Alex came down with one of his headaches just as the movie was ending. It was a bad one, but not as bad as Saturday’s. They didn’t see each other at all on Thursday. That was girls’ night out for the women and guys’ night out for the men. It had been a weekly tradition in their group of friends for years.
Now, exactly one week since their first date, Alex and Michelle were on another date. Doubling up had been Chuck’s idea. They had both agreed readily to it, but now Michelle was growing impatient. She hadn’t counted on her desire being this strong. All through the evening, her gaze wandered to Alex. She kept catching him staring at her, too. Neither one of them tried to hide it; they both knew what they wanted.
“You’re about as good a bowler as you are a golfer, Alex,” Chuck said after Alex missed a spare.
“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad,” Alex said. After nine frames, Alex’s score was 105. “I’m actually quite pleased with it.”
“Will you still be pleased with it after I kick your ass?” Chuck asked. Chuck’s score was 106.
“We still have one frame left,” Michelle said. “If you ask me, anything could happen. And let’s not forget that Mindy and I are slaughtering you.” Michelle’s score was 178, and Mindy’s was 183.
“Mindy’s a goddess,” Chuck said. “She can’t be compared to mere mortals such as us. As for you, Michelle, you’re just having a lot of dumb luck.”
“Whose turn is it?” Alex asked. “This is the last frame. Let’s get on with it.”
Chuck grabbed a ball and prepared to roll it down the alley. Michelle turned her attention back to Alex and saw him looking right at her.
* * *
Michelle didn’t pay much attention to the final score. She was pretty sure that Mindy won, but she didn’t care. She was just happy to be leaving. It wasn’t that she didn’t like bowling. She actually enjoyed it quite a bit when she wasn’t distracted. Tonight, she was distracted.
“We were thinking of going to The Roadhouse for some drinks,” Mindy said as they walked into the warm night air. “How does that sound to you guys?” There was a light breeze that messed Alex’s neatly done hair. Michelle found it cute, and she knew that she would have to refuse Mindy’s invitation.
“Sounds like fun,” Alex said. “But you two go on ahead without us. I think we’re going to call it a night.” Exactly the answer Michelle had been thinking of giving. She and Alex were definitely on the same page tonight.
Chuck also understood what they were thinking. “Gotcha,” he said. “Maybe next time. You kids have fun.” He took Mindy’s hand and they walked across the parking lot.
“Bye!” Mindy called over her shoulder as she was led to Chuck’s car.
“Behave yourselves!” Michelle called back to them. “Especially you, Chuck!”
Michelle and Alex, hand-in-hand, watched them go. As Chuck’s car pulled away, they looked at each other and smiled. “Alone at last,” Michelle said.
“Finally,” Alex said.
They walked towards Alex’s car in silence. Michelle could feel the pent-up energy between them. It was almost tangible. She decided to be the one to bring it up: “Your place or mine?”
“Yours,” Alex said. “I don’t trust the walls in my apartment.”
“What do you mean?”
“The other night, I could here my neighbor having sex with her boyfriend.”
“My place it is.”
* * *
Once they were in the car, Michelle couldn’t wait any longer. She needed something to tide her over, so she leaned over and kissed Alex. It was a kiss unlike any Michelle had ever experienced. It was exactly what she wanted. The pressure of their lips together, every flick of his tongue, every touch from his hands; it was all so perfect. It was almost uncanny.
Satisfied for now, Michelle and Alex parted their lips and sat back in their seats. “Wow,” Alex said. “I think tonight’s gonna be fun.”
* * *
As soon as Alex closed the front door of Michelle’s apartment, they were all over each other. Michelle jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed him. Without breaking the kiss, they both kicked their shoes off, and Alex carried her down the hall, through the living room, and into her bedroom. They left a trail of clothes behind them as they undressed each other on the move. Michelle batted the bedroom door closed as they passed through it on their way to her bed.
* * *
“That was amazing,” Michelle said.
“Best I’ve ever had,” Alex agreed.
“Same here.”
They were both lying on their backs panting, sweating, and astonished. Michelle couldn’t believe how good their sex together had been. She had been with three other men before Alex, and while they had been good lovers, they had paled in comparison to Alex. To their credit, it wasn’t just because Alex was skilled, although, he was skilled. Michelle had been equally amazed at her own performance. Never had she pleased a man with such skill and enthusiasm as she had shown tonight.
Michelle rolled onto her side and ran her fingers lightly across Alex’s chest. “You did everything I like,” she said, “and then some other stuff that I didn’t even know that I liked. How did you know exactly what I wanted?”
Alex shrugged. “I’ve noticed over this past week that we’ve seemed to make some sort of deep connection.”
“I should hope so,” Michelle said. “I don’t just sleep with anyone.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Alex rolled onto his side so that they were facing each other. He rested his hand on her hip as he continued: “We’ve obviously fallen in love with each other. I think that happened before we even started dating. And we’ve been friends for years. But that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“I know,” Michelle said. “You’re talking about our nearly perfect understanding of one another. You’re talking about how one of us seems to always know what the other is thinking.”
“So you’ve noticed it, too.”
“Yes.” Michelle nestled up closer to Alex. The sweat on her body was starting to evaporate, and she was getting a little chilly. Alex fetched her comforter, which was bunched up at the foot of the bed, and pulled it over both of them. “There’s an example right there,” Michelle said. “You knew I was cold without having to ask.”
“We must be meant for each other,” Alex said.
“A perfect match,” Michelle said. They lay in silence for a moment and just enjoyed holding each other close. Michelle was blissfully content. After a long time spent being smitten with Alex, he was finally her boyfriend. So far, he was turning out to be everything she had hoped for. He seemed to feel the same way for her.
“Hey, Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“You said that we had fallen in love.”
“Yeah.”
“Have we said it? Either one of us?”
Alex thought for a moment. “You said ‘love ya’ on the phone a few nights ago. I don’t think I’ve ever said it.”
“Does ‘love ya’ count?”
“It’s close. What do you think? Should it count?”
“No, I don’t think it should.”
They both paused.
“Hey, Michelle.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Alex.”
Alex snarled, grabbed her in a tight hug, and rolled onto his back again. In the process, he pulled her on top of him. Michelle let out a surprised little scream, and then started laughing.
“Are you ready for round two?” he asked.
“Already?”
“Yeah, already. What’s the matter? You chicken?”
“Oh, now you’re gonna get it!”
“I sure hope so.”
* * *
Eventually, they did fall asleep. Alex slept first. Michelle lay next to him, his arm draped across her abdomen, and listened to his slow, steady breathing.
The decision for him to spend the night here instead of at his own home had been made without any discussion. There had been no need. It was just another thing that they both understood.
Some moonlight spilled through the window and faintly illuminated his face. He looked so peaceful. A slight smile rested at the corners of his mouth even in sleep. Her heart swelled with love for him as she drifted off to join him in sleep.
Chapter 6: Headache
The next couple of weeks went much the same as the first week of their courtship. Alex and Michelle couldn’t get enough of each other. Hardly a day went by that they didn’t see each other. On the rare days that they didn’t see each other, they would talk on the phone for hours.
Alex’s headaches continued. He had four each week, but only two of them had been serious. He visited his doctor about them, but the doctor assured him that he was okay. The headaches were attributed to stress, and Alex was given a prescription for painkillers, which didn’t seem to do any good.
The headaches didn’t stop Alex and Michelle from having a good time. They spent as much time together as possible. Sometimes they would go out on a date or hang out with their friends, but they usually stayed in and curled up on a couch to watch movies. They were perfectly happy and content with each other. Nothing they could think of was going wrong with their lives.
They didn’t realize how serious the consequences of Alex’s headaches would be.
* * *
Alex had his worst headache almost three weeks after the first headache during his first date with Michelle. Unlike the other headaches, this one started suddenly. He was sitting at his kitchen table eating a pork chop with a side of rice that he had made for supper after work. He was almost finished, and he planned on calling Michelle when he was done.
The last bite of meat was impaled on his fork, and he was about to put it in his mouth when the headache hit. It felt like he had been shot in the right temple. The fork with its uneaten bite of meat clattered to the plate as Alex cried out and clutched his hands to his head. He stood up, knocking his chair over, and almost passed out as a dizzying rush of agony encompassed his entire head. His vision blurred, and black spots swam in front of him. He put his hand on the table to steady himself, and the moment of dizziness passed. The pain, however, didn’t pass. In fact, it was worse.
I need help, Alex thought. He staggered across the small kitchen and grabbed the portable phone. There was another wave of pain, and he fell to his knees with another cry. The phone slipped out of his fingers and clattered to the countertop.
Alex pulled himself back to his feet. He reached into the cupboard on his right and fished out the bottle of painkillers that his doctor had given him. They wouldn’t have any effect. He already knew that. The pills had never worked for one of these headaches. Still, he had to try. He had to do something about this profound pain. He popped the lid off and swallowed three of them.
The phone waited on the counter. He picked it up and tentatively walked into the living room. Slowly, he lowered himself onto the couch. He dialed Michelle’s number as he spread out on his back. The phone rang three times with no answer. There was a fourth ring, but Alex already knew that her voice mail would be all that he’d be talking to.
“Hi, you’ve reached Michelle Lewis. I’m not available to take your call right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you.”
There was a beep, and Alex spoke: “Michelle, please call.” He couldn’t think clearly enough to come up with more than that. He hung up the phone and closed his eyes.
Alex considered calling an ambulance. The pain was unbearable. Before, he had pictured the pain as a spike driven through one temple and out the other. Now it was more like a jagged tree root impaling his head, and smaller roots were branching off of it until every part of his head—inside and out—was touched by it. He held up the phone and looked at it. His vision was blurred and doubled, but he could focus on the numbers if he tried hard enough. He had never dialed 911. What would he say to them? “I have a bad headache. Come rescue me.” He’d feel like a jackass. Screw it. It’s just a headache. Leave the emergency workers to look after real emergencies.
Another wave of pain hit him, and, although he didn’t believe it possible, the headache worsened. He rolled over and fell off the couch. The hand that wasn’t holding the phone curled into a fist, and he started pounding on the floor. “Make it stop!” he yelled. “Please, God, make it stop!”
The pain didn’t stop. It didn’t even fade. With his appeal to God failing, Alex, growing delirious now, turned to someone else for relief: “Mom! It hurts so much! Get me some Tylenol.”
I don’t live at home anymore, Alex realized. Mom isn’t here. He tried to remember where he was. Was he even in Regina anymore? No, he and Chuck had left Regina shortly after finishing high school. But where had they gone?
“Lethbridge,” Alex gasped. “I’m in Lethbridge. I live in Lethbridge. Do Mom and Dad live here, too?”
He could barely think. The agony was taking control of his brain. The pain was leaving no room for thought. Did Mom still live in Regina, or had the whole family moved to Lethbridge? No. Regina. She was still back in Saskatchewan. He had come to Alberta alone.
He lifted the phone again and dialed the number of his old home. It rang twice, and then a recording told him that this number was no longer in service.
“Shit!” Alex hissed and dropped the phone. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He hadn’t talked to his parents in five years. Their number very likely could have changed since then, and, for all he knew, they might not even be in Regina anymore. In Alex’s current state, though, he couldn’t think of why the phone number he had memorized as a teenager wasn’t in service anymore.
A sliver of memory snuck its way through the overwhelming pain and into Alex’s conscious thoughts: he wasn’t on speaking terms with his parents. In the seven years since Alex had left Regina, he had never been back, and he had only called his parents once. That was on Mother’s Day when he was 19. Guilt had prompted him to call. It had gone terribly. The conversation had quickly become an argument, which then further digressed into accusations, and ended with insults slung back and forth.
Alex crawled back onto the couch and curled up. He tried to forget his self-centered parents. This headache was enough to ruin his mood. He didn’t need sour memories to add depression to his misery.
They were so damned selfish! Everything was about them; nothing else was important. Alex had just been an inconvenience to them. He couldn’t remember them ever showing him any love. He was their only child, and he hadn’t been planned. They told him that at an early age. His father had a vasectomy, but it was a week too late. Mere days after the operation, they discovered that his mother was pregnant.
At least they didn’t abort me, Alex thought now. It wasn’t the first time he had thought this. He had been telling himself this ever since he found out about the accidental pregnancy at the age of 11. Although, during the worst of his parents lack of parenting, he found himself wishing that he had been aborted. He didn’t wish that anymore. He had made a good life for himself in southern Alberta. He had a decent job, good friends, and, above all, he had Michelle. If only these damn headaches would go away.
Another wave of unbelievable pain washed over him. Alex moaned and drifted into unconsciousness.
It was 6:00.
* * *
Michelle didn’t get home until 7:30. After her last class was finished at 3:30, she had an hour-long after-school physics study session for students who needed extra help. The students mostly helped each other, but Michelle supervised them and stepped in when they needed her help. It seemed to be effective, so she had made it a weekly occurrence.
She wanted to leave right after the group study session, but it was another teacher’s birthday, and the faculty threw him a party. It was a teacher she knew well, so she felt obligated to attend. It wasn’t much of a party—just cake and a few drinks—so Michelle was able to leave at a quarter to six. She planned on going straight home, eating a light dinner, and then calling Alex. Before she arrived home, however, Andrea called her on her cell phone. Her car had broken down just east of Granum on her way back from Claresholm, where she had been visiting her sister and her niece. Michelle made the 45-minute drive there to rescue her.
When at last she got home, she was exhausted. She wasn’t in the mood for cooking, and she wasn’t very hungry because of the cake she ate earlier, so she just threw together a salad for dinner. When she was done eating, she checked her messages. The first one was from Andrea. Apparently, she had called Michelle’s home number before calling her cell for help. Michelle deleted it before listening to the only other message.
“Michelle, please call.” That was it. Alex’s voice sounded strained, but she still recognized it. He must’ve been suffering a bad headache when he called. The brevity of his message concerned her, so she called him back immediately. The message had been left almost two hours ago. The headache might’ve passed by now, but she still needed to see if he was okay.
The phone rang. Alex still hadn’t picked up after five rings. This worried Michelle. He didn’t live in a large apartment. It shouldn’t take this long for him to answer. He must be there. He wouldn’t go anywhere if he were having one of his bad headaches.
* * *
What the hell is that noise? Alex decided that maybe the ringing wasn’t just in his head. But what was it? Where was it coming from?
He raised his head off of the cushion it had been resting on and looked around. He didn’t see anything that would be making such an annoying sound. He listened carefully. It was coming from the floor at the base of the couch. He looked over the edge and felt like an idiot when he realized it was the phone.
He lifted the phone off the floor and brought it to his ear as he pushed the TALK button. Weakened by the relentless headache, Alex could barely lift the phone. It felt like a lead weight. “Hello?” he said.
“Alex, you are home. I was about to hang up.”
“Mom?”
The woman—her voice was so familiar, but he couldn’t think straight enough to place it—laughed. “No,” she said. “This is Michelle, dumb-ass.”
“Michelle,” Alex said and smiled weakly. “Good. I’m glad it’s you. I can’t stand my mother.”
“Are you okay, Alex? You sound terrible.”
“My head hurts.”
“Is it a bad one?”
“Worst one.”
“I’m coming over, okay?”
“Yeah, but don’t bring Mom. She’s a bitch.”
* * *
Michelle sped as she drove over. She didn’t like how Alex sounded at all. His voice was weak and strained. He didn’t seem to be thinking very well, either. What was all that talk about his mother? She didn’t like this at all.
Alex and Michelle had exchanged spare keys, so she didn’t have to buzz his apartment when she got there. She just let herself in with the set he had given her. She found him sleeping on the couch. He was still fully dressed, right down to the black wingtips on his feet.
“My poor baby,” Michelle said. He didn’t stir at her words. That was probably for the best. Let him sleep his headache off.
He didn’t look very comfortable. She gently removed his shoes, socks, and tie. Removing his shirt would disturb him, so she just unfastened the top two buttons. She noticed his telephone nestled between his head and the back of the couch. She retrieved it and returned it to its cradle.
Alex kept spare blankets in a small closet in the bathroom. She got a comforter and draped it over him. She brushed an errant lock of hair off of his forehead and stood up.
“Michelle?” he said without opening his eyes.
“Yes, sweetie, I’m here.”
“Did we have plans tonight?”
“No. I came over to take care of you. Do you want to go to bed?”
“I’m too sick to have sex.”
Michelle laughed. “That’s not what I meant. I was just asking if you wanted to lie down on your bed.”
“I am in bed.”
“No, you’re on the couch.”
Alex finally opened his eyes and looked around at the living room. “I’m fine here,” he said. “Can’t walk.”
“Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I--” Alex’s face crumpled and he yelled out in pain.
Michelle was stunned. She had never seen him react like this to any of his past headaches. He wasn’t kidding when he said this was the worst one yet. “Alex, are you okay?” She knelt down and stroked his hair as he grimaced and moaned. Sweat broke out on his forehead. “Sweetie, talk to me. Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?”
“No,” Alex gasped. “I’ll be okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Alex said. His voice was growing weaker, and his eyes were closed. He mumbled something else, and then he was asleep again.
Michelle went to the bathroom and dampened a washcloth with cold water. She returned to the living room, knelt beside Alex again, and wiped the sweat off his forehead.
“If you’re not better by tomorrow,” Michelle said to her sleeping boyfriend, “I’m taking you to the hospital whether you like it or not.”
She slept alone in Alex’s bed that night. She didn’t want to leave him until he was feeling better. If he took a turn for the worse, she wanted to be here to make sure he was looked after.
Chapter 7: Revealing Breakfast
The next morning was a Saturday, so Michelle wasn’t worried about sleeping in. She woke up at 9:00 to the smell of frying bacon. After a brief moment of confusion, she recognized Alex’s bedroom. She stood up, stretched, yawned, and then walked into the living room. The only thing on the couch was a rumpled blanket.
“Alex?”
He poked his head out of the kitchen and smiled at her. “Good morning,” he said. “Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.” His head retreated back into the kitchen.
Michelle wiped the sleep out of her eyes as she walked into the kitchen. Alex had taken the bacon out of the frying pan and was cracking some eggs into it now.
“How are you feeling?” Michelle asked as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Great,” Alex answered. “No headache at all. I’m as good as new.”
“Good. I was getting ready to take you to the hospital if your condition didn’t start to improve.”
“It definitely improved. Coffee or juice?”
“Coffee.” The thought of drinking made her realize how much she needed to pee.
“Go ahead, I won’t start without you,” Alex said as he scrambled the eggs.
“What?”
Alex glanced over his shoulder. “You said you need to pee,” he explained. “Go ahead. I won’t start eating until you get back.”
“I didn’t say I needed to pee.”
“What?”
Apparently, this isn’t one of those times when our deep connection helps us to understand each other, Michelle thought.
“Well, it’s not my fault,” Alex said as he scrapped the eggs from the pan onto two plates. “You said you needed to pee, and then you said you didn’t say it. You can’t blame me for being confused.”
Or maybe it was one of those times. “Okay, Alex, this is just plain weird,” Michelle said and stepped away from him.
Alex turned to face her. His mild annoyance was replaced with mild concern. “What’s wrong?”
“You were replying to my thoughts as if I said them out loud.”
“You did say them out loud,” Alex insisted.
Did I? She thought about it, but was pretty sure that she had not said them out loud.
Alex smiled and kissed her forehead. “It’s nothing,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. Go to the bathroom. I’ll make toast.” He turned and grabbed a loaf of bread out of a drawer. Michelle left him there to relieve her bladder.
She found the toilet seat up when she turned the light on in the bathroom. That annoyed her, but she didn’t say anything. It was Alex’s apartment, after all. He could do what he pleased to his toilet. She put it down and did her business.
How did he know what she was thinking? She was baffled by his insightfulness. Over the weeks, they had forged a strong bond. They often understood one another without the need to explain, but nothing like this had ever happened. It seemed like Alex had read her mind, and that was just plain ridiculous. Maybe she had said those things out loud without realizing it. That would be great, she thought. My mind is slipping, and I’m starting to think out loud without knowing it.
In her brief absence, Alex had finished making breakfast. Two plates of bacon and eggs with a side of toast and steaming mugs of coffee waited on the table. It looked delicious, and Michelle’s stomach growled in anticipation. Alex sat in one of the chairs at the table, and the look on his face made her forget all about her hunger.
“Alex, are you okay?” Michelle rushed to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder. His face was pale, his eyes were wide, and his jaw was slack. “Has your headache come back?”
Alex slowly shook his head. He looked into Michelle’s eyes. “I heard you,” he whispered.
Michelle didn’t get it. “Of course you heard me. I’m standing right here. Honey, what’s wrong?”
“No, you don’t understand,” Alex said. “When you were in the bathroom. I heard you.”
“I didn’t say anything in the bathroom,” Michelle said.
“I know. You were at a distance this time, so I could tell the difference between your thoughts and what you actually said. I heard it in my head, not from the bathroom.”
Michelle was finding this conversation unsettling. “My thoughts?” she asked.
“You were annoyed because the toilet seat was up,” Alex said. “But you didn’t say anything because you didn’t want to nag me about my own apartment. Then you wondered how I was able to know so specifically what you were thinking, and you considered that maybe you were going a little crazy and starting to say things out loud that you didn’t mean to.”
Michelle couldn’t speak.
“What’s going on?” Alex asked. “Why can I hear your thoughts? Can you hear mine?”
Michelle paused. All she could hear was the coffee maker filling a second pot and the fridge running. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of your thoughts.” That was something that she never would’ve guessed she’d have to say in her life.
“Then why can I hear yours?” Alex said. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
She didn’t have an answer for him. He was right: it didn’t make any sense. Michelle could see the concern in his face, concern that she felt herself, so she took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll figure this out,” she said. “Maybe this has something to do with your headaches. You should go to the doctor today.”
“Tumor,” Alex said. It made Michelle flinch, because he said the word as soon as it crossed her mind. “You think I might have a brain tumor.”
Michelle was getting flustered. Would no thought cross her mind unnoticed by Alex?
“I’m sorry,” Alex said. “I can’t help it.”
“I know,” Michelle said. “This will take some getting used to for both of us. You need to keep in mind that sometimes things just cross my mind unbidden.”
Alex nodded and returned to the subject of his headaches. “During the worst of my headaches, I thought that I might have a brain tumor. But how would that explain telepathy?”
Michelle shrugged. “Have you ever seen the movie Phenomenon? John Travolta had a brain tumor that gave him unique mental abilities.”
“That was just a movie,” Alex said. “Besides, I went to a doctor, and she said that, besides my headaches, I don’t have any of the other symptoms of a brain tumor.”
Relief flooded Michelle. She didn’t show any sign that she had been tense, but Alex must’ve sensed her worry and her relief, because he smiled and placed his hand over the one that she was holding his other hand with. “I’ll go to my doctor as soon as possible just to be sure,” he said. “But for now, let’s eat. Breakfast is getting cold.”
Michelle didn’t really have an appetite anymore, but Alex had gone through the trouble of making her breakfast, so she picked up her fork and dug in. Once she started eating, it tasted so good that her appetite woke up again. “This is really good,” she said.
Alex glanced up at her long enough to say thanks, and then looked down at his plate again. He seemed unusually focused on his bacon and eggs. His eyes fixed on his task as he carefully and neatly forked the food from his plate to his mouth. Each bite received his full attention. Michelle watched him curiously as they both ate. She had never seen Alex demonstrate such narrow tunnel vision. His single-mindedness intrigued her.
Can he hear what I’m thinking now? Is that why he’s focusing on his food and not me? Is he trying to tune my thoughts out? Or is he just troubled by this change?
Alex stopped eating and looked up at her. He looked ready to say something.
You can hear me, can’t you?
“Yes,” Alex said. “You were right. I’ve been trying to tune you out. It’s…distracting. And disturbing. It feels like I’m violating your privacy.”
Michelle was silent. That thought had crossed her mind, but she had tried not to think about it. She loved Alex. She shouldn’t be afraid to share her privacy with him.
Alex smiled again at her overheard thought.
“You can’t control it?” Michelle asked.
“A little bit, but not completely. I’ve been trying to block you out, but it just muffles what I hear.”
Michelle was suddenly struck with curiosity. “Have you ever tried to read my mind, or does it just happen?”
“It just happens. Why? What are you getting at?”
Michelle opened her mouth to answer, but Alex answered the question himself. “You want to see how much I can read if I try.”
Michelle nodded. “I’ll think of a memory in detail, and you see if you can see it as clearly as I can. So far, you’ve just been able to hear my conscious thoughts as if I was speaking. Let’s see if you can read more complex thoughts.”
“Okay,” Alex said. “Let’s do it.” He looked at her with the same concentration that he had shown his breakfast a few minutes earlier.
Michelle tried to think of something obscure that he wouldn’t be able to guess. Dozens of random memories flooded her mind in a matter of seconds.
Alex jerked as if he had been struck. His eyes glazed over, and he clutched the edge of the table to keep himself from falling out of his chair.
Michelle jumped out of her chair and ran to his side. She put a supporting arm around him. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Alex, already regaining his composure, said, “I just wasn’t ready for it. You thought of so many things at once. It was too disorienting.”
“I’m sorry,” Michelle said. “I was trying to think of something to think of.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I was expecting it to be more like speaking, but it’s not. There were images and little bits of overlapping words all mixed together and coming so fast. Let’s try it again now that I know what to expect.”
“Are you sure?”
Alex nodded and braced himself. “I’m ready for it this time.”
Michelle tried to decide on a memory again, this time without leaving Alex’s side. She felt his body waver again, but only for a moment. It seemed that he really would be fine.
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Alex said. “Don’t worry about me. Just pick something.”
The memory she finally chose was from two years ago. Their group of friends—her, Alex, Andrea, Chuck, Rick, Dan, Krista, Sherry, Cynthia, and Maren—had gone camping in Waterton. On the last night before they left, they had all gathered around the campfire roasting wieners and drinking beer. Conversation was lively and light-hearted. Chuck especially had been entertaining. He was pretty funny and enthusiastic sober, but twice as much when they all had a few drinks in them. They had laughed until they cried and their stomachs had ached.
After a while, everyone had fallen asleep except for Alex and Michelle. They had talked to each other for another hour and a half. It was a more subdued chat, but it was deeper and more sincere. They had talked about everything: high school, college, future plans, their families, past relationships, and all sorts of personal things. It had been the first time Michelle had ever really been alone with Alex, the first chance she had to sit down and have a serious in depth conversation with him.
When they had grown too weary to keep talking, they had gone to separate tents—there was one for the girls and another for the guys—and gone to sleep. As Michelle had lain there drifting into sleep, she found herself daydreaming about Alex, and that was when she realized that she had fallen in love with him.
That is the memory she thought of, but her thoughts weren’t so neat and orderly.
“What a mess,” Alex muttered as she thought about that night two years ago in Waterton.
“What do you mean ‘what a mess’?” Michelle asked.
“Hold on, let me sort this out.”
Michelle waited. A moment later, Alex looked at her and smiled. “That’s when it happened for you?”
Michelle nodded, suddenly shy.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Alex said. “I remember that night. It wasn’t when I fell in love with you, but that’s when I started on the path that led me there.”
“How much detail did you read?” Michelle asked.
“Lots,” Alex said. “That’s why I called it a mess. You didn’t think of it all in a nice, chronological sequence. It all came at once: images, voices, your emotions, the thoughts you remember having at the time, and the thoughts and feelings you have about it now. It was very disorienting, especially since I was dealing with my own memories of the same event. I was seeing things from both of our perspectives. It took me a minute to sort it all out and understand, but I did understand.”
Michelle could see his excitement building. His initial fear was being replaced by the novelty of his new ability. It was an excitement that Michelle, despite her curiosity, was having a problem sharing.
“I can’t believe how much detail I could see,” Alex said. “I could--” He stopped. She watched his excitement fade.
“What’s wrong?” But she already knew.
“You hate this,” Alex said.
“No,” Michelle said. Then she realized that it was useless to lie to him. She looked down at her feet and said, “I’m sorry. This is just so strange. I’m glad that at least it’s you reading my mind, but it still feels…”
“Violating.” Alex said the word that she didn’t want to say. “It’s strange for me, too,” he said. “It’s frightening. But I can’t help it.”
“I know, Alex. I just need to get used to the idea of having no privacy around you.”
Alex nodded. He understood, but she could tell that he didn’t like this new development in their relationship. “Maybe you should go home and think things over,” he said.
Those words stung her. Alex stood up and gave her a hug. “You need some time to soak this all in,” he said. “I’ll go to the doctor’s office this afternoon. Give me a call this evening and we’ll talk more then.”
Michelle nodded without saying anything. She felt that if she spoke, she would start crying. She loved him so much, but this new development was so disturbing. They walked to the door.
“Alex, I…”
“I know,” Alex said.
Before leaving, Michelle kissed him. I hope it’s not our last, she thought.
“Me, too,” Alex said.
Chapter 8: Doctor’s Office
Alex thought that maybe he could only read Michelle’s mind. She was, after all, the most important person in his life right now. He felt closer to her than he had ever felt to anybody. Even closer than he was to Chuck. He still couldn’t explain why he could read her mind, but it at least made sense that it was her thoughts he could hear, and not just anybody’s. But then why couldn’t she read his mind? The headaches must have something to do with it. He didn’t know what, but it couldn’t just be a coincidence. He could think of at least two times when he had thought he heard Michelle say something when she hadn’t, and both of those had been during a headache. That didn’t explain what happened earlier that morning, though. He had felt fine. Last night’s headache had been by far the worst. Maybe whatever change that had made him able to read Michelle’s mind was over, and now the headaches wouldn’t return. Wouldn’t that be nice? No more headaches.
Then he got to the doctor’s office, and his theory about only being able to read Michelle’s mind was shattered.
Alex had lucked out. When he had phoned to make an appointment for as soon as possible, the receptionist told him that another patient had called in and cancelled his 3:00 appointment just five minutes before. It was a relief that he didn’t have to wait around wondering what was wrong with him. Despite his previous visit to the doctor, his worries of a brain tumor had resurfaced.
He arrived at Doctor White’s office at 2:55. When he stepped in the door, he was surprised by the cacophony. He had never heard so many people talking all at once in a waiting room. What was going on? He looked over and was surprised to see that everyone seated in the waiting room—about a dozen people—sat with their mouths closed and minding their own business. Most of them read magazines. Two people—a woman and her young son—were talking, but not loud. But he could still hear the voices of everyone in the room. Not their voices, really, but their thoughts.
Alex staggered to the reception desk. All of the thoughts were flooding him at once. He couldn’t sort much out. Actually, he wasn’t trying to sort them out. He was trying—and failing—to block them out. He could barely differentiate his own thoughts from the voices intruding into his mind.
<What’s this guy’s problem?> That thought stood out from the other noise because it was coming from the receptionist right in front of him. “Are you okay, sir?” she said out loud.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “I just got dizzy for a second there.” He could barely hear himself speak over the noise that only he could hear. This has got to stop, Alex thought. He tried to will the voices out of his head. He wasn’t successful, but he at least muffled them so that he could concentrate on the task at hand. “My name is Alex Cook. I have a 3:00 appointment with Doctor White.”
The receptionist glanced at her schedule. “She’ll be with you in a few minutes,” she said with a smile. “Just take a seat, please.”
“Thank you,” Alex said, although he dreaded going into the midst of his fellow patients. He turned his back on the receptionist and faced the waiting room. It looked so peaceful and quiet, but he knew better.
<What are you waiting for? Sit!> Alex almost turned and responded to the receptionist’s rudeness, but he realized that she hadn’t said it out loud. He listened closer to her thoughts, and saw a recent memory: her husband had lost his job yesterday, and now she was feeling very stressed. He forgave her impatience.
With each step closer to the waiting room, the voices of the other patients got louder. Except there weren’t only voices. He picked up random flashes of images and emotions. The detail of the things he saw surprised him. It wasn’t like watching little movies; it went beyond sight and sound. He could feel what they felt, smell what they smelled, taste what they tasted.
Alex sat between a 34 year old man named Richard Nelson and a 31 year old woman named Gwen Findley. Gwen was single and lonely. She was attracted to Richard (or Rick to his friends), but she had noticed the wedding band on his finger, so she hadn’t struck up a conversation with him. As Alex sat down, Gwen noticed his lack of a ring. <He’s cute and single> she thought. <Too young, though. He’s probably gay, anyway. All the good ones are either gay or married.>
Usually, Alex would’ve found that funny, but he was too uncomfortable to find much of anything funny. He shouldn’t be able to invade people’s minds and eavesdrop on their thoughts like this.
Alex wondered how Gwen would react if she knew about Richard’s infidelity. Would she be turned on or turned off? Probably turned off. She wanted long-term commitment, not meaningless sex.
The longer Alex saw into Richard’s mind, the less he liked the man. Dr. White wasn’t his usual family physician. He was here because he thought that he might have a sexually transmitted disease from that woman he met at the bar last Friday night. Even if it wasn’t an STD, he wanted whatever it was cleared up before Vicky—his wife—saw the rash. Richard was a relentless womanizer. He had been married for five years, but that didn’t stop him from screwing anything that would let him. Alex could see what Vicky looked like, because Richard had a mental image of her, and he was shocked. She was a strikingly beautiful woman. Why did Richard feel the need to cheat on her?
Richard’s and Gwen’s thoughts were the most prominent in Alex’s mind since he sat next to them, but he could still hear and see the thoughts of everyone else in the waiting room.
Shirley wanted a divorce.
Shaun beat his son.
Leonard was impotent.
Alice was sexually abused as a child.
So many secrets. There were plenty of other thoughts, more ordinary thoughts, even happy thoughts, but Alex was most disturbed by the secrets these people carried with them. He felt like a peeping Tom. These were secrets that they wanted hid, were obsessed about keeping them hidden, and Alex, just by sitting here, knew them all. He wanted to leave. He needed to get out of this room.
“Alex?”
Alex looked in the direction his name had come from. The receptionist, with a fake smile pasted on her face, had been the one who had called him. “Dr. White will see you now.”
Alex had never been so relieved. He practically leapt out of his chair, and he had to force himself not to sprint down the hall and into the examination room.
<What is wrong with this guy?> the receptionist—Kim—thought. <Is he on drugs or something?>
Alex ignored her. He entered the small room and sat on the examination table. “She’ll be right in,” Kim said and closed his door.
Finally, Alex thought. Silence! He relaxed for the first time since arriving at the clinic.
<I have cancer. I know I have cancer.> It was a faint voice in his head, and so subtle that he at first thought it was his own thought. <I can’t die. I have a wife and three kids to look after.> Still thinking it was his own thought, Alex frowned in confusion. No I don’t, he thought. Then he realized that he was reading the mind of the patient in the next room over.
Another voice, this one female: <Hypochondriac.> It was Dr. White. She knew that Mr. Munro believed that he had cancer, but she also knew that he was perfectly healthy. She couldn’t find anything wrong with him.
She’s going to think the same thing about me, Alex thought. She wouldn’t be able to find anything wrong with him, and Alex would still be confused about his sudden unwanted insightfulness.
There was a knock on the door, and it opened. Dr. White stuck her head in and smiled, the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes scrunching up. “Hello, Alex,” she said. “Back again, are you?”
Alex managed a smile. He liked Dr. White. She was everything he had always wished his mother to be. “Back again,” he said.
She came all the way into the room and closed the door behind her. “Are your headaches still bothering you?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “I don’t have one right now, but I had a bad one last night.”
“Have you been taking the pills I gave you?”
“Yeah, but they don’t seem to do anything.”
“Last time you were here, you said that lights and sounds didn’t bother you during your headaches. Is that still the case?”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t sound like a migraine.” She sat on a stool in front of Alex. “Where exactly is the pain?”
“It starts in my right temple, but spreads quickly to the rest of my head.”
“Your entire head?”
“Well, not my face.”
Dr. White smiled. Alex sensed her good humor. He also sensed that she liked Alex. If she had had a daughter his age, she would’ve tried to set them up. “That’s not what I meant, but that’s good,” she said. “I imagine a face-ache would be rather unpleasant.”
“The headaches are bad enough,” Alex said. “I can’t even think clearly when I’m having one. Last night, I even forgot where I was. I thought I was still living with my parents in Saskatchewan.”
Dr. White looked concerned, but Alex could hear the thoughts behind her face. She felt sorry for the pain Alex endured, but she still didn’t think there was anything seriously wrong with him. He hadn’t shown any symptoms of anything serious the last time they had met.
“Doctor,” Alex said hesitantly, “there’s something else, too.”
“What is it?”
Alex paused. For the second time, he purposely read someone’s mind. He searched Dr. White to try to determine how she would react to Alex’s claim that he could read minds. She was very logical and firmly believed in science. She was an atheist. She didn’t believe in ESP, or psychics, or anything of the like. If Alex claimed that he was hearing voices in his head, she would probably refer him to a psychiatrist to be treated for schizophrenia. And you could forget about ever being fixed up with her nonexistent daughter!
“I hear things during the really bad headaches,” Alex said. He wouldn’t say voices, but he didn’t want to pretend that everything was normal.
“What sort of things?” Dr. White asked.
“Just noises,” Alex said.
Dr. White was silent as she considered this. “I’ll tell you what, Alex,” she finally said. “You’re obviously worried that there’s something terribly wrong with you. Normally, I’d tell you that you were fine and send you on your way. But those painkillers I gave you should’ve worked. I doubt there’s anything seriously wrong with you, but to ease our minds, here’s what we’ll do: make an appointment with Kim before you leave here today for two weeks from now. If you’re headaches aren’t gone by then, we’ll run some tests on you to see if we can find something wrong. If your headaches are gone, though, just call and cancel the appointment.”
“Okay,” Alex said. He knew that this was all he’d be able to get out of her for now. He wished he could tell her the full extent of his problem, but there was no room for such foolishness in her life. He couldn’t blame her. He would’ve scoffed at the idea of telepathy a week ago.
Two weeks. He would return here in two weeks, and maybe then he would find out if he had a brain tumor or not.
* * *
The drive home was hell. He could hear the thoughts of any driver that came within 20 meters of him. This made it hard for him to concentrate on driving, so he went at a crawl. The speed limit on Mayor Magrath Drive was 60 kilometers per hour, but he only went 40. That only made it worse. The other drivers were angry, which just distracted him further.
Once he turned off of Lethbridge’s main road, it was a little easier. Traffic wasn’t as heavy as he drove through side streets to get to his apartment building. Thankful to be home in one piece, he pulled into his parking stall and turned his car off. He leaned his head on the steering wheel and breathed a sigh of both relief and dread. He knew what would happen when he went in the building.
It happened before he even got inside. The thoughts of his fellow tenants seeped into his mind as he walked towards the building. As he walked through the halls and up the stairs, he could hear everything they thought, could see everything they saw, smell everything they smelled, taste everything they tasted, feel everything they touched, and hear everything they heard.
Alex ran to his apartment and locked the door behind him, as if he could escape what was in his own head. Walls did nothing to block out the voices, the images, everything. Julia, the legal secretary next door, was on her knees in front of her toilet regurgitating her lunch. The passionate hockey fan upstairs—John—was watching the playoffs again. Another neighbor was watching Much Music and eating pizza.
More voices. More thoughts. He could hear everyone in the building. He couldn’t block them out. He couldn’t stand it.
Michelle. That was the only thought running through his mind that wasn’t someone else’s. He needed Michelle to help him through this crisis.
Chapter 9: Control
Michelle spent the day at her family’s home in Coaldale, a small town not far from Lethbridge. Her parents had moved to Coaldale from Lethbridge a year before she had been born. Her father, Tim, owned a pizza restaurant. Her mother, Val, was a teacher at an elementary school. Michelle had lived in the same house for her entire childhood. At 19, she had moved out at the start of her second year at the University of Lethbridge.
Her parents thought she was just visiting for the hell of it, but Michelle really went because she needed the comfort of being near them. She didn’t tell them of the strange new development in her relationship with Alex. For all they knew, their daughter was still floating around on a cloud of bliss.
Val had a small vegetable garden in her backyard. Michelle helped her weed it in the morning.
“How’s your job?” Val asked as they worked.
“Fine,” Michelle said.
“I don’t know how you stand teaching junior high school. Kids are so obnoxious at that age. I can barely stand them in grade six.”
“They don’t bother me. I love my students. They’re a lot of fun.”
“I’ll stick to my young children for now, thank you.”
“You do that, Mom.”
They worked in silence for a few moments. Then Val brought up a subject that Michelle didn’t really want to talk about.
“How are things going with this new boyfriend of yours?”
“Good,” Michelle said. “He’s a terrific guy.”
“What’s his name again?”
“Alex Cook.”
“When do I get to meet him?”
Michelle shrugged. “We haven’t decided yet.”
“You should bring him here tomorrow. Matt and Gloria are coming over for dinner. He could meet the whole family.” Matt was Michelle’s older brother, and Gloria was his wife.
“I don’t know,” Michelle said. “He’s been pretty sick for the past couple of days. If he’s feeling alright tomorrow, I’ll invite him.”
“Have you met his parents yet?”
“No. They live in Regina, and Alex isn’t on very good terms with them. That’s why he moved out here.”
“He doesn’t have a problem with authority, does he?”
“No, Mom, he’s a perfectly respectful gentlemen. His parents are just dicks.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say about someone you’ve never met.”
Michelle sighed and stood up. “I’m sorry, Mom. It’s just that Alex has told me stories about how self-centered and nasty they were to him, and I believe him.”
Val paused from the weeding and looked up at her daughter. “I’m sorry, too, Michelle. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Michelle said. She wiped her hands together to get some of the dirt off. “Is there anything to drink inside?”
“There’s some lemonade in the fridge. I’m just about done here, so you might as well just go in and relax.”
“Thanks.” Michelle went inside and poured herself a glass of lemonade. She sat at the kitchen table as she drank it.
Would Alex be able to come out here to meet her family tomorrow? She doubted it. Things were too strange for him right now. Too strange for both of them. She didn’t want her family to meet him until he was himself. Would he ever be himself again? Michelle felt tears burning her eyes. She didn’t want to explain why she was crying, so she left her unfinished glass of lemonade on the table and hurried to the bathroom before anyone saw her.
* * *
She spent the rest of the day in the company of her parents. At her request, her father brought a pizza home from his restaurant for supper. She needed comfort, and her father’s pizza had always been a comfort food to her.
Her parents knew that something was bothering her. Michelle could tell. They didn’t bring it up, though. They knew her well enough to know that she didn’t want to talk about it. The best way they could comfort her was just to act normal, and that’s exactly what they did. Michelle loved them so much.
After eating, she returned to her apartment in Lethbridge at 6:30. Alex was probably expecting her to call by now. She went to the phone, but hesitated before she picked it up and dialed.
Can I live with this? As much as I love him, can I handle knowing that he can read my mind any time he wants? There would be no secrets, no privacy. He would know all of her intentions, all of her secret desires, everything that she was ashamed of. Can I handle that?
Can I handle not having him? The past few weeks had been so perfect. Would things ever be the same? Probably not. That didn’t mean things couldn’t still be good. Just different. Maybe Alex’s newfound ability would draw them closer than any other couple. Who else could know their partner’s mind so thoroughly?
Then again, maybe it would push them apart. This morning, hadn’t Michelle been disturbed by Alex’s glimpses of her thoughts? What if she grew to despise his invasive talent?
So many maybes and what-ifs.
The telephone rang. She picked it up and said, “Hello?”
“Hi.”
“Alex. Hi. How are you?”
“I needed to hear your voice,” he said. “I know I told you that I’d give you time to think, but I’m really scared right now.”
“Of what?”
“Losing you, for one thing.”
“Alex, I freaked out this morning. You can’t blame me; this is a very unusual situation. But I’m not about to go running off at the first sign of trouble. Let’s stay with each other and see what happens.”
Alex sighed in relief. Their future together was still in question, but the immediate future was firm. They would be together for now, and there was hope for later.
“Did you go to the doctor today?” Michelle asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “She thinks I’m fine, but she’s going to run some tests in a couple of weeks to make sure. I think she’s doing it more to ease my mind than to make sure I’m healthy. While I was there, though, something freaked me out.”
“What was it?”
“I could hear everyone else’s thoughts in the waiting room. I didn’t want to hear them, but I didn’t know how to stop.”
So it isn’t just me, Michelle thought. She couldn’t imagine how disorienting that must’ve been for Alex. “Are you okay now that you’re home?” she asked.
“Not really,” he said in a shaky voice.
“Do you want me to come over?”
“Could you? Please?”
“I’ll be right there.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Michelle was buzzed into Alex’s building. As she climbed the stairs to the second floor, she felt mild excitement stirring in her breast. This morning, she hadn’t been sure if she and Alex would still be a couple by the end of the day. But they had decided to stay together, for now, at least, and she was anxious to see him.
When she reached his door, she hesitated. She shook off her reluctance and opened the door. He probably heard my hesitation, she thought.
“Yeah,” Alex said from the hallway in front of Michelle. “But you still came through the door.”
Alex smiled at the sight of her, but Michelle could see the tension in his face and body language. Tension from the strange changes he was going through.
They embraced each other. “I also felt your excitement as you came up the stairs,” he said.
She kissed his cheek. “I really do love you,” she said. “You can feel that, can’t you?”
Alex nodded. “I love you, too.” He smiled again, the tension still apparent in his eyes.
“When did you eat last?” Michelle asked.
“A few minutes ago,” he said. “No, wait. That wasn’t me.” He thought hard for a moment, and then said, “I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Alex, that was ages ago! You must be starving.” They were in the living room now. Michelle pointed to the couch. “Have a seat, and I’ll cook you dinner while you rest.”
“No, let me help,” Alex said.
“No,” Michelle insisted. “You need to relax. I’ll do it.”
“I’m really not very hungry,” Alex said as he sat down.
“I don’t care. You’re eating anyway. You shouldn’t go all day without food.” She kissed his forehead and went to the kitchen. She searched his fridge and cupboards and discovered that they were stocked in typical bachelor fashion. She took a frozen pizza out of the freezer and stuck it in the oven. As she set the timer, she heard a muffled thumping in the living room.
“Alex?”
Thump-thump-thump.
Michelle went to see what was making the noise. It was Alex on his hands and knees whacking his head on the floor. He looked up in response to her shock before she even voiced it.
“Alex, what are you doing? Stop!”
Alex’s hands clutched at his temples. “I can hear them all,” he said. His voice was strained and weak. “Everyone in the building hearing, talking, seeing, feeling, remembering all at once. It’s too much. I need to make it stop.” His forehead smacked the floor again.
Thank God it’s carpeted, Michelle thought as she knelt beside Alex and tried to restrain him before he slammed his head against the floor again.
Alex laughed at something unheard. The laugh melted into a string of curses about a hockey game. In mid-sentence, he started crying. Whether they were his own tears or tears of another tenant, Michelle couldn’t tell.
“Alex, listen to me,” Michelle said.
“I can’t believe he left me for that slut,” Alex said. “I should go to that whore’s house and shoot it! Shoot it, you stupid asshole! How do you expect to score goals if you don’t shoot the damn Britney Spears is hot!”
“Alex!”
Alex laughed, cried, and cursed at the same time.
“Listen to me, Alex.” Michelle shook him. “Concentrate on me, on what I’m saying. On what I’m thinking.”
“There are so many of them,” Alex whimpered. “I can’t handle it.”
“Shut them out,” Michelle said and stroked his hair. “Come back to me. I love you, and I want you here with me alone, not with all these other people.”
“I don’t know how.”
He needed to gain control of his telepathy. Michelle was losing him. He was barely anchored to his own individuality. He was drowning in the thoughts of his neighbors. How could she help him? How could he help himself? How could he stop from seeing into everyone’s minds?
Seeing. Maybe she was onto something there.
“Alex, how do you keep yourself from seeing?”
“I close my eyes.”
“Well, then close your eyes! Whichever mental eyes are letting you see into people’s minds.”
“Oh shit, I’m pregnant!”
“Alex, stay with me. Please. This new ability of yours, it’s a sixth sense, like seeing or hearing. You can shut your eyes and keep from seeing, so you should be able to control this new sense.”
“It’s hard,” Alex said. He sounded exhausted. “Like trying to use a muscle that I didn’t know I had. So hard to concentrate.”
Michelle kissed him on the lips. It seemed to get some of his attention. Just you and me, she thought, making sure her thoughts were clear and structured. Stop listening to everyone else. It’s just you and me alone in your living room.
Alex looked her in the eyes. He seemed more alert and aware of her than he had since the episode started.
Look around Alex. There’s nobody here besides you and me. We’re alone. Don’t listen to the others. Don’t look at their thoughts. Don’t even think about them. Just look at me. Listen to me. She squeezed his hand. Feel me. I’m real, not them. They don’t matter.
Alex squeezed her hand back. A few minutes passed in silence. Finally, he smiled wearily at her and fell asleep.
* * *
The pizza ended up in the garbage. In all the excitement, Michelle hadn’t heard the timer go off, and the pizza had burned. It didn’t really matter, because Alex was asleep and she didn’t have the heart to wake him. She left him on the floor, but covered him with a blanket and tucked a pillow beneath his head.
Michelle sat on the couch, took a deep breath, looked at Alex on the floor, and broke down sobbing. They were silent sobs; she had enough control to keep quiet so that Alex wouldn’t wake up.
She couldn’t take another incident like that. It would be too much. Hopefully, Alex had managed to control his telepathy, and he would never be subjected to that insanity again. She loved Alex. She wanted to help him. But she couldn’t put up with this kind of emotional stress on a regular basis.
The weight of this stressful day got to her now, and she fell asleep curled up on the couch.
* * *
Alex woke up with a headache. Not again, he thought. But there was something different about this headache. For one thing, it wasn’t nearly as painful. Secondly, it wasn’t in the same spot. All of his past headaches had started in his right temple. This one was localized to his forehead.
He sat up, and that was when he realized he was on the floor. This realization jump-started his memory, and he recalled banging his head on the floor in an effort to force the voices and images out of his mind. That was one of the few memories he had from last night that was his own. Everything else was a confusing jumble of overlapped sights and sounds from everyone else in the apartment building.
Another thing he remembered was Michelle. When she arrived, he had pulled himself together enough to answer the door and speak with her briefly, but then his tentative control broke, and that’s when the head banging started. He remembered her voice in his head. It had been stronger and clearer than the others. She had anchored him to sanity.
He was in control now. He had found out how to turn it off. It was almost like a mental switch. Right now, for instance, he was alone. Michelle slept on the couch just a few feet away from him, but he couldn’t hear her thoughts. He couldn’t hear anybody’s thoughts except for his own. It was a great relief.
Alex got up and went to the washroom. As he washed his hands, he wondered if he could control the telepathy if he flipped that mental switch again. He was afraid to do it. What if he couldn’t control it? He didn’t want to be flooded with dozens of thoughts in his head. He was also curious, and his curiosity ultimately overpowered his fear.
Flip.
The voices were back just as strong as ever. Alex gasped and braced himself on the countertop. Don’t panic, he told himself. Control them. Last night, he had focused on Michelle’s thoughts until he had blocked out all of the others. He did this now. He searched the clutter of minds until he found her.
She was dreaming. He couldn’t concentrate on the dream with all of the other noise, so he blocked it out. He was surprised at how easily he did it. Once he knew how, it was simple.
In her dream, Michelle was driving a car. He was looking through her eyes at a highway at night. It was a pitch-black night. No stars or moon, and no streetlights. The headlights of her car were on, but they only illuminated a small section of the highway in front of her. Alex saw himself sleeping in the passenger seat. Michelle couldn’t see or hear anything outside of the meagre light cast by her headlights, but she somehow knew that there were creatures lining either side of the highway, creatures that wanted to rip her car apart and take Alex away from her.
It wasn’t a very pleasant dream. Alex could feel Michelle’s fear. He walked out of the bathroom and into the living room where she still slept. A frown darkened her face.
<Wake up, Michelle.> It took Alex a moment before he realized that he hadn’t spoken the words aloud. But Michelle heard him anyway.
“Alex?” she said in her dream. She looked over at him in her dream. He still slept next to her.
Alex had somehow sent one of his thoughts into Michelle’s mind. She had responded to it in her dream.
<It’s just a dream,> he said. In her dream, Michelle saw Alex sit up straight and open his eyes to say this. <Don’t worry about me. I’m okay. Wake up, sweetie.>
Michelle opened her eyes and saw Alex standing over her.
“Good morning,” Alex said and smiled.
“I was just having a dream about you,” Michelle said.
“I know. I told you to wake up, remember?”
Michelle sat up. “You mean, that was really you talking to me? It wasn’t just a dream?”
“It was a dream, but yes, that was really me talking to you.” He switched to telepathy: <I learned a new trick.>
Michelle twitched. “That is so weird!” she said. “I’m reading your mind!”
“Not really,” Alex said. “I’m the one doing it. I’m somehow sending you my thoughts.”
“Does this mean you can control it now?”
“Yes. Thank you, by the way. I don’t think I would’ve been able to find a way to control it if it wasn’t for you. I probably would’ve gone crazy and knocked myself into a coma.”
“How much control do you have?”
“A lot. I can choose who I want to read. I don’t have to listen to everybody at once. Or I can just turn it off completely.”
Alex didn’t need to be a telepath to see that Michelle was relieved. “Does this mean you won’t always be reading my mind?” she asked.
“Yes. I’ll only do it when you say it’s okay, or if I need to for some reason.”
Michelle took his hand and smiled up at him.
Alex smiled back and sent her an image of the two of them kissing.
Michelle’s smile went crooked, and she gave him a look that seemed to say, “You’re so bad!”
“Morning breath,” she said and stood up. She headed for the washroom. “I left a toothbrush here, right?”
“Yup.”
Michelle sniffed her armpit. “I should shower, too.”
“Hurry back,” Alex said.
“You aren’t reading my mind right now, are you?”
“No.”
“Maybe you should take a peek and see what I’m thinking.”
Alex closed his eyes and opened his mind. His eyes snapped back open, and he followed Michelle into the bathroom with a big grin on his face.
* * *
“I haven’t seen Andrea all weekend,” Michelle said as she got dressed 45 minutes later. She hadn’t planned to stay the night so she was wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday. They smelled faintly of the sweat from working in her mother’s garden, but it was nothing too bad.
Alex said something unintelligible around his toothbrush.
“What was that?” Michelle asked as she joined him in the washroom. She picked up a brush and stroked her wet hair.
Alex spat in the sink and rinsed his mouth out. “I said we haven’t seen any of our friends in a few days.”
“Do you think they’re worried about us?”
“Nah.” Alex went back to the bedroom as he spoke. “They probably think we just holed up together for a wild weekend of hot, non-stop nookie.”
Alex came back into the washroom, but he had a shirt on now. He grabbed his comb and very quickly styled his hair. Michelle was still brushing her own hair.
“It wasn’t non-stop,” Michelle said, “But I’ll give you wild and hot.”
“We should call Chuck and Andrea,” Alex said.
“When? Tonight?”
“No, man, right now.”
“Dude, it’s 8:30 on a Sunday. Do you think they’ll be awake?”
“Probably not. We’ll wake them. Take them out for breakfast at Denny’s or something. They’ll be tickled pink, I bet. I’ll call Chuck while you call Andrea on your cell phone.”
Chapter 10: Walk In The Park
“Where the hell have you two been?” Chuck asked. “Can’t take time out of your debauchery to answer the telephone?”
Alex, who had been sipping from his cup of coffee, started to choke on it as Michelle and Andrea laughed at Chuck’s choice of words. He set the cup aside and managed to get the coffee down his throat without dying.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Michelle said.
“So you didn’t have sex at all this weekend?” Andrea sounded doubtful.
“Only once,” Michelle said.
“Where have you been, then?” Andrea asked. “You were together, I assume.”
“Sometimes we were,” Michelle said. “I spent most of yesterday at my parents house, but we were together Friday night and last night.”
“What were you up to?” Chuck asked.
Alex and Michelle glanced at each other. <Should we tell them?> Alex telepathically asked her.
It’s up to you, Michelle thought. Beneath this thought at the forefront of her consciousness, Alex could sense her desire to tell them.
“I had another one of my headaches Friday night,” Alex said out loud. “It was a bad one. The worst one yet, actually. Michelle came over to take care of me. She ended up staying all night.”
“You should really see a doctor about these headaches, Alex,” Andrea said.
“I have,” Alex said. “Twice now. I went yesterday, but she doesn’t seem to think there’s anything seriously wrong. Besides, I think the headaches might be over now.”
“Why?” Chuck asked.
Alex shifted in his seat. How would his friends react to what he was about to tell them? Michelle had almost left him over it.
Michelle held his hand. “Go ahead,” she said. “It’ll be fine.”
Alex took strength from Michelle’s encouragement. Her strength of character was one of the things he loved most about her. “I was fine when I woke up yesterday morning,” he said. “No trace of a headache. But there was something different about me. It’s almost as if the headaches were caused by a change that was happening to me, and now that change is complete.”
“What are you talking about?” Chuck asked.
Alex took a deep breath, paused, looked around to make sure no one could overhear their conversation, and opened his mouth to speak. “I’m telepathic now.”
Andrea and Chuck didn’t react at all at first. They just looked at him. Alex couldn’t stand the silence. He peeked at their thoughts.
He didn’t say telepathic, did he? Andrea was thinking. Chuck’s thoughts were similar: Did I hear him right? Telepathic? That can’t be right? He must be joking. Underneath both of their conscious thoughts, they were trying to suppress another thought: He’s crazy.
A grin spread across Chuck’s face. “Right,” he said. “You can read minds. What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s not a joke,” Alex said. “Check this out.” <I can do more than just read minds. I can send you my own thoughts, like I’m doing now.>
Alex sensed disbelief in Chuck’s mind. He didn’t seem to realize that Alex wasn’t speaking out loud. <Look at my mouth, Chuck. You too, Andrea. I’m not talking. I’m thinking, and I’m letting you hear it.>
Andrea twitched. She could tell the difference. Alex’s voice was in her head instead of coming from across the table. Chuck’s smile faded as he realized what Alex was doing. He still resisted, though. “Since when are you a ventriloquist?” he asked.
“It’s not ventriloquism, Chuck,” Michelle said. “He’s really telepathic.”
“Think of a word,” Alex said. “Any word.”
“Okay,” Chuck said.
“Clue,” Alex said.
“Shit!” Chuck said. “How did you do that?”
“I’m not sure.”
Chuck’s grin resurfaced. He was excited now. “Shit, man, this is awesome! Do it again. Tell me what I’m thinking now.” Chuck closed his eyes and waited.
“You’re thinking about having sex with Mindy last night,” Alex said. “And you’re remembering it quite graphically, too. I think I’ll stop looking.”
Chuck laughed and clapped his hands together. “Isn’t that cool?” he asked Andrea.
Andrea looked stunned. She still clung to disbelief, but hearing Alex’s voice in her head had almost shaken that doubt away.
“It’s nothing to be afraid of, Andrea,” Alex said. “I can turn it on and off. You don’t have to worry about me digging up all of your secrets.”
“I’m still not sure I believe this,” Andrea said. “Do it to me now. Tell me what I’m thinking about.”
Alex opened his mind and looked at Andrea’s thoughts. The image of a kind old man appeared. He didn’t know who it was at first, but then he found the name she associated with the man: Grandpa. “You’re thinking about your grandfather,” Alex said. He probed a little for more information about him. “His name is Fred. He died when you were 14 years old. He called you Andy.”
Andrea looked shocked. Any doubt she had was shattered. She hadn’t expected Alex to be able to read her mind in such detail. With an abruptness that surprised everyone, she stood up and hurried out of the restaurant.
“Andrea!” Michelle stood up and followed her. “Wait!”
Alex’s heart sank. Andrea had reacted exactly as he had feared she would.
Chuck was suddenly in one of his rare serious moods. “Give her time, Alex,” he said. “This is pretty strange. She’s just afraid.”
“This sucks,” Alex said. “I’m a freak. Why did this happen? How did it happen?”
Chuck shrugged. “I don’t know, man. But, hey, it happened. We’ll learn to live with it.”
“It’s going to alienate me from all my friends.”
“Now you’re just being a drama queen,” Chuck said. “Andrea freaked out at something strange that she couldn’t explain. She’ll get over it. And she’s just one person. Michelle and I didn’t run off.”
Alex thought for a minute. “No, Chuck, you didn’t run off,” he said. “But you’ve been my best friend since we were kids. None of my other friends are as close to me as you are. Andrea hasn’t known me as long or as well. She could very well avoid me for the rest of our lives.”
“Maybe,” Chuck said.
“And then there’s Michelle,” Alex said. “When she found out about this, she didn’t run away, but she did freak out. She almost left me over it, and things are still iffy between us. I know she loves me, and I know she wants to stay with me, but if things get any weirder, there’s a good chance she’ll take off.”
“Did she say so?” Chuck asked.
“No. But whenever I communicate telepathically with her, I can sense it under her thoughts. She’s trying to repress the urge, but it’s there.”
Chuck leaned back and tapped his spoon on the edge of his coffee mug. “I don’t know what to tell you, man,” he said. “There’s uncertainty in any relationship. The specifics are unique, but the situation you’re in isn’t. Take Mindy and me, for instance. We haven’t been dating long. We haven’t even known each other very long. We have a great relationship. I’m crazy about her. But there is so much uncertainty. What if she decides I’m not worth dating once she gets to know me better? What if I find out something about her that I can’t stand? What if another guy comes along and charms her away from me? Anything could happen. Just don’t stress about it. Whatever happens happens. We’ll deal with it as it comes.”
He was right. Alex took some comfort from it, but not enough to drive away all of his uneasiness. He loved Michelle. He loved Andrea, too, although it was a different kind of love. It would break his heart if either one of them decided that they wanted nothing to do with him.
“I don’t think I’ll tell anyone else about this,” Alex said. “No reason to freak everyone out.”
“Probably,” Chuck said.
The waitress came by with the food then. “Are the ladies coming back?” she asked. She seemed concerned about Andrea’s sudden exit.
“Maybe,” Chuck said. “We’ll eat their food if they don’t.”
“And pay for it,” Alex added.
The waitress smiled, refilled their coffee, and left.
Chuck grinned. “Tell me what she’s thinking,” he said.
* * *
Michelle caught up with Andrea in the parking lot. She was standing in the middle of it with her face in her hands.
“Andrea?” Michelle put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“How did he do that?” Andrea asked. Her voice was quivering.
“I don’t know,” Michelle said.
“I don’t like it.”
Michelle understood perfectly.
“How can you stand having his voice in your mind like that?” Andrea asked. “It’s so invasive. They’re my thoughts! I share the ones I want with who I want. He can just take them without my permission. And his voice shouldn’t be in my head. It just…shouldn’t!”
Andrea was on the verge of tears. Michelle put an arm around her. She wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything was going to be fine. But she couldn’t. Andrea was voicing all of the thoughts that Michelle had been trying to ignore.
“Everyone is entitled to privacy,” Andrea said. “No matter what people do to take away the privacy of others, the mind is always untouchable. It’s always private. But not anymore. Alex is stripping our privacy away.”
“No,” Michelle said. “He can control it. He isn’t always listening to what people are thinking.”
“But he can!” Andrea said and stepped away from Michelle. She turned to face her, and Michelle saw tears welling up in her eyes. “And sometimes he does listen! He shouldn’t be able to do that!”
“You’re right. He shouldn’t be able to do that. But he can’t help that. He didn’t want this, and it terrifies him. We’re his friends, and he needs our support.”
“I know,” Andrea said. Her voice cracked, and the tears flowed now. “He’s a dear friend, and I love him, but I just can’t handle this. It’s too much. My God, Michelle, how do you stay with him?”
“I love him,” Michelle said. “I reacted a lot like you did when I found out, but I have to try to deal with it because I love him so much. I’ll get used to it.”
Andrea looked back at Denny’s. Michelle could see the conflicting emotions on her face. They were the same conflicting emotions that struggled inside of Michelle.
“Can you take me home?” Andrea asked. “I don’t think I can go back in there.”
“Of course.” Michelle gave Andrea a hug. “Just let me go in and tell Alex that we’re leaving.”
* * *
Alex spent the afternoon with Chuck. They decided to spend it experimenting with Alex’s telepathy at the mall. They sat at a table in the food court.
“Don’t speak out loud,” Chuck said. He had reverted back to his usual playful mood. “We don’t want people to know what we’re doing.”
<Okay> Alex said. <What should I do?>
See those cute girls over there at the Chinese food place?
<Yeah.>
I saw them look over at us earlier. Tell me what they think about us.
Alex found the girls’ minds and had a look. At the most conscious level of thought was the conversation they were having about a party they had gone to on Saturday night. Beneath that was the thought of food. Something that intrigued Alex was the mutual, yet secret, dislike that each girl had for the other.
“What’s the hold up?” Chuck asked.
Alex waved a dismissive hand at Chuck. He couldn’t have any distractions while he dug in their recent memories. He found what he was looking for in a few minutes.
<The blonde thinks I’m cute, and she thinks you’re hot. The redhead thinks you’re too skinny. She likes guys who are buff.>
What does she think about you?
Alex smiled. <She thinks I look boring. I dress too conservatively for her tastes, and she thinks I need a more fashionable hairstyle. She can burn in hell for all I care. Who needs her? Besides, they’re only 18. They haven’t even finished high school yet.>
Shit, are you serious? They’re high school girls? They look at least 20.
<I’m positive.>
Damn. Oh well, it’s not like we could’ve done anything with them. Images of Mindy and Michelle surfaced in Chuck’s mind.
Alex decided to experiment. <Head’s up, Chuck. I’m gonna try something.> He listened to the girls’ most conscious thoughts. They were still talking about the same party. Something about a guy who the blonde had a crush on. He had their thoughts in his head, so he tried sending them to Chuck.
Chuck twitched and looked comically surprised. “Holy shit!” he said. People sitting at neighbouring tables glanced over, but quickly lost interest.
Alex hadn’t been sure that it would work, but it had. <Strange, isn’t it?>
Hell, yeah! Chuck was grinning. It’s like I can read their minds. We could have some fun with this.
<I don’t know about that> Alex said. <I’m not going to make a habit out of doing this for fun. Today, I’m just seeing what I’m capable of. I don’t want to invade people’s privacy. I probably shouldn’t even do this at all.>
You can do it to me, Chuck thought. I don’t mind. I have nothing to hide from you.
Alex smiled and smacked Chuck’s shoulder. Out loud, he said, “I’m not sure your mind is something I want to dwell in too often. For all we know, insanity is contagious for telepaths.”
* * *
Michelle met up with Alex again that evening. They went for a walk around Henderson Park. Hand-in-hand, they strolled along the asphalt trail circling Henderson Lake. The reflection of the moon rippled on the lake’s surface, and the wind rustled the leaves on the trees lined up along the path.
“How’s Andrea?” Alex asked as he looked up at the full moon.
“She’s a little freaked out,” Michelle said. “Don’t worry, she’ll come around.”
Alex turned his gaze from the moon to Michelle’s face. She felt a pang of pity when she saw the sadness in his eyes. “Do you really believe that?” he asked. “Or are you just trying to comfort me?”
Michelle took Alex’s hand. “I believe that she wants to come around,” she said. “She loves you like a brother, and she feels terrible for making you upset like this. But I don’t know when she’ll be able to face you again. It could take a while.”
“Thank God I still have you,” Alex said.
Michelle smiled and kissed his cheek. She wanted to change the subject. “What did you and Chuck do this afternoon?”
“Hung out at the mall reading minds,” Alex said. “We wanted to see what I’m capable of.”
“Did you find out anything interesting?”
“High school girls think Chuck’s hot and I’m boring.”
Michelle laughed. “Did you find out anything about your telepathy, smart-ass?”
“Yeah,” Alex said. They were approaching some cozy-looking shacks that contained washrooms and a closed food concession. To their left was an arched wooden bridge leading to a small crescent-shaped island just off shore. “Apparently, I can be a telephone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can let other people listen in on what I’m seeing telepathically. For instance, you and Chuck could talk to each other telepathically using me as a medium. If I let you, that is.”
“I’d never thought of that. I suppose it makes sense.”
The narrow island was no more than fifteen feet wide, and the shore was lined with rocks, the smallest of which about the size of a basketball, and the largest about five times that size. As they walked along the red shale path, they passed another couple going the other way. They smiled at each other, exchanged polite greetings, and moved on.
Alex was trying not to laugh.
“What is it?” Michelle asked.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. You found something funny. Let’s hear it.”
“That girl we just passed seems to think she could steal me away from you if she wanted to,” Alex said.
Michelle’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding!”
“Nope,” Alex said. “I wonder what her boyfriend would think if he knew she was having thoughts like that.”
Michelle looked back over her shoulder at the couple. “What a bitch!” she said. She gave Alex a playful shove. “I suppose you’re thinking that it wouldn’t be so bad to be stolen away from me by her.”
“Oh, stop it,” Alex said. “You’re prettier than she is. And you’re much nicer.”
“I’m not so sure. That was a very beautiful girl.”
“She pales in comparison to you. She’s blonde. I prefer brunettes.” He caressed her hair. “Her eyes aren’t as nice as yours, either. Yours are such a nice shade of blue.”
“She has a nicer body than me.”
Alex smiled. “You’re being silly now.” They had reached the end of the island, which widened into a rough circle with a diameter of about 25 feet. Ahead of them, just before the shore, was a solitary boulder. Alex sat Michelle down on the rock and stood facing her. He closed his eyes. Michelle expected to hear his voice in her head or to see an image, but what happened surprised her. She felt a wave of love wash over her, along with the understanding that this was how Alex felt for her.
“Oh, wow!” she gasped, and her jealousy vanished.
“So it worked?” Alex asked. “You understood what I was trying to get across?”
Michelle threw her arms around him and kissed him. Feeling his love for her had been the most beautiful experience that had ever happened to her. It was almost overwhelming.
“I love you so much,” she said. Tears flowed down her cheeks to the corners of her smile. She wanted to say more, but she couldn’t think of any words to describe how she felt.
Alex put a finger to her temple and said, “Can I?”
“Yes,” Michelle said. “Come on in.”
Alex closed his eyes and accepted her invitation. He smiled and took her hands in his own. His bright blue eyes glistened with tears when he opened them again.
Michelle heard the voices approaching, but she didn’t pay any attention to them until one of them was directed at Alex: “Hey, can I have a turn with her?”
Tragically, Alex’s expression of joy was chased away by shocked indignation. Michelle hated to see it go, so she, too, looked over at the intruder in anger.
“Excuse me?” Alex asked. The owner of the voice was one boy in a group of five. They looked to be about 18 or 19 years old, and they were quite physically fit. Two of them looked like they’d be comfortable on a football field. Alex was far from being a wimp, and, at 25, he had more muscle mass than the average 18-year-old. But he was no super-hero, so he had no chance in a fight against five athletic boys in their late teens.
“Alex, don’t,” Michelle whispered and placed a hand on his arm. She looked around for a route of retreat, but the boys blocked the only path. Water was on all other sides. There would be no simple walking away.
The boy who had spoken stepped closer—Michelle could smell beer on his breath—and spoke again: “You heard me. It’s my turn to slip her a little tongue.” His tongue darted out and rapidly waggled back and forth. His friends laughed.
Michelle saw Alex bristle. It was obvious that he wanted to attack, but he was smart enough to refrain from striking the young man.
But he wasn’t smart enough to keep his mind closed and his mouth shut.
“You’ve never even kissed a girl, Jeremy. I doubt you’d know how, and I won’t have you practising on my girlfriend.”
Shocked, Jeremy took a step back. His anger, however, overpowered his fear. He stepped forward again and shoved Alex. “What the hell are you talkin’ about? How do you know my name?”
Alex staggered back a few steps, but didn’t fall. He continued talking, ignoring Jeremy’s questions. “Tell you what: Simon here”—he motioned to the large boy with no neck—“is secretly gay. I’m sure he’d let you practice on him. He thinks about you while he jerks off.”
“Alex, stop it,” Michelle said, but it was too late. Jeremy and Simon lunged simultaneously at Alex with the other three right behind them. Michelle screamed. She was positive that Alex would soon be in the hospital.
She was wrong.
Alex retreated three rapid steps from the charging teenagers. Just as Jeremy and Simon were about to lay their hands on him, all five boys flew backwards as if they were chess pieces swatted away by a sore loser. Jeremy and another boy found themselves tangled in the branches of a small, leafy tree; Simon and the other two splashed into the lake with an impressive lack of grace.
Michelle looked at the teenagers in utter disbelief. She turned in amazement to look at Alex, who was staring in equal disbelief at his fallen adversaries.
The three boys in the lake spluttered their way to shore and fled. Jeremy and the other boy freed themselves from their leafy captor and followed their friends without a word.
Alex looked at Michelle. He seemed afraid. “Did you see that?” he asked.
Michelle nodded.
“I did that. Without even touching them.”
“How?”
Alex could only shake his head.
Chapter 11: Recruiter
“Do you think you could do it again?” Michelle asked. After the incident at Henderson Park, they had driven in silence to Michelle’s apartment. Once they were there, Alex explained how he had just reflexively lashed out with his mind when he saw the danger coming. A little telekinesis to go along with his telepathy.
“Probably,” Alex said. “What should I test it on?”
Michelle looked around until her eyes settled on one of Alex’s shoes by the door. She picked it up and placed it on the coffee table in front of Alex. “Just move it,” she said. “Don’t send it flying like you did to those boys.”
Alex stared at the shoe. His brow furrowed as he concentrated. The shoe flew across the room and slammed into the wall.
They both jumped. “Sorry,” Alex said. “I haven’t figured out how to adjust the strength of it yet.”
“It’s okay,” Michelle said. She stood up to retrieve the shoe.
“No, wait,” Alex said. “Sit back down. Let’s see if I can pull it instead of pushing it.”
His brow furrowed again, and the shoe slid rapidly—but slower than the initial push—across the hardwood floor until it rested at his feet.
“Better,” he said.
“Lift it,” Michelle suggested.
Alex glanced at her, then back at the shoe. Michelle watched for the wrinkles to crease his brown again, but it didn’t happen this time. The shoe shot straight up. It struck the ceiling and fell again. Before it reached the floor, however, it stopped in mid-air just in front of them at eye level. It rotated twice and gently returned to the floor.
Michelle laughed lightly. “Looks like you’re getting the hang of it.” She stood up and started pacing. “Things just keep getting weirder and weirder, don’t they?”
“Tell me about it,” Alex said.
“What else do you think you’re capable of?” Michelle said as she continued pacing. “The telepathy was strange enough, but this is something else all together. I wasn’t expecting it at all.”
“Neither was I.”
“I mean, what’s next? Mind control? Pyrokinesis?”
“I don’t know.”
Michelle sensed something in Alex’s voice. He was being too quiet and reserved. She stopped pacing and turned to look at him. His eyes were downcast, and his shoulders were slumped.
“Alex, what’s wrong?” She sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“What am I becoming?” He said it with a hint of despair in his voice. “I shouldn’t be able to do the things I’m doing. Nobody should be able to do these things! It isn’t right!”
“You are and always will be the Alex Cook that I fell in love with. Just because you’re learning how to do new things doesn’t mean you will change.”
“What if I do change? It’s not like I learned to juggle or play the guitar. I can communicate directly mind-to-mind with other people, and they don’t always know that I’m doing it. People can’t keep secrets from me. And now I can make a shoe fly around the room and throw five grown men 30 feet! Nobody should have this kind of power.”
“No,” Michelle agreed. “No one should. But you do, and I can’t think of a better person to hold that power. You’re a good, kind person.”
“Tell that to Jeremy and Simon,” Alex said. “I attacked them with their own secrets, and then I physically hurt them.”
“The physical part wasn’t on purpose,” Michelle said. “It was a defensive reflex. As for the other stuff, I think they had it coming. They were jerks.”
Alex was quiet for a few seconds. “All I’m saying,” he said, “is what if the power gets to me? What if it corrupts me? What if I get arrogant? What if I abuse it?”
“The fact that you’re worrying about it just shows me that it won’t be a big problem. You’re a good person. You’re not perfect, of course, and you’ll make mistakes, but it’s in your nature to be good.”
Alex smiled. A small smile, but it was a start. “You think too highly of me,” he said.
“Just highly enough,” Michelle said and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
Alex smiled again, a little bigger this time. “Thank you,” he said.
“My pleasure.”
“Can I spend the night with you?” he asked.
“I was hoping you would,” Michelle said.
They both slept in Michelle’s bed that night, but they didn’t make love. They just needed to be close so that they could draw strength from one another.
* * *
Alex woke up at 3:30 in the morning. Michelle slept beside him on her side with her arm across his chest. He gently moved her arm and stood up. He needed to go to the bathroom.
The light made him squint when he first flicked it on, but he got used to it. He lifted the toilet seat and relieved himself. Barely awake, he swayed slightly on his feet. His mind was still thinking about the dream he had just been having, a dream that he wouldn’t remember when he was fully awake.
There was a sound out in the living room that perked him up and chased the memory of the dream away. “Michelle?” he said. The sound had been the distinct click of the deadbolt disengaging on the front door.
Michelle didn’t answer, so Alex reached out with his mind and found her still sleeping in bed. He started to think that maybe it had been his imagination, but then he heard the front door open and foot steps walking into the apartment. He reached out further with his mind towards the door, but he didn’t sense anyone there.
What the hell? Since his telepathy had manifested itself, Alex had never met anyone whose mind he couldn’t read. There was definitely someone there; he could hear them. But he couldn’t read their minds. This disturbed him. What was different about these people that made him unable to read their minds?
Alex walked to the bathroom door and opened it a crack to peek out. Two men stood just inside the front door. They were both looking directly at Alex.
A smug, condescending smile spread across the taller man’s ugly face. “Hey, Alex, how are ya?” he asked. His voice dripped with insincerity.
Alex opened the door wide. “Who are you?” he asked. He looked around for anything that would make a good weapon.
“The name’s Stan Clark,” the tall man said. “This is my associate, Mr. Hurst.”
Hurst was shorter than Stan, but he was taller than Alex. He was also much older and larger than Stan. His face was as unreadable to Alex as his mind.
“What are you doing here?” Alex demanded.
“We’re here to offer you a job, Alex,” Stan said. It was the second time he used Alex’s name. How did he know? Alex didn’t like it.
“At 3:30 in the morning?” Alex asked. “You’re nuts. I’m calling the cops.” He went to the telephone, but it floated off the table and out of Alex’s reach before he could get to it. Alex stared up at it in shock.
“There’s no need for that,” Stan said. “Cops are so hot-headed sometimes. Who needs ‘em, eh?”
The “eh” sounded tacked on and unnatural. Too much stress was put on it, as if he were saying it to make fun of Alex. The man was an American. More importantly, Alex realized, he was telekinetic.
“Did you think you were the only one?” Stan asked. “Just a once-in-a-lifetime freak of nature? No, there are actually quite a lot of us. If you’ll come with us, we’ll train you to be the best telepathic telekinetic you can be.”
“Where?”
“Sorry. Classified.”
“Who are you with?”
“Listen, buddy, I ain’t here to answer your questions. I’m here to recruit you. Now let’s get going.”
Alex realized then that Stan meant to take him away whether he wanted to or not. That wouldn’t do at all. He telekinetically threw the coffee table at the two intruders. It surprised Stan, but not so much that he wasn’t able to catch it telekinetically and set it down. Alex intended to throw the sofa at him next, but he suddenly discovered that his telekinesis wasn’t working.
“Cut it out,” Stan said. “Don’t you realize what time it is? I want to get out of this stupid country before the sun comes up.”
Alex wasn’t just going to let these people take him to who-knew-where. Telekinesis or no telekinesis, he was going to put up a fight. He lunged at Stan. At least, he intended to lunge at Stan. He made the decision to do it, but his body had stopped taking orders from his brain. He was paralyzed on his feet. He tried to call out for Michelle, but his lungs and mouth didn’t do anything. It was terrifying. He was a prisoner in his own body.
“That’s better,” Stan said. “Let’s go, Alex.” Stan and Hurst turned to leave. Alex’s body followed calmly while his mind shrieked at it to stay where it was. He tried to call out to Michelle, but his telepathy had fled along with his telekinesis. The one time he needed it was when it decided to stop working. It would’ve been funny if he hadn’t been so scared.
Chapter 12: Alone
Michelle woke up alone. She figured that Alex was in the bathroom, so she didn’t worry about it and went back to sleep.
She woke up again later, and she was still alone. According to the clock, 45 minutes had passed. “Alex?” she called. There was no answer. She got out of bed and checked the washroom. The door was open and the light was on. The toilet seat was up, and the water was tinted yellow. Alex wasn’t there. He was always very considerate about flushing and putting the seat down whenever he used her toilet. This wasn’t like him at all.
“Alex?” she called again.
Nothing.
She checked the living room and the kitchen, but she didn’t find him. His shoes were gone, and so were his car keys. A quick glance out the window confirmed that his car was gone.
Why did he leave? She went to the phone and dialed his number. It rang eight times before she hung up. If he wasn’t at home this early in the morning, where was he? The bank didn’t open until 9:00, and it was only 7:45. She picked up the phone again and dialed Chuck’s number.
After six rings, she was getting ready to give up, but then a female voice mumbled, “Hello?”
Michelle paused. She had been expecting Chuck to answer. This wasn’t the wrong number, was it? “Mindy?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“This is Michelle. Sorry to wake you. Can I talk to Chuck?”
“Sure, just a second.” Michelle heard muted voices on the other line, and then Chuck said, “Mm?”
“Hey Chuck. You wouldn’t happen to know where Alex is, would you?”
“At this time of the morning, he’s probably in bed,” Chuck said.
“That’s what I thought, too. He spent the night here, but he was gone when I woke up, and there’s no answer at his house.”
“Sorry,” Chuck said. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon.”
“Thanks,” Michelle said. “Sorry for waking you.”
“No problem. See ya later.”
Michelle hung up. Where was Alex? She lifted the phone one more time and dialed his work number. Maybe he had gone in early for some reason.
There was no answer at the bank. She hung up.
Why was Alex being such a jerk? Why would he just leave in the middle of the night without telling her? Maybe he needed some time alone. If that was the case, he could’ve at least told her. She would’ve understood. Alex was going to get a real earful the next time she saw him.
PART TWO: The Higher Mind
Chapter 13: Organization
Alex woke up on a metal chair in a gray room. There were no decorations, and the only furniture besides the chair he sat in was an identical chair facing him. He had no memory of how he had gotten there. Stan had forced him to walk out of Michelle’s apartment, but that’s when everything went blank.
He wasn’t alone in the room. Hurst stood at the door. A pistol was holstered on his hip. An insignia was stitched on the chest of his black uniform. It looked like a simplified drawing of a head with lines radiating out from it. There were different insignias on his shoulders. These ones showed a man with a blindfold. Alex tried to read his mind, but his telepathy still wasn’t working. He’d have to make do with more orthodox methods of communication.
“Where am I?”
Hurst didn’t respond. He looked intently at Alex, as he had done ever since Alex had first seen him, but he made no sign that he had heard Alex’s question.
“Why have you abducted me?”
Silence.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Nothing.
“Who’s in charge here?”
That quiet, intense stare was the only answer he received. Alex was getting fed up.
“Are you deaf, mute, or just stupid?”
Hurst’s hand shot out and closed like a steel clamp around Alex’s throat. He wasn’t deaf. Alex panicked at the sudden loss of oxygen, and he tried desperately to pry the iron hand away.
“I’m not one to be messed with, Mr. Cook,” Hurst said. His gravelly voice remained calm. “That’s all you need to know about me.”
Hurst held on for a few more seconds just to get his point across, and then released Alex’s neck. Alex gulped in a lungful of air as he stood up and backed as far away from Hurst as he could. He was terrified, but a sudden rush of anger overshadowed his fear. He wanted to hurt this man. He ached to hurt him. If only his telekinesis were working.
“Bastard!” Alex gasped.
The door opened, and a man wearing a white uniform entered. “That’s enough, Hurst,” the newcomer said. “Alex is important to us. We don’t want to hurt him.”
Hurst nodded once at the man. “But don’t be mistaken,” the man said to Alex. “We will hurt you if you make it necessary.”
Alex couldn’t hide his anger, but he didn’t say anything.
“Hey, let’s just make sure it’s never necessary, Alex,” the man said. “We don’t want to make an enemy of you. If you give us a chance, you’ll find that we’re all one big happy family here.”
“I’m sure,” Alex said.
“My name’s Craig Daniels,” the man said and offered his hand. Alex looked at it but didn’t shake it. Craig shrugged and sat down. “Please, have a seat,” he said. “We have quite a bit to talk about.”
Alex hesitated. Craig was all smiles, but he also intended to get down to business whether Alex wanted to or not. He sat down.
“Good,” Craig said. “Now, how much has Stan already told you?”
“Something about training me to be a better telepath and telekinetic, and that I’m not the only one.”
Craig nodded. “That’s true,” he said. “You aren’t the only one. For instance, I’m a telepath. Stan is a telepath and a telekinetic, like you are.” Craig pointed at Alex’s shoulder, and Alex noticed that he was also dressed in a uniform, this one red and white. There were two insignias on his shoulder. One showed two heads facing each other with a line connecting their foreheads. The other had one head with a hand extending from the forehead.
“What about him?” Alex asked and pointed at Hurst.
“He’s something else,” Craig said. “The technical term is ‘inhibitor’, but we all call them Blind Spots. They have no telepathic or telekinetic abilities. Their talent is preventing telepaths and telekinetic individuals from using their talents. You’ve already seen the effects of it.”
Alex nodded. That explained why he couldn’t read minds or use his telekinesis. “Why am I here?” he asked.
“You’re part of our second wave of international recruits,” Craig said.
“Recruits for what?”
“The Higher Mind.” Craig pointed to the insignia on his chest, which was identical to the one on Hurst’s chest. The insignia on his shoulders was the same as the one Alex had with two heads connected by a line.
“What’s the higher mind?”
“It’s the organization of telepaths, telekinetics, and inhibitors. You should understand, Alex, that people like us have always been around.”
“Why haven’t I ever heard of them?”
“We keep our existence secret. Normal people are afraid of us. In the past, they accused us of witchcraft and sorcery. To protect ourselves, we didn’t let anyone know about us. In 1965, two men organized The Higher Mind for two purposes: First, to provide a safe place where other telepaths and telekinetics can associate with people of their own kind; and secondly, to make America a better place.”
Alex looked skeptical, but Craig went on. “Their names are Ryan Parks and John Callaway. Parks has the strongest telekinesis on record, and Callaway has the strongest telepathy. They teamed up with Hurst here to organize The Higher Mind and unite us all.”
“How do you make America a better place?” Alex asked.
“Simple,” Craig said. “We control the government.”
“Does the government know that?”
“No. There’s no need. We’ll teach you to do amazing things with your telepathy, Alex. You’ve only scratched the surface of what you’re capable of. I’m excited to work with you. I’ll be teaching your telepathy class.”
“Where are the other recruits?” Alex asked.
“They’re in control training.”
“What’s that?”
“Usually, it’s the first step in everyone’s training right after the headaches are over. You’re a unique case in the sense that you learned how to gain control of your telepathy before we had a chance to recruit you. That has never happened before in the history of The Higher Mind.”
Alex was silent as he considered what this might mean. After a moment, he said, “So they headaches are linked to what happened.”
“Yes,” Craig confirmed. “Everybody is born with a large percentage of his or her brain dormant. In adulthood, 2% of the world’s population has a small portion of this dormant area awaken and become active. This awakening is the cause of the headaches the used to bother you so much.”
“Are the headaches gone for good?” Alex asked.
“Yes,” Craig said. “And like I said, we usually have to train people to gain control of their abilities. You are the only exception. You have incredible potential, Alex. I can’t wait to start your training. It starts tomorrow, by the way.”
Craig stood up. “Hurst will show you to the barracks.” He turned and left the room.
* * *
Hurst opened a door and stepped aside to allow Alex to go through it. Alex looked inside and saw a room full of beds and people. The occupants of the room all looked over to see the new arrival.
“Come on in,” a short man with a dark complexion said. He wore a uniform identical to Alex’s. Alex stepped inside, and Hurst closed the door behind him without coming through himself.
There were six people in the room with Alex. Four of them were men and two were women, all of them close to Alex’s age, and all of them in Higher Mind uniforms. The man who had spoken stepped up to Alex and looked him up and down. He was smiling, but Alex could tell that it was fake even without telepathy.
<I’m Tarso Werlang> the man said. It seemed that telepathy wasn’t being repressed, so Alex answered in kind.
<I’m Alex Cook.> He offered his hand. Tarso took it in a tight grip and shook it. He squeezed tighter than was necessary. Alex couldn’t help smiling at the attempt this man made at showing his dominance.
“How long have you been here?” Alex asked.
<Three weeks> Tarso said. For some reason, he was refusing to speak out loud. Alex probed a little into his thoughts and saw that it was because he wanted to show off.
Tarso frowned. <You know, a lot of us here are also telepaths. You’ll find it’s impossible to read someone’s mind without people knowing what you’re doing.>
Alex shrugged. <Whatever. You’re from Brazil, eh? I guess that means you’re part of the first wave of international recruits.>
<I’m the first international recruit.> This thought was accompanied with a great deal of pride.
“Good for you.” Alex turned and looked with his eyes and his mind at the other people in the room. A slight man with blond hair and a red uniform stood just behind Tarso’s right shoulder. His name was Eugene Pettigrew, and he was from London. He was a strong telekinetic, but he wasn’t telepathic, which accounted for the lack of white in his uniform. On the other side of Tarso was an attractive brunette. She was Sandra Hodgson from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was telepathic and telekinetic, and she was sleeping with Tarso. Sitting on a bed close by was a Texan named Dexter Barnes. He was the only American in the room. Alex sensed in him some animosity towards Tarso, Eugene, Sandra, and Cam, the other man in the room. Cam was more of a boy than a man, really. Alex guessed that he was no older than 18, and probably younger. He didn’t know for sure, because he couldn’t read his mind. Cam was dressed in the black uniform of a Blind Spot.
The last person in the room was sitting away from the rest. She was a small Filipino woman name Ligaya Dela Cruz. When Alex touched her mind, he saw that she felt very out of place. She had a strong desire to return home, a desire that he shared.
<They won’t let us leave> she said to him. <They call this a training facility, but it’s really a prison. We’re forced to do what they want us to do.>
<Don’t mind Ligaya> Sandra said. <She’s just upset that they don’t serve rice with every meal here.>
Alex felt a wave of hatred from Ligaya that was directed at Sandra. It didn’t go unnoticed by Sandra, but she didn’t react. It was no secret that Ligaya and Sandra had hated each other for as long as they had been here.
This would take some getting used to, Alex realized. There would be no secrets with these people. He finally understood how Michelle felt.
“Oooo!” Sandra said. “Who’s Michelle?”
“I hate it when you guys do this,” Eugene said. “Keep in mind that not everyone here is a bloody telepath.”
“We’re just introducing ourselves to Alex,” Tarso said.
“Then who the hell is this Michelle person?” Eugene asked.
“He’s shagging her,” Sandra said in a terrible English accent.
“Who is?” Eugene asked. “Tarso?”
“No, you twit,” Tarso said. “Alex is.”
Alex didn’t like this, but he couldn’t think of anything that he could do about it. The way they had just snatched the memory of Michelle out of his head troubled him. He didn’t want these people to know about the woman that he loved.
“Oh, you’re so worrisome,” Sandra said. “Relax. We don’t need another Ligaya on our hands.”
“Leave ‘im alone,” Dexter said. It was the first thing Alex had heard him say, and he found that he liked the man’s slow drawl. “He was just recruited. Give ‘im time to adjust before y’all start bombarding him with your unpleasantness.”
“Nobody asked for your opinion, Barnes,” Tarso said.
“Well, yer getting’ it anyway, dip-shit.” Dexter stood up and stepped to Alex’s side. He stood at least six inches taller than Tarso, and he probably outweighed him by 75 pounds, but Tarso wasn’t intimidated at all. He even smiled. Ligaya stood up and went to Dexter’s side. Nobody said anything, but Alex could sense the understanding between everyone else that Tarso was mentally stronger.
<Not just stronger than this bastard> Tarso said to Alex. <I’m stronger than anyone on record. I rival Callaway and Parks.> Tarso thought this with a sickening degree of pride, but Alex sensed something beneath all of the posturing: a seed of doubt and what might’ve been jealousy. Before Alex could dig deeper, however, his telepathy was suppressed.
The door opened, and Hurst stepped in. “I don’t want any trouble from you guys,” he said. “It’s late. Go to sleep.”
Their little tableau dissolved immediately. Apparently, Alex wasn’t the only one who had been subdued by Hurst. Everyone was afraid of him. That was obvious to anyone, telepath or not.
Tarso, Sandra, Eugene, and Cam took the four beds closest to the door. Dexter and Ligaya chose beds as far away from the others as they could, which wasn’t all that far. There were only twelve beds in the room. Alex chose a bed next to Dexter and Ligaya.
“Don’t mind them,” Dexter said. “Tarso’s a dick, and the other three are just trying to please him.”
Alex felt a little uncomfortable. Tarso and the others were within earshot.
<Do not worry about it> Ligaya said. <You are going to have to learn that there are no secrets between us. Whether we say it out loud or just think it, Tarso knows how we feel about him.>
<It’ll take some getting used to> Alex said.
“As you get to know Tarso,” Dexter said, “you’ll realize that you’d say these things about him to his face even if he couldn’t read your mind.”
“You’re such a charming young man,” Tarso said.
“Am I talking to you?” Dexter said.
“You’re talking about me. I figure that gives me the right to join in the conversation.”
“Whatever.” Dexter turned his back on Tarso and faced Alex again. “So Craig already fed you the bullshit about The Higher Mind making the world a better place, right?”
“Right,” Alex said.
“Roughly translated, making the world a better place means running things the way Parks and Callaway want things run, and they ain’t exactly about to win any humanitarian awards.”
“How much control do they actually have?”
<A lot> Ligaya said. <From what we have been able to figure out, they let the government function normally, but they will have a telepath intervene if it looks like something is going to happen that they do not want to happen.>
“Or if something isn’t gonna happen that they wanna happen,” Dexter added.
“That’s what they’re training us for?”
“Among other things, yeah.”
“What other things?”
<Assassinations> Ligaya said. <Sometimes, they will hold a grudge and have someone killed. Telekinetics are trained to kill people and make it look natural.>
“There’s a lot of heart failure among politicians,” Dexter said. “That’s the easiest way to kill someone ‘naturally.’ ”
“So that’s all we do?” Alex asked. “Kill some people and change the minds of others?”
“That’ll be our main job, but there’s always robbery, too,” Dexter said. “This facility doesn’t pay for itself, y’know?”
<There is also security> Ligaya said. <There are telepaths who work closely with the Blind Spots. Their job is to monitor our thoughts and prevent us from using our abilities in an unacceptable manner.>
“Such as what?” Alex asked.
<Trying to expose The Higher Mind is the most common infraction. Trying to escape is another common one.>
“Every now and then you’ll get someone who tries to kill an instructor,” Dexter said. “Or even Parks and Callaway, sometimes.”
<These telepaths report such thoughts to the Blind Spots, and the Blind Spots will take action.>
Alex realized that Ligaya hadn’t said anything out loud since he had arrived. After Dexter’s indiscretion, he found this curious.
<My English is not very good> Ligaya said.
“It sounds good to me,” Alex said.
<We are speaking thought-to-thought, not really with language. Your mind automatically puts my thoughts into words that you understand. The same is true for me. I do not pay attention to what you and Dexter are saying out loud. Instead, I listen to your thoughts. I hear them in Waray-Waray.>
<I thought they spoke Tagalog in the Philippines> Alex said. He used telepathy with her now that he knew she didn’t understand what he said out loud.
<Tagalog is the official national language, but there are many dialects in the country. Waray-Waray is spoken in the region I come from.>
The lights went off.
“10:30,” Dexter said. “Time to sleep.”
“I just barely woke up,” Alex said.
Chapter 14: First Day Of School
“You’ve all figured out basic telepathic communication,” Craig said. “You’ve learned how to control it. We know that you’ve been using it on each other. You’ve come to realize that there are no secrets here among us telepaths. It’ll take you all a little while to get used to such intimacy with everyone you know, whether you like a person or not.”
Alex noticed the glance between Tarso and Dexter. He knew how they felt. Already, after only 10 hours together, Alex and Tarso had developed a healthy dislike for each other. It was nothing like the hate between Tarso and Dexter, but if things kept going the way they were, it wouldn’t be long before Alex detested the man.
Six people were seated in the classroom: Alex, Tarso, Dexter, Ligaya, Sandra, and Craig, their instructor. They had been woken up at 7:30 in the morning. After quick showers and a light breakfast, Hurst had led them to this small classroom where Craig had been waiting for them. The room was simple: white walls and a gray linoleum floor. Nothing adorned the walls. When Sandra had commented on the boring décor, Craig had explained that it was to avoid distractions.
Alex was tired. He hadn’t fallen asleep until 4:30 in the morning. Three hours of sleep just didn’t cut it.
“We’re going to practice telepathic communication,” Craig said.
“But we already know how,” Tarso said.
“We’re still going to practice. Starting now, I don’t want anyone to say anything out-loud.”
Everyone was silent.
<What should we talk about?> Sandra asked.
<Anything> Craig said. <Alex, you’re new here. Tell us about yourself.>
<What do you want to know?>
<Good question> Craig said. <Ask him questions, people.>
<What part of Canada are you from?> Dexter asked.
<I was born in Saskatchewan, but I live in Alberta now.>
<What do you do for a living?> Ligaya asked.
<I work in a bank.>
<How old were you when you lost your virginity> Sandra asked.
<Kiss my ass> Alex said.
<Don’t you talk to my woman like that> Tarso said.
<She had it coming, Tarso> Dexter said.
<Barnes, I swear, I’m going to kill you.>
<That’s enough> Craig said. <Practice is over. Let’s move on to something new.>
Alex was relieved. He hated being the center of attention like that.
<When your telepathy first manifested itself, you were all overwhelmed with the thoughts of everyone around you. I’m going to teach you how to be aware of everything a group is thinking without it distracting you from your own thoughts.>
Alex could sense everyone’s anxiety. It was frightening and disorienting to have so many voices in one’s head.
<It’ll take time for you to master it, but once you do, it will be one of your most important abilities. Don’t worry; we’ll start slow, and I’ll guide you through it.>
Alex figured that they probably didn’t have a choice. Might as well get it over with. <What do we do?>
<First> Craig said, <I want you all to just concentrate on my thoughts. Don’t listen to anyone else, and don’t talk to anyone else.>
Alex closed off his mind to everyone but Craig, and, since he didn’t hear anyone speaking telepathically to him, he assumed that everyone else did the same.
<Good> Craig said. <Watch my thoughts.> He then started thinking about what he had done earlier that morning. It was a simple, boring routine starting with showering, breakfast, and going over his lesson plans for the day.
<Now> Craig said while the memory still played in his mind. <Slowly open your minds to everyone else in the room.>
Alex braced himself for the flood of thoughts that was about to come. He took a deep breath and opened his mind. An indecipherable mess of voices and images pushed into his head and threatened to drown out his own thoughts. He could sense the disorientation of the other students, and this only intensified his own confusion.
<Focus> Craig said. His voice was much stronger than all of the others, making it impossible for it to be drowned out by all the other foreign thoughts in Alex’s head. <Don’t shut out the thoughts of the other students, but don’t listen to them. Focus on my voice. Listen to me.>
Alex struggled to do what Craig said, but it was hard to ignore the other thoughts. The minds of the other students were open to him, and he found it hard to look away. Ligaya’s memories of the Philippines were interesting, as were Tarso’s memories of Brazil. Beneath Sandra’s conscious thoughts were memories that made Alex blush. Dexter had a feeling of melancholy from being taken from his home and put in this place that he hated so much. Craig’s thoughts were there, stronger than everyone else’s, but Alex was having a hard time ignoring the others without shutting them out.
<It’s really not all that hard> Craig said. <You’ve all been to parties. This is no different than carrying on a conversation with someone in a crowded, noisy room. You can still hear the voices of everyone around you, but it doesn’t keep you from listening to the person you’re talking to.>
That made perfect sense to Alex. When he thought of it that way, he found it easier to listen to Craig without being distracted from the other thoughts in his head. He was once again concentrating on Craig’s memory of this morning. The thoughts of the other students were still in his mind, but they were just background noise that didn’t overpower his own thoughts.
<Good, Alex> Craig said. <You’ve got it. Play with it.>
Play with it? Alex didn’t suppose that would hurt. Occasionally, something in the background noise of the other students’ thoughts caught his attention. Tarso, for instance, had also just learned how to handle the group mind. Alex shifted his focus from Craig to Tarso, who had, in turn, just shifted his focus to Sandra. He was reveling in Sandra’s X-rated memories, some of which included Tarso. Alex didn’t want to be around for this, so he shifted focus again, this time to Ligaya.
Ligaya, Dexter, and Sandra were still struggling to keep the group mind from overpowering their own thoughts. Alex wondered if there was anything he could do to help Ligaya. He could see that she was having trouble focusing on Craig because she distrusted him so much.
<Ligaya> Alex said. <Try focusing on me instead of Craig.>
In the back of his mind, Alex sensed Craig start to object, but then thought better of it. <It’s worth a shot> he told Alex. <Go for it.>
Ligaya hadn’t noticed Alex’s advice. She was still trying to sift through the confusion and had missed it.
<Ligaya> Alex said louder. She noticed this time. Now that he had her attention—as much attention as she could muster, anyway—he repeated his advice. <Focus on me instead of Craig.>
He sensed her trying to focus on him, so he figured he better give her something worth focusing on. Something pleasant that she would be drawn to. But what would that be? Alex barely knew Ligaya. What could he think of that would be special to her?
He could feel her attention drifting away. Apparently, his indecision wasn’t very interesting.
True, Alex didn’t know Ligaya very well, but he had the ability to get to know her. He searched her memories for something he could use. There were some memories just below her conscious thoughts. Alex picked one at random. It was an image of Ligaya eating fish and rice with her family. He thought about this pleasant memory, but Ligaya still couldn’t concentrate on him. She didn’t realize that the memory was coming from Alex instead of her.
I need to dig deeper, Alex thought to himself. He had never tried digging any deeper. It was different than basic mind reading. Conscious thoughts were right there, impossible to miss. Just below these conscious thoughts were memories that were on people’s minds. What Alex wanted now was a memory that Ligaya hadn’t thought about in a while. To find one of those, he would have to search her subconscious. It took him a moment to find her subconscious, but once he was in, he found a large cache of memories. He picked the first one that he noticed. He noticed it because it wasn’t an image or a sound, but a strong smell. It was so real to Alex that he actually put a hand up to his nose, and his face scrunched up in distaste. Tuba. It was the smell of tuba. Not the instrument, though, but something that smelled sweet and rotten. An image came to Alex of a man—Ligaya’s father—carrying two translucent plastic jugs filled with a dark liquid. The liquid was the coconut water that had been fermented into a wine, which Filipinos called tuba. They mixed it with cola, and this was the most popular alcoholic beverage in this particular region of the Philippines. Ligaya’s father made and sold it for a living.
Alex realized that Ligaya was concentrating on his thoughts now. She looked at him in amazement.
<You’ve done it> Alex said. Ligaya had learned how to handle the group mind.
<I did not know that we could see so deeply into a person’s mind> Ligaya said. <How did you do that?>
<That’s tomorrow’s lesson> Craig said. <But you seemed to have taught yourself, haven’t you, Alex? You’re just full of surprises.>
Alex could sense that Craig was excited by Alex’s potential. He could sense something else, too, but it wasn’t coming from Craig. It was in the background noise of the other thoughts flying around the room. He focused on it and realized that it was coming from Tarso.
Tarso was jealous.
* * *
Dexter and Sandra took longer to adjust to the group mind, but they eventually got the hang of it. After practicing for a couple of hours, Alex came to realize its usefulness. He could function normally while still being aware of the thoughts of everyone around him. If he noticed something interesting or important in the background noise, he could concentrate on it. He was also much better at distinguishing his own thoughts from the thoughts of those around him.
The class ended at noon, at which time Hurst escorted them to the cafeteria. Alex sat at a table with Ligaya and Dexter. Tarso and Sandra spotted Eugene and Cam at a table across the room and headed over to join them.
“Whattaya think of yer first day?” Dexter asked.
Alex shrugged. “It could be worse, I suppose,” he said. “I could do without sharing thoughts with Tarso and Sandra all day, though.”
Dexter chuckled. “Tell me about it,” he said. “If there weren’t any security, I’d give his ass a good kickin’.”
Ligaya smiled. <In a fistfight, yes, Dexter, you could beat Tarso> she said. <But he’s stronger than you telepathically and telekinetically.>
“Yeah, I guess so,” Dexter said.
“You’ll have to make friends with a Blind Spot,” Alex said. “Then you can mess him up. Tarso, that is; not the Blind Spot.”
“I’d like to mess up Tarso’s little lapdog of a Blind Spot,” Dexter said, referring to Cam. “That kid creeps me out. He’s so quiet. It’s like he’s tryin’ to be the next Hurst.”
Ligaya looked across the room at Cam, and then over at the door where Hurst stood guard. <He has a long way before he is as intimidating as Hurst> she said. Alex had to agree. Hurst was a large man whose presence demanded respect, whether you liked the man or not. Cam was a slight, sheepish boy who seemed to blend into the background.
Alex shifted his gaze from Cam to the rest of the room. There were about 50 people in the cafeteria. “Hey, you guys,” he said to Ligaya and Dexter. “How big of a group do you think we can handle as background noise?”
“I had a hard enough time with the five of us,” Dexter said.
“I’m gonna try a larger group,” Alex said.
“Right now? Here?” Dexter was dubious.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “Here and now.” He decided to start slow by opening his mind to his table and the two tables on either side of him, which was a total of 15 people excluding him. It was easy. Their thoughts were just a background noise that didn’t overpower his. So far so good. He reached out to include 15 more people. Still no problem.
“How’s it goin’?” Dexter asked.
“Good,” Alex said. “I’m up to 30 people.”
Dexter whistled.
Alex decided to go for all 50. He reached for the other 20 and found them, but as he became mentally aware of them, he lost ten other people who had been part of the background noise before. When he tried to get those ten back, he was successful, but he lost ten other people.
“Well, shoot,” Alex said.
<What’s wrong?> Ligaya asked.
“I can’t get everybody,” he explained. “I can only be aware of about 40 people at once.”
“That seems pretty impressive to me,” Dexter said. “There ain’t no way I can handle that many minds at one time.”
“Not yet, maybe,” Alex said. “But just yesterday I couldn’t handle more than one or two minds at a time. I think our abilities will grow the more we practice.”
“It’s time for your next class,” Hurst said. The three of them jumped; they hadn’t noticed Hurst approach. “Finish eating, and let’s go. Mr. Baker is waiting.” He turned and went to tell Tarso and his buddies the same thing.
“I hate that guy,” Alex said.
Chapter 15: Searching
A week had passed, and Alex still hadn’t shown up. Michelle wasn’t mad at him anymore. Instead, she was worried about him. He had never shown up at work, he had never shown up at his apartment, and he had never shown up at Michelle’s apartment. None of his friends or co-workers had seen him all week. The last time she had spoken to his boss, it had sounded like Alex wouldn’t have a job much longer.
Michelle could think of only one more person to call to look for Alex. She didn’t expect to find him there, but she couldn’t think of anyone else to call. She picked up the phone and dialed directory assistance for Regina.
“What name?” the operator asked.
“Orlando Cook.”
There was a pause. Then, “Please hold for the number.”
Another brief pause was followed by a recorded voice telling her Alex’s parents’ phone number. A minute later, it was ringing.
A woman answered. “Hello.”
“Hi,” Michelle said. “Is this Mrs. Cook?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Michelle Lewis. I’m a good friend of your son’s.”
A humorless bark of laughter came from the other end of the line. “Should I care?”
Michelle knew that Alex and his mother weren’t on good terms, but this blatant disdain surprised her. “I’m sorry to bother you,” Michelle continued, “but Alex disappeared suddenly last week and—“
“What do you mean ‘disappeared?’”
“I woke up and he and his car were gone. I haven’t seen him in a week.”
“Oh, so you’re that kind of a friend, are you?”
This woman was unbelievable.
“The reason I’m calling,” Michelle said. “Is to ask if you know where he is.”
Another cynical laugh. “Obviously, you’re not as close to Alex as you think,” Mrs. Cook said. “Otherwise, you’d know that he and I haven’t been speaking to each other.”
“So you haven’t heard from him.”
“Maybe he ran off with another woman.”
“Thank you for your help,” Michelle said coldly and hung up before Mrs. Cook could respond.
Alex was right; his mother was a bitch.
Well, what now? Nobody knew where Alex was. Not his friends, not his co-workers, and not his family. Who else was there to go to? Michelle could only think of one other option.
* * *
“So you woke up and he was just gone?” the police officer asked.
“Yes,” Michelle said. She had filled out a missing person report at the police station, and now this officer was asking her questions about it.
“No signs of a struggle? No signs of a forced entry?”
“No.”
“And his car was gone?”
“Yes.”
“Ms. Lewis, did Alex give you keys to his apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been there since he left?” He used the word “left” instead of “disappeared.” That probably hinted at what he thought had happened to Alex.
“I was there yesterday. It doesn’t look like he has been there at all in the past week.”
“Does it look like anyone else has been there? Is anything out of the ordinary?”
“I didn’t notice anything unusual.”
“Had the two of you had a fight before going to bed?”
“No,” Michelle said. “You think he just left, don’t you?”
“I’ll be honest with you, Ms. Lewis, that is what seems to be the most likely possibility.”
“Why would he have left? Where did he go?”
“I don’t know, but look at the facts we have. He woke up, got dressed quietly, left your apartment, locked the door behind him, and drove away in his car. He has no known enemies, and nobody has demanded a ransom for his return. There isn’t anything suspicious about this.”
Michelle opened her mouth to protest, but the officer held up a hand and said, “We’ll list him as a missing person and keep an eye out for him, but we can’t do much more than that.”
“So in other words,” Michelle said, “you’ll do next to nothing.”
“Ms. Lewis, I’m sorry that you don’t know where your boyfriend is, but I honestly think it’s a personal matter more than it is a matter for the police. Maybe he’s having some sort of personal crisis, and he just needed time to himself.”
Michelle was silent. She was mad at the police officer for saying that. Mad, not just because he wasn’t taking this matter seriously, but also because he might be right.
* * *
Instead of going home, Michelle went to Andrea’s place. She needed someone to talk to.
“How are you doing?” Andrea asked as she let Michelle into her apartment.
“I’m pissed,” Michelle said.
Andrea put a hand on Michelle’s shoulder. “Sit down and let’s talk about it,” she said. “Do you want a drink?”
“Please.” Michelle sat down on the sofa in the living room while Andrea went to the kitchen. She shifted uncomfortably, too wound up to sit still.
“What has you so worked up?” Andrea asked as she came from the kitchen with two bottles of beer. Michelle accepted one of them and took a swig from it.
“I just got back from the police station,” she said.
“Did you report that Alex is missing?”
“Yes, but it won’t do any good.”
“Why not?”
“The police aren’t going to do a damn thing about it!” Michelle couldn’t sit any longer. She stood up, drank some more beer, and started pacing around Andrea’s coffee table.
“That’s stupid,” Andrea said. “Why wouldn’t they do anything?”
Michelle lowered her voice to imitate the police officer and said, “There’s nothing suspicious about his disappearance.”
“Nobody has seen him in a week,” Andrea said. “How is that not suspicious?”
“They think he just left.”
“Why would he just abandon his life like that? He had a good job, good friends, and things were going great with you.”
Michelle didn’t say anything. A scream threatened to erupt from her throat. If she had been in her own apartment, she would’ve flung the half-empty bottle of beer across the room. She yearned to break something.
“You don’t think he would’ve gone back to Regina, do you?” Andrea asked.
Michelle shook her head. “I called his bitch of a mother before I went to the police. She hasn’t seen him in years.” Instead of throwing the beer, she finished it and set it down on the coffee table. “I only spoke with her for a minute, and I already hate that woman.”
“She was really that bad?”
“Yeah. Alex didn’t exaggerate when he told us about her. She didn’t even seem to care that her own son was missing.”
Andrea was quiet for a moment. Michelle could tell that she wanted to say something but didn’t want to upset Michelle further. Michelle turned her back on her. She didn’t know if she could keep her composure if Andrea decided to say what Michelle thought she was thinking.
“Michelle,” Andrea said with a voice full of sympathy. Here it comes. “Maybe what the police said about Alex leaving—“
“Don’t say it!” Michelle said, her back still turned to her friend. “Don’t you even think it, Andrea! You said it yourself: why would Alex just abandon his life here?”
Andrea got up and stood behind Michelle. She placed a hand on her shoulder and started to speak, but Michelle pulled away from her and turned to face her.
“No!” Michelle said. Her anger was out in full force. If she had still been holding the bottle, she would’ve thrown it now. “I know Alex was going through a hard change in his life, and I know it was freaking him out, but dammit, Andrea, he wouldn’t just run off like that! I refuse to believe that! I know that you were afraid of him, and he knew that, too. Hell, I was even afraid of him. He knew that I was afraid of him. He was afraid of himself, of what he was becoming. But would he really run away from us?”
As Michelle spoke, the anger drained out of her. It was being replaced with heart-wrenching sorrow. Andrea saw this. Michelle could see the pity on her face.
“I was seriously considering leaving him,” Michelle continued. “I was that afraid of what was happening. And now he’s gone.” Her voice cracked and her vision blurred. “He’s gone, and I miss him so much! Oh, Andrea, I want him back! How could I ever have thought about leaving him?” She broke down completely then and sat on the sofa as her tears came. Her hands covered her face, but they couldn’t hold back the flood.
Andrea sat next to Michelle and hugged her. Michelle gratefully returned the hug and sobbed on her shoulder.
“Why would he leave me?” Michelle asked.
“Shh,” Andrea said and stroked Michelle’s hair.
“I thought he loved me too much to leave me.”
“He does love you,” Andrea said. “Anyone who saw the two of you together knows that he was hopelessly in love with you.”
“Then why would he leave?”
“We don’t know that he did leave. Maybe he was taken. We don’t know.”
“Who would’ve taken him?”
“I don’t know,” Andrea said. “But even if he wasn’t taken, even if he did leave on his own, I’m sure he’ll be back. Maybe he just needs time to adjust to what’s happening to him.”
Michelle considered this for a moment. She wasn’t sobbing anymore, but tears still seeped out of her eyes. “He would’ve told me,” she finally said. “He wouldn’t sneak out of my apartment in the middle of the night”
Andrea shrugged. “I’m sure he’s fine,” she said.
“I’m not so sure,” Michelle said. “But thank you. I needed a little outburst like this.”
“Anytime,” Andrea said.
“I’m sorry I yelled.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Andrea stood up and fetched a box of tissues from the bathroom. She handed them to Michelle, who took them and wiped her face.
“Do you want to spend the night here?” Andrea asked. “The company might do you good.”
“Thanks,” Michelle said. “But I want to stay at my own apartment just in case somebody turns up looking for me.”
“I understand,” Andrea said. “I don’t think you should be alone right now, though. Do you mind if I stay at your place with you?”
Michelle smiled. “What would I do without you, Andrea?”
“I’m afraid to think about it,” Andrea said.
Chapter 16: Rivalry
During his first week of forced training, Alex’s telepathic and telekinetic abilities had become much more impressive than before he had been taken from Lethbridge. In his telepathy class, they had spent most of the week developing the group mind. Alex and Tarso were progressing at a pace faster than Sandra, Dexter, and Ligaya. They could both include up to 100 minds in the background noise, and they were even developing the ability to concentrate on more than one mind at a time. It was difficult, and they could only concentrate on three minds at once, but they were getting better at it.
Craig had also taught the class how to read the subconscious mind in addition to conscious thoughts. Alex had already figured out how to do it when he retrieved Ligaya’s memory of her tuba-selling father, but the others had to be taught how to do it. Despite his independently obtained knowledge, Alex benefited from these lessons. Craig taught him how to efficiently sift through memories and find what he was looking for.
Alex found the telekinesis class boring. The instructor, Ryan Baker, had been teaching them the basics. Alex had figured out most of the basics back in Lethbridge. All week long, all they did was practice lifting, pushing, and pulling. The only change was the size of the objects that they lifted. By the end of the first week, Alex could lift a half-ton truck. It came naturally to him. It also came naturally for the other students, especially Tarso and Eugene. They longed for something more challenging.
“Isn’t there more that we can do?” Eugene asked halfway through the first class of the second week. The class was held in a large warehouse about the size of a football field. Eugene lowered the van he had been lifting—it was a full ton—and turned to face Ryan. “This is getting boring.”
Ryan looked over his students and seemed to consider their progress. Alex wanted to listen to his thoughts, but Hurst, always near at hand, never let the students read Ryan’s mind. Ryan Baker was telekinetically strong, but he wasn’t a telepath, and didn’t like his students having any advantage over him.
“I was going to wait until tomorrow to teach you this,” Ryan said after a moment of consideration, “but I think you guys are ready now. Push the vans to the side and gather round.”
Alex pushed the van he had been practicing with up against a wall. Five other vans moved towards one wall or another as well. He and the other students joined Ryan in the middle of the room. They stood in two small groups: Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya in one, Tarso, Eugene, and Sandra in the other.
“So far,” Ryan said, “we’ve only used our telekinesis to move things. You’ve pushed, you’ve pulled, you’ve lifted and carried. Think of telekinesis as extremely strong, far-reaching hands. You can do anything with this ability that you can do with your hands, and then some. So let me ask you a question: can your hands only push, pull, lift, and carry?”
“No,” Tarso said.
“What else can they do?” Ryan asked.
There was a brief pause as they thought about this.
“Write,” Dexter said.
“Yes,” Ryan said. “Of course, we write with our hands, and we can learn to hone our telekinesis until it’s exact enough to write with. But writing is just a variation of lifting, pushing, and pulling. We lift the pen, and then we use our fingers to push and pull it to make the letters we want. What else can we do with our hands?”
“We can hit things,” Tarso suggested.
“Yes,” Ryan said, “but, again, that’s a variation of pushing. Watch.” He pointed to one of the vans. “I can push it normally.” The van started to creep along the wall. “Or I can use a sudden, fast push to do this.” With a loud crash, a hole appeared in the side of the van as if a giant, invisible fist slammed through it. The van rocked from side to side on its springs. “Impressive,” Ryan said, “but still just a push.”
“We feel with our hands,” Alex said.
“Yes!” Ryan said. “Exactly. We feel with our hands. We touch with them.” He reached out one hand and touched Sandra’s shoulder. “I’m not pushing, pulling, or lifting her, but I’m making contact with her. I’m touching her shoulder, and I can feel it in the palm of my hand and on the tips of my fingers.”
“We can telekinetically touch things?” Eugene asked.
“Yes,” Ryan said. “In fact, that’s what we call this ability: Touch. Watch.”
Alex felt as if a sheet of some indefinable substance had been applied over his entire body. It almost felt suffocating.
“Do you all feel that?” Ryan asked. “That’s me touching you. It’s a very crude touch. I did that on purpose so that you’d be able to feel it. Unlike our flesh-and-bone hands, our telekinetic hands aren’t physical. We can make the Touch subtle enough that the person we touch doesn’t feel it.” Alex felt Ryan’s Touch fade until the sense of being wrapped in something disappeared.
“What’s the point of touching things telekinetically?” Sandra asked.
“As you master the Touch,” Ryan said, “it’ll become more reliable to you than your eyes. You can reach out with it and feel everything in a room with perfect detail. You’ll have a three dimensional, 360-degree picture of the room in your mind. It’s great for finding your way in the dark, and it’s like having eyes in the back of your head.”
This intrigued Alex. “How do we do it?” he asked.
“Simple,” Ryan said. “Let’s go to a smaller room, and I’ll show you.” He turned and walked towards a door on the far side of the warehouse. The students followed. The room wasn’t quite what Alex had expected. It was small, only a six-and-a-half foot cube, and completely devoid of furniture. A single fluorescent tube lit the room, and its fixture was set flush with the ceiling. Instead of the usual flimsy plastic covering, thick Plexiglas protected the light. The walls were what really caught Alex’s attention. They were made of steel, as were the floor and ceiling, but unlike the floor and ceiling, they weren’t smooth. Various shapes, patterns, and textures had been worked into the steel.
“Welcome to the Touch practice room,” Ryan said. “You’ll go in one at a time and practice feeling the walls. I’ll monitor and instruct you from the control room. Alex, why don’t you go first?”
“Sure,” Alex said. He stepped into the metallic room and felt a pang of claustrophobia as the door—also made of steel—closed behind him. The room was too small. Alex was 5’11”, which put the ceiling only about half a foot from the top of his head.
There weren’t any speakers in the room that Alex could see, and the room was sound proof. How was Ryan going to instruct him?
<Can you hear me, Alex?> Ryan’s voice spoke up inside Alex’s head. It surprised Alex. He had never been able to communicate telepathically with Ryan. Alex reached out with his mind and saw that Ryan was using a medium. He was allowing Dexter to read his most conscious thoughts and then send them to Alex.
<Yes, I can hear you.>
<Good. Okay, this is what I want you to do: push on the wall in front of you.>
Alex understood now why the walls were steel. He gave the wall he faced a shove with his mind.
<Good> Ryan said. <There are pressure sensors in the wall. You’re applying just over two hundred pounds of pressure. Keep pushing, but ease up a bit.>
Alex did as he was instructed.
<Okay, you’re down to 65 pounds,> Ryan said. <Do you see what I mean about the Touch? You can feel the wall as you push on it, can’t you?>
Alex could feel the wall. He realized that the concept of the Touch was much simpler than he had thought. Ever since he first pushed Jeremy, Simon, and company in Henderson Park, he had been using the Touch. He had always been able to feel whatever he was using his telekinesis on without really thinking about it. Now that he was pushing on something that wasn’t moving, he was more aware of the feel of it under what Ryan described as a telekinetic “hand.” It made Alex think of a baseball. When a person grabs a baseball and throws it, that person feels the ball, but doesn’t pay much attention to it. If a person were just to hold the ball in his or her hand, that person would be more aware of the feel of the stitches and of the leather. The real trick to Touch was not the actually touching; the trick was fine-tuning it to pay attention to the details of the touched object and making it subtle enough. Applying 65 pounds of pressure to a person’s face just wouldn’t do.
Alex eased up a little more before Ryan told him to do it, and he paid more attention to the feel of the wall. He was aware of the abnormal shape in the wall, but he couldn’t feel the details of those abnormalities.
<28 pounds of pressure now,> Ryan said. <Good job. Let me try something that usually helps beginners. Are you afraid of the dark?>
<No.>
<Good.> The single light shut off, and Alex found himself in perfect darkness. <If you can’t see, you’re forced to rely more on the Touch to know what’s in front of you. Try to feel the specifics of the wall to make a mental picture of what it looks like.>
Alex was disoriented for a moment. He could feel the floor beneath his feet, and that was normal, but a few feet in front of him, and in no physical contact with his body, he could feel the wall. When he could see, he had the rest of the room to associate with the wall that he felt. Blinded, however, it seemed that Alex was in an empty universe where nothing existed except for himself and the wall floating in front of him. The Touch was a lot like seeing, only without color. He had a mental picture—albeit blurry—of the floating, detached wall in his mind. Barely thinking about it, Alex reached out with his telekinesis until he was touching every surface in the room: floor, ceiling, and the other three walls. He breathed a sigh of relief. The wall was no longer adrift in a void. Instead, it was part of the small room which Alex could feel, and which he had his feet firmly planted in.
<Great> Ryan said. <You can see why this is better than sight now, can’t you? You have a view in every direction all at once.>
He was right. Alex could see the benefits of this ability. He just needed to fine-tune it more. His mental image of the room was still blurry because he wasn’t feeling every detail of the walls. He concentrated on a small section of the wall in front of him. He felt for the shapes and patterns there. They began to become more distinct, more detailed: an outward bulge here, an indentation there, zigzagging grooves to the right, and small circles to the left. The details of this section of the wall became sharp and clear to his Touch.
<You’re doing great> Ryan encouraged.
Alex didn’t stop there. He gradually worked his way around the room until every detail was clear. As he progressed, it took him less and less time to bring a clear mental image to mind; he was getting the hang of it. The room was still dark, but now Alex could see everything around him. The image was colorless, but it was perfect and 360 degrees. It really was more reliable than his vision.
<Well done> Ryan said. <There’s just one more thing we have to work on. You’re still applying 28 pounds of pressure on the walls. You need to get it down to zero.>
Without losing any detail of the feel of the room, Alex gradually eased off the pressure until Ryan said that the sensors weren’t picking up anything.
The light turned on, and the door opened. Alex blinked at the sudden brightness.
“Who’s next?” Ryan asked.
* * *
The other students picked the Touch up faster than Alex, because they had observed what he had done, and then did their best to imitate it. Ryan was happy with the results. He told them that no other class picked it up as fast as they had done.
Tarso had picked it up the fastest, and he was sure to let Alex know this at dinner that evening.
“It just came so naturally to me,” Tarso said. He was speaking to the whole group, but they all knew that he only cared that Alex was listening. “No disorientation at all, and I had the technique perfected in a matter of minutes. I guess that, since I have such excellent raw talent, picking these things up is child’s play.”
Dexter opened his mouth to speak, but Alex beat him to it. He said, “Oh, please. If you had gone first, you would’ve been lucky to have picked it up as fast as I did. You all learned it faster because you watched me and just did what I did.”
“I’m sorry that my success bothers you,” Tarso said. He sounded sincerely hurt. If Alex hadn’t been telepathic, he might not have known that Tarso loved every minute of this. “Heaven forbid that you’re not better than me at everything. I’m just feeling good about a job well done, but you have to stomp on my happiness.”
“You are so full of shit, you stupid asshole,” Alex said. “Have you forgotten that most of us here are telepathic? We all know that you’re just saying these things to piss me off.”
“Looks like it worked,” Sandra said with a smug little smile on her lips. “He’s probably just touchy because Michelle probably hates him for abandoning her and has turned to Chuck’s arms for comfort.”
“Werlang, tell you’re whore that I’m not interested in hearing anything come from lips that have sucked your—“
An invisible clamp tightened around Alex’s neck and cut off his breath. He hadn’t seen it coming, because Tarso had put the thought to action as soon as it had occurred to him. With the exception of Sandra, who looked pleased, everyone else at the table looked on in anxious shock.
Alex sensed Dexter and Ligaya about to come to his aid. <No> he told them. <If this is how he wants to play, I can handle him myself.> However, before Alex could retaliate, his telepathy and telekinesis were blocked, and Tarso’s grip on his throat loosened. Alex gasped in some sweet air. He hadn’t been breathless long enough to panic, but it still felt good to be able to breath again.
“That’s enough,” a low, gruff voice said from behind Alex. It was Hurst. “Finish eating and go to your barracks. Cause any more trouble, and you’ll upset me.” He favored them with a glare before leaving.
Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya finished eating quickly and left without the others. As they walked through the corridors of the facility, Alex said, “Why does he have to be such a little prick?”
“Some people can’t seem to help it,” Dexter said. “An ass can’t be anything other than an ass.”
“Is it just my imagination, or has he been especially hard on me lately?” Alex asked.
<He has> Ligaya said. <And I think you know why, Alex.>
<I guess I do> Alex said, switching to telepathy without evening realizing it.
“Nobody has said so, but it’s obvious that our class is the cream of the crop,” Dexter said. “Until you came along, Tarso was the best. Now you are. To men like him, that’s unacceptable.”
<You should not let him get to you like that, Alex> Ligaya said. <It is what he wants.>
<I know, but I can’t help it sometimes. It’s bad enough that they’re keeping me here against my will. Did they put me with him just to sweeten the deal?>
“Screw ‘im,” Dexter said.
“Nah, he might like that,” Alex said.
Dexter and Ligaya laughed.
Chapter 17: Keys
Michelle parked in her designated space, turned her car off, and breathed a weary sigh. It was good to be home after such a bad day at work. Her students had been especially rowdy today. During the two weeks since Alex had disappeared, her patience had grown thin, and she had done a lot of yelling lately. It only took one yell for each class; the students were used to an easy-going, friendly Ms. Lewis, not this high-strung, tired Ms. Lewis. Their outbursts were quelled with one outburst of her own.
The police weren’t doing anything about Alex. It didn’t surprised her, but it still made her angry. She had called twice to check up on them, but nothing had happened, and the constable she talked to always got rid of her as fast as possible. She wished she could do more to find Alex, but what else could she do? The frustration she felt from her helplessness was almost as bad as Alex’s absence. The two of these things together made for one angry teacher.
She grabbed two bags of groceries off of the passenger seat and got out of the car. As she walked, she sorted through her keys with her one free hand to find the one to the apartment building. They slipped through her fingers and dropped onto the grass next to the walkway. She muttered a curse under her breath and bent down to pick them up.
As Michelle grabbed her keys, she saw the sun glint off of something wedged between the edge of the concrete and the lawn. She almost ignored it, but she was curios by nature and picked up the shining object.
It was another set of keys. She examined them and gasped. They were on a Saskatchewan Roughriders key chain. Alex had the same one. She looked at the keys on the ring: a black Honda key, two plain keys that looked like the ones to Alex’s apartment, a small mailbox key, two keys that looked like the ones to Michelle’s apartment, and another plain key. These could be Alex’s keys. But what were they doing here?
Michelle looked at the visitor parking. No cars were parked there.
Were these Alex’s keys? There was a good chance that he wasn’t the only Saskatchewan Roughriders fan who drove a Honda. There was one way to find out. She took the keys, picked the one that looked the same as the one she had for the front door of the apartment building, and tried to open the door with it. The key turned smoothly, and the door swung open when she pulled on the handle.
This doesn’t prove anything, Michelle told herself as she let the door close behind her. They could belong to someone else who lives here, drives a Honda, and likes the Roughriders. She told herself this, but she couldn’t keep herself from running up the stairs two at a time.
When she got to her door, she grabbed another key from the Roughrider fan’s key chain. It unlocked her door. They must be Alex’s keys! She flung the door open, set her groceries down on the floor, and ran into the living room. “Alex?” she called. “Are you here?”
There was no answer. He wasn’t in the living room. She checked the kitchen, the bathroom, and her bedroom, but they were all empty. She was still alone.
Michelle grabbed the phone and dialed Alex’s number. She let it ring 12 times before giving up.
Where was Alex’s car if his keys had been lying in the grass in front of her apartment building?
* * *
Michelle let herself into Alex’s apartment. She hadn’t been here in a week, but nothing had changed. There was no sign that anyone had been here. “Alex?” she called. She didn’t expect an answer, but she had to check anyway.
She went straight to his bedroom where she knew he kept what she was looking for. If it wasn’t there, she didn’t know what she’d do. It would mean that Alex had left on his own after all. If it was there, she still didn’t know what she’d do.
She opened the drawer in the stand next to his bed and rummaged around. And there it was: the spare key to his car. The only spare key to his car. Right where he had left it.
She looked at the keys she held in her hand. Alex only had two keys to his car, and she had both of them here with her. Where was the car? How was he driving it? Was he even driving it, or had it been stolen? Something weird was going on. Michelle didn’t think it was very likely that Alex had hot-wired his own car.
* * *
Michelle went to the police, but they still weren’t taking the situation seriously. They politely thanked her for bringing new information to their attention, but they also told her that the keys didn’t prove anything; he most likely had a third set that she didn’t know about. Michelle didn’t think that was the case, but she had come to expect this attitude from the police, so it didn’t upset her too much.
That evening, she phoned the Lethbridge Herald, the city’s only major local newspaper, and purchased space for an ad that would run for a week. She e-mailed a picture of Alex for them to use along with the text she wanted to go with it. The text read:
MISSING
Name: Alex Cook
Age: 25
Hair: brown
Eyes: blue
Drives a silver 1992 Honda Civic. Last seen in southeast Lethbridge on May 25. Please call Michelle Lewis at 555-9062 with any information.
She also called the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun and took out the same ad. All together, it cost more than she should be spending on a young teacher’s salary, but she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit around waiting for Alex to drop out of the sky. If Alex was still in Lethbridge, someone would’ve seen him. If he had left town, the most likely direction he would’ve gone is north to Calgary. It was the closest major city. She would wait another week while the ad ran in the papers. If nothing turned up then, she would put the ad in the Edmonton papers. If there was still nothing after that, she would put an ad in Regina newspapers. After that, she wasn’t sure where she’d search for him. Hopefully, something will have turned up by then.
Chapter 18: Escape Attempt
Alex had mapped out the entire facility in his mind. He was using his Touch to feel every corridor, every room, and every door of the headquarters of the Higher Mind. He was mentally aware of every student, teacher, and non-inhibitor security guard. The Blind Spots worried him; he had no idea where they were. He didn’t like not knowing where anybody in the complex was. Who knew when they’d pop up out of nowhere?
As Alex had developed his Touch and background noise abilities, he had grown dependant on them. It comforted him to be aware of everyone and everything. It kept surprises to a minimum.
In addition to the Blind Spots, Alex couldn’t find Parks or Callaway. It was common knowledge that they were here, but they were under constant Blind Spot protection, so nobody could contact them without them wanting to be contacted.
Telepathy class earlier in the day had been interesting. They had learned something new instead of just practicing things they had already learned.
Craig brought a student from one of the other classes. Alex had never spoken to him, but he knew who he was. (With the exception of most of the Blind Spots, he knew who everybody was.) He was a Japanese man named Kenji.
<I brought Kenji along today because we need an even number of English-speakers to foreign-speakers> Craig said. <Pair up. Dexter, I want you to work with Kenji. Alex and Ligaya, you two can work with each other. Tarso and Sandra, you two work together.>
Alex sat next to Ligaya, smiled at her, and then waited for Craig to continue.
<Today> Craig said, <You’re going to learn a new language. Tarso, I know that you already speak English, but you’re going to teach Sandra how to speak Portuguese. You can work with Kenji later to learn Japanese.>
<How are we gonna learn to do this?> Dexter asked.
<Each of you has the knowledge of your native language in your mind> Craig said. <It’s the language you think in. When someone speaks telepathically to you, your mind hears his or her thoughts in your own language. Likewise, when you read someone’s mind, you hear it in your own language. That’s how Ligaya and Kenji communicate with everyone else here. However, you can look into a person’s mind and find their knowledge of their native language. Using this knowledge, you can speak their language. Let me demonstrate.>
Craig looked at Kenji and rattled off some Japanese.
Kenji smiled.
<How was that?> Craig asked.
<Flawless> Kenji said.
<Try it with your partners now.>
Alex faced Ligaya. <This explains how my recruiter knew how to speak Waray-Waray when he kidnapped me> she said. <I had always wondered.>
<Do you want to go first?> Alex asked.
<Sure.> Alex felt Ligaya’s mind enter his. He observed her thoughts as she felt around. It took her a minute of rummaging, but she found the part of his brain devoted to language.
“Hello,” Ligaya said in heavily accented English. “My name is Ligaya Dela Cruz. I live in Tacloban City, Leyte in the Philippines.”
“Good,” Alex said.
Ligaya smiled. <That was nothing new> she said. <Every child who has taken any school can say that. I need to work on my accent.> She went over the sentence she had spoken while consulting Alex’s knowledge of English.
“Hi,” she said after a moment. “My name’s Ligaya Dela Cruz. I’m from Tacloban City, Leyte in the Philippines.”
“Wow,” Alex said. “That was much better.” The revised sentenced flowed naturally from her mouth. She still had the Filipino accent, but it wasn’t as noticeable. It was overshadowed by an uncanny imitation of Alex’s own western Canadian accent. She had also used contractions—“I’m” instead of “I am”—and the more informal “Hi” instead of “Hello.” The only word she had stumbled on was “the.” The “th” sound was foreign to her, and so was the way the letter “e” was pronounced. In the Philippines, “e” always makes the same sound, which is the way the letter “a” is usually pronounced in English.
Ligaya smiled at her success. “Let me practice that,” she said. “The. The. The.” With each repetition, it sounded better until she was saying it perfectly. “Wow,” she said. “I knew my English was poor, but I never realized how ridiculous I sounded in the past. This is great. Okay, it’s your turn. Try to speak Waray.”
Alex looked into Ligaya’s mind. He had watched her search his mind, so he found the language center of her brain faster than she had. It was filled with a jumble of words in a language that was absolutely foreign to him. He picked a word at random—“maupay”—and Ligaya subconsciously supplied him with the definition—“good.” He wondered if that worked both ways. He thought of the word “name” and consulted Ligaya’s knowledge. The word “ngaran” came forward.
“Whoa,” Alex said. “How do you pronounce that? Naran?”
Ligaya giggled. “Ngaran,” she said. The “r” was rolled, and “ng,” Alex learned from Ligaya, was considered one letter, the letter “nga.”
“Naran,” Alex said again. He managed a roll on the “r,” and he pronounced the letter “a” properly, but he still had trouble with “nga.”
“It’s pronounced like the n and g at the end of words like ‘sing’,” Ligaya said. “Say ‘sing.’”
“Sing.”
“Now say ‘singa.’”
“Singa.”
“Now just drop the s and i off of it.”
“Nga.”
“That’s it.”
“Ngaran.”
“Perfect.”
Alex smiled. He was getting somewhere. Now to try an entire sentence. He figured he might as well introduce himself the way Ligaya had done. He couldn’t find a word for “hello,” but there were a lot of other greetings.
“Maupay nga aga. Ako hi Alex. Taga Lethbridge ako.”
“Good morning to you, too, Alex. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Ligaya’s Filipino accent was gone. It sounded like English was her native tongue. Alex’s Waray-Waray didn’t sound nearly as good. He consulted Ligaya’s mind again, this time paying more attention to the pronunciation of the words.
“Waray upay an pagyakan ko. Islang hin duro.”
“You just need to practice more,” Ligaya said. “You’re getting better.”
They went on like that for a good fifteen minutes until they were both speaking the other’s language perfectly. The Filipino woman would say something in English, and the Canadian man would answer in Waray-Waray. Alex looked around after a while and saw Dexter replying in Japanese to Kenji’s perfect English, and Tarso and Sandra were both going on in Portuguese.
* * *
At 11:30 that evening, Alex was the only one still awake in his room. He was lost in memories of Michelle. They filled him with a quartet of emotions: yearning, hope, love, and despair. He could see her lovely face smiling and laughing. He could hear her voice, which somehow managed to be strong and gentle at the same time. He could feel her in his arms as they held each other close. He could smell her subtle perfume. He could taste her kiss. What was she doing now? How was she handling his disappearance? He wanted to speak to her again, if only to let her know that he was okay.
Something in the background noise caught his attention and turned his thoughts away from Michelle. A telekinetic in the next room was making a break for it. The Blind Spot and telepathic security guards in this section of the facility all turned their attention to the fleeing student, save for one telepath who kept watch on the room Alex was in.
Alex acted immediately without taking the time to contemplate this sudden opportunity. He telekinetically grabbed the telepath who was watching him and slammed his head against the nearest wall. Nobody else had been watching that Alex was aware of. He was out of bed and across the room as he forced the lock of the barracks door and pushed it open.
The would-be escapist was already being subdued and taken back to his room. Alex didn’t have much time before someone noticed him. He sprinted down the hall, took a left at the end and forced open another locked door. A Blind Spot stood at the end of this corridor. His back was to Alex, but he was starting to turn towards the noise of the door opening. Alex had to act fast. He ripped the door closest to the Blind Spot off of its hinges and swung it like a baseball bat being swung by an invisible batter. It connected with a loud thud, and the Blind Spot fell flat on his face.
The door at the end of this hallway had an electronic lock that wasn’t as easy to open with telekinesis. Alex could’ve done it if he had time, but he didn’t have time. A telepathic security guard had noticed him. He needed to get out before a Blind Spot was sent to stop him, so instead of figuring out the mechanics of the lock, he gave a quick, hard mental punch and sent the steel door flying out of his way. The vacant frame was badly damaged, and the door, twisted out of shape, landed thirty feet away in the sand.
Sand! Alex thought. I’m outside! He streaked out the door into a dry, cool wind. The night sky was cloudless and full of bright stars. Alex had time to notice lights from a town about 10 kilometers to the west before the voices in his head went silent and his Touch went numb. Without stopping, he looked over his shoulder. A man he had never seen was running after him. He wore a black uniform, and he was pulling a pistol out of a holster. Alex felt an insane sense of relief: it wasn’t Hurst. Even so, it was a Blind Spot with a gun, and Alex didn’t see anything that he could take cover behind.
“Freeze!” the Blind Spot yelled. “Don’t make me shoot you, Alex!”
Alex didn’t stop. He may be telepathically deaf and telekinetically paralyzed, but there was nothing wrong with his legs. He ran in a zigzag to make himself a harder target to shoot.
Alex was feeling the first stirrings of triumph when a voice spoke up in his mind. <You’re misbehaving, Alex.> It was a voice of an old man who was still strong and healthy, a voice that Alex had never heard before. <Come on back,> the man said. And that was when Alex blacked out.
* * *
He woke up in his bed in the barracks. Ligaya sat on the edge of his bed with a sad smile on her lips. “Good morning,” she said.
“Crap,” Alex said. “What happened? I thought I was on my way back to freedom.”
“You made it further than anyone else ever has,” Ligaya said. “I’ve been listening to the security and teachers all morning. They’re pretty upset with their lapse last night. Callaway himself was the one who stopped you.”
This surprised Alex. Security had screwed up so much that the head of The Higher Mind and alleged most powerful telepath had to squash an escape attempt?
“I know,” Ligaya said. “Makes you wonder. The Blind Spots are trying to block us from hearing everything, but I’ve caught snippets of thoughts about you. They’re afraid.”
“Afraid of what? Callaway?” Alex knew that if he was in charge of an organization, and there had been a slip-up like last night, he would be furious.
“No,” Ligaya said. “They’re afraid of you.”
Alex was speechless.
Tarso wasn’t. “Don’t be so dramatic, Ligaya,” he said. “You make it sound like everyone is trembling in fear of the illustrious Alex Cook, when really it’s just a few weak telepaths afraid because they messed up.”
“Filho de puta,” Alex said.
“Kiss my ass, you ugly Canuck.”
“Hey,” Sandra said to Tarso. “You aren’t making fun of Canadians, are you?”
“Not you, babe,” Tarso said. “I don’t have anything against eastern Canadians. Just redneck westerners such as my good friend Alex here.”
Dexter came in from the shower then. “Mornin’, Alex,” he said. “I hear you had a nice little jog last night.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t as far as I wanted it to be.”
“Oh well. I’ll go with you next time. Maybe two of us would be harder to deal with.” He winked and threw his towel in the laundry hamper.
“Oh, and another thing, Alex,” Tarso said. He didn’t seem ready for the argument to be over yet. “You’re mother is a puta, not mine.”
Alex shrugged. “I can’t argue with that.”
Chapter 20: Mind Control and Levitation
I hate this, Alex said to himself.
“I hate this,” Carl echoed. Carl was neither telepathic nor telekinetic. He was a 72-year-old retired car salesman from Jackpot, Nevada. He was also a tool of The Higher Mind.
<I know you hate it> Craig said. <But mind control is arguably the best tool people like us have at our disposal. You can make anyone do anything.>
Alex always felt testy whenever he had to practice mind control. <Can’t I have a thought cross my mind without anyone making a comment on it?> he asked Craig. <I’d at least like an illusion of some degree of privacy.> Craig didn’t say anything.
Six weeks had passed since Alex had been brought to The Higher Mind. His class had moved on to finer points of telepathy, such as mind control.
Carl was reacting to Alex’s outburst. His brow furrowed, he frowned, and he clenched his fists. Alex’s mind was partially dwelling in Carl’s mind. Mind control was, in essence, deep telepathy. Alex read every layer of Carl’s mind, both conscious and subconscious. Alex could speak telepathically to Carl, or he could be subtler and send him urges to do certain things. Carl would think these urges were his own, and he wouldn’t even suspect that someone had planted them there. It was almost like hypnotism, but without having to put the person to sleep. Or, as the class was learning this morning, they could go in, shut down all the person’s conscious thoughts, and just completely take over. That’s why Alex hated this so much. He didn’t like having such complete control over a person. It took away their freedom over their own minds and bodies. This was how Stan had forced Alex to leave Lethbridge. Stan had stepped into Alex’s mind, taken over, and made Alex walk out of Michelle’s apartment, get into his car, and drive south without even being aware of it.
Right now, Carl was still conscious. Alex hadn’t taken complete control yet, but he was in a certain degree of control, which is why his anger carried over to Carl. He urged the old man to calm down. Then he closed his eyes and prepared for the next step. He pushed aside all thoughts except for those concerning the task at hand and paid attention to Carl’s mind. Alex saw himself through Carl’s eyes, felt the fear of the quiet young man sitting across the table from him. He shot glances around the room at the other pairs: people his own age matched up with other young people. His eyes often fixed on Hurst, the ever-present living statue by the door, but he never dared look at him for more than a second.
This young man in front of Carl reminded him of his son, Rex, who still lived in Chicago. Carl hadn’t seen Rex in the seven years since he had moved to Nevada to retire shortly after Thelma’s death. Carl yearned to see his grandchildren again. But not right now. Right now, in spite of his fear, he was tired. His eyelids drooped, his chin lowered onto his chest, and all thoughts of strange young people fled as he lost consciousness.
Good, Alex thought. He had given Carl the strong urge to sleep, and Carl had acted on that urge without hesitation. Alex was alone in Carl’s head. He could sense the brain’s subconscious functions, and there was a vast well of memories he could freely dip into, but Carl’s conscious mind was gone for now. A dream tried to start, but Alex repressed it. He didn’t want any distractions.
Alex opened Carl’s eyes and saw himself sitting motionless on the other side of the small table with his eyes closed and ears plugged. He looked asleep. Alex smiled, but with Carl’s mouth instead of his own. This struck Alex as odd. Was he so deeply into Carl’s mind that he wasn’t in control of his own body anymore? He tried to move his hand, but it was Carl’s hand that moved. Weird. For all intents and purposes, Alex was Carl. He saw through Carl’s eyes. He heard through Carl’s ears. He moved with Carl’s body. Only his mind was Alex Cook.
He looked down at his hands and saw the hands of an old man. They were wrinkled, dotted with liver spots, and covered with fine white hairs. They were larger than Alex’s own hands. He stood up, and a sharp pain shot through his hip and down to his right knee. He almost fell back into the chair, but he managed to hold himself up with his hands on the table. After a quick consultation with Carl’s memory, he discovered that he had arthritis. Standing must be done slowly. Alex straightened up and grimaced at the pain in his hip. His back was sore, too, but it wasn’t the pain of arthritis. Alex glanced at himself, his real self, and was pleased to see the grimace of pain on his face. He hadn’t completely abandoned himself after all.
Alex looked around the room at the other elderly people. They had all been kidnapped from Jackpot, the nearest town, and brought here so that the telepathy students of The Higher Mind could practice their mind control. They would be returned to their homes when they weren’t needed anymore, and all memory of their abduction would be telepathically removed from their minds. Alex felt sorry for them, but he couldn’t think of a way to help them short of destroying the organization, and he had no clue how he could accomplish that.
“Is that you, Alex?” an old woman named Wanda said. Alex peeked into the woman’s mind and recognized the thoughts of Tarso in control there. He knew that Carl was Alex. Speaking was just his way of showing off his control of the woman.
Control that Alex could match.
“Yeah, Tarso, it’s me,” Alex said with Carl’s lips. It was strange hearing another man’s voice coming out of his mouth. Of course, it wasn’t actually his mouth.
“You look good as an old man,” Tarso/Wanda said and laughed. It sounded strangled and unnatural. Alex looked into Wanda’s mind and saw that Tarso was trying to use his own laugh, but Wanda’s body had reflexively tried to laugh the way she usually did. The result was an awkward mixture of the two laughs.
Alex/Carl smiled. He let Carl laugh, and it came out naturally and smooth, the low, quiet chuckle of an old man who hasn’t laughed much in the recent years. “Keep practicing,” Alex/Carl said. “You’ll get it some day.”
Tarso/Wanda scowled and turned away from Alex/Carl. The other old people in the room were just now opening their eyes under the control of the other students. They hadn’t mastered the ability as quickly or as thoroughly as Alex and Tarso, but they were getting the hang of it.
“So what now, Craig?” Alex/Carl asked. “Is there anything more to this, or do I pretty much have it down?”
<You pretty much have it down> Craig said. <Just wait for the others to catch up to you.>
<Fine> Alex said, <but I’m waiting in my own body. I’ve violated Carl enough.>
Alex ignored the thought crossing Craig’s mind—something about Alex being self-righteous—and sat down in front of himself. He closed his/Carl’s eyes and pulled out of Carl’s mind. He opened his eyes—his own eyes this time—and saw Carl slouching in the chair. He could’ve woken him up, but decided against it. Let him sleep. It was less stressful on him.
* * *
Lunch didn’t go well. Tarso was livid. Everyone knew why, but Tarso refused to admit that it was because Alex had humiliated him with the laughing incident. The thought was there, glaring in his mind, but he never said anything about it out loud.
“You smug, little bastard,” Tarso said as he, Sandra, and Eugene sat down across the table from Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya.
“Why do we keep sitting at the same table as these guys?” Alex asked Dexter.
“Them’s the rules,” Dexter said. “Y’all have to sit with your class at all meals.”
“Don’t ignore me, dick-face, I’m talking to you,” Tarso said.
“Oh, now, why would I ignore you, Tarso?” Alex said. “You’re such a pleasure to talk to.”
“You’re not the only quick learner here,” Tarso said. “Quit acting like you’re superior to all of us. I’m easily as powerful as you are.”
“The sad thing is,” Ligaya said, “he actually believes that.”
Alex wasn’t so quick to brush off Tarso’s confidence in his abilities. Alex knew that he was good. He also knew that Tarso was good. Their strength was comparable.
“Shut up, you dog-eating, wannabe-American, backwoods Filipino,” Sandra said. “Tarso isn’t talking to you.”
“Call off your whore, Tarso, before she starts flinging her herpes all over the cafeteria,” Alex said.
“You son of a bitch!” Sandra said. Alex saw the thought to attack him enter her mind, and he decided to act before she did. He sent her the urge to sleep, and as she lost consciousness, he took over.
“Hi,” Alex made Sandra say. “I’m Sandra. I’m Tarso Werlang’s horny little bitch. I have sex with any dick I can get my hands on. What will I do when I’m old and my tits sag to my—“
Tarso sent Alex flying across the cafeteria. Alex abandoned Sandra’s mind while he was in mid-air, so he was able to push things and people out of his way. He slammed into the wall, pressed there by Tarso’s telekinetic hand.
<You wanna play, let’s play> Alex said. He reached out, grabbed Tarso, and pulled him forward. As Tarso flew through the air, Alex felt the force of Tarso’s telekinesis vanish, and he took a few steps away from the wall. As Tarso approached, Alex stuck his arm out to clothes line him. Tarso foresaw the strategy and pushed Alex’s arm out of his way. He turned himself around so that he slammed into the wall with his back instead of his face.
“That’s enough,” Hurst said from the corner of the room. Alex and Tarso suddenly found themselves without their special abilities, but the fight hadn’t left them yet. Tarso swung a fist at Alex’s face. Alex backed away. He avoided Tarso’s punch, but tripped over an overturned chair. How did I ever get through life without my Touch, Alex thought as he fell on his butt. Tarso’s foot was flying at his face. Alex grabbed it, and then swung his own leg and tripped Tarso. He went down hard. Alex crawled on top of him and punched his nose. There was a satisfying crunch and a small explosion of blood from his nostrils. As Tarso cried out and put his hands to his broken nose, Alex wound up for another blow. He never delivered the punch, because something hard struck him in the back of the head, and he lost consciousness.
* * *
Alex woke up in the infirmary with a headache. It was nothing compared to the headaches that came with the onset of his mental powers, but it was still an impressive pain. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head where a good-sized goose egg was throbbing. There was a fresh scab there, too. Whatever had hit him had drawn blood.
“Serves you right,” Tarso said. Alex looked behind him and saw Tarso sitting on another examination table with a splint on his nose. Both of his eyes were black from the force of Alex’s punch. “You broke my damn nose. Hurst shouldn’t have stopped after kicking you in the head.”
<I’m not talking to you, Tarso> Alex said.
“No problem,” Tarso said. “I can talk plenty for the both of us.”
Oh joy, Alex thought to himself as he stood up. A nurse, drawn by Tarso’s voice, came into the room with two pill bottles. “These are for the pain,” she said and handed a bottle to each of them. “Directions are on the label. Are you feeling dizzy at all, Alex?”
Alex had stopped being surprised long ago that everyone knew his name. He and Tarso were the most famous students ever to attend The Higher Mind’s school. Everyone was talking about them.
“Just a little,” Alex said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good,” she said. “You’re already late for your afternoon class. The two of you better get moving.”
Alex couldn’t stand the thought of being alone with Tarso, not even for a short time, so, as Tarso ranted about what an ass Alex was during their walk to telekinesis class, Alex searched through the background noise until he found the minds of Dexter and Ligaya.
<How are you feeling?> Ligaya asked when she noticed Alex’s presence.
<I’ve been better> he said. <But on the other hand, I’ve been worse, too.>
<Dude, you fulfilled my fondest dream> Dexter said. <I’ve wanted to lay into Tarso ever since I met him.>
Alex smiled. <I know what you’re smiling at, asshole> Tarso said. Alex ignored him as he found out what their current assignment was from Ligaya and Dexter. Ryan was teaching them how to fly.
<Isn’t it wild?> Dexter said. He hadn’t actually attempted to put Ryan’s lesson to use yet. Ryan was still explaining to them that levitation was the hardest telekinetic ability to master, and that more than half of telekinetic people couldn’t even do it. “But you guys are the cream of the crop,” he said as Alex listened with Dexter’s ears. “I expect that all six of you will be doing it by the end of the class.”
Alex and Tarso arrived at the classroom at that point. They opened the door and went inside.
“Hey guys,” Ryan said. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” they both said.
“Do you need to be brought up to speed, or have you already done that?” Ryan asked.
“We’ve already done it,” Alex said. “Explain to us how it’s done.” He was intrigued by the prospect of levitating, and he was anxious to learn how.
“It’s really quite simple,” Ryan said. “The only reason that so many telekinetic people can’t do it is purely psychological. They can’t help thinking in such physical terms. If you were to grab yourself with your hands and lift, you wouldn’t leave the ground. It’s impossible.”
“Our telekinesis doesn’t work the same way?” Sandra asked.
“No,” Ryan said. “Your telekinesis isn’t physical. There’s no substance to it. It’s a force; whereas your hands are physical tools that gravity works on. For some reason, a lot of people can’t grasp that. They understand it intellectually, but they don’t truly believe it. But watch this.”
Ryan floated off of the floor and hovered a few feet in the air. “It’s no different than telekinetically lifting any other object. I just grab on and lift.” He performed a neat back flip, and then soared around the room looking like someone out of a comic book. He only needed spandex and a cape to complete the image.
Alex felt his own body with his Touch. Until now, he had used his Touch on everything but himself. He was already aware of his own body, so he never even thought of Touching it. As he Touched it now, he had an acute awareness of his body that he had never experienced before. He felt every hair, every line in his skin, every pore, every blemish. He tried to determine where it would be best to grab on to lift himself. The torso seemed the most likely, so he grabbed it and lifted. His feet left the ground.
Alex looked down to confirm he was levitating. He couldn’t believe it. A grin spread across his face as he saw his feet hanging a good six inches off the ground.
Ryan looked shocked. “That’s the fastest anyone has ever learned to do it!” he said. “Good job, both of you!”
Alex looked around the room and saw that Tarso was also levitating. The others were still struggling with it. Eugene tried to lift his feet, and he ended up just throwing himself off balance and falling over. Sandra, Dexter, and Ligaya were trying to get themselves in the right frame of mind. Alex didn’t understand why they were having so much trouble with it. Levitation seemed so natural to him. Ryan was right: just grab on and lift.
“Play with it,” Ryan said.
Alex leaned forward until he was horizontal. He held his arms out in front of him like Superman and carried himself around the room. He flew higher until he was almost touching the ceiling, flipped, twirled, and swooped down until he almost touched the floor. It gave him such a feeling of power and freedom that he couldn’t help laughing and whooping like a child on a roller coaster. Tarso was doing the same, but he was keeping his distance from Alex.
“Heads up!” Ligaya said. Alex turned and saw her flying straight at him. He dodged out of the way, and, laughing, she flew past him.
“Isn’t this awesome?” Alex asked her. She laughed again in reply.
Alex looked down at Dexter, Sandra, and Eugene. Sandra and Dexter were both shakily rising into the air. Eugene was taking a different approach. He had pressed himself against a wall and was slowly pushing himself up. After a few minutes, he pulled away from the wall and floated.
“Good job, everybody,” Ryan said. “You’ve exceeded my expectations.”
Chapter 21: Contact
Michelle went to bed after a long day, but she couldn’t sleep. She was exhausted, but sleep still eluded her. She couldn’t stop thinking about Alex. He was all that she could think about. The police hadn’t made any progress, and her newspaper ads hadn’t yielded any results. Where was he? Was he okay? When was he coming back?
After work today, Michelle had gone to the police station in Lethbridge. With her help, they had tracked down Simon, Jeremy, and the other young men who had tried to attack Alex in Henderson Park on the night he disappeared. Michelle had identified them, and the police questioned them. She had stuck around to hear what the police had learned from them, which turned out to be nothing. They had gone home immediately after the incident in the park, and their parents could vouch for them. The police let them go. Michelle hadn’t really thought it was them, anyway, but she couldn’t think of anyone else who would’ve taken him. At least the police were doing something now that Alex had been missing for two months.
Maybe someone had known about his new talents and decided to take him for some reason. The only other people who knew were Chuck and Andrea, and they wouldn’t have done anything to Alex.
Oh, Alex, where are you?
* * *
Alex lay awake in his bunk watching his roommates dream and listening to the telepathic security guards thinking. Their thoughts weren’t very interesting, and Alex wasn’t in the mood for dream watching. His mind, as it usually was at night, was on Michelle. How was she doing?
I wonder if I can find her from here, Alex thought. He checked the security guard who was watching his room. The guard had somehow missed the thought. Since the background noise had pretty much become a constant in Alex’s life, he had learned how to think of more than one thing at a time. This thought about finding Michelle had been subtle, and the guard had been distracted by Alex watching everyone dream and by his feeling of depression. Alex kept watching the dreams and listening to the guards. While he did, he set about the task of finding Michelle without anyone noticing. He’d probably be discovered and stopped, but he decided to try anyway. It couldn’t hurt.
He knew that he was in Nevada. They had tried to hide that fact at first, but they couldn’t keep it from him as his powers strengthened. So he closed his eyes and reached out to the north. He kept his background noise centered on the training facility, but searched specifically for Michelle’s mind. He dipped in and out of minds as he came across them, determining where they were, and moving on once he knew.
Half an hour passed. He found himself in the mind of a middle-aged man in Kelowna, British Columbia. That was around the right distance north; it was just too far west. He started moving east towards Alberta.
* * *
Michelle’s weariness and frustration started getting to her. She missed Alex. She wanted him back, but she didn’t even know if he was alive. If she couldn’t have him back, she at least wanted closure. She couldn’t stand living like this.
Oh God, did I just give up, she thought. Did I just accept that he’s probably dead? And that did it. Tears came. She hated crying, but she was too worn out to care. They came in a flood, and her body shuddered as she sobbed.
* * *
Once Alex found someone in Lethbridge, it was simple to find Michelle. He knew the geography of the city, and he went directly to Michelle’s apartment. And there she was, sobbing.
Alex had never seen Michelle cry like this before. A wave of love and pity washed over him. He saw that she was crying for him, and he started to cry himself.
They’ll hear this for sure, he thought, but the telepathic security guard didn’t give any sign of noticing. That made no sense to Alex, but he didn’t dwell on it. He had to take advantage of this brief lapse before he was discovered.
He wanted to speak to Michelle and tell her that he was okay and that he wanted to be with her, but he didn’t want to risk doing something so blatant. There’s no way the security guard would miss it if he started speaking telepathically to someone in another country. No, he needed to do something more subtle, but something that Michelle wouldn’t miss.
He thought back to two months ago as he and Michelle went for a walk in Henderson Park. Michelle had been teasing him about liking another girl, and Alex had done something to assure her that his heart belonged solely to her. Maybe he could get away with doing that now.
* * *
Michelle’s sobs came to a sudden stop. Something in her had changed. An overwhelming feeling of love came over her. Not her love for Alex, but something different. Something familiar.
“Alex!” she said. This was the exact sensation she felt two months ago when Alex wordlessly communicated how he felt to her just before Simon, Jeremy, and company had shown up. “Is it really you?”
* * *
He wanted to answer. He wanted to say yes, to tell her how much he loved her and missed her. Instead, he reached out telekinetically. It was easy to find her with his Touch since he was already in contact with her telepathically. Instead of saying anything, he gently applied pressure to certain parts of her body. He hoped that it would give her the sensation he was hoping for.
* * *
As Michelle felt Alex’s love for her, she felt something physical as well. It took her a moment to recognize it, but she smiled once she identified what she was feeling. It was a hug. Then the hug stopped, and with it, the emotions Alex had sent her.
He was gone again. But now she knew that he was alive.
* * *
Alex was cut off. The hug had been noticed, and a Blind Spot had been instructed to shut Alex out. He wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled.
Block me all you want now, you bastards, he thought. I accomplished what I wanted.
No one answered, and he couldn’t read anyone’s mind. Content, he drifted off to sleep.
PART THREE: REVOLT
Chapter 22: Graduation
“Come with me.”
Alex looked up from his hash browns and scrambled eggs. His classmates also looked up with a degree of wariness. Only the ever-silent Cam looked unperturbed. Hurst was speaking to them. This was unusual. He never spoke unless someone was doing something against the rules.
<Where does he want us to go?> Dexter asked. <We have class after breakfast.> The five telepaths in the class always had telepathy training after breakfast every morning. Eugene had an extra telekinesis practice session, and Cam went off to whatever training Blind Spots did.
“Can we at least finish eating?” Alex asked. He sensed everyone’s fear of being reprimanded because of the question. No one questioned Hurst when he told you to do something. In the week since Alex had contacted Michelle, however, he had been feeling insolent.
Hurst’s eyes simmered like two red-hot pebbles set in the granite cliff of his face. He didn’t speak. Instead, he swept Alex’s plate onto the floor.
<I think we should forget breakfast and go with him> Sandra said. It was one of the rare moments that everyone agreed.
Hurst led them out of the cafeteria in a direction that didn’t lead to their daily class. They were taken through corridors that they had never been to before. Alex had been aware of these corridors because of his Touch, but he had never walked through them. After a couple of minutes, Hurst stopped and faced a blank wall.
Alex and his classmates fidgeted nervously and glanced at each other as Hurst stood there looking at the wall. <What’s he doing?> Dexter asked.
<Feel the wall> Alex said. He had examined the section of wall that Hurst was standing in front of more thoroughly and discovered seams that suggested a hidden door. His Touch, however, didn’t feel anything on the other side of the wall besides the smooth concrete that the facility was built on.
The hidden door slid open, and Alex saw what his Touch told him wasn’t there: a small reception area. A desk was positioned opposite the door. A man sat there in front of a computer. The only other person in the room was a Blind Spot. There were two doors behind the desk. One had the symbol for telepathy—two heads connected by a line—and the second had the symbol for telekinesis—a hand extending from a forehead.
“How is this room here?” Eugene asked. “I can’t feel it.”
“The Blind Spots must keep it hidden from us,” Alex said. “These are the offices of Parks and Callaway.”
Hurst stepped into the room, and everyone followed him. Upon entering, Alex’s telepathy and telekinesis were inhibited. The door slid shut as the last person—Cam—entered the reception area.
The man behind the desk smiled at them. Alex had no idea who he was; this disturbed him. He thought he had known everyone here, yet this man had hid from his presence. He was too young to be Parks or Callaway, so Alex assumed that he was their assistant or something like that.
“Welcome to the inner offices,” the man said. “I’m Chris. Mr. Callaway is waiting for you. Go right in.” He motioned to the door with the telepathy insignia on it. Hurst went through first, followed by Alex and the other students.
The office looked expensive. The walls were covered in oak paneling, and the floor was marble. The desk, which dominated the room, was large and mahogany. A fern grew in a pot in the corner of the room, and a painting hung on the wall behind the desk. A liquor cabinet and a small refrigerator stood to the right of the desk.
Alex had never seen John Callaway, but he had seen the memory of him in the minds of the instructors of The Higher Mind’s training facility. He was a small man, no taller than 5’4” and probably weighing about 135 pounds. What was left of his hair was white, and his skin was pale and wrinkled with age. Despite this frail appearance, he still had an air of power and authority about him. It was in his eyes. They were confident brown eyes with a depth to them that was surprising. There was no telling how much the most powerful telepath on record had seen in the decades he had lived. Alex longed to peek into his mind and glimpse his memories, but Hurst and the other Blind Spot in the reception area weren’t letting him.
“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” Tarso said.
Callaway smiled. “Thank you, Tarso, but the honor is mine.”
Tarso beamed at this little bit of flattery.
“I’ve been wanting to meet you all for a while now,” Callaway said. “You’re the strongest class I’ve seen since Parks, Hurst, and I founded this organization. I’m anxious to see what all of you can do out in the field.”
“You have met us, I’m sure,” Alex said. “Not in person, no, but you can’t tell me that you haven’t looked at our most private thoughts and memories.”
Everyone tensed except for Alex. They didn’t know what type of man Callaway was. How would he react to Alex’s insolence?
“Yes, Alex, I have read all of your minds,” Callaway said after a brief pause. “I like to know my students. You’ve done it yourself; all of you have, with the exception of Eugene and Cam. We’re telepaths. We read minds. It’s that simple.”
“Why’ve ya brought us here today?” Dexter asked.
“To congratulate you,” Callaway said. “You’ve successfully completed your training.”
“Does that mean we can go home now?” Alex asked.
Callaway laughed. “No, Alex, I’m sorry. You can never go back to Lethbridge. None of you can go back to your homes.”
“Why?” Alex asked.
“Too many people there know you. Your loved ones are there. Our jobs are always complicated when we are attached to outsiders.”
“Outsiders?” Alex said.
“Normal people,” Callaway elaborated. “People who aren’t of The Higher Mind. As you all know, this is a secret organization. We run this country, and in a matter of years we’ll run the world. We can’t lead normal lives with normal people while keeping this secret.”
“What if we talk?” Alex said. “What if we don’t want to keep this secret?”
“You may be leaving The Higher Mind headquarters,” Callaway said, “but never forget, Alex, that you are always being watched. This is like an army. You have superiors who give you orders and make sure you follow them out. For the most part, you will work independently, but there is a chain of command that must be respected.”
“So you’re saying if we talk, we’ll be silenced,” Ligaya said.
“Yes,” Callaway said. “And anyone you talk to will also be silenced.”
“Where will we be assigned?” Sandra asked.
“In your respective countries,” Callaway said, “but not anywhere near where you lived before you came here. You’ll receive your specific assignments this afternoon. In the meantime, go to the barracks and relax until you’re contacted. Tarso, Sandra, Eugene, and Cam, you can go now. Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya I need to have a few more words with you.”
Tarso glared at Alex as he left the room. The stupid asshole is jealous that Callaway has more to say to me than to him, Alex thought. Doesn’t the moron realize that we’re in trouble for being so unwilling to be agents of this place?
“This is a very exciting time,” Callaway said. He was speaking to all three of them, but he looked directly at Alex. “Never have I seen a class with students so talented in both the telepathic and telekinetic aspects of our trade.”
Alex wondered what Callaway was trying to accomplish by flattering them.
“The Higher Mind has been functioning smoothly for decades,” Callaway continued. “We have, however, had our share of rogue agents.”
Here we go, Alex thought.
“Thankfully, we’ve always been able to subdue these traitors before they do much damage. What little damage they did cause was easily repaired.”
“Where are these people now?” Ligaya asked.
“Dead, unfortunately,” Callaway said. “They refused to co-operate, so we had no choice but to execute them to prevent further disturbances.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Dexter asked. Alex had no reason to ask, and he suspected that Dexter knew what the answer was. He just wanted to see if Callaway would come right out and say it.
“I want the three of you to be on the look-out for these rogues,” Callaway said. “The three of you are very powerful, and I believe that any traitors would try to persuade you to join them. If they do, don’t be afraid to inform your superiors.”
Bullshit, Alex thought. He’s warning us not to become one of these rogues, not to beware of them. He knows how we feel about The Higher Mind. This is just his way of telling us not to do anything stupid.
Alex was sure that Callaway was listening to his thoughts, but the old man gave no sign that he was. He smiled and stood up. “Again, congratulations,” he said and held out his hand. Dexter shook it, then Ligaya. When the hand was extended to Alex, he just said. “Can we go now?”
“Of course,” Callaway said. His rejected hand lowered to his side. “You can wait in your barracks until your assignments arrive. Hurst, see them out, please.”
Hurst nodded to Callaway. He turned, opened the door, and motioned for Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya to leave the room.
Chapter 24: First Assignment
Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya gathered at the end of the barracks farthest from the door, while Tarso, Sandra, Eugene, and Cam gathered at the end nearest the door. Tarso and his friends were talking with the excitement of children on Christmas Eve. They were eager to go out in the world and get their mental hands dirty in the work of The Higher Mind.
Alex and his two companions, on the other hand, sat together without saying a word. They dreaded the idea of doing such dirty work. Alex sat in a morose silence on his bed with his back against the wall. Ligaya sat beside him, looking much the same as Alex did. On the edge of the bed, one leg tucked under him and the other hanging over the side, Dexter picked tiny balls of lint off of the blanket.
“What do you think our assignments will be?” Dexter said. He didn’t really care; any assignment would be bad. He spoke more to have something else to hear other than Tarso and company.
“I don’t know,” Alex said. This was followed by an awkward pause in the conversation.
“I think I’d make a good assassin,” Eugene said from the other side of the room. “Do you think they’ll make me an assassin?”
“I’m going to miss you guys,” Ligaya said. “I wish we could’ve known each other under better circumstances.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Dexter said. “If y’all ever find yourselves in Texas, look me up.” He knew that there was a good chance he’d never be in Texas again, but he chose to ignore this.
“I’m glad we had each other here,” Alex said. “Can you imagine how the past couple of months would’ve been if we had to live with Tarso, Sandra, and Eugene without having each other?”
Ligaya shuddered. “I try not to think about that,” she said.
The door at the front of the room opened, and Hurst walked in.
<Is this it?> Ligaya asked.
<Could be> Dexter said.
“Cam,” Hurst said. “You’re new assignment is with me, son. Come on.”
<Son?> Alex thought. <Did Hurst just use a term of endearment?>
<I wouldn’t’ve believed it if I hadn’t’ve heard it myself> Dexter said.
Cam stood and went to Hurst. The older man put a hand on Cam’s shoulder as he turned and led him out of the room. The door closed behind them.
Alex, Dexter, and Ligaya exchanged surprised looks.
Son, Hurst had said. And then that hand on Cam’s shoulder. Something occurred to Alex. “Hey, what’s Cam’s last name?” he asked.
Dexter and Ligaya didn’t know.
“You don’t think Hurst was being literal when he called Cam ‘son,’ do you?” Alex asked.
“No, he couldn’t be,” Ligaya said, but she didn’t sound sure.
“I dunno,” Dexter said. “Think about it for a minute. Cam was every bit as quiet as Hurst, if not quieter.”
“Same green eyes, too,” Alex said.
Before they could discuss it further, the door opened again. Two Blind Spots and Craig stood there. “I have your assignments,” Craig said. Tarso, Sandra, and Eugene sprang to their feet and accepted a slip of paper each from Craig. Alex, Ligaya, and Dexter remained seated at the far end of the room.
“Come get your assignments,” Craig said. When they didn’t move, Craig handed the three slips of paper to one of the Blind Spots, who crossed the room and set the papers on the bed next to Dexter. Alex, a gleam of defiance in his eyes, stared up at the Blind Spot and made no move to take his slip of paper. The Blind Spot stared back. He seemed anxious for Alex to try something. His hand rested on the butt of the gun holstered on his hip.
“Whether you read your assignments or not,” Craig said from the doorway, “you’ll be shipped out tomorrow. It might be best to know what’s coming before hand.”
Alex glared at Craig, then back at the Blind Spot. Never breaking eye contact, he grabbed the slips of paper and handed them to Dexter, who sorted through them and handed them out.
“Good,” Craig said. The Blind Spot in front of Alex turned and left the room with Craig and the other Blind Spot.
Alex looked at the slip of paper that Dexter had given him:
Name: Alex Cook
Ability: telepathy/telekinesis
Sex: male
Age: 25
Nationality: Canadian
Assignment: Parliamentary control, Ottawa, Canada.
Control: Samuel Johnson
“Parliamentary control.” Alex knew what they meant by that. Telepaths at The Higher Mind’s training facility picked up a lot of knowledge even without being taught it directly in class. He would control the Canadian parliament so that they would do the will of The Higher Mind. This would sometimes include assassinating anyone who Parks and Callaway especially disliked.
This was unacceptable.
“Sonuvabitch,” Dexter muttered under his breath. Ligaya said something in Waray-Waray: “Pastilan!” Their assignments were equally unpleasant.
Alex looked at Dexter. “They’re sendin’ me to New York,” Dexter said. “United Nations control.”
“I’ll be in Manila,” Ligaya said. “They’re calling it ‘Presidential Control.’”
“This is unacceptable,” Alex said and stood up.
<Alex?> Ligaya asked.
<I’m going to tell Callaway where he can shove his assignment> Alex said.
<Are you sure that’s wise?>
Alex didn’t answer. He turned and headed for the door. Before he reached it, Tarso stepped in front of him. “I don’t recommend that,” Tarso said.
Alex shoved him out of his way and grasped the doorknob.
“Callaway is the strongest telepath there is,” Tarso said as Alex opened the door. “He’ll see you coming a mile away. Probably knows you’re coming already.”
Alex ignored him and stepped into the hallway.
Tarso still called after him. “You know how many Blind Spots are in this place! You’ll never get near Callaway!”
Alex reached back with his mind and closed the door in Tarso’s face. He was halfway to Callaway’s office before the first Blind Spot stepped into his path. It was only one. She was inhibiting his telepathy and telekinesis, but she hadn’t yet drawn her side arm.
“Go back to your room, Alex,” she said.
“I need to talk to Callaway.”
The Blind Spot smiled. “Sorry,” she said. “You only speak to Callaway when he wants you to speak to him.”
Foot steps behind Alex. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Hurst accompanied by two more Blind Spots. He turned to face them.
“Get to your room,” Hurst said. His voice chilled Alex’s spine, but it was soon thawed by Alex’s hot anger.
“No,” Alex said as he turned to face Hurst. “I demand to speak to Callaway.” He knew it was futile, but he tried to use his telepathy. As a normal man, he didn’t stand a chance against four armed guards. He was intent on confronting Callaway, and he needed his mental abilities in order to do that.
Hurst struck Alex in the face with the back of his hand. Alex staggered back a few steps, his cheek bright red where he had been hit.
“This is the last time I’m giving you a chance to walk back under your own power,” Hurst said. “Go back to your room.”
Alex touched his cheek and glared at Hurst. “No,” he said. He tried all the harder to read Hurst’s mind.
Hurst drew his pistol. “Cuff him,” he ordered the female Blind Spot who had first approached Alex. She removed a pair of handcuffs off of her belt and moved closer behind Alex.
“Don’t touch me,” Alex said.
“Touch him all you want,” Hurst said. “We’ll shoot him if he resists.”
Hurst’s face was inscrutable. It was impossible to tell if he was bluffing or not. Alex was trying so hard to read Hurst’s mind that he had a headache, but the alpha Blind Spot didn’t even seem to be struggling to block his efforts.
The woman slapped the handcuffs onto Alex’s wrists behind his back. Alex was fuming, but he had no chance winning a physical confrontation. He could only try his hardest to break Hurst’s mind while they bound him and dragged him back to the barracks.
It’s useless, Alex thought to himself. No one has ever been able to break a Blind Spot, and it looks like I’m no exception. He almost gave up then, but something stopped him: a single bead of sweat trickled down the side of Hurst’s cheek.
Hurst was exerting a lot of effort, after all.
Alex resumed his mental struggle with a renewed zeal. Maybe he could break him.
“Come on,” Hurst growled and led Alex and the other three Blind Spots back the way Alex had come.
Alex sensed something. It was small, but it was something: fear. Not his own fear; Hurst’s fear. Alex pressed harder, and at last he heard a thought: He’s so strong!
I’ve done it! Alex silently cheered.
<Let go of me> Alex commanded the two Blind Spots holding him on either side. Using his telepathy while being inhibited by the Blind Spots was like swimming in cold syrup, but he could still manage. They let go of him. Using his telekinesis, he snapped the handcuffs off and let them fall to the floor.
Realizing the trouble, Hurst spun around, raising his gun. Alex could see the fear in his eyes now. He hid it well, but it was still there. Before the gun was leveled on him, Alex tore it out of the man’s hand.
Hurst was the only obstacle at the moment. Alex had reached into the minds of the three weaker Blind Spots and put them to sleep. They fell to the floor even as Hurst turned to face Alex. Hurst, who was much stronger than the other three, was able to keep Alex from exerting any sort of mind control over him.
<I’m going now> Alex said. <Don’t try to stop me.> Pointing at its owner, Hurst’s gun hovered between them. Hurst, who had now been worked up into his own rage, didn’t heed Alex’s warning. He lunged forward, murder in his eyes.
Alex pulled the trigger. It echoed through the halls.
Hurst fell at Alex’s feet. Blood pooled around his head.
Alex almost let the shock of killing a man wash over him. It might have happened, if not for the exhilaration of his full mental powers rushing back to him. He could hear the voices of everyone in the facility. Some people—mostly students—were confused, while other people—mostly staff—were in a panic.
…stronger than we thought…
… broke some Blind Spots…
…killed Hurst…
…stop him…
Alex ran for Callaway’s office, which he could now sense despite the Blind Spots hiding it from everyone else. As he went, he grabbed everyone within 100 yards of the office and forced them away. He was surprised with the ease with which he did this. If he hadn’t been working with the element of surprise, he probably wouldn’t have succeeded.
He ripped the hidden door out of the wall and stepped into the empty reception area outside of Callaway’s office.
<Come on in, Alex> the voice of Callaway spoke up in his head.
Alex crossed the reception area and opened Callaway’s office. As he stepped over the threshold, he lost consciousness.
* * *
It was dark when he woke up. He sat up in bed and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was 2:37 in the morning.
Michelle was still asleep beside him. He could hear her low steady breathing. This was her bed in her apartment. Alex stood up and stretched.
Michelle stirred and rolled over. “Alex?” she said. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Alex said and smiled at her. “I was just having a weird dream.”
“What was it about?” Michelle asked.
Alex shook his head. The dream was already fading. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Whatever it was, I didn’t like it. Something about being taken away from you.”
Michelle sat up and hugged him around the waist. “I’ll never let anyone take you away from me,” she said. “You’re mine forever.”
Alex smiled. “Forever, eh? That’s a long time.”
“I’m up for it if you are.”
“Is that a proposal, Ms. Lewis?”
Michelle pulled Alex back onto the bed. “Do you want it to be a proposal?” she asked and rolled on top of him.
Alex put his arms around her and smiled. The dark feeling left over from his dream had now been washed away. Michelle always seemed to brighten his life. “I would love to marry you,” he said and kissed her.
“Did we just get engaged?” Michelle asked and laughed.
“I think we did.”
Michelle laughed harder and kissed Alex. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too.”
“I have to call my parents.”
“It’s almost three in the morning.”
“That doesn’t matter. They’ll want to know right away. You should tell Orlando and Jilliane, too.”
Alex’s smile dimmed, and his brow creased. “How did you know my parents’ names?” he asked.
Michelle shrugged. “You’ve told me before.”
Alex tried to think back, but he couldn’t remember ever telling her their names. That didn’t mean anything, though. He had known Michelle for a long time. He must’ve told her.
“I don’t think my parents will care that I’m getting married,” Alex said. “We aren’t on very good terms.”
“They still deserve to know,” Michelle said. “They are your parents.”
“You’re right,” Alex said. “But I’ll wait until morning.”
Michelle sat up and reached for the phone. As she did, Alex looked at the clock again. 2:45. Did he have to work in the morning? He realized that he didn’t know what day it was tomorrow. As he thought further, he couldn’t remember what month it even was.
“Hey Michelle, what—“
He was going to ask her the date, but it suddenly came to him. Saturday, August 24.
“What is it, Alex?”
“Never mind,” Alex said.
Michelle turned back to the telephone and picked it up. As she dialed her number, Alex puzzled over the date. Something about it felt wrong. Not the actual date. Saturday, August 24 felt right. The way it came to him felt wrong. He had drawn a blank; he couldn’t think of a date. And then, bam, there it was, flashing like a neon sign in his mind. It seemed to come out of nowhere.
Alex listened as Michelle told her parents the news. He watched the excitement on her beautiful face, and it made him smile again.
“They want to talk to you,” Michelle said and handed him the phone. Alex took it a little anxiously. He had never spoken to Michelle’s parents before, and now he was going to be talking to them at 3:00 in the morning just after they learned that their daughter was engaged to him.
Why haven’t I met her parents yet? We’ve been dating since the beginning of May, and they only live in Coaldale. He didn’t have the opportunity to think about it right now.
“Hello,” Alex said.
“Hello, Alex,” Michelle’s father said. “I understand you intend to marry my daughter.”
“Yes, sir,” Alex said.
“She seems quite taken with you. I trust her judgment, so I’m sure she’s making a wise choice.”
“Thank you,” Alex said. He wanted to address Mr. Lewis by name, but Michelle had never told him his name. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Michelle has never told me your name.”
There was a pause. What would he be pausing for? He knows his own name, doesn’t he?
“Stanley,” Mr. Lewis said.
Alex paused now. Mr. Lewis seemed caught off guard by the simple question. Why?
“I look forward to meeting you,” Alex said.
“Me, too,” Mr. Lewis said. “My wife and I would like to congratulate you in person.”
“Can’t wait,” Alex said. “Thank you.”
“For now, though, I need to get some sleep. Congratulations, Alex. Can I say good-bye to Michelle before I hang up?”
“Sure.” Alex handed the phone to Michelle and went to the washroom. He flipped on the light and closed the door behind him.
Something was bothering him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something was wrong. Mr. Lewis had paused as if he couldn’t think of his name. Or had that been his imagination? Or maybe he was just reading too much into it. Mr. Lewis must’ve been tired, probably even still half asleep.
I snippet of his dream came to Alex then: a gun, floating at face level, firing at a large, angry man. The shot echoing through the corridors of some sort of large building.
A floating gun? How would a gun float?
I was holding it, Alex thought. But not with my hands.
“Callaway!” Alex whispered. The washroom seemed to shimmer as if it were made of nothing but mist. Michelle’s voice in the other room wavered and seemed to come from miles away. His face in the mirror changed, and he found himself looking at a fragile old man with white wispy hair and commanding eyes.
It lasted only a moment. The room solidified again, Michelle’s voice was strong and near at hand, and Alex’s reflection was his own.
What was that? Am I going crazy?
The memory of the slip in reality was already starting to haze. It was probably due to fatigue. He needed to get to bed.
But he resisted for some reason. Something about the face in the mirror seemed familiar. It seemed real.
<You’re tired. Go back to bed. Go back to Michelle.>
Alex almost mistook the voice in his mind for his own. Almost.
“Callaway!” He said it louder this time, and with anger.
“Alex?” Michelle said from the bedroom. She had finished talking to her parents and came to check on him. “What’s wrong? Who’s Callaway?”
Alex looked at Michelle and tried to read her mind. He did it without thinking. He hadn’t even remembered that he could read minds.
“Alex?”
He couldn’t read her mind. It was as if she wasn’t there. And that was the truth of it, wasn’t it? She wasn’t really there.
But somebody was there. He could here him whispering at the back of his mind.
“Callaway, you bastard!” he yelled. “You’re using my love for Michelle against me.”
“Alex, you’re scaring me,” Michelle said. “What are you talking about? Who are you talking to?”
“It isn’t going to work anymore,” Alex said. “I know this isn’t real. I remember you now. I remember The Higher Mind.”
Michelle placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Alex—“
“No!” Alex cried out and pulled away from her touch. It felt too much like the real thing, and that made it worse. “Don’t you dare use her like this!”
He struck out wildly in the direction of the powerful mind he sensed.
And just like that, the illusion was over. Michelle and her apartment disappeared. Alex stood in Callaway’s bright, luxurious office. Callaway himself was collapsing to the hard floor.
Alex reached out to the old man with his Touch and discovered what he had done. The man’s brain had been smashed to mush.
Disgusted by what he had done, Alex failed to notice Parks approaching in the background noise until he was right outside the door. The mahogany desk flew at him with a speed Alex didn’t think was possible. He managed to slow its flight enough that it just knocked the wind out of him and pinned him against the wall. Otherwise, it would have killed him.
Parks came through the door. This old man was as different from Callaway as old men get. He was a tall man, at least six foot three, and looked to weigh about 275 pounds. He had a full head of salt-and-pepper hair, and the firm square jaw of a drill sergeant.
Alex tried to push the desk away from him, but it held fast. The rumors of Parks’ strength were true. The Blind Spot standing behind him didn’t help Alex at all.
Alex saw Parks’ plan in his mind a moment before he implemented it, but he wasn’t able to stop it. Alex’s lungs seized up. Parks was compressing his ribcage and diaphragm and not letting them expand again. Alex couldn’t breath. He tried using his own telekinesis to get his body cooperating again, but the Blind Spot was making it impossible to overpower Parks.
That in mind, Alex shifted his focus to the Blind Spot. As he entered the inhibitor’s mind, he learned that his name was Jerry, and he had a wife and three kids. Alex decided not to kill him. Instead, he took control of Jerry’s mind and made him inhibit Parks instead of Alex.
Alex sucked in breath as the clamp on his chest vanished. He pushed the desk away, and looked into Parks’ shocked eyes. Fear was there, clear as day. Alex didn’t need telepathy to see it.
“You can’t do this!” Parks bellowed. “Do you know how much of my life I’ve dedicated to this?”
“To what?” Alex said. “Improving your life? That’s what The Higher Mind is all about, isn’t it? Making life easy for you and Callaway?”
“You stupid son of a bitch!” Parks hissed. “Do you think killing John and me will end The Higher Mind? We’re bigger than you realize!”
Alex grabbed Parks’ heart and squeezed. The man’s eyes bugged out, and then he fell dead.
Chapter 25: New Assignment
Alex sat weeping in the shade of a rock formation. Once he had gotten miles away from The Higher Mind, the shock and guilt of killing three men had caught up to him. No longer able to carry himself through the air, he had fallen to the ground and started to tremble. Sobs wracked his body as he remembered the sight of part of Hurst’s face imploding, the mush that had once been Callaway’s brain, and the feel of Parks’ heart being crushed in his grasp.
Murderer! Part of Alex’s mind had cried out. It was a voice that demanded to be heard, a voice of self-accusation, of guilt.
Alex had hugged his knees and sobbed into the white desert sand of Nevada. At first, he had been too grief-stricken to really notice the heat, but after ten minutes in the early-evening August sun, the heat was enough to overpower his guilt. He had stood up then and found the shelter of the rock formation he now huddled behind.
The sobs had died down after a while, but tears still seeped out of his bloodshot eyes. The sun was lower in the sky now, and the shadow of the rock stretched out over the dry, lifeless ground.
“I had to do it,” Alex said aloud. There was nobody to hear him, but that didn’t matter. It was himself he was trying to convince. “They were evil men. They were using an entire nation to do their will. They were kidnappers. Murderers. They kept me away from Michelle.”
He whipped his eyes. The crying had stopped, but the guilt hadn’t passed. The excuses he had just told himself were valid, but they seemed hollow to his own ears. He had taken human lives. It was something he would have to learn to live with.
And something he would probably have to do again.
He may have decapitated The Higher Mind, but it still lived. A power structure still existed, and not just at the Jackpot facility. Parks and Callaway had men spread all throughout the United States, and had even started branching out to other countries. Somebody would fill the void at the top of The Higher Mind, and it would be business as usual.
I can’t go back home. The thought depressed Alex. He wanted to go back to Michelle, but that wasn’t possible. Not yet, anyway. They would come after him, and they would probably kill him. He had to stay away from Michelle so that she wouldn’t be harmed when they came for him.
There was only one course of action that Alex saw, but he hesitated accepting it. The weight of this new assignment that he had talked himself into seemed too heavy to bear. Yet who else could bear it? Alex was stronger than anyone in recorded history. He was the only one who could overpower a Blind Spot. No one else could take down The Higher Mind. Ever since Stan the recruiter had kidnapped him, three months ago now, he had always been trying to think of ways to defend against The Higher Mind, but that wouldn’t work now.
Alex had to go on the offensive. That meant killing more people. He had to obliterate the command structure of The Higher Mind. He had to kill those in charge and anyone who tried to stop him.
His chest tightened. The thought of killing more people appalled him, and the weight of his chore seemed to be a physical force pressing down on him.
I’ve got to stop thinking like a civilian, Alex told himself. This is a war. I’m a soldier. Soldiers have to fight and kill for the greater good.
He needed a plan. Where would he start his assault on The Higher Mind?
Somebody wandered into the range of his background noise. It was a woman, Susan Rogers, 34 years old, about five miles to the west. She worked at The Higher Mind as a telepathic security guard. Her current assignment was to find Alex. Because she was weaker than Alex, she had not yet sensed him. He was too far away. Another mile or so, though, and she would sense him. And she was moving fast, driving a Hummer.
Alex stood up. He searched her thoughts to see how many people were involved in the search. There were 32 of them. Five were only telepathic, six were only telekinetic, and the other 21 were both. Alex wasn’t surprised that their orders were to contact the others once he was found, and then they would all kill him.
Alex lifted himself into the air and flew east, staying about five feet off the ground. He kept his mind’s eye on Susan to track her progress. Alex could fly at a speed of about 65 kilometres per hour. Moving this fast without the aid of a machine was amazing, but not amazing enough. The Hummer was doing 90.
Not long after he had resumed his flight, Alex heard what he was waiting for: <I have him!> Susan’s voice was telepathically broadcasting to the other 31 people looking for him. Alex expanded his background noise to a radius he had never attempted before and found the rest of his pursuers. They were spread out over a 50-mile radius around The Higher Mind facility. Alex had a brief moment to be amazed by the range of his background noise, and then stopped moving. Running was pointless. They’d be able to find him wherever he went. He had to stand and fight.
Fighting Parks and Callaway one at a time was one thing. He had his doubts about standing down 32 people at once. Nevertheless, he turned west and headed in Susan’s direction.
<He’s coming my way!> Susan said. A definite note of panic was in her. She knew she couldn’t take him on her own. <He intends to fight us all. Send help, quick!> She turned the Hummer around and headed back to the Jackpot facility.
She could hear Alex’s thoughts as well as he could hear hers. Well, this was no good. They’d know his plans as soon as he thought them up. How was he supposed to take them by surprise?
<You can’t take us by surprise> Susan said. <And there are too many of us for you to beat. Just give up and come back peacefully.>
Strong words, but Alex could sense her doubt. Alex had killed the strongest telepath, the strongest telekinetic, and the strongest Blind Spot. She wasn’t sure that the 32 of them could beat Alex. This encouraged him, and he headed west with more confidence.
Susan sensed his encouragement and took her own encouragement from it. Over confident was the phrase coming to her mind.
This was beginning to annoy Alex. He didn’t want his enemies reading his thoughts. He could feel Susan’s presence in his head. She was watching his thoughts like a movie. He tried to force her out.
<What are you doing? What was that?>
I did something, Alex thought. But what? Whatever it was, it was an ability Susan had never seen before. He decided to keep it up. Once again, he pushed her mind out of his head. Alex felt it this time. If was like a splinter slipping out of the centre of his head.
<I lost him!> Susan said to the others. <Is there a Blind Spot near him? Because he just vanished. I can’t read him anymore.>
<No Blind Spots anywhere near him> another searcher—this one a telepath and a telekinetic—said just as he came close enough to pick up Alex. Alex felt his presence slip into his mind. <He’s right there, Suze. Are you blind?>
Alex pushed the newcomer out.
<What the hell? Where did he go?>
<See what I mean?> Susan said. <It’s like there’s a Blind Spot near him keeping us from seeing him.>
<I can’t even feel him with my Touch> the newcomer—Richard—said. And then horror filled him as he realized the truth.
<No!> Susan said, sensing the same thing in Richard that Alex did. <He can’t be.>
<He’s a Blind Spot!> Richard warned everyone else.
Alex smiled.
* * *
<This is Alex Cook. You should probably get out of the building while you still can.>
Alex watched the reactions of the staff and students of The Higher Mind from a distance of about 500 meters. Surprise and confusion were the most prevalent of these reactions. Telepaths reached out to find the source of the voice. Telekinetics reached out with their Touch. Blind Spots, who could sense telepathy and telekinesis, also looked for Alex. None of them could find him, and this disturbed them, especially the Blind Spots.
Nobody was leaving the building. Alex could see Ligaya, Dexter, and other students who wanted to leave, but security had clamped down tight after Alex’s escape. They couldn’t leave.
They needed more incentive.
Alex knocked down some walls. All of the barracks now had a clear path outside.
<I said get out!> Alex yelled. <The rest of the building is coming down in five minutes whether you’re in it or not.>
This sparked action. The students ran for the new exits. The staff didn’t stop them, because they were too busy making their own escapes.
Alex put a subtle suggestion in their minds so that they would all flee west towards Jackpot. Alex approached from the south.
The people who had gone out to search for him earlier were made aware of Alex’s presence at the facility, and they started back. Alex wasn’t worried. He could do what he needed long before they arrived.
The facility now empty, Alex flew across the distance between him and the damaged building. He entered through a little-used side door and walked directly to the office of Parks and Callaway. Their bodies had been removed, but the signs of the struggle were still apparent.
Alex searched the fleeing crowd for the secretary who worked in the inner offices. He found the information he needed and went to the secretary’s desk. The disk he wanted was in a locked drawer, but that presented no problem for Alex’s telekinesis. He rummaged around and found the appropriate floppy. It was labelled: LIEUTENANTS.
Alex held in his hand a list of all of the people in positions of power within The Higher Mind.
* * *
Ligaya stopped and looked over her shoulder. The Higher Mind training facility, her unwanted home for the past three-and-a-half months, was still visible on the horizon.
“Ligaya?” It was Dexter. He had noticed her stop and stood with her. Ligaya reached out and took his hand.
“He freed us,” she said.
Dexter smiled. “Yep,” he said. “We can go home now, I reckon.”
They both looked back to the training facility in time to see it explode.
“Holy shit!” Dexter said and flinched. It was an odd explosion. There were no flames, and no thundering boom echoed over the desert. The walls and ceiling just blew apart in every direction, shattered by some unseen force.
Unseen but not unknown: Alex. She reached out for his mind then, and this time she found it.
<Go home> Alex said. She could feel the smile in his words. She smiled in return.
<No> she said. Now that she was in his mind, she saw his plan. <Strong as you are, you’re going to need help. I’ll stay in America until you don’t need me.>
<I’ll help y’all, too> Dexter said. <We’re pals, ain’t we? We’re in this together.>
<We’ll have to kill people> Alex said. <Lots of them. Are you up for that?>
<It needs to be done> Ligaya said.
Alex didn’t think any words then, but Ligaya and Dexter could feel the emotion building inside of him. They were feelings of gratitude and love for his friends.
<What’s our next move?> Dexter asked, deferring to Alex’s leadership without anyone discussing it.
<I need to get to a computer> Alex said, and they saw, just beneath his conscious thoughts, the disk he had taken from the inner offices.
<Yes> Ligaya said. <But first you need to go back to Michelle.>
Alex’s first impulse was to refuse. He was about to explain that he didn’t want to endanger Michelle by bringing her into the middle of this fight, but Ligaya stopped him. <They know about her, Alex. Do you think they’ll hesitate to use her against you?>
Alex was shocked. He hadn’t thought of that. Now that he was thinking of it, he was angry. They would probably go to her first, he realized.
<Go> Ligaya said.
Alex went.
Chapter 26: Fleeing
Michelle opened the door to her apartment. She held two bags of groceries in one hand, and her purse was slung over her shoulder. Sighing, she closed and locked the door behind her, kicked her shoes off, and went to the kitchen.
There had been no further leads in Alex’s case, and she hadn’t heard from him since the night he contacted her telepathically to let her know that he was alive. That was over a month ago, and she was losing hope again. She was going to feed her depression some ice cream, and then she was going to watch a movie until she fell asleep. Her work could wait until tomorrow.
“Michelle.”
She let out a quick shriek and whirled around to see who the intruder was.
Alex stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the hallway. He was smeared with dirt from head to toe, his red and white jumpsuit was torn, and his hair was reminiscent of Albert Einstein, but he had never looked more beautiful to Michelle. She couldn’t speak or move. She had just about given up on him, and yet here he stood, not two meters away from her.
Alex smiled. “I must admit,” he said, “this isn’t how I pictured our reunion.”
Michelle found her voice. “Is it really you?”
“Yes,” Alex said.
She ran to him and threw her arms around him so hard that he staggered back a few steps. “This is more like it,” he said and kissed her. It was the sweetest, most anticipated kiss Michelle ever had. Alex was back! He was still alive!
The kiss ended, and Michelle was full of questions. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you contact me? Who were you with?”
“I’ll tell you everything later,” Alex said. “Right now, we have to get out of here. This is one of the first places they’ll look for me.”
“Who?”
“The people who took me. They aren’t very happy with how I left them.”
Alex took Michelle’s hand and led her to the bedroom. “I hope you don’t mind, but I packed you a suitcase,” he said. “I kind of peeked into your mind to find out exactly what you’d want to bring.” The suitcase was on her bed. Alex lifted it with his free hand.
“Alex, what is going on?”
“We’re in danger here. Trust me, I’ll explain everything later. We have to get moving now before it’s too—.” He stopped, and his eyes glazed over and lost focus.
“Alex?”
“Shit,” he said. “They’re already here.”
Michelle heard the deadbolt on the front door disengage and the faint creak of the hinges as it swung open.
<Don’t say anything> Alex’s voice said in her mind. <He can feel you here, but he can’t read our minds, and he can’t feel me.>
Who is he? Michelle thought.
<His name is Eugene. He’s not telepathic, but he’s telekinetic. He’s not alone, either. A Blind Spot is with them, and Tarso and Sandra are outside. They’re like me: telepathic and telekinetic. They can’t read our minds right now, though, because I’m blocking them out. I can’t stop them from feeling you telekinetically, but they can’t feel me.>
What’s a Blind Spot?
<He makes me weaker. I’m going to do some things that you’ll find startling and maybe even unsettling, but you have to trust me and just go with the flow.>
Michelle trusted him.
They waited in silence. Two shadows appeared on the floor outside the door. When Alex’s voice spoke in her head again, it was fainter than before. <Here we go> he said.
“I know you’re in there, Alex,” an English man said from just out of sight. “I can feel you now. You’re not nearly as strong a Blind Spot as you are a telepath and telekinetic.”
“Strong enough,” Alex said. “Tarso and Sandra still can’t read my mind.”
“Doesn’t matter. Three against one with a Blind Spot inhibiting you; I think the odds are in our favour.”
“Why don’t you come in and see instead of standing in the hall talking?”
The mirror above Michelle’s dresser shattered. The shards of glass launched at them. Alex stepped between Michelle and the jagged mirror pieces just as they stopped in mid-air. They quivered in unison as if they were trying to go in two directions at once. As this was happening, the bedroom window shattered, and a swarm of broken glass attacked from a second direction.
The mattress saved them. It rose off of the bed and intercepted the glass from the window. It all lodged into the mattress. From there, it moved between them and the mirror shards and did the same thing.
A woman appeared in the window—an impressive feat, since Michelle lived on the fourth floor—and started coming through it. “Hi, Alex,” she said. “And you must be Michelle. Alex has told us so much about you.”
The glass-filled mattress slammed into her and pushed her back out the window. Her muffled scream descended to the ground, where it abruptly ended mid-shriek.
Michelle’s microwave oven flew into the room and struck Alex in the back. He cried out and fell to his hands and knees. The microwave rose a few directly above Alex’s head.
“No!” Michelle screamed. She started forward to grab the microwave, but an unseen force slammed her into the far corner of the room.
The microwave shot down, but Alex deflected it so that it fell harmlessly on the box spring.
One of the men—he was about Alex’s age—came stumbling into the room as if he were being pulled. As he made his ungraceful entry, the mattress was pushed out of the window and another man appeared there. This man looked a little older than Alex, and he had the light brown skin, dark hair, and dark eyes of a Latino.
“You killed Sandra, you bastard!” the Latino man snarled. Michelle’s bedside table flew across the room and struck Alex in the arm just as he was standing up. Alex cried out again and held his arm where it had been hit.
Eugene was standing up again. He looked at Alex, and Alex was shoved against the wall.
“Hold on a second, Eugene,” the Latino—Tarso, Michelle assumed—said and held out a hand. “Just hold him there for a second before we kill him.”
Michelle was pulled out from the corner, and she found herself floating above the bed in the middle of the room. “Alex!” she screamed.
“Oh, shut up,” Tarso said to Michelle. He turned back to Alex. “What do you say, Cook? A woman for a woman?”
Alex couldn’t speak. He seemed to be struggling for breath, but he must’ve communicated something telepathically, because Tarso grinned and said, “Or you’ll what? You can’t even move.”
Michelle’s throat constricted, and she found herself unable to breath. She clutched her throat and fought for breath, but none came. She saw Alex against the wall. Every muscle was tensed, but he couldn’t free himself from his invisible bindings.
Black swirls crept into Michelle’s vision. She was on the verge of passing out. Panic gripped her, and she thrashed her arms and legs uselessly in the air. She faintly heard laughter over the sound of her own pounding heart.
I’m dying, she thought. I just barely got Alex back, and now I’m dying.
“Ha!” It was a single bark of triumphant laughter. Michelle heard it a moment before the pressure on her throat let up, and she gasped in oxygen with a loud whoop. She was lowered gently to the corner she had been forced into earlier.
“Next time bring a stronger Blind Spot, assholes!” Alex yelled in a hoarse voice that Michelle barely recognized. She looked to the bedroom door and saw a scrawny teenage boy lying unconscious.
A scream filled the room, and Michelle looked at its source. Tarso had just been slammed into the glass-filled mattress. Red flowers were blossoming on the white material.
Eugene was lifted into the air and slammed into the wall. There was a crunching crash as he went through it and fell to the ground outside.
Tarso was still screaming. “Shut up!” Alex yelled. The microwave shot off the bed and smacked Tarso in the back of his head. His screams stopped.
Alex came to Michelle. “Are you alright?” he asked and caressed her cheek.
“I’m fine,” she gasped. Her breathing was returning to normal, and her head wasn’t swimming half as much as it had been a minute ago. “Are you okay?” A dark bruise was spreading on his upper arm where the bedside table had struck.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. He stood up, helping Michelle to her feet as he did. He reached out his right hand, and the suitcase he had packed earlier floated into his grip. “We need to go.”
Alex led her out of the bedroom and towards the door of her apartment. Michelle’s purse and keys floated into her hands. “Are you up to driving?” Alex asked. “I don’t know if I can with this arm.”
“Yeah, I can drive,” Michelle said. “Is your arm broken?”
“No,” Alex said, “but it hurts like a bugger!”
They ran down the stairs and out to the parking lot. The trunk of Michelle’s car popped open before they reached it, and Alex put her suitcase in as he passed. It slammed shut as they got in.
Michelle saw the bodies of Sandra and Eugene lying on the ground surrounded by bits of debris from the broken wall. Eugene’s neck was bent at an unnatural angle, and Sandra was covered in blood. It was obvious that they were both dead.
“Alex, what happened here?”
“I saved our lives,” Alex said. “They came here to kill us both. I had to do it. Get in the car, please, Michelle. I’ll explain everything on the road, I promise, but right now we have to go before more of them show up.”
Michelle tore her eyes away from the two dead bodies and got into the driver’s seat of her car. She pulled out of the parking lot and, under Alex’s directions, headed for Calgary. On the way, Alex told her what had happened since he had disappeared.
* * *
They stopped in the town of Claresholm for gas. Michelle went to the washroom while Alex filled the car.
She was in shock, and not just because of the strange, violent story Alex had told her, and not only for the violence she had witnessed in her own apartment. Just an hour and a half ago, she was returning alone to her home after work with a week’s worth of groceries. Now she was abandoning her home, her job, her friends, her life. Nothing would ever be the same again.
But she was doing it with Alex. She had almost lost hope of ever seeing him again, but now she had him back and wasn’t ever going to let him go again. Having him back was worth leaving everything else.
When she left the washroom, she saw Alex at the counter paying for the fuel. This gas station also sold fried chicken and spuds, so he was buying some of that, plus two bottles of Coke. Michelle joined him in line and held his hand. Alex smiled at her and turned back to the clerk to complete his transaction.
Five minutes later, they were northbound on highway 2 again. No words were exchanged between them. The only sounds were the tires on the road, and the sound of them eating.
“Michelle?” Alex said as he finished his share of food.
“Yeah?”
“You sure are quiet.”
“I’ve just been thinking about everything.”
Alex paused, and then said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Michelle asked.
“For disturbing your life like this. It must be very hard for you.”
“I take it you haven’t been reading my mind since we left the apartment,” Michelle said.
“No,” Alex said. “I told you that I wouldn’t read your mind unless I had your permission, or if it was an emergency. Remember?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Michelle said as she slowed down and pulled onto the shoulder of the highway.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked.
“Reassuring you.” Michelle stopped the car, put it in park, unbuckled her seatbelt, and climbed over to straddle Alex. She kissed him. It was a kiss filled with the passion and desire for him that had built up in her for the past few months.
“So you’re not mad at me,” Alex said.
“Of course I’m not mad at you,” Michelle said. “I finally have you back after you mysteriously disappeared over three months ago. Do you realize how painful it was to lose you? As long as I’m with you, I can handle leaving Lethbridge.”
“I love you, too,” Alex said.
Michelle got back in the driver’s seat. She put the car in drive and resumed their journey north.
“So what’s next?” Michelle asked. “Are we going to live in Calgary?”
“No,” Alex said. “I want to go farther. I was thinking someplace in British Columbia. We’ll stay in Calgary tonight, and there are things we need to do before we go on the run.”
“What things?”
“New identities, for one thing,” Alex said. “And a new car.”
“How are we going to get new identities?”
“We can do it at any license and registry office. I can be very persuasive and devious without anybody realizing it.”
* * *
They checked into a motel first. They paid cash and used fake names. When the front desk clerk asked for ID, Alex held out his empty hand. In the clerk’s mind, his hand wasn’t empty. He saw an Alberta driver’s license in the name of George Sanchez. The clerk thought he photocopied it, but he actually did no such thing. It was all a false memory implanted by Alex.
Alex needed a shower. He had traveled from Nevada to Lethbridge without the aid of a vehicle, and he was filthy from the trip. After he was cleaned, Michelle decided that she, too, could use a shower.
Michelle found Alex sitting on the bed with his back to her when she was done in the bathroom. He hadn’t put a shirt on yet, and the bruise on his back from the microwave looked nasty, but it was nothing serious. He was looking at something in the palm of his hand.
“What do you have there?” Michelle asked.
Alex closed his hand over the object and looked up at Michelle. “Come here,” he said and patted the bed beside him. “We need to talk about something.”
Michelle sat down. “What is it?”
“You know I’ve killed people,” Alex said.
“Yes,” Michelle said. “But it had to be done. The Higher Mind can’t exist. You had to kill Parks and Callaway, and you were only defending us earlier against those other four.”
Alex nodded. “You’re right. The Higher Mind can’t exist. But it does, even now that Parks, Callaway, and Hurst are dead. I need to kill all those who are still left in power.”
Michelle nodded.
“Can you handle that?” Alex said. “Being with a killer?”
“With a soldier,” Michelle said. “A soldier in a one-man army fighting an enemy that needs to be defeated.”
Alex smiled. “It might not have to be a one-man army,” he said. “Dexter and Ligaya will help me, and I’m sure there are others who will be more than happy to be free of The Higher Mind.”
“Whatever happens,” Michelle said, “I’ll be there with you.”
“We might have to run for a long time,” Alex said. “I’m just glad that I don’t have to do it on my own. I love you more than anything, and I’m happy that you were willing to leave everything to come with me.”
“I love you, too,” Michelle said and took his hand. “You’re the only thing that really matters to me. I’ll go with you anywhere.”
Alex smiled and opened his hand to show her what was in it. Michelle gasped. It was a diamond ring.
“Will you marry me?” Alex asked.
* * *
They were married the next day at city hall. Since they wanted it to be a legitimate marriage, they used their real names and obtained the license honestly. Immediately after they were married, they went to a different registry and, using Alex’s telepathy and mind control, obtained legitimate documents for fake names.
That same afternoon, they left Calgary in a new car, which they had persuaded the dealership to do a straight trade for Michelle’s car. There was also no record of the transaction.
Epilogue
Ligaya and Dexter had gone into hiding together. With all of the confusion in the aftermath of Alex’s destruction of the Jackpot facility, along with the deaths of Parks, Callaway, and Hurst, a lot of the students who didn’t want to be part of The Higher Mind had been able to slip away. All of the resources of The Higher Mind were concentrated on finding Alex, so they were able to stay hidden.
Ligaya sat on the couch in Dexter’s parents’ house. Dexter sat next to her with his arms around her. His family had gone to bed, and they were alone on the couch.
<I love you> Dexter said. It was the first time he had consciously sent her the words, but she had been aware of his feelings for some time.
<I know> Ligaya said. <I love you, too.>
<Are you gonna head back to the Philippines?>
<Not yet> she answered. <I’m enjoying being with you too much. Besides, Alex will need our help. I’ll stay and help him.>
Dexter gave her an affectionate squeeze. <I figure it ain’t gonna be easy.>
<We’ll have each other. We’ll manage.>
<I’m glad Alex is on our side. Nobody compares to his strength. We just might be able to win with him leadin’ the way!>
Ligaya smiled and kissed Dexter on the cheek. Copying his accent, she said, “It’ll be a helluva fight!”
