Chapter 6

The nurses came in early Saturday morning to wake him before breakfast. They hustled him into the shower and got him dressed in street clothes before giving him his food. The doctor came in and did a last check of all his vitals as well as his wounds before pronouncing him fit to leave. Brian thanked him and the nurses for all of their excellent care. He was packed and ready to go when his mom arrived at nine.

"You're all ready to go already! Wow they work fast around here when they want you out of their bed" she said.

"I want to get out of here as much as they want me out" Brian replied.

"Ok, let me get a nurse with a wheelchair and we're off" she said as she moved out of the room.

She was back in a few minutes with the nurse so he stood up and walked slowly over to the chair and sat down. The nurse pushed him while his mom grabbed his other bag of stuff with Brian carrying one on his lap.

They got to the main lobby and Brian's mom went to the parking lot to grab her car and pull it up to the entrance. The nurse pushed him out and helped him into the car while his mom put the bags in the trunk. They both thanked the nurse and then drove off.

"Good riddance I say" Brian stated as he breathed a sigh of relief. "I am so glad to get out of there."

"I bet you are. So, do you want to stop anywhere before we head to your apartment?" she asked.

"I better hit a bank and grab some cash. I'll be ordering in a bit more than usual so it would be a good thing to have some around. Other than that, it's too early for a good hamburger meal somewhere so that will have to wait" Brian replied.

Brian directed her to his bank and had her pull up close. He got out slowly and walked over to the outside ATM and withdrew 3oo dollars, noting that his salary was still being deposited automatically. He put the money away and slowly returned to the car and got in.

"Wow, that took a bit out of me, I guess I won't be up to par for awhile yet" Brian said as he shut his door and put on his seatbelt.

"I see that Brian, maybe I better stick around a few more days just to make sure you're ok" she suggested.

"I should be good once I get into my apartment. I don't plan to leave it for a few days so that's why I got the cash out now. I can always have Terry come over to help if I really need something. You've been away from home long enough Mom" Brian stated.

"Ok, you're a grown man, you can make up your own mind" she replied.

They arrived at the apartment building and she parked the car as close as she could to the elevator in the garage. Brian got out and helped with one of the bags while his mother grabbed the other one and his free arm. They walked slowly to the elevator and he leaned on the wall while they waited for it to arrive. A couple of cute girls got out when it showed up and smiled at Brian before walking away. Brian smiled back and said hi before entering the elevator slowly. He punched the fifth floor button and leaned back, breaking out in a sweat.

"You ok Brian? You don't look so good" his mom asked him worriedly.

"Almost there, then I can lie down and relax" Brian said.

The doors opened and he shuffled down to his apartment. His mom opened the door and carried both bags in before returning to help him enter.

"Bed or couch Brian?" she asked.

"Couch for now. I'm tired of sitting in a bed" he answered as they moved to the living room.

He sat down on the couch and lifted his legs up to lie down for a bit. His mom got him a glass of water and a cool washcloth and handed him the glass while putting the washcloth on his forehead.

"Thanks Mom. I'm just going to rest for a bit ok?" he said.

"Ok Brian, I'm going to pack up and then make you some lunch before I go" she replied.

He fell asleep for a bit until she woke him for his lunch. He sat up and ate it and felt much better.

"That hit the spot Mom, thanks. I'll just have to take it easy for a few days and work up to more strenuous activities, like walking" he said with a grin.

"Ok, so do I stay or go?" she asked.

"I'll be fine, thanks for everything Mom, I really appreciate all that you've done for me" he said as he got up and gave her a big hug.

"Alright, I'll put the cordless phone by the couch and I'll call you when I get home. I'll call every day around lunch to make sure you're ok and you can call me once and a while too you know" she said.

"I will Mom, I promise. You have a good trip back and drive safely. I love you Mom" Brian said as he walked her to the door.

"I love you too Brian, you take care of yourself and get better" she said as she walked down to the elevator with her bags.

She waved before she got on the elevator and he returned it before going back into his apartment and sitting back down on the couch. He pulled his feet up and laid down to relax finally. The mind stream returned when he closed his eyes but was fainter and he had a harder time trying to pick out a particular mind. He finally found a woman's mind.

"It's so nice to be able to relax with the kids gone for the weekend at their Father's place. I think I'll have a nice bath before I call Rachel to see if she wants to head to the bar tonight. Maybe I can pick up a man to bring back here for some loving"

Ok, not what he needed to hear Brian as he let that mind go and picked up another, this time a man's.

"How are we going to survive another month with no money coming in? Two kids to feed and another one on the way and employment insurance has run out. We're already late one month on the rent and the car payment. We've got nowhere to turn to and Jean's and my parents both don't have much extra either."

Brian thought that that must be Dan and Jean down a few apartments. He had heard he had lost his job at a local stamping company last year. This mind reading thing wasn't all fun and games he mused. He decided to try one more and randomly pulled another out of the stream in his head, another man.

"Ok, let's think, I'll sell off the rest of my automotive stock and buy some tech stock. It's been working for me. And health stocks should rise on the swine flu scare, I'll get some of them too. Whirlpool has good earnings, let's get some of that too. Ok, that will do for now, I'm up a few thousand this week, that's encouraging"

That's one I'll have to come back to if I can Brian thought to himself. He decided to open his eyes and try to scan the stream. The stream was muted, but still could be heard. Scanning was difficult but he really concentrated and picked up a faint mind, a woman's.

"Yeah, that's the spot Jimmy that feels real good. He's definitely getting better with his hands on foreplay. I better play with his too or he'll get discouraged. It's too bad it's not that big, oh well at least he's got lots of money. Alright, not too much or he'll finish too quickly. Oh damn, spoke to soon. No way am I cleaning that up!"

Brian wondered who that was. He thought there was a guy with a big truck down at the other end of the hall who might be named Jim, but he didn't know if he had a girlfriend or just someone staying over. It seemed he was compensating for some deficiencies in the size department with the big truck he thought with a smile.

Brian had enough mind reading for a while so he turned on the tv and watched a hockey game. After the game ended he found the phone book and ordered a pizza to be delivered. His mom called and told him she made it back alright and he let her know he was good and had ordered a pizza for supper. He thanked her again and told her he would talk to her tomorrow about noon. A bit later he heard the buzzer for the front entrance and walked over to the intercom to let the delivery guy in.

He met him at the door and paid him with a generous tip before grabbing the pizza and shutting the door. He flipped over to a movie and watched it while he ate a few slices. He put the remainder away during the commercial and went back to the couch and lay down to finish the movie. After it was done he brushed his teeth and then changed for bed and hit the hay. He was quickly asleep, dreaming of Heather.

Sunday morning was wet and dreary when Brian finally woke up and looked out the window. He had slept in until ten but felt better because of it. It felt good to be lazy for a change and not have to get up before the crack of dawn. He had a leisurely shower, with a shower cap covering his head to protect the holes in it. He made some eggs and toast and ate them while watching the Sunday morning news shows, trying to catch up with what had happened in the world the last couple of weeks. The Swine flu was the big topic as well as the Chrysler bankruptcy filing. That really could affect his company as they supplied Chrysler with parts and the new program he was working on was for them.

Brian got bored with the tv so he practiced reading minds for a while, both with his eyes shut, which was easier, or with his eyes open; a much harder task. He tried to concentrate on the mind reading while still doing another task with his eyes open. He started simple, just trying to play solitaire while reading the strongest mind. Brian figured that he would have to master the mind reading skill while acting normally in the real world or it would not be as useful as it could be.

His first attempts were a disaster, either he lost the mind or had to stop playing the game. He kept it up for over an hour until he got tired and lost whatever improvements he had made up to then. He grabbed some lunch and watched a hockey playoff game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Anaheim Ducks.

After the game, a third overtime loss by the Wings, he practised his mind reading skills again, not really caring who or what he was reading, but training his mind to be able to do two or more things at the same time. He made some progress as he finally finished a whole card game while listening to a child read herself a book.

Brian also realized that he wasn't really reading their minds, but more their current surface thoughts. He couldn't follow a stream backwards into the person's mind and go through their memories or influence their mind in any way. It was unfortunate but reading a person's current thoughts could still be very beneficial, especially if you could do it while having a conversation with them, and lead the conversation to a desired topic, whereby you could read what they really thought, versus what they were saying to you. Any secrets they had would be laid bare as they would have to think about it while coming up with an alternative to say to him.

He decided to spend a good portion of every day he was off recuperating on this new talent to master it before having to go back to work. It wasn't as if he had anything else to do. At some point he would have to practise on face to face people, but for now he used what minds came freely in the stream around him.

He heated up some leftover pizza for supper and watched a movie before heading to bed early. The mind reading practice, while not physical, was still draining. He was lucky that he had to activate reading a mind rather than thoughts coming to him uncontrolled. Brian fell asleep quickly, again dreaming of Heather and the kiss she gave him last week.

Monday morning came along with bright sunshine through the windows as Brian woke up nice and early. After a shower and a large breakfast, he decided to get out and walk to the corner store a block away. There was a park in between that he could rest at if he got tired. He got dressed in jeans and a tee shirt and after struggling to put on his runners, grabbed a jacket, wallet, keys and a ball cap before heading out.

He left checking his mail box until he returned from his walk as he walked past the bank of them in the lobby. Brian opened the front door and stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked around while breathing in the fresh air. He basked in the heat of the sun on his face as he enjoyed the first real sense of freedom after being cooped up in the hospital and the apartment.

Brian turned right and started walking a bit faster than he had in the last few days. He needed to build up his physical stamina back to where it was before. While he walked he thought about how helpless he felt in that carjacking and decided to look into some self defence classes to augment his boxing training he already had. He thought there was one down another block from the store so maybe he could continue his walk down past the store and see what they offered.

Brian looked around as he walked, happy to be alive and feeling a sense of renewal in his life. He had a few weeks grace to make some changes in his priorities and condition of living until he had to get back to the grind. He was damn sure he was going to use those weeks wisely to get started. He decided to stop being the shy quiet guy all the time and start showing some backbone and initiative, especially in regards to his love life or lack thereof. Having the ability to read a woman's thoughts while approaching her would help in that regard he thought.

He passed the store, still on a normal pace and crossed the side street continuing on towards the martial arts studio he thought was down here. He saw a sign for Marshal's Martial Arts about half way down the block confirming it. He passed an electronics store and remembered that his cell phone was broken so he made a mental note to stop in on the way back and get a new one. The company might still provide one but he decided to get one for himself as well.

He looked at the windows of the studio and say they had self defence classes as well as mixed martial arts and straight judo. He saw a couple of adults sparring inside, a woman and a larger man. The woman seemed overmatched physically but was holding her own and was in fact getting in more shots than her opponent. The place was very clean, neat and tidy with well light open areas for sparring in a wide open main room. It looked like a good place to get started at.

He pushed the door in and entered the studio waiting area. The two people sparring continued for a couple minutes more before stopping for a breather. The woman grabbed a towel and dried herself off before walking over to him. She was about five foot seven, looked in great shape with a pretty face and her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Hello, can I help you?" she asked with a smile.

"Hi, I'm looking into a self defence class to start with and remembered you were just down the street from my apartment building. I recently came out second best in a carjacking and decided I needed to be able to protect myself better" Brian replied.

"Well you've come to the right place. We can teach you how to handle yourself in many different situations. We have daytime and evening classes available with different levels to progress to. If you master some of those and you're still interested, you can move up into judo or mixed martial arts as well" she informed him. "You don't look too badly hurt after your incident. I see a scar and some bruising around your eye there."

Brian laughed and took off his hat before saying "Oh it was bad enough" before showing her the scars on his head and arm. "I was out for a week and spend a second recuperating. This is the first time I've been out in two weeks."

"Ouch, you got it pretty good that's for sure. I seem to remember something about that a couple of weeks ago on the news. You didn't want to give up your corvette or something like that" she said without the friendly smile. "That was a very stupid thing to do."

"It was stupid but it wasn't me that did it. The car was a co-worker's and he didn't want to give up his baby. I got to handle a guy with a knife while he handled a guy with a pipe. I, by some miracle took care of my guy, with only the cut on the arm and a fractured skull in the back, but he didn't handle his. His guy came by and gave me this souvenir up front that put me out for the count. Believe me; I would have given him the keys after washing the windows and checking the oil for them first. I nearly died for his stupidity before they drilled a few holes in my head" Brian told her in disgust.

"Sorry for critiquing you, you've been through too much to deserve that. So, like I said, you've come to the right place. I'm impressed that you handled a guy with a knife, even without experience. We can teach you what to do in all sorts of situations so you're ready if anything else happens to you. You look in decent shape so that's a plus for you already" she told him.

"Do you have a schedule of all your classes that you offer?" Brian asked.

"Sure do, let me get you one from my office" she replied with a smile. He watched her butt as she walked away and he did a quick mind read on her.

"He's lucky to be alive for sure. Those injuries are pretty severe. Hopefully he'll sign up for something, new recruits are almost non-existent in this economy and the current students are dropping off like flies as they can't afford to keep it up. I don't know if I can survive much longer without some new money coming in real soon. Here's a schedule, I might have to consolidate some classes if it doesn't pick up because I won't be able to pay the other instructors soon. Ok, cheer up, you have to get this guy to want to join, look in the mirror, not bad, fix the hair there and remember to smile."

Brian stopped reading her. He was surprised she was the owner of the studio, not just an instructor, and admired her gumption and nerve in a traditionally male dominated field. He smiled at her attempts to do a little extra using her feminine wiles to get him to sign up. He decided to sign up for two or three classes a week for a couple of months and pay up front to help her out — after she charmed him a bit first, he thought chuckling to himself.

She came out and smiled at him as she walked back to him.

"Here's a schedule for you. Right now we have classes every night at different times and different levels. Some of those might end if there isn't demand but I'm sure we can accommodate your schedule. We have some day ones as well if you're free during the day" she said smiling as she handed it over.

Brian opened it up and looked it over while she stood close by. There were a lot of different scheduled classes, with various levels of each spread through the day and afternoon. He found an additional list of courses for one on one instruction listed at the bottom and thought that he might like to go that way with her later if it wasn't too expensive.

He saw that she was getting a bit restless, not knowing if she should jump in and try and convince him or not. He looked up and asked "So tell me about pricing, I'm thinking two or three times a week until I'm up to speed and can pick up one of the disciplines seriously. I done a fair bit of boxing so I'd like to augment that with something, maybe mixed martial arts, down the road. But for the short term, a significant crash course in self defence is what I'm looking for. Are you the instructor for most classes?"

She smiled when she heard what he was thinking of taking and responded "I teach a lot of the classes but we have other instructors as well. I can't handle them all. We charge $100 a month for twice a week one hour classes for self defence, it works out to about $12.50 an hour so it's a pretty good deal. We have at least one class for each level every evening so you can schedule the two best days for you. The higher level courses cost more as we have fewer students and the instructors cost more. The one on one can be a bit pricy but we usually work something out to fit them in between course in the instructors' downtime so their time isn't wasted."

"Those prices are reasonable" Brian said to her. "Ok, I would like to take classes four times a week for two months with increasing difficulty as we go along. I would like you as the instructor so you can monitor my progress and raise the bar so to speak. If all goes well, we can discuss moving up into a discipline after that. So if my calculations are correct, that's $400 for the two months correct?"