by Jason Letts
“But everyone feels different to everyone, right? And who else would do that at a party besides the host?”
“Maybe and maybe not,” Mira answered, with a contemplative hand on her chin. “That’s what we’re going to have to investigate. Ok, here’s what we need to have happen. Let’s push the desks against the walls, except for one desk that we’ll leave in the middle. That desk will face away from the door, Mary will sit in it, and the rest of us will be outside. Ok?”
Everyone stared at her for a moment, until Fortst clapped his hands and the students started to move their desks. Once they were against the wall, Mary watched them exit the building one by one, assembling on a dry area against the forest wall. Though they dreaded the puddles, they took comfort in the warm and comfortable temperature, which made standing outside an easy job.
“Now what do I do?” Mary said, sitting in the chair with only the back wall in view.
“One of us will enter the building behind you, and you have to tell us who it is. Don’t turn around or move your head at all,” Mira said.
Mira looked over the group and pondered which one to pick. Taking a big step, and motioning her to be quiet, Mira put her hand on Aoi’s shoulder and directed her to go to the entrance. Aoi stalked straight through the puddles to the entrance and then stopped in the doorway.
“Who is it?” Mira shouted.
“It’s Aoi. She’s the only one who doesn’t care to avoid the puddles.”
“No, no. We’ll have to try again. This time don’t listen to anything. I won’t say anything, and when someone comes up behind you and you know who it is, just say it.”
Aoi came back, and Mira sent Dot to go next. She whispered to take her time and to get to the entrance as silently as possible. Dot crept along the exposed ground, curving over to the stone path and following it to the door. Softly setting her feet on the steps, she stopped and waited.
“It’s Dot!” she said, and the crowd clapped and cheered in approval. They tried it one more time, and soon Mary correctly named Kurt as the one standing in the entranceway.
“She is psychic and can identify people without seeing them or knowing them!” Vern said.
“That’s one possibility, but we haven’t proved that yet. It does seem like some kind of sensing. Let’s get her out here and talk to her about it.”
Mira called to Mary and soon she walked out and took a seat on the steps. She had a determined, concentrated look on her face that showed how intent she was upon figuring this out too.
“When you know someone is there, how does it work? Can you close your eyes and see their face?” Mira asked.
“No, I can’t see anything other than what I imagine and what my eyes show me.”
“Well, what tips you off about whom it is? Is it something about the name or maybe a memory that comes to you?”
Mary tilted her head and thought hard.
“No, not really. It’s not something I ever really paid any attention to before. I just get this feeling and it makes sense to me who it is.”
“Ok, we have to find out what you are able to do to tell who someone is, and I think I have a way to do that. Please return to your seat and wait for someone to enter the schoolhouse behind you just like before. It will take a while, but just focus on that feeling, what it is and what it tells you.”
Mira motioned to everyone to stay put and she whispered to Fortst that she needed to go get something and would be back soon. Hopping over puddles to get to the trail, she then took off running through the trees. The crowd waited silently for a few minutes, and then boredom overwhelmed the students, who began to mill around and talk.
“Maybe she can tell who you are by reading your thoughts,” Dennis said.
“Oh, no! What if she’s been reading my thoughts all this time and I didn’t know it! I’ve been thinking lots of things that would be embarrassing if someone else knew about them,” Chucky said.
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“I’m not going to tell you!” said Chucky, flustered.
***
Mira returned much slower than she left, and this time she had someone trailing along behind her. Coming through the end of the trail, she vehemently urged everyone to remain quiet. An old man emerged from the trail behind her, and only Fortst and one other student knew his name was Mert Bogger. The rest of them just saw a tired old man who looked around like he was lost.
Following the directions Mira had given him on the way to the senior schoolhouse, Mert ambled his way up to the entranceway as silently as he could without compromising his balance. He trudged up the cement steps, turning at the top to look back at Mira, who reminded him to stop and stay quiet. The students strained their eyes trying to see Mary sitting inside.
“It’s…it’s…I don’t know who it is!” Mary shouted.
Some of the students gasped, but Mira, undeterred, pressed on with her experiment.
“Ok, that’s fine, but you know someone’s there. Focus on that feeling, listen to it, and talk us through it!”
Mary closed her eyes and held her head in her hands as she tried to bring her mind to the person in the back of the room. She tried to see him, to feel the contours of his face with her mind, but nothing came to her. A little bit of desperation crept into her thoughts and she pleaded with herself to know. But nothing came to her, and she let it go blank.
That’s when the faint trace of a feeling made itself known to her. It seeped into the middle of her chest and she felt it sprout and bloom. This little ball of feeling that came to her when she stretched her senses back to the door seemed so warm and tangible.
“It’s this feeling I get in my chest, like the feeling when you meet an old friend or take a deep breath on a warm summer day. I can feel it growing. It feels like my breath is becoming tense, but I can breathe fine. It feels like I’m not taking in any air.”
Mira looked at Fortst, who nodded comprehendingly, and then she waded through the water and quickly came alongside Mert at the entrance.
“Open your eyes and come over here, Mary.” Obliging, Mary got up from her seat and approached Mira and an elderly gentleman she had never seen before. She joined them in the entranceway in plain view of all of the other students.
“Mary, I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Mert Bogger.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” they said, shaking hands.
“Who are you?” Mira asked him.
“I don’t have to breathe,” he said. Mary’s eyes swelled and her mouth dropped open. She flushed with excitement. In that moment, the world around her had changed. Her shock coincided with the astounded whispers and murmuring of the other students.
“Now, Mary, I want you to close your eyes and focus on that feeling. Cast it out and practice taking in everyone here until you never forget what it feels like and you never fail to notice it.”
Resembling the awkward joy of an infant’s first steps, Mary hobbled down to the ground and let her feet sink ankle deep into the small pools. Unconcerned, she wandered over to the group with her eyes closed and gave them overjoyed smiles as her feelings made them known to her. The others appreciated what took place in front of them too, and a few looked up into the sky with admiration and reverence at the web, concealed within the sunlight
“Thank you, Mira,” Mary said with a swelling of emotion. “I’ll never forget this day.”
“Who are you?” Mira asked.
“I can sense the gifts of others,” Mary beamed.
“How come you didn’t figure that out before? It seemed so easy for Mira to figure it out,” Aoi asked. Mary just shrugged.
“I can answer that,” Mira said. “It was something so natural for you that you never realized it was anything unique. Because you spent all of your time at school, at home, and around town with people you are familiar with, you already knew everything your feeling wanted to tell you. And so if you’re so used to that, you wouldn’t know to listen at, say, the outpost market, where new people we
re around.”
Some of the students nodded in agreement with her reasoning.
“Wow, maybe Mira has a power too that she just doesn’t know about yet,” Dot said. But Mary spoke up before Mira could even entertain the thought.
“No, she doesn’t. There’s a similarity in the feelings I get from all of you, but with Mira it’s very different. It’s like you were all made with colorful paints that blend together to form a picture of eye-popping beauty. But Mira is drawn in pencil and doesn’t reach out in the same way, though it is still beautiful.”
***
Mira had to think about what it meant to be a pencil drawing instead of a painting, and for a moment she receded into her thoughts. That stinging feeling of isolation came over her, and it pained her to remember that she was different from everyone else. It would have been selfish to keep Mary’s secret from her, and Mira never considered it, but she wanted so badly not to be alone.
“Quite a long time since I’ve been here. This walkway is new, but other than that the place hasn’t changed much,” Mert said. The students regarded him with mild interest, and some began to look for other things to do. Mert sidled up next to Fortst.
“I used to teach the senior level some time ago. Course we didn’t have any of this war business to worry about, so I can imagine you have it much tougher.”
“I manage alright,” Fortst replied.
“Spring’s coming. You must be almost ready for the trip up to Dustfalls, and then the Final Trial isn’t long after that.”
“Dustfalls, you say?”
“Yes, up past the gorge in the mountains and at the end of Sliver Crevasse. A teacher has got to keep his wits about him up there. It’s not a walk in the park. Don’t tell me you don’t already know about it.”
“Of course I know about it,” Fortst snapped. “I just wanted to see if you knew about it. It’ll be another week or two until we make the trip.”
While Fortst kept an eye on the students, Mert shot him a long look.
“You got any predictions about who will walk away from the final number one?”
“Got a lot of strong contenders in this class. The day could go to anybody. Well, almost anybody,” Fortst said, wincing as he saw Dennis slip and fall into a puddle.
“Is that so? You’ll find out exactly how strong they are when they try to climb that wall.”
Fortst squinted and nodded his head slightly. Mert, giving him another look, took a step back and began heading home.
***
Kevin stormed into the outpost and marched straight to the back steps. He quickly raised his head to spy the tower and the idle guards perched inside. He continued on, shaking his head and grimacing.
After shuffling down the stairs, he flung open the door to Corey’s office. A few office workers attended to their duties while visitors waited patiently to speak with them. Kevin rapidly bypassed them, interrupting a conversation at the front desk.
“I need to speak with Corey, immediately.”
The pair, looking up from their paperwork, was taken aback by his rude intrusion.
“I’m sorry, sir. If you’d like to take a seat, we can attend to you when it’s your turn.”
“No, I’m not going to wait. This is important!”
Kevin motioned to plow through the opening to the office area behind the front counter, but Natalie suddenly stepped in to block him.
“I don’t recommend you do that. We would have to interpret that as trespassing and you would be dealt with severely.”
“I need to speak with Corey, and I have a right to do so.”
“Corey will not be speaking with you at this time. If that is the only purpose of your visit, you may leave now. Otherwise, please wait behind these people and you will be attended to in time.”
“These people? These people don’t realize that someone from the other side came here and tried to murder a citizen of this town. For all we know, they could be next.”
A look of alarm dawned on the faces of those who waited.
“Now I need to know if additional security forces will be posted here from Darmen, like Corey said they would be, or if we’ll be stuck with the same inept slouchers who let this problem sneak into our town in the first place.”
Natalie appraised him carefully. Kevin leaned against the counter, breathed heavily, and waited for her answer.
“Additional forces will not be sent from the capitol. They say their resources are spread too thin, and they cannot expend the energy to deter such isolated and unpredictable incidents.”
“Did Corey just tell you that or did you know that before?” Kevin asked.
“Mr. Ipswich, if you had really wanted to discuss information with us, then you would have been wise to make an appointment and arrive in a calm and respectable manner.”
“That’s just great. You’ve been a big help. Thanks a lot! Corey Outpost isn’t as safe as it seems, and I hate to find out what it’ll take for everybody to realize it.”
Breaking from her former restraint, regret crept into Natalie’s face and the tone of her voice. She called out to Kevin as he gravitated closer to the exit.
“Mr. Ipswich, no one wants to see harm befall your family, and we’re sorry about Darmen’s decision not to send reinforcements, but we can’t be held responsible for that.”
Shaking his head in disappointment, Kevin ducked out of the office and didn’t look back. He walked through the market in the courtyard, keeping his eyes peeled for suspicious faces. As he passed through, he glanced at the Darmen Exchange office and the uninhabited space along the wall next to it. He suddenly felt as responsible for Yannick’s safety as he did his own family’s, and they all seemed to be in such great danger.
***
“You’ve got to go to bed!” Jeana shouted from the top of the stairs down into the basement.
“Soon,” Mira responded. “I just need a little more time.” She sat back in a chair at the table with a light hanging over it. Unsatisfied and anxious, Mira looked at her walking toy robot, Clank, which had been striped of most of its metal. The face, however, remained intact, and the indentations she had pounded in for eye sockets taunted her ruthlessly.
Next to Clank, another machine she had spent countless nights working on stood lifelessly on the table. Almost two feet tall, it looked like an egg with two legs protruding from the bottom. The egg’s surface was dented and uneven. It balanced on the legs, which had no feet attached to them but were wide enough to make it stable.
Mira held the feet in her hands. They were webbed like a duck’s but hollow in the middle. She put her hands through the space, gripping the webbed toes with her fingers like a handlebar. Squeezing her right index finger, a button between the toes contracted and clicked.
She looked up and stared breathlessly at the egg to see if it would work. A nearly invisible line separated the top three-quarters of the egg from the bottom quarter. The top part started to spin, slowly at first, but gradually with more speed. She had drawn a circle with a marker on one side, and she watched to see how often it appeared in a certain amount of time. Setting aside the feet for a notebook, she counted and calculated. After a while the egg spun so quickly that the bright red circle never seemed to disappear.
Watching the uneven metal rotate around, Mira gave it an angry look and shook her head, tossing the notebook on the table.
“It’s still too slow…must be too heavy or dragging on something,” she mused to herself. She looked at the banged up and twisted pieces of metal strewn about the room, and they reminded her of another problem. She picked up one piece and ran her fingers over the dents and dings. The piece looked like a kite that would never fly.
A rusty hammer lay flat on the floor. The temptation came over her to pick it up and keep trying, but she remembered her parents had gone to bed and no amount of banging might produce what she wanted. She needed help.
Mira had her eye on Rowland all day at school the next day. She watched him drawing in
his notebook, eating a chicken sandwich for lunch, and engaging in a conversation with Sophie after Fortst released them for the day. Fearing they would leave together, as they often did, Mira decided she had to interrupt. She stood near them and waited for a break in the conversation.
“Hey, I’m sorry. Do you think I could speak with you for a minute?” she said to him.
She had never really approached him before like this, and Rowland looked around to see if he could spot the reason for it. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he gestured to her to wait a minute and continued speaking to Sophie in a hushed voice.
He walked with Mira outside where they could have some space, while Sophie crossed her arms and waited for him to come back. Turning from Sophie’s jealous eyes, Mira addressed Rowland when she thought they were a safe distance away.
“I’ve got a job to do. Can you help me?” she said. Rowland lowered his head and flashed a wry smile.
“Need some help, do you? Now what’s this all about?”
“Oh, it’s not a big deal. I’m just making this sculpture and I was hoping you could help me with the metal wings,” she said, the discussion she’d had with Yannick about bartering suddenly in her head.
“Just for fun? Got nothing better to do?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Well then I can’t help you. Everybody knows that nobody’s doing nothing now but thinking about the Final. So tell me what this is really about or I’ve got to go.”
His sudden shift, turning on her with his last comment, caught her off guard. He turned to walk away, but she scrambled to hold him back.
“Ok, wait. But I need to know something. Can I trust you?” she looked squarely at him and prepared to walk away herself if she didn’t get the right answer. He put his hand to his chin and looked thoughtfully down and to the side.
“Trust is an expensive thing to come by. The only way you can really be sure is if you know it’s in my best interest to help you. So let me ask you, how is doing what you need in my best interest?”
