Chapter 1: Relocating!

"Jay! Jay!" mother shouted upstairs to awaken me.

"I'm up!" I yelled back. I arose and sat on the edge of the bed. It was five thirty as I looked at my clock. I dreaded getting up and dressing. Today would be my first day at Weston High School. Making new friends and beginning my senior year in another school, in another town was not in my plans. It was my father's idea to move here. We were from the small town Briton Tennessee, about 122 miles from Memphis where Dad had owned two hardware stores and one of the two main grocery stores. Mom and Dad had no idea that I knew the reason we moved. It was because of what I had done. Dad was trying to protect me from things he said would only make life unendurable.

Since his birth, Dad has had the ability to read or hear others thoughts. This gift has been passed on to me. From my earliest childhood Dad had been teaching me how to control my mind in how I read others thoughts. Even past thoughts in a person's subconscious including dreams could be read. Not in an audible voice but the actual thought itself and because a person's view of the world around them is stored in the same memory, what they see or have seen can be viewed in my mind.

Dad had spent four years of his childhood in labs being probed and tested constantly until he was eighteen. Escaping, he left the Complex and hid in a small town in southern California working odd jobs in retail stores and finally as an assistant manager in a hardware store. He could have been or done anything but keeping a low profile was his first priority. He met mom in that small town and they married a year later. During the first year of their marriage Dad incrementally divulged his gift to her. She didn't understand his full capabilities at first but after time Dad revealed everything to her. Mom loved him so much and she had nothing to hide so they decided to have a child. Sixteen years ago, just before I was born they moved to Tennessee to escape what Dad called human exploitation.

Immediately Dad knew he had passed the gift to me. That concerned him not knowing how I would handle it as I grew. Since my birth, he had instilled in me never to divulge what I had inside of my head. All during my years growing up we kept it secret. Of course knowing things through others thoughts always gave me an advantage. Making average grades throughout my school years was my Dad's idea even though I have a photographic memory. I was reading everything I could get my hands on. At one point as a junior, I was considered a nerd but I overcame that by playing sports and hanging around some of the kids that liked to get into a little mischief from time to time. Dad warned me not to carry it too far but understood my need to be accepted by the others.

While playing different sports, I was captain of the defensive squad in football because the coach said I had a good judgment for knowing where the ball was going. This was the result of knowing the opposition's thoughts but there were drawbacks. I sustained more injuries because I knew where the ball was going and was in more tackles than the others. Baseball was my favorite sport. Knowing where the pitcher wanted to throw the ball gave me another advantage. Dad said I wasn't cheating because if everyone had the same gift they would use it and that if I were to endure the hardships in life because of my gift I needed to develop it to the fullest.

That is why we moved here. I fully understood to what extent people try to use me but I wanted to use my gifts to help my friends thinking I could control every situation. Just before the end of the last school year, I was spending most of my time with Chuck and Benny, my two closest friends. I knew their hearts were good from their thoughts and they truly liked me as a friend. We were at a party one Friday night invited by Sonny, one of Benny's old friends he once hung around. After a little drinking and talking with several of the girls, Chuck and I lost track of Benny. I had promised Dad I would have his car back by eleven thirty so I went looking for him throughout the house and ended up in the garage where they had been hanging and drinking heavily.

"Benny, let's go. I told Dad I would have the car home at eleven thirty." I said entering the garage. He, Sonny and two of Sonny's friends were standing around making plans to go somewhere.

"You and Chuck go on. I'm staying awhile." He replied. I normally avoided listening to others thoughts but I had gotten a bad feeling about this. I immediately opened my mind up to see what Sonny was thinking. He had convinced Benny to go with them to break in the back of the grocery store and steal a couple of cases of beer but when I looked to Sonny's thoughts, his plans were to rob the cash from the store.

"Don't go with them Benny, they are going to steal the cash from the store!" I said bluntly.

"Who the hell told you?" Sonny said looking at the other two. They shrugged their shoulders saying it wasn't them.

"Come on Benny. Let's get out of here." I said as he walked with me looking back at them.

"You're an ass-hole Sonny!" Benny said to him as we walked out. Sonny didn't know what to say trying to figure out how I knew. We went into the den where most of the party was and finding Chuck I told him to come on and we left. During the ride home Benny explained to Chuck what Sonny was planning and how I had revealed his real plans.

"How did you know what they were planning to do?" Chucked asked being puzzled by what Benny had told him.

"You two are my best friends. Can you keep a secret?" I asked wanting to tell them for some time.

"Sure!" they answered. I saw the good intentions they were thinking and decided to tell them.

"I can read peoples thoughts!" I said as they looked at me hesitating and burst out laughing. I didn't expect them to laugh but I realized to them it seemed amusing.

"You both think I am joking. Ok, each one of you think of someone and I will tell you who it is." I said prompting them to prove it. "Cindy, the girl at the party." I said looking at Chuck. "James, your brother." I said looking at Benny.

"That was a wild guess." Benny stated.

"Ok, take your minds somewhere else and we will see." I said as they looked at each other and began thinking. "Your dog Goliath who died two years ago." I said looking at Benny. "Your wondering if I am going to say what Benny is thinking." I said to chuck. They were perplexed but began believing me.

"How long have you been doing this?" Chuck asked.

"All my life but I don't do it all the time. Only when I feel it's necessary, like tonight when I had a bad feeling about what Sonny was up to."

"You can turn it off and on whenever you want to." Benny said.

"Like a light switch." I replied.

"So you know what we are thinking all the time." Chuck stated.

"No! I seldom do it anymore. You two are my best friends and I don't want to know what you are thinking. It takes the joy out of everything if you know what people are thinking.

"What about that girl I was talking to at the party, "Cindy", did you read her mind tonight? Could you tell if she liked me or not?" Chuck asked with a grin. I knew something like this would happen. They would want me to use it to help them in what I considered dim-witted things. My intentions were to help them in useful ways, something that would help them in life. If I did this once, they would want me to do it all the time. I knew it was human nature for them to want it but I realized now my mistake and had to stop it.