by Kim Jewell
In school she loved the sciences, but excelled at everything she did. Chemistry was her favorite class, and she took every opportunity she could to add another science class to her schedule – from physics to anatomy. Her dream was to go to college and then on to medical school. She didn’t know if she would specialize, or what she would focus on, but her dream was clear and she intended to follow it. Sam was astonished at how determined she was at such a young age.
I guess when you have to grow up so early, you decide what you want as quickly as you can, and then stick to it. She’s got guts, I’ll give her that.
It was getting late, but they enjoyed getting to know each other on a personal level, so they agreed to try and connect the following night again. They weren’t getting much research done, but Sam knew once he turned his notes over to Leesha on Saturday, it would give her a whole new direction to research. And hopefully she could give him some work to do on his end as well. In the meantime, he hoped he could have another episode to journal and chart, so she had more than one experience to calculate from.
Tired and pleased with the day, Sam turned off his light and fell instantly asleep.
Chapter Nine
Tuesday came and went without incident. The school day seemed to creep slowly, as Sam found himself both waiting for the burn, and looking forward to going home. He never really paid much attention in any of his classes, and luckily he was bright enough to get by with decent grades without having to put in a lot of work.
In biology class his teacher droned on about the genetic makeup of animals versus humans, and something he said triggered Sam’s attention. DNA.
I wonder if there is anything to our DNA makeup that is affecting our bodies… Write that down, I’ll talk to Leesha about that on Saturday.
It was just a fleeting thought, then Sam went back to clearing his head and trying not to pay attention to either his teacher or the other classmates in the room. As he sat there bored, he decided to try and summon his abilities, wondering if perhaps he could make them work with out the pain that usually came first.
He took a deep breath. Nothing out of the ordinary.
He strained his ears. Nope.
He squinted his eyes. Still nothing.
All that was left was a dull headache in his temples that resulted from the extra strain he was putting on his eyes, ears, nose and brain. This one was just a tension headache. He reminded himself not to try that again.
I guess I’m just going to have to let this thing happen. I can’t force it, apparently.
Wednesday started out as just another ordinary, boring day at school. It was just mid-fall, and already Sam was tired of school. He walked lazily to each class, listened to lectures half-heartedly, and wished the week would go by faster than it was. He was looking forward to his research time with Leesha on Saturday.
They chatted again the night before, but still wary of communication via internet channels, they kept their conversations light and free of sensitive details. But they were getting to know each other better, and Sam hoped that if nothing else, it would allow them to trust each other and work together more effectively. They shared a common goal, after all.
At lunchtime, Sam sat down in his usual seat next to Ty. It was the one time of the day that they got totally to themselves, and so they both looked forward to this period of the day. On the lunch menu was chicken and dumplings and institutional cafeteria pizza. Neither sounded appetizing, so they both opted to hit the vending machines. Ty got a ham sandwich and pretzels and Sam took the last sub sandwich and a bag of chips.
They got back to the table and just started to unwrap their lunches when the burn hit Sam right in between his eyes.
Son of a…!
He bowed his head slightly and fought the urge to scream, groan or moan, but as the stinging sensation spread through the rest of his body, the urge got harder and harder to ignore. Sam glanced at his watch. Ty was so engrossed in his lunch that he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
That’s good. He’s clueless. I’m not ready for him to know yet. If I can just sit still long enough for this to pass…
He played with his bag of chips as his body burned. Looking down, he could see each and every chip inside the bag as if the packaging itself was crystal clear. He glanced up to see if Ty was watching him and noticed that his lips were moving.
He’s talking? I didn’t realize that I was tuning him out. Awesome!
All of a sudden, Sam realized that he was seeing the bubbles of carbonation from inside the can of soda sitting in front of him. He could see the brownish syrup swirl around the bubbles as they worked their way toward the air hole in the top of the can.
Oh, sweet! I’m seeing through an aluminum can! Now, I know it’s very thin, and it’s only aluminum, but that’s metal, right? That’s progress!
With that, Sam’s outlook turned optimistic, and even though his entire body ached, he decided to test his sight. Glancing over at the soda machine, he could see through the lit plastic door and into where the cans were stacked. Even though they were stacked with the bottoms facing him, he could tell what type of soda each column held by the color of the liquid inside. He looked over to the left towards a bank of lockers and sure enough, he could peer right through the front door of each one and see the contents inside. But when he glanced over his right shoulder at the front entrance, he was disappointed to find that he couldn’t see through the solid steel of the security doors.
Man, too bad we’re not near the girls’ locker room! I gotta change my route to lit class after lunch…
“Sam!” he was suddenly awakened from his internal thoughts. “What is wrong with you? You’re looking around this room like you’re lost or something!”
“Nothing,” Sam responded, sheepishly. “Sorry man, I guess my mind was just somewhere else.”
Sam noticed that the final traces of the burn were fading away, glanced at his watch and logged the time inside a sheet of paper in his trig book. He reminded himself to write all of this down in his next period. He didn’t need to listen in lit class anyway, he could catch the movie version of the book they were covering over the weekend.
“Well, you better hurry up. Lunch is almost over.” Ty was still looking at him questioningly. When Sam picked up his sandwich and took a bite, Ty shrugged it off and continued whatever conversation he was having before the interruption.
Sam spent most of his next class logging every detail of his latest occurrence into his notebook, with the intent of typing it all in his laptop log later that night. Then, for the remainder of school he kept testing his abilities. His sense of smell was getting much stronger, and it seemed to him like he could reach out further and further to capture scents. His hearing was much the same – he kept blocking out the immediate environment and tapping into classrooms, one at a time, each one further than the next. His sight didn’t change much either – still able to see through walls and doors, and having trouble with some metal objects. There had to be something to this metal thing, and he couldn’t put his finger on it, but he would keep working on a theory.
His abilities lasted even longer this time, which Sam found encouraging. They finally faded away around dinnertime, six o’clock or shortly after. As disappointed as he was to lose them, he was feeling upbeat about the fact that his flashes were trending much like Leesha said hers did, and were becoming more frequent, less painful, and the effects were lasting longer.
They touched base online again that night, and he filled her in on his day as much as their discretion would allow. He could tell from her comments that she was really looking forward to reading his logs and getting some more concrete information to start her research.
Thursday was pretty uneventful. No flashes, which meant no pain. But no pain meant no progress. Sam tried his best to act as normal as possible at lunchtime so that Ty wouldn’t ask about his strange behavior the day before.
I suppose I need to tell him about all of this. He is
my best friend and all. But until I get this figured out, I’m not sure I want to worry anybody with the questions they’ll have. I know if this were happening to anyone I knew, I’d freak about all of the pain they were going through. I can’t put that on anyone yet. Hopefully this will all be over soon and I can fill everyone in on the details.
Sam and Leesha touched base briefly that night, but with no new details, there really wasn’t much to talk about. They logged off fairly quickly, and Sam grabbed his book bag to study for a history test the following day.
Chapter Ten
When Sam got to third period on Friday, he really wished he’d studied a little harder for the impending test. He hated history, though, and with his mind filled with so many other questions, he had a hard time focusing on the material he knew would be on the test. He kept reading paragraph after paragraph the night before, but none of the information was sinking in, so after about an hour he just gave up.
Nevertheless, when he got to the classroom he sat down at his desk, took a couple of pencils out of his bag, and waited for the torture to begin. As Mrs. Hancock was passing out the stack of tests at each of the front desks the burn hit him so hard he almost gasped. Instead, he gripped his temples with his fingers, gritted his teeth, and tried to act as normal as he could.
Oh my God. Are you friggin’ kidding me?! Now? Please stop…
He could hear the squeaking of the chairs as each person turned around to pass the tests to the person behind them. He could smell the copy toner on the pages as they spread throughout the classroom. He took his test, and with the fire now radiating throughout his entire body, he thought about telling Mrs. Hancock that he needed to go to the nurse’s office.
Just then he heard a voice say: “Eighteen sixty-three.”
I know that voice. It’s Jen. Why is she talking during a test?
He looked down at his test and read the first question, which asked what year the battle of Vicksburg occurred.
Why is Jen, the smartest girl in school, giving the answers to the test out loud? And why isn’t Mrs. Hancock stopping her?
Regardless, he took his pencil and wrote down the answer. Next question – who was the leader of the Union army?
“General Ulysses S. Grant.”
Sam’s head snapped up to see what Mrs. Hancock would do. She didn’t appear to be phased by what was going on, as she was completely absorbed in an educational trade magazine she just pulled out of her inbox. Sam quickly wrote the answer down, but instead of reading the next question, he directed his eyes – as discretely as he could – to Jen’s mouth.
“Prairie Dog Village.” This time Sam heard her, but realized that her mouth hadn’t moved one bit. Her voice was clear as a bell, but she wasn’t speaking.
You’ve got to be kidding me! I can hear her thoughts? How sweet is that?! I’m getting the answers to a test that I haven’t studied for from our future valedictorian? Um… Greatest. Day. EVER!
He knew it was wrong, but he spent the rest of the period listening to her thoughts and writing them in the appropriate spots on his test sheet. He also knew Mrs. Hancock would suspect something was awry if he got all of the answers right, so out of guilt – or fear, he wasn’t sure which – he erased three of the correct answers and put in wrong ones. Then, after reconsidering, he changed one of the wrong ones back again to right.
I could stand to get a good grade on this test, to pull my average up.
He still had plenty of time to spare, as Jen sufficiently over-studied for the test and finished way before anyone else, so he pretended he was still writing answers for a few more minutes before turning in his test paper. He felt quite smug, with just a teeny bit of remorse, knowing he would almost ace this test.
Sam spent the remainder of his school day testing his newfound sense, tapping into and out of the minds of those around him. Lunchtime was particularly fun as he rummaged through Ty’s thoughts of his girlfriend and their plans for the weekend. He toyed with the idea of making some comment about the movie they were planning to see, just to see if it would startle him since he didn’t mentioned it out loud, but Sam thought better of it. He wasn’t ready to talk. Yet.
He blocked Ty’s mind and then tested how far out his mind could reach. It was amazing how well he could focus on just one person at a time, once he put his mind to it. It was also equally impressive how he could put his other senses on hold – smell, sound, sight – when he was trying to hear the unspoken thoughts of others. And then when he tried, he could combine one or all of the senses at once.
This is really starting to blow my mind just a little! No pun intended…
Just then, he glanced over at his sister as she passed through to her next period. She met his gaze and he read her worry about him, and realized that he hadn’t given her feelings too much thought in all of this craziness. He felt a bit guilty about that, and made a mental note to try and spend some time with her after school today. He didn’t need to explain what was going on, but even if he could spend some time acting normal around her, maybe her mind would ease up a little. This wasn’t fair to her, having seen what she did the other day in the car.
Oh… I guess it’s not a twins thing that connects our minds. Well, that mystery is solved, but it brings up another question. I’ll have to note all of this, questions for Leesha to think about.
For the rest of the afternoon, Sam spent his time logging the flash, writing notes and listing questions for discussion on Saturday afternoon. He was pleasantly surprised that his abilities were with him longer today, and he also noted that while the burn lingered longer than last time, it was also much less painful than in the past.
No pain, no gain. That’s my new mantra.
When he pulled into the driveway after school, Sam homed in on his hearing, which told him that Lexi was upstairs in her room typing a term paper that wasn’t due until the following Thursday.
That’s just like her. Friday afternoon and she’s doing homework that’s not due until almost a week from now! I think she does it to make me look bad in front of Mom and Dad…
He walked up the stairs and leaned against her door jam. “Hey, Lex. What are you doing?”
“Oh, hi Sam. I’m just finishing my essay on medieval torture. Pretty brutal, but it was a fun paper to write,” she grinned half wickedly.
“Yeah, right. Aren’t all papers fun to write?” he asked sarcastically.
“Humph,” she scoffed, then tilted her head to one side to look at him cautiously. “What are you doing? Or should I say, how are you doing?”
“I’m good, Lexi. Really. I’m not sure what happened the other day,” he figured it was merely a white lie, as he truly didn’t have all the answers, “but it didn’t happen again. Must have just been a small migraine or something. Hey, do you want to go out and get some ice cream? My treat?”
“What do you want?” she replied suspiciously. “You got homework you want me to do for you?”
In fact, he didn’t have any homework she needed to finish for him, but now that he thought about it, she could be of use in helping him prepare for a pop quiz he was able to capture from the mind of Mr. White earlier that afternoon.
I can hit her up for that later. Let’s just keep this casual for now.
“I don’t need anything, Lexi. I just thought you might like a little break from your homework. That paper’s not due on Monday… What are you working so hard for anyway? It’s Friday afternoon!”
“Well, okay. I could use a little break,” she sighed, then turned skeptically. “You’re really buying?”
“Yep.” He gave her his best smile.
“Okay then. I’ll have a double!” And with that, they headed for the door.
Good job, Sam. She’s back at ease. I was really hoping that she wouldn’t end up telling Mom and Dad about all of this. I think we’re good.
Sam was thrilled as he made it through the evening and his extra senses were still with him. He tried, for the most part, to stay o
ut of the minds of his family – it seemed like a huge invasion of privacy, and made a note to figure out how best to ethically tap into this new resource. One of the greatest benefits, he realized as they sat down to his favorite dinner, was that his mother’s lasagna was even more amazing with his new taste buds than he ever knew before!
This is so good, I should send her a thank you note or something. Right… Like she wouldn’t think I had lost my mind if I did that!
He grinned, and just enjoyed his dinner in silence, listening to the cheerful banter of the rest of the family. After dinner, he helped his mother clear the table, then sat down with his dad to watch the Cubs game.
Sam thought about going up to his room to log on and see if Leesha was online, but since he knew he’d see her tomorrow, he settled on just sending her a text message to confirm the time and the place to meet.
She texted right back: “Confirmed! I hope you’ve got lots of information for me!”
Oh, do I…
Chapter Eleven
When Sam went to bed the night before, he was stunned that his abilities were still with him. In fact, he found it hard blocking out all the noise so he could finally calm down and go to sleep. When he woke up on Saturday morning, he was elated that he was still in tune with his heightened senses.
This is incredible! It’s the longest they’ve stayed so far. I wonder… It’s probably too much to hope for, but I wonder if the flashes are done?
Sam and Leesha were supposed to meet at Central Library at 1:00, and when Sam walked in with his senses still intact, he was thrilled. He noticed, as he walked through the front doors, that he’d never heard a library so filled with noise. Pages turning, people shuffling down the various aisles, and fingers tapping on the search computers – he knew that it wasn’t really this loud to regular ears, but since he was tuned into it, it seemed extremely clear and vibrant to his ears.
