Chapter 12

For the next little while Charles walked around his neighbourhood casually observing people doing things. He watched people returning home from work. He watched them go into to their homes and he watched them greet their families just as they probably did every day. He watched mothers bringing home their children, old women walking their dogs and men mowing their lawns. Simply put, Charles watched people being normal, just as Connie and he had ordered them to be. The only problem was that they were doing everything without any spark of life. In fact, they behaved like the drones that Clyde had made of them, oblivious of their behaviour and oblivious of world around them. Not one of them took notice of Charles even when he walked up to their windows and looked into their homes, and they certainly didn't take notice of anything beyond their homes, like the local emergency service cleaning up the wreck that Charles had spotted earlier in the day, or the bodies of those that had died in the crash. It was very disheartening to observe. Thus after about an hour, Charles stopped observing. By then he had ended up in the neighbourhood park.

Kids were playing here and they were being watched by their parents. Charles smiled to himself. It was a small pocket of humanity and that made Charles happy. It would allow him to observe and that is what he did. He sat himself down on a park bench near one of the sandboxes and watched. It didn't take long for him to observe a few things.

The park was a small one, more suited for younger children than for kids Charles' age. As such, that was who was there. Not many but some. The sight of them got Charles thinking.

Children were running, playing, and falling. The mothers and the few fathers present in the park sat and watched their children. However, unlike what normally occurred when children fell, no one reacted. The child didn't cry when they hurt themselves and the parent didn't rush to the aid of the child. The child just picked itself up and went back to playing, ignoring their tumble whether they had really injured themselves or not.

Charles watched and thought about it for a moment or two. Then he tried an experiment. A child was making a sand castle. Charles walked over and deliberately stepped on it. The child looked at him but said nothing. The parent looked at Charles, but said nothing. The child went back to making a sand castle. Charles decided to try something else.

Charles glanced about the park and spotted some kids playing kick ball. Charles thought about how kids normally acted. How some would cry when they got hurt playing or when they didn't win at what they were playing. Charles also thought about how their parents' or caregivers would normally react. Charles gazed intently at the children and then at the adults sitting on the benches. He focused his thoughts and projected them.

Just then, a boy tripped another boy. He had tried to kick the ball. Instead, he had missed and he had tripped his playmate. The other child fell. He went down with a yelp and a thud. The next moment, the stillness of the park was broken by crying. The child cried as a normal child would when they hurt themselves. Charles smiled.

Off on a nearby bench a young woman rose and hurried over to the boy. It took only a moment. Charles stood and watched as the woman picked the boy up, brushed off his knee, looked at it and then brushed away his tears. Charles couldn't hear what she was saying to the child, but a moment later the child had stopped wailing and silence fell over the park once more. The child went back to playing and the woman went back to the bench.

Charles was pleased with his experiment. To him it was a good first try. Still it wasn't perfect. While the kid's mother had reacted to what had happened, no one else had. That made Charles wonder about what was needed to cause everyone to react. He knew that instinctively, every parent would at least look at the sound of a crying child, just to make sure it wasn't his or hers. Charles looked around the park a little more. He needed to try another experiment. His eyes fell on the mother of the boy who had cried.

Charles walked up to the parent. She was an attractive, twenty-something Asian woman, with long flowing black hair, who was wearing a white blouse and gray slacks. The blouse was open at the top two buttons and her cleavage was clearly visible. Charles moved behind her and reaching over her shoulder, slipped his hand into her blouse. Gently, he wrapped his hand about her bra clad breast, squeezing it carefully as he got a good grip upon it. The woman didn't even flinch. She did however glance back at him.

Charles smiled at the woman and immediately she smiled back. Then Charles let go of her breast and pulled his hand out of her blouse. Turning away, he focused his attention on one of the male parents. Charles ordered him to do the same to the woman. Again, the woman didn't even flinch.

Charles sat down upon a bench opposite to the woman and stared at her. He thought for a moment and then made a decision. He had told Connie that he was going to experiment. The woman would be his first try. He cleared his mind and then thought about the woman. Silently, he thought about what was appropriate behaviour. Having a man grab your breast in public was certainly inappropriate. If a person copped a feel without your permission, you should get upset. In fact, you should at the very least make a scene. Charles thought about this, and projected it to the woman.

When he was done, Charles picked the same man again and after a few gentle tweaks, he sent him over to the woman. The woman took no notice of him. The man reached into her blouse and squeezed her tit. This time the woman went ballistic. Instantly she leapt to her feet and faced the man. She screamed and shouted with indignation. Charles smiled with satisfaction.

Interestingly, the other women in the park reacted in the same manner as the Asian woman. They rose in shock at what the man had done, expressing their own indignation quite verbally. Charles watched while the man apologized vehemently just as Charles had programmed him to do, and then satisfied with the result of his experiment Charles smoothed it all over with a thought, making everyone forget that the incident had happened.

Then Charles completed his experiment. Cautiously he walked up to the Asian woman once more. Stepping behind her, he noticed that she had not even taken notice of him. Again, he reached down and slipped his hand into her blouse, this time slipping his fingers beneath the fabric of her bra. The woman didn't even flinch, nor did the other women in the park take notice. She did however purr with pleasure in response to his touch. Smiling to himself, Charles mischievously pinched the woman's nipple and then moved on. He stepped behind the woman sitting beside the Asian woman. She was an African-American woman, with a fuller body, who was slightly older, and wearing a dress. Charles stood behind her and paused for a moment. Then he reached into her dress and took hold of her breast. This woman responded by clasping her hand to his, forcing him to squeeze her breast. Charles happily squeezed her tit twice and then released it.

Biting his lip, Charles looked about the playground. His eyes fell upon another young mother who was playing in the sandbox with her toddler. The woman was bent over and wearing a skirt. Charles walked boldly over. Reaching down, he placed his hand on the round of the woman's ass. The woman failed to react. Charles pulled the woman's skirt up, exposing her panties. Again, she did not react, nor did the other women in the park. Smiling with satisfaction, Charles reached between the woman's legs and stroked her sex through the fabric of her panties. The woman willingly bore back against his fingers, forcing her sex against them. He did this for about three minutes, stopping only when he felt wetness beginning to soak the material.

Satisfied, Charles replaced the woman's clothing and then turned his gaze on a man who was walking by, pushing a child in a stroller. With a gentle nudge, Charles sent the man over to the woman that he had just molested, commanding him to do the same. The results put a smile on Charles' face. The woman, upon feel the man's hand reach between her legs, pulled away and spun on her heels. Her hand came up and slapped the man across the face. Shrieks of indignation filled the air, both from the woman and the other women in the park. Even the children stopped their play and took notice, as did the fathers that had been watching them.

Of course, after a moment or two, Charles smoothed things over once more, calming everyone down. Then Charles turned and walked out of the park. For the first time that day, he felt positive about what had happened. Smiling to himself, he walked back home.

Charles didn't actually go home. Instead, as he walked up his driveway, he paused and stood for a moment. While he stood, he thought the same commands as in the park towards the women in his house, and in the Taylor's house. Then smiling to himself, he walked over to the Taylor's. The back door was unlocked so he just opened it and walked in.

"Hello..." Charles said as he entered the Taylor's kitchen.

Anna Taylor was standing at the counter drying dishes. Her eyes widened with happiness at the sight of Charles. Smiling, she returned his hello. It was however, her only reaction. She didn't call for her mother and she didn't demand to know why Charles hadn't knocked before entering their house, and she certainly didn't scream at him to get out.

"Where is everyone?" Charles asked casually.

"Jennifer is in her room listening to music," replied Anna, still smiling happily at Charles, "and my mom is in the bathtub soaking."