by Marilyn Kaye
‘All right.’ The fake teacher turned to Charles. ‘Charles, we know you can make things move. I want to know how precise your gift is. Please move my desk fifteen centimetres to the left.’
Charles looked at the desk and shrugged. ‘Sure.’ The heavy wooden desk rose slightly and moved to the left.
‘Does anyone have a ruler or measuring tape?’ Amanda-Madame asked.
‘I think there’s a tape in your top drawer,’ Emily said.
For a second, Amanda-Madame was confused and looked at the desk in which the robot was sitting. She recovered quickly. ‘Yes, of course, that’s right.’ She went into the drawer of the teacher’s desk and took out a measuring tape.
‘Hmm . . . You seem to have only moved the desk ten centimetres, Charles. You must improve.’
‘Five centimetres, big deal,’ Charles protested.
‘Charles! We aim for perfection here!’
Charles shrank back in his wheelchair. ‘Yes, Madame,’ he murmured.
It was getting very hard for Amanda not to burst out laughing. This was fun!
‘Now we’ll test Jenna. Class, do not block her. Jenna, what is Ken thinking about right now?’
‘Wait a minute,’ Ken said quickly, but Jenna was too fast for him. She grinned.
‘He’s thinking about Amanda.’
Amanda could only hope her face didn’t reveal the pleasure she felt. Fortunately, Tracey chose that moment to reappear and distracted the class’s attention.
‘I’m back,’ she announced unnecessarily.
Amanda-Madame frowned. ‘It took too long. You need to work on that.’
‘My prediction was correct,’ Emily pointed out.
‘Yes, yes, very good.’ She moved on. ‘Martin, let’s test your strength.’ She looked around the room. The heaviest thing was the desk, but they’d already used that. She needed something more original.
Inspiration didn’t fail her. ‘Martin, pick up Sarah and hold her over your head.’
Martin was startled. ‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ Amanda-Madame stated.
‘That’s not much of a test,’ Jenna protested. ‘Sarah’s not very heavy.’
Amanda-Madame looked at her sternly. ‘He can’t just lift her, he has to hold her over his head. That would be impossible for a normal person his size.’
Martin got up and went to the back of the room. Sarah watched him apprehensively as he approached her.
‘Madame, is this really necessary?’ she asked.
‘Don’t worry, Martin won’t drop you,’ Amanda-Madame assured her.
Martin didn’t look all that confident. He stood very still for a moment, as if he was summoning his gift. Then he lifted Sarah out of her chair. The whole class watched as he raised her higher and higher, until his arms were stretched out straight and she was way over his head.
Sarah had gone as stiff as a board and she did not look happy. ‘OK, he’s done it,’ she said. ‘Put me down now, Martin.’
Amanda-Madame shook her head. ‘Martin, don’t put her down. Sarah, you have to make Martin put you down. Use your gift.’
‘No!’ Sarah cried out.
Amanda-Madame pretended to be shocked. ‘Sarah, are you disobeying your teacher? Make Martin put you down, now!’
‘No, no, I don’t want to do that!’
‘Wait a minute!’ Jenna suddenly shouted. ‘I can read your mind! You’re not Madame, you’re Amanda!’
Amanda wanted to kick herself. She’d let her guard down. ‘I am not,’ she said, but the denial sounded feeble, even to her ears.
Martin placed Sarah back in her chair. ‘Sorry about that,’ he mumbled. But he looked at Amanda-Madame with admiration in his eyes. ‘That was pretty cool,’ he said.
Ken was grinning too. Clearly, he wasn’t too displeased with having had his thoughts revealed. And Charles was laughing.
‘Hey, before you let Madame come back, can you dismiss us early?’
‘And don’t give us any homework,’ Martin added.
‘Amanda, you get out of Madame right now!’ Jenna yelled.
‘I’ll leave her when I’m ready,’ Amanda retorted.
The voice from the back of the room was tremulous. ‘No, you’ll leave her now,’ Sarah said.
Amanda felt something she’d never felt before. It was like her mind, her consciousness, her spirit was forcibly pulled out of the body she’d taken over. And it hurt.
Then she was herself again, in her own body, in her own chair. She looked at Sarah in wonderment. ‘You did that.’
Sarah didn’t reply. She stared down at her desk, and her expression was grim. Amanda couldn’t stop looking at her. She’d known about Sarah’s gift, but now she’d felt it. It was so powerful. And for the first time she had a clue as to why the girl was so afraid to use it.
No one else was looking at Sarah though. They were watching Madame. The teacher had put her hand to her head.
‘Madame?’ Tracey asked worriedly. ‘Do you feel OK?’
‘Did I . . . Did I faint?’ Madame asked.
‘Yes,’ Amanda said quickly. Too quickly. Madame’s eyes became steely, and they were fixed on Amanda.
‘You took over my body.’
Amanda opened her mouth to deny it, but no words came out. What was it about Madame that made it so hard to lie to her?
So she took the other route. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. ‘I was fooling around, and . . . I’m sorry.’
Madame’s voice could have cut glass. ‘You will never, never do that again, Amanda. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Madame.’
At least the teacher didn’t go on and on about it. She gave them a reading assignment, the bell rang, and she dismissed them.
Amanda turned to Ken. ‘We have to talk,’ she said urgently. She glanced at the door, which someone had already opened. Nina wasn’t there – not yet, at least. ‘And we have to talk alone!
Ken got the message. He got up and followed Amanda out. She led him down the corridor and into the first empty classroom they came to.
She knew there was a security guard who came round to make sure rooms were empty, so she didn’t waste any time, even if it meant coming off as a little pushy.
‘I don’t care what Madame says,’ she declared flatly. ‘If someone like this Doctor Paley can get rid of our gifts, I’m totally up for it.’
‘Me too,’ Ken agreed. ‘Though I have to say that was pretty funny, what you pulled back in class.’
‘I guess it was kind of mean, what I did to Sarah,’ she confessed.
‘Not really,’ Ken said thoughtfully. ‘She needed a push. She has big problems dealing with her gift. She has to confront it sooner or later. I think you did her a good deed.’
Amanda preened. ‘I just thought I’d have one last crazy fling before giving up this gift for good. Do you want a long last talk with any ghosts?’
Ken’s smile faded.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘I’m thinking about Jack.’
‘Oh.’ She knew who Ken was referring to. Jack Farrell had been Ken’s best buddy, and he’d died in that accident on the field. His was the first voice from beyond the grave that Ken had heard. ‘You still talk to him?’
‘Not that much,’ Ken admitted. ‘Not like before. I guess he’s comfortable now, wherever he is. He doesn’t need me like he used to.’
‘So if you lost your gift and Jack couldn’t reach you any more, that would be OK?’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
She wished he sounded more sure of himself. ‘Just think about it, Ken. No more ghosts asking you to check on their grandsons or watch soap operas.’
‘And no more gifted class,’ Ken added.
‘Exactly. We could be normal, Ken. Wouldn’t that be nice?’
He looked at her and smiled. ‘Yeah. Really nice. But we don’t know for sure if Doctor Paley can do this.’
‘No, not for sure,’ Amanda admitted. ‘But we can try. I feel like this
is right for us. Don’t you?’
‘Yeah.’ Then he fell silent, but Amanda didn’t mind at all, because he was looking deeply into her eyes.
The caretaker came in. ‘Out,’ he said.
They left the room, and ran right into Britney.
‘There you are!’ Britney exclaimed. ‘Nina was looking for you. And so was I. Guess what? It worked!’
Amanda looked at her blankly. ‘What worked?’
‘What you made me do at lunch. Tommy just asked me to meet him at the mall! It happened, just like you said it would.’
‘Great,’ Amanda replied.
‘It’s funny, though,’ Britney went on. ‘I still can’t remember actually talking to him in the canteen.’
‘You were nervous,’ Amanda told her.
Britney grinned. ‘I guess. But I’m not nervous now! I gotta go and meet Tommy, I’ll call you tonight and tell you what happened.’
She took off, and Ken turned to Amanda. ‘You did it, didn’t you? You took over her body and came on to Tommy.’
Amanda lowered her eyes modestly. ‘I kind of had to. She’d never do it on her own.’
Ken smiled. ‘That was nice of you.’
She loved the way he was looking at her. It occurred to her that she had a connection with him that Nina could never have. And when they lost their gifts together . . . it would link them in a way that could last forever.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PAUL CARTER WAS DREAMING, but not about a boy or a TV. He was dreaming about animals. He dreamed about an elephant, a tiger, a monkey. And they were all him.
He was hanging from the limb of a tree and swinging his legs. He leaped from branch to branch, and he could actually feel the motion. But then bad men approached, and they were carrying guns.
So he dropped from the tree and became an elephant. With his trunk, he swept the men off the ground and flung them far, far away. And then he became a cat, a soft, fuzzy cat, curled on someone’s lap, being stroked . . . That felt really nice. And then he was a lion, running for the pure pleasure of running, happy and unafraid. Who could hurt the king of the jungle?
When he woke up on Thursday morning, something struck him. For the first time in a long, long time, he didn’t feel frightened. And he didn’t go immediately into his morning routine of watering the plant, brushing his teeth, getting dressed. He stayed in his bed and had some wide-awake dreams.
He pictured himself back at Meadowbrook Middle School, in his gifted class. Charles talked about moving things with his mind. Jenna reported on what someone else was thinking. Emily predicted something that was going to happen.
And Carter – no, Paul Carter – told them how he’d been a bird that morning. How he’d flown to school. How he was planning to fly to Mexico . . .
What would it be like, to actually have a story to tell? All these months, he’d listened to tales of the others’ gifts. He always felt like an outsider, like he wasn’t supposed to be there. He’d been stuck in the class only because nobody knew what else to do with him.
But now he could belong in the class. He could be part of the group. He was gifted too.
Suddenly, he wanted to test his gift. He got out of bed and considered the possibilities. The first image that came to mind was the pet he always wanted.
He could feel it, the changes in his body, but it didn’t hurt at all. And now he was a dog, a big dog. A German shepherd. He leaped back up on the bed so he could see himself in the mirror over the sink. He was beautiful! And in joy, he opened his mouth and let out a howl.
Immediately, there was a pounding on his door. ‘What’s going on in there? Open this door!’
Paul shifted back. He went to the door and opened it. An angry resident assistant stood outside.
‘Do you have a dog in here?’
Paul shook his head.
The guy looked at him suspiciously, and pushed him aside. I could become a snake and bite him, Paul thought. He didn’t – but it was nice knowing he could.
The resident assistant went to Paul’s wardrobe and looked inside. Then he bent down and checked under the bed. Finally he gave up, and with one last dark look at Paul, he left.
Paul suddenly realized that his face felt funny, like it was twitching or something. He went to the mirror, looked at his reflection, and realized why. He was smiling.
A glance at the clock on the wall told him he was late. Quickly, he got washed, watered the plant and dressed.
At breakfast, he didn’t join in any conversations, but he found himself listening and paying more attention to the others at his table. One of the older boys was bragging about the act that had sent him to Harmony House.
‘So this lady is holding her bag really tightly, and I figure there’s gotta be a reason. She’s carrying something valuable. So I come up from behind, and tap her on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” I say, real polite and smiling, “could you tell me where the First National Bank is?” She starts to think, I grab the bag and take off. She’s like so freaked out, I’m halfway round the corner before she even starts yelling!’
Paul imagined himself on the street and watching the event occur. What would he have done? If the thief was a fast runner, Paul could have become a cheetah. Wasn’t that the fastest animal? Or he could shift into a tiger, pounce on the thief, take the handbag in his teeth and bring it back to the lady.
He felt himself smiling again. It was exciting, thinking about all the possibilities. He noticed that people at the table were looking at him oddly. Had he shifted without even trying? No, he decided, it was probably because they’d never seen him smile before.
He was still smiling when he arrived at Dr Paley’s office. Dr Paley smiled back at him.
‘I can see you’re feeling well, Paul. But if I ask, “How are you?” would you be able to answer me?’
It took a lot of effort and a few false tries, but finally Paul managed to murmur something that sounded pretty close to ‘fine’.
Dr Paley nodded with approval. ‘It’s going to take a while before you’ll be able to speak normally when fully conscious. You’ll have to practise. I’m going to see if I can arrange for a speech therapist to work with you.’
Paul was pleased. He wanted to be able to speak easily. When he was allowed to go back to school, he wanted to tell his classmates how he’d turned into a dog that morning and alarmed the resident assistant. He remembered Charles telling a funny story once, about how he teased his brother by moving his chair just as he was about to sit down. People laughed . . .
Madame had scolded him though. She’d said Charles shouldn’t use his gift for silly reasons. Paul would have to start seriously listening to what Madame said now. But maybe it was OK, just once in a while, to do something silly with a gift . . .
‘Are you thinking about your gift?’ Dr Paley asked.
Paul nodded.
‘It must be pretty shocking to suddenly realize how much power you have,’ the doctor said.
Paul nodded again, though shocking didn’t seem to be the right word to describe his reaction. Maybe at first, when he saw himself as a rabbit on the TV screen. Now he was more . . . interested.
‘These kinds of gifts . . . They can be frightening,’ the doctor continued. ‘You must have heard your classmates talk about that.’
Paul thought back to the discussions in the gifted class. Yes, some people talked about being scared. Amanda worried that she might get stuck in the body of someone she’d taken over. Sarah . . . She was definitely scared, she wouldn’t even talk about her gift.
‘You know, with your gift you could become very dangerous.’
Paul could see how that could happen. Animals can hurt people. Of course people could hurt people too. But if you were a good person – or a good animal – you wouldn’t do that. Madame talked a lot about controlling the gifts . . . He’d have to pay attention to her so he could learn how to use his gift well.
‘Madame believes that most of your classmates developed their gifts as
a reaction to something. Or perhaps as a compensation. They developed these gifts because they needed them to survive. Martin was small and weak, people teased him, and he dealt with this by becoming unnaturally strong. Charles felt trapped in his wheelchair and unable to do things on his own. So his mind became so strong that he could move objects with it. As for you . . .’
The doctor leaned back in his chair and studied Paul.
‘Your gift emerged through fear. Are you still afraid, Paul?’
Paul worked at forming the word, and he was pleased that it came out almost clearly. ‘No.’
‘Good!’ Dr Paley said. ‘Then perhaps you don’t really need your gift. The goal, Paul, is to become normal. For example, Madame tells me that Martin has been growing, and he’s just about reached a normal height and weight. I believe that when his subconscious accepts the fact that he doesn’t need super-strength to fight his battles, he may naturally lose his gift.’
That made sense to Paul.
‘Madame told me about . . .’ he studied some papers on his desk. ‘. . . Emily. She predicts the future, right? And do you know when she discovered this gift?’
The word that came from Paul’s mouth sounded like ‘fahzer’, but Dr Paley understood.
‘That’s right. Her father was killed in an accident, and Emily claims to have seen it in her head before it happened. But my theory is that Emily unconsciously created that memory after the fact. And this triggered an actual ability to predict the future.’ He gazed up at the ceiling. ‘Is this a good thing? I don’t think so. It could have grave consequences, if Emily’s visions become clearer and more accurate. This could change the course of history. Emily doesn’t need this gift. I don’t think any of you really need your gifts.’
Paul didn’t agree. He got some words out. ‘Charles . . . chair.’ They sounded like ‘Shar’ and ‘sheer’ but Dr Paley got the picture.
‘You’re saying Charles needs his gift because it’s not likely that he’ll ever be out of a wheelchair. But most people in wheelchairs don’t have supernatural gifts, Paul, and they function perfectly well.’ He smiled. ‘Now, I don’t know Charles personally, but I wonder if perhaps his gift emerged simply because he’s too lazy to learn how to do things on his own. I do believe you’d all survive very well without your gifts. You’d probably be happier.’
