Chapter 5: Listening vs. Hearing

Jaime

THE NEW ARRANGEMENT worked well for Jaime. To start with, he was no longer deposited into the slowest learning class. He could understand why Belle had chosen computer instruction, but Jaime often got more from the teacher’s thoughts than he did from the words. He was becoming better at filtering out thoughts from his classmates, while letting the thoughts of his teacher through.

Selective hearing, he thought. In the early days of his education, some teachers had determined that he had selective muteness and tried to force him to talk aloud. He read up on the subject online and one search led to another.

His research showed that selective hearing was practiced by almost everyone who could pay attention to one aural input while ignoring all or most others. People often did it in environments where several people were talking, but they were only paying attention to one. People let themselves get so absorbed by movies or television or even music that they didn’t hear anything else. In fact, that was the technique Jaime had used when he put on his headphones.

He had to practice selective hearing in his head as well as his ears.

Of course, sometimes a stray thought caught his attention. It wasn’t intentional, but he found himself suddenly listening to another person. At first, it was difficult to zero in on who he was listening to. By the end of middle school, he was able to identify the thinker almost as readily as his ears could identify a speaker.

Everyone had what he considered a different head taste. It was like the pitch, tone, and accent of an out-loud voice that would distinguish between one person and another. He made a practice of sampling the head taste of the people around him so he could tell quickly who was thinking when he heard something in his head.

His last year in middle school, Jaime had become painfully aware of the physical changes taking place in nearly everyone around him—and, indeed, in himself as well. He might not have noticed it so soon had it not been so loudly thought about by so many of his classmates—male and female. Girls were developing secondary sexual characteristics and the boys around him had begun to notice. Their shapes were changing and the boys were reacting to the visual stimuli—like breasts and butts.

At the first mention of the subject through a stray thought from one of the boys in his social studies class, Jaime was suddenly fascinated with the subject and found changes in his own body that were making themselves known.

Girls, as well, were noticing changes in the boys. A girl might thrill to the sound of a boy’s voice that had shifted from a soprano to a deep baritone. Boys who grew taller than the girls were noticed. All through their schooling, most of the girls had been taller than most of the boys. Muscle mass increased on some boys and that was noticed as much by girls as breasts were by boys. Some boys were already shaving before they reached their teens.

Jaime tried not to be a head voyeur, but it seemed the thoughts of sex were the ones screamed loudest by the pubescent boys and girls alike. He was amazed at how confused most were about the actual biology that was involved and determined to educate himself online.

David did not believe in restricting Jaime’s internet access through parental controls. He felt children in general self-regulated what they looked at through their own interests. If Jaime saw something like a discussion of transsexuality, he would read it if it interested him and would not read it if he found it uninteresting. They talked about what was online a lot. Jaime recognized the dangers of social media and really didn’t use it much. He found talking to people he couldn’t read mentally was exhausting and undependable.

When it came to sex, his education took several late nights on his computer. He was enlightened about great swaths of human sexuality. He found how the parts were supposed to fit together, what the major stimuli were, and the risks in engaging in sex. It was almost more than he wanted to know and he was thankful he could not ride in the heads of those he saw on the computer.

It took much more effort to block the thoughts of others as he moved to high school and began encountering people who actually did have experience, or at least imagined they did. Apparently, some had watched the same videos he had because their imagined exploits matched those he’d seen online remarkably closely.

While home was a refuge in the evening after a day of filtering out thoughts, Jaime still sought out ways to make his filters easier and more automatic. He’d practiced using music as a means of filtering out extraneous mental input since he was very young. As a result, he’d fallen in love with orchestral music. When the music didn’t have words, he was free to just float on its melody and release his thoughts. It was like meditation to him.

He also discovered that anything that focused people’s thoughts on a single subject tended to quiet a room full of noisy minds. He wondered if teachers knew how few people in their classroom focused on what they were saying. There were a couple of classes that were really interesting and people’s minds were occupied with a single thing. Most classes left students’ minds scattered to the wind, so to speak.

Whenever a group of people were caught in a single experience, like a movie, they focused on that experience to the exclusion of all other thoughts. Or at least of most other thoughts. The movie theater was a place of mental quiet for Jaime as he merely rode the waves of people’s emotions as they watched the movie.

He spent at least one afternoon or evening each weekend at a concert or a movie. But once back in school on Monday, he would be bombarded with the typical thoughts of teenagers. Here he found sporting events were almost as good as concerts. The day of a school sporting event, most thoughts ran in the same channels—some deeper than others. It was like listening to people speaking in unison instead of all speaking about different things at the same time.

Jaime found himself at a movie one Saturday afternoon, anticipating a relaxing time with the audience—of which there weren’t too many people anyway—focusing on one thing and leaving his mind relatively free. A row ahead of him, he recognized a burly boy from the football team, which had won an important game the night before. He didn’t recognize the girl he was with, but she seemed tense. As soon as the lights went down and the movie started, her thoughts started to intrude on his own. They ran contrary to the thoughts shared by most of the movie audience.

I can’t believe I agreed to a date with Tom. All the girls warned me he was an octopus. If he tries to feel me up again, I’ll leave. I swear I will.

At the same time, Jaime became aware of the boy’s, Tom’s, thoughts.

I am definitely going to bust a nut in this virgin. She plays hard to get, but Dan said he got to second base just by kissing her. She is so hot!

The thoughts of the two continued to run counter to the movie for a while and Jaime was able to shut them out until a quiet and sweet scene in the movie left everyone sighing together. Suddenly the girl had an alarming thought.

Oh, my God! He’s got his hand on my breast! When did that happen? I didn’t even feel it! I don’t want it there. What should I do? It would be stupid to make a big deal about it now that it’s done. I don’t even know how long he’s been squeezing me. And it feels kind of good. No! I don’t want this! I’ll wait for a scene with action and shift my position so he can’t reach it. Damn! I wish it didn’t feel so good!

I knew it, the boy thought. She’s hot. Damn! Her nipple popped up hard as a rock. I can’t wait to suck on it. She’s got such smooth legs and a short skirt. Like she was just ready for this all along. This cherry is going to pop tonight!

When did he put his hand on my leg? God! That kiss on my ear was just too much! I should have worn tights or pantyhose. And jeans instead of a skirt. What was I thinking? Oh, shit! I’m gonna kiss him!

Jaime observed all this from behind the couple. It was truly distracting from the movie. He watched her turn her face toward the boy and kiss him. He was surprised but got right into it. The thoughts were less orderly as the kiss progressed.

Little silk panties.

When did I put my hand on his cock?

Yeah. You like me pinching your little nipple, don’t you?

I’ll just relax my legs a little. His hand feels so good there.

She’s wet already. Her panties are soaked.