Chapter 1

The snow shuffled down, reflecting the light shining outward from large windows into what would otherwise be a black, cold night. Adam Johnson's stare followed the light. Drone-like, he fixated on individual flakes; the fluttering snow, like a swinging pocket watch, helped generate a restful, self-hypnotic trance.

'Are you warm enough?' a soft, feminine thought drifted to him from his back, shattering his numbed, relaxed state.

"Yes," Adam replied out loud. His sister's interruption let him return to his memories. It has been an extraordinary and long life, the old man reminisced, one filled with adventure, lust and love. Of course side trips of sadness and loneliness happened along the way. Yin and yang, he thought. Opposites make life interesting.

Adam remembered the first time he realized he was different, that he was unique. He had just turned fifteen. The boy could read the emotions of those around him, had been reading other people's feelings for as long as he could remember. The surprising fact, that day of insight, was that others did not have the same talent - not his parents or his sister, none of his friends or teachers. No one. That and the fact that that day he started to hear words, actual expressions, in addition to feelings.

Until the day of awakening, Adam's readings weren't specific, more general in nature. He read emotions and desires, not words. This ability made Adam a good boy, one easy to be around because he knew from his glances into the emotions of others what they expected of him. And because Adam wanted to be liked, he usually complied. His talent also allowed him to avoid potentially unpleasant situations.

The fateful day was a Saturday morning.

The teenager opened his eyes to an intense sensation of lust. His morning erection throbbed, demanding attention. The boy grabbed himself, jerked a few times and made a mess of his sheets. Suddenly, he heard voices, not real voices, but nonetheless what he sensed as words. Because the sounds were not spoken, merely thoughts, they had no variation in tone, more like a computer speaking directly into his thinking processes.

'A little higher, Goddamit, ' one thought said. The thought emanated not only words but also emotion - pure, intense lust.

'That's right, right there. Oh god yes, right there. Now lick harder. No, Goddamit, don't wander around, stay - yes, faster - harder.'

'Tastes so sweet, ' another thought said. Although the two voices sounded the same in his head, Adam knew this was a new voice. The emotions attached to the two thoughts varied. Adam licked his lips; they felt oily, and a sweet, pungent flavor filled his mouth.

'Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop.'

Adam joined the emotions emanating from this source. His erection had returned, and suddenly he felt another climax building, one more intense than any he had ever experienced before.

'I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, ' the thought repeated. Adam's entire body stiffened, his legs flew apart with his feet straight in the air. 'Oh, god yes, ' the thought muttered. Adam, without touching himself, spurted semen as an orgasm hit him. One intense spurt after the other flew into the air. They kept coming, well past the normal time his climaxes usually lasted. Instead of seconds, the climax drifted into minutes. He exhausted his semen source, but still he came, his balls contracting, trying to expend more seed. Slowly, instead of suddenly, the sensations diminished, and his legs drifted back to the bed. His body relaxed. He rolled to his side and drifted into a restful, satisfying sleep.

He woke to a pounding on his door.

"Are you going to sleep all day?" his father's booming voice inquired from beyond the door. 'Just like his mother, ' a thought said, and Adam realized the thought came to him from the mind of his father. Not only that, he also determined that this thought was attached to an earlier one, one that said, 'Tastes so sweet.' If that thought came from his father, then...

Wow, Adam thought. I must have been connected with my mom earlier, and what I felt was what she was feeling. He rolled over and noticed the bed sheet was stuck to his chest. The front of his body was covered with the dried residue of semen. Yuck, he thought and bounded from the bed.

In the shower he reflected on the morning's events. Adam's world had just changed dramatically. He wondered if puberty had brought on this mind reading ability like it had with so many changes within his body. Probably, he thought. Cool.

At the breakfast table when his mother, Karen, placed a glass of milk in front of him, he asked, "Can you hear other people's thoughts?"

She laughed. "Of course. Mind reading is a mother's prerogative," she said, but thought, 'I wish. Ah, maybe I don't wish. Reading everyone's thoughts would be noisy, would no doubt drive me batty. Men with white coats would take me away to the funny farm.'

Mother is still a beauty, Adam thought. At thirty-three years old, Karen Johnson usually turned the heads of both men and women when she lit up a room with an entrance. Tall for a woman at five feet, nine inches in her stocking feet, she presented a regal bearing balanced by a usually mischievous expression. Her dark brown, thick hair and nearly black expressive eyes had been passed on to both of her children.

Adam turned toward his father. "What about you? Are you a mind reader?"

"Sure, it's also a father's prerogative," he replied, aping his wife. 'Reading other people's minds would be fun, ' he thought. 'And profitable. My sales would quadruple. I'd know exactly what the tire kickers were thinking.' Steve Johnson was sales manager for Bolton Motors, a local new car dealer.

"Good morning," Adam's sister announced, interrupting the thought transfer from Adam's father. Sherry was a year younger than Adam, and until recently had been taller and more developed than the boy. Last month on Adam's birthday, they had marked their heights on the doorjamb as per custom, and the two siblings were identical in height. Adam had decided years ago, that Sherry was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. A little gangly in her puberty, Sherry's legs had outgrown the rest of her body, but then Adam preferred the leggy look. Her breasts had developed just beyond the perky state, and she hated the hindrance of a bra. Adam had frequently appreciated her preference when he noted hard little nipples evident under the casual clothing she usually wore. The girl approached life with a passion so she always appeared animated. She plunked herself onto a kitchen chair.

With all family members present, their thoughts became a jumbled mass, nearly incomprehensible to Adam. This thing just might drive me batty like Mom suggested, he decided, if I can't find a way to control reception. He concentrated, and with effort he was able to tone down the volume of some of the thoughts so that only the person's thoughts he wanted to hear came through. At first this required extreme effort, but by the end of the meal, the effort seemed natural, much like studying while listening to rock and roll music.

The boy switched his mental viewing to his mother from his sister; the girl seemed preoccupied with a quarrel she had with a friend the previous day.

The older woman was reminiscing about her early morning session with her husband, a subject more interesting to the teenager. He also noted that the woman was becoming aroused again.

'I wish he would do that more often, ' her thoughts stated. 'I love it when he eats my cunt. When we fuck and he gets off, sometimes he leaves me high and dry.' Adam then heard a mental chuckle. 'High and wet is more like it.'

Empathizing with his mother, Adam felt his penis spring to an instant erection. He blushed when he noticed Sherry glance at his crotch.

Her thoughts tumbled out. 'What have we got here? Big brother has a boner. I wonder what caused it? God, look how his pants are poking out. I sure would like to see it - feel it.'

His sister's mental comments only made him more sexually excited. He wondered if he had tuned into a fantasy or if Sherry really did want to touch him.

'Maybe even fuck it, ' Sherry's thoughts announced.

Adam gasped, twisted in his chair away from his family and quickly left the room.

Adam couldn't decide if his newfound power was a blessing or a curse. Knowing a person's innermost thoughts seemed to be an invasion of privacy. Although the thoughts were often interesting, even educational or entertaining, he sensed the normal teenage innocence he enjoyed before the unsought of his telepathic ability rapidly melting away. The thoughts of others, especially his mother's and his sister's, often embarrassed him. The thoughts he read, during that first few weeks, didn't always fit the personalities he had previously perceived as being essential to each individual he knew. Everyone seemed to have two personalities: one they presented to the world around them, and one contained privately within, hidden from the outside world, an existence no longer masked from him. Suddenly, Adam's world had become confusing and he struggled to cope with it. He frequently needed to be alone to shut out the mutterings coming to him from the minds of others.