The Boy Who Read Minds

by Veronica Soliman

  The Boy Who Read Minds had some very strange— I mean unique— characters that I’d never envisioned myself writing about. A few of the plotlines that had changed were those of Jared, who was supposed to die, but I decided against that. Trina, a character that I had completely deleted. Trina was a unique character, but I felt that the story was going in a direction that I didn’t want it to, so I booted her.

  Had I included Trina in the final version of the book, it would’ve mixed fantasy with fiction, when in reality, the main focus was that there were no actual superpowers. Aaron wasn’t an alien, a vampire, a werewolf, a soulmate, or anything mythical/supernatural— he was literally just a boy who was unfortunate enough to screw up his DNA and could now read minds.

  I can’t really end this afterword without mentioning everybody’s favorite characters: Bailey, Dooley, and Joseph. And in case it didn’t come across through these pages, that was sarcasm. Bailey was initially meant to have her own book, but instead, I decided against it. Instead, I placed her in this one to show you the myriad of these unique characters and hopefully allow you to come to whichever conclusions you had. There were tons of easter eggs that led up to Bailey’s ultimate demise, starting early on in the book.

  Joseph— we haven’t yet talked about him and his unresolved storyline. I guess you’ll have to see if anything eventually happens to him in book 2, which will be out in the coming years. And, in regard, to Dooley— he may or may not play a big role in book 2 as well.

  Extra

  Dr. Robert Dooley: Classified Research Report. (DRAFT)

  A study on Mice and the Mind.

  Abstract

  The mind of a mouse is very similar to that of a human, given a smaller prefrontal cortex and less higher-level cognition. It is with utmost certainty that our lab has performed these experiments on the mice in order to understand the power of their minds. We used our sample and injected the solution into ten mice. We kept four of them in separate cages meanwhile we kept six of them in pairs in three cages.

  Our goal was to determine, from our previous mind-reading research, whether the signal is amplified if mice are in groups. We found several phenomena occurring such that the mice in pairs started developing other uncontrollable powers such as teleportation, telekinesis, and were able to transfer the ability between themselves.

  Our findings suggest that this phenomena occurred not only due to the serum, but also the affinity of the neuron plasticity. Ex-vivo electrophysiology suggests when viewing the Nissl stains postmortem. We discovered protein pattern with IHC as well.

  Upon dissection of these mice, we found a larger frontal lobe, amygdala, as well as a larger parietal lobe and hippocampus, suggesting more sensational occurrences, potentially better long-term memory as well as an increased emotional awareness and increased fear responses. We insinuate that the fear response or the larger memory capacity may have to do with the telekinesis between mice. This also holds further implications.

  Experiment

  We assigned each of our ten mice to their cages. Mice 1,2,3,4 were held in their own private quarters whereas mice 5&6 were paired, 7&8, 9&10 all shared cages. We allowed them a incubation period to adjust to the cage before injections of the serum. This serum consisted of , , 3.00g of , , 0.098 g of , 5.02 mL , , and 2.00 mL of .

  It had to undergo a separation from the inorganic layer, and this was done by using and it was separated a total of three times using another compound, NaCl. Afterwards, we heated the serum at 495 C for one hour while inserting distilled water through a Büchner funnel. was continually draining the organic layer and labeling each of the different colored layers. We let the serum cool for a period of 24 hours, then reheated and injected the solid material with 4 mL of .

  Let the solution cool for 24 hours and then heat using monoamine oxide synthase to break down any amino acid structures. To ensure the proper serotonin reuptake, we injected SSRIs (commonly used to treat depression).

  The final step in the serum procedure is to . This will allow the serum to be fully functional and will be ready to use in the allotted time after the acid dialysis. Let the serum form bacteria for two weeks which will be extracted and used. Upon usage, ensure proper heating and cooler temperatures at around room-temperature (35 Celsius) and inject directly into mice.

  Discussion

  The reason we break the amino acid structures is so that we can have the serum bind to the animals genetic chain and begin changing the genetic code of the mouse, like a virus. However, unlike a virus, the body struggles to recognize that it is a foreign object and remains in the body for approximately two weeks until it is fully bound with the mouse DNA structure.

  In our mice, we extracted their cranial nerves and likewise content to determine that all seemed the same. Thus, we are uncertain, with a 5% certainty rate; that the mice actually could read each other's minds. However, we had several team-work escape attempts, but this evidence is not enough to justify their telekinesis. Hence, it would be better to test this on human subjects.

  (Clinical trials have not been replicated. However, as I am not intending to publish my work, I have tested my serum on one human subject.)

  Subject 1 was given the serum through ingestion in her pasta. She did not behave differently afterwards. Further (discrete) testing was performed on students enrolled in Dr. Dooley's ethics and astrology 201 course. No results came from any tests aside from cold symptoms.

  I observed the subject for two weeks afterwards and she did not show any signs of mind reading abilities. Neither did the 12 female students and 4 male students. Male students were, however, more likely to get more flu symptoms earlier. Note: perhaps it affected males more prominently than females.

  Conclusion

  In conclusion, studies are inconclusive. Our findings suggest no possibility of human knowledge transference or mind-reading abilities between subjects. However, the mice in pairs were able communicate and escape the cages by working together.

  Inconclusive.