Chapter 11

"Just keep your focus steady when you open your eyes..." Alek was saying when my mother came into our kitchen and interrupted the, so far, futile practice session.

"Pardon me, Alek. I know I promised to stay away and not to disrupt your training but I have to talk to Jake about a phone call I got today. Honestly, Jake! Sleeping in class? I know that sometimes the regular curriculum can be boring to you..."

"It's not that, mom. I had to see an aura and I can't do it with my eyes open yet."

"That's why you gotta figure this out kid." Alek declared. "Now you see why you can't get too comfortable with closing your eyes."

"I'm not getting comfortable with it. I just don't see the problem practicing that way."

"You should be seeing them easy by now – you've got to start pushing yourself."

"I am, you act like I don't want to figure this out. I've never sandbagged at anything in my life. Tell him, Mom. Mom? What's wrong?"

My mother's eyes had gone wide. My words startled her out of her stunned silence.

"Did you say you were seeing an aura or you were 'trying' to see an aura?"

"Seeing ... I've been able to for quite a while now."

"Well he's not seeing them very well, I can tell you that." Snorted Alek. My mother's gaze shifted from me to him.

"Alek, Jake is a telekinetic – I ... I thought you knew."

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Exclaimed an instantly agitated and visibly frustrated Alek. "That's just great!" he stood and began pacing around the room while he ranted. "Here I think I've discovered someone who could really help us out – the son of one of the most powerful psychics in the world and he's a fucking TK! Not that you can't help us out, kid – but TK's are aren't what we need. We need more psychics who can stand up to guys like Phil."

"Uhm, Alek?" said my mother softly. Alek ignored her.

"I'm just wasting all of our fucking time here. You're a good kid and I can give you the basics but I know shit all about details of combat TK. There are at least a dozen guys ... hell your own mother could teach you..."

"Alek, he can see auras." My mother said matter-of-factly while Alek continued unabated.

" ... more about that power than I can. You can still do some pretty ... what was that?" He stopped ranting and looked at my mother.

"He can see auras. And he has telekinesis every bit as strong as mine."

"Yeah." Alek had a look of amazement on his face. "How can you do that kid?"

"What? I just did what you told me to."

"Doesn't matter what I told you, you shouldn't see auras."

"What are you talking about?"

"Jake," interjected my mother, "remember when you were taught the difference between Telekinetics and Psychics? The reason TK's psychic abilities are so limited is that they can't see the auras. Manipulating auras is the key to mental connections and being able to see what you're doing is vital to strong psychic power."

"I've never heard of a TK who could also see auras." Alek seemed very distant as he mused, "everything we do from here is just theory ... Hey kid, take a look at your mom's aura."

"What for?"

"That's just what I want to know," Mom interjected, "if I'm going to be the basis for an experiment I'd rather know what it was before I agree to it."

"Relax, Reeny, I'm just trying out a theory that Joe and I used to toss around. Look, we suspected that the linking of auras is really just a very weak form of TK. I've been teaching Jake to do it the way I do, identifying a prevalent emotion, matching it and extending my aura out until I make contact. That can take a second or two until the person becomes really proficient. If our theory was right, Jake doesn't have to do it that way. Are you game to let him try?"

I spoke up before my mother could, "I don't know Alek, I don't like the idea of messing with my mom's brain."

"I think I know what he's trying to prove, honey, you won't need to give any commands, just see if you can connect."

"She's right. No commands or mind reading – nothing beyond the empathic anyway. Now call up the sight."

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and let it out slowly. Before I had finished exhaling completely the darkness erupted with the fiery glows of our auras.

I turned toward my mother's auras and saw that curiosity was her strongest aura, which was convenient as that was already my strongest one too. I started extending mine.

"No," interrupted Alek, "That's how we've been doing it. I want you to try connecting auras from different emotions. Use your TK to manipulate them."

Releasing her curiosity aura I selected the color I associated with laughter and mirth. It was pretty subdued so I figured it would be a good test. Curiosity was still my strongest aura so I began extending it, then stopped. That was still too close to how I always did it – I was supposed to do it different this time. My aura retracted and I reached out to my mother with my will. I focused on her mirth aura and willed it toward me.

The response was immediate – the aura distended, a tendril broke free and stretched rapidly across the room to me. I picked one of my auras at random and since there were no sparks of mutual attraction to form the link, I simply jammed them together with brute force.

I felt ... something ... so I pumped as much psychic energy down the link as I could and watched as my mother's mirth aura swelled.

I heard her giggle. I continued to feed her aura and her giggles turned to peals laughter.

"What's so funny?" Asked Alek's voice with a touch of amusement since he could see exactly what was happening.

"I ... ha ha ... don't ... hee hee ... know. Ha ha ha ha ha ... I can't ... ha ha ha ... stop laughing ... ha ha ha ha ha."

I then reversed the flow of energy, her aura immediately deflated and her laughter stopped. I broke the connection and opened my eyes to see her panting in recovery while wiping tears from her cheeks.

"Phew! That was intense." Mom finally said after she caught her breath. "And fast too – there were none of the usual signs of contact – all of a sudden the influence was there, with no indication where it was coming from."

"I have never seen auras act like that before." Observed Alek, almost in awe, "You may have something there kid, if only you could do it with your eyes open. I know, I know," he continued, interrupting my protests, "you're trying. But since you shouldn't be seeing auras at all, you may never be able to see them with your eyes open and it's not your fault. I want to check one more thing. Reeny, bring up your shield, I don't know if his way can get through one, I know the way I do it can, but my aura never really breaches the shield, the sparks do."

I called up the sight again and this time there was an oval of shimmering blue haze around her. "That's really pretty." I said, then, thinking about how different the auras looked to different people, "What does it look like to you Alek?"

"What are you talking about, Kid?"

"Her shield, how does it look to you? To me it's a pretty blue film with sparkles of light in it."

"I can't see shields, kid."

My eyes popped open. He and she were staring at me.

"What?"

"We can't see the shields. They aren't part of the auras. I don't know know why you can."

"I've never seen my own, but I saw mom's just now."

"I wonder," said my mother, "if it's because you're telekinetic, you're in tune with that energy and my shield is just a static form of that energy. Can you see anything when I move something telekinetically?"

"I'm not sure, haven't a chance to try."

I closed my eyes and called up the sight, "Okay, do it."

She had dropped her shield and there was no movement of her aura or any blue tendrils, or tendrils of any color. "Are you doing it?"

"Yes, anything at all?"

I opened my eyes, "Sorry, nothing."

"Let's try making a connection through the shield," said Alek.

I made the preparations then extended an aura towards the shimmering blue of my mother's shield.

It hit the shield and there was a slight resistance, then it slipped through and I jammed it into a random aura.

"Do I pass?" I pulled back and opened my eyes.

"That's great, kid."

He looked at his watch, stood and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair.

"I have some people I have to meet. Let me think about this for a while. I've got to figure out the best way to utilize your talent." He patted me on the shoulder and bent to give mom a quick hug. "If this meeting goes well, I'll have to head straight for Cincinnati. It will be the first time all the leaders have met to form a new council, so it could be a while before I'm back."

"I wish you'd get a cell phone. It would be nice to be able to contact you if something happens."

"No way, we've lost nearly a dozen group leaders to traced cell phones when one member of their crew was identified. Random pay phones are the only way. You have my email address, I'll be using libraries to check that at least once a day."