Chapter 10: Helpful Relations

May,26-28, 1985

[“Be there in just a minute!” We said.]

We cleaned up and walked over to where Ed was grilling the ribs. The girls went in to talk to Gracie. Ed was excited about his pool, then told us to look for a ‘reward’ from Paul when the guys come to finish the installation.

We asked when his pool was going to get installed.

“Well, Paul said his guy was digging a pool on Tuesday, and might dig mine on Wednesday, depending on the weather forecast. I guess there’s a chance of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday, and he doesn’t want the hole filling up with water. They ARE planning on digging the holes for my fence and setting the posts in concrete tomorrow, after they finish your pool. He said my pool would be done in one day, since it’s flush-mounted.”

Ed loaded the ribs on a platter, just as Gracie and the girls were carrying the rest of the meal out to the patio.

“Mmm, MMmm, MMMMM!” Were the only sounds coming out of Greg’s mouth. He was voraciously savoring every morsel of his ribs.

Jamie tittered at Gracie. “Greg’s a man of few words. Though he does get his point across!”

Greg looked up at us. “WHAT?”

“We can see that no napkin will be wasted on you!”

“Why the hell should I use a napkin and waste all this great flavor. Ed, BUDDY, I always thought that Carson’s ribs in Chicago was the best there was. These HERE ribs blow them away! You’ve got to tell us what kind of sauce you used, and what you did to make ‘em this tender.”

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Ed chortled. “I’ve always wanted to say that!”

I told Ed, “I’ve tried cooking ribs, but they always seem to come out very dry and tough.”

“I’ll bet you cook them entirely on the grill, don’t you?” He asked.

I just nodded, before Ed continued. “Well, it might be cheating, but I parboil them until they are about 70% done, then I put them on the grill and immediately cover them with barbecue sauce. I make sure the grill is really hot so that it sears the juices in quickly and bakes the first layer of barbecue sauce on top. Then I turn the grill down to medium, flip them over and coat the other side with barbecue sauce. I let that cook for another 10 minutes, then flip them over one more time, add some more barbecue sauce and five minutes later they’re done. As for the sauce, it starts life as KC Masterpiece Mesquite and I add my special ingredients. Some brown sugar, honey, garlic powder, dried Coleman’s mustard and two shots of bourbon.”

Greg exclaimed, “Cheat, shmeat, these are freaking great! The bourbon’s a great touch. I wouldn’t change a thing.” He pronounced as he began devouring another rib.

“Next week you guys have to come over and bring Bill and Sally”, Mary said, “I’ll get Charlie to demonstrate his steak grilling prowess! He sauté’s onions and mushrooms on the grill that he’ll put on your steak if you like. He’s even got his own ‘special seasonings’ that he uses. Charlie might not know how to boil water, but give him a grill and he’s a God!”

Gracie giggled, “So he’s a lot like Ed. What is it with men? They do so well outside but, when you give them a stove and an oven, they’re lost.”

Jamie got very defensive. “Not my Greg! Sometime we’ll get him to make his lasagna for us. It’s even better than my mom’s!”

Greg was beaming as he finally began eating his sweetcorn and mashed potatoes.

Shortly after we finished eating, Ed asked us if we wanted to take his little test.

“Sure”, I told him, “I just wish my brother Bob was here to take it with us. I’d call him, but I know he’s got a DJ gig that he’s doing in downtown Elgin for the Alcoholics Anonymous group.”

“Yeah, that’s too bad”, Ed lamented, “Joshua said it would save him a lot of time tomorrow if we got this out-of-the-way tonight.”

I thought for a second, “Hey Bob, can you hear me?”

“This is starting to get weird, but yes, I think I do, I’m almost finished getting set up now, then I’ll have some time. What’s up?”

I smiled at the group but didn’t say anything. “Well, Ed wants to give us this little test and I was hoping you could take it with us, do you have any paper and a pencil handy?”

“Actually yes, I always have paper and pencils to take requests. Give me about five minutes to finish setting up and I’ll have a good half hour before I have to do anything.”

I looked at Ed, “I just talked to Bob, he’s gonna take the test with us!”

Ed just shook his head. “Okay, this should REALLY be interesting.”

I told him that we needed to wait about five minutes. Ed said it would take him that long to get set up.

While Ed was getting set up, I asked if anyone else ‘heard’ what we talked about. Jamie was frowning, but Greg and Mary said they had heard all of my end and most of what Bob had thought.

Jamie said, “I think you asked him if he had some paper and pencils, and I heard something about ‘a half hour before he had to do anything’.”

I smiled at her and said, “You got most of that baby, don’t be sad, this is not some kind of a contest to see who is better.”

She hugged me with a smile as Ed began telling us how his test worked.

“Okay, I’m going to have you sit, one at a time, on one side of this cardboard wall while the other three sit on the other side. I have 12, 6” x 8” cards that have different designs and colors on them. On the bottom right-hand corner is a number, that is for reference only. I have the one person shuffle an identical set of cards that he/she will look at one at a time for 30 seconds each. That set of cards has a plastic slider that hides the number so that the person giving the clues can’t just give the number.

“It’s obvious that the four of you or I should say five, could beat the number game with your eyes closed and half your brain tied behind your back! Joshua wants me to ask you, on your honor, that the three who are receiving the clues not help each other. As soon as you think you know which card it is, write that number down on your piece of paper and when we’re all through we’ll check everyone’s numbers. The one giving the clues will just put each card face down on top of each other so we can check the numbers at the end. Who wants to go first?”

I checked to make sure Bob was ready and told him to just number 12 pieces of paper 1 to 12 and write down anything that came to mind. I asked if everyone was ready and I flipped over my first card. The first one only had three different colors. Red, blue and green. The design was predominantly triangles, (there were six), it had two trapezoids one was black and the other was red. At that point Ed said that time was up, so I flipped that card over. The rest of the cards were similar in that they had different colors and shapes that I described in as much detail as I could, mentally. Ed told everyone to relax and we all got something to drink while Ed started writing down the numbers in order from my cards.

Ed kept saying, “Wow, this is unreal, I can’t believe it. Okay this makes sense.”

He finally looked up at us. “Mary and Greg got them ALL right. Jamie got the first one right then missed the next two, got the fourth one right, missed the fifth and got the rest of them correct.”

He said it was too bad that Bob couldn’t see the numbers. I flashed that to Bob and I could almost ‘hear’ him chuckling, “Well, actually, I was getting the numbers from one of the girls. I wrote them down on each piece of paper.”

I told Ed and then flashed Bob to read me the numbers in order. I wrote them down and flashed to him that I’d talk to him tomorrow night as he was getting ready to start his gig.

When I looked at the numbers I stared at Jamie in shock. Jamie’s eyes were wide when I said, “Bob said he got his numbers from one of the girls. The numbers match Jamie’s exactly!”

Jamie began smiling and when we started to talk to her she shushed us, holding her finger up as if to get us to pipe down for a second. Everyone’s eyes were glued to Jamie’s face. Her expression went from a grin to a serene smile, when suddenly tears began to flow from her eyes.

Greg tried to ask what was wrong but she feverishly shook her finger at us to stay quiet. Finally, Jamie started verbalizing, “Thank you Bob, I can’t wait to see you tomorrow to get that kiss you promised, thank you again.”

I flashed, asking Bob what that was all about and I could hear him tittering, “She was just so happy that I could really ‘hear’ her. Then she was trying to apologize for giving me some wrong numbers. I told her that I wasn’t mad at her at all and actually wanted to thank her for trying to help me. I told her I thought she was wonderful and beautiful, especially her cute freckles and that if I was there I would hug her and kiss her. I promised that I would do that tomorrow!”

Ed was slightly lost, so I explained everything that had transpired. Ed was shaking his head in amazement. He thought for a minute, then grinned. “Well, I guess she wasn’t trying to cheat, in fact, she added a dimension to the test that is quite intriguing. Let’s try again with Mary delivering the messages.”

It went about the way I figured. Everyone read her perfectly. Then Greg went, and again, perfect scores. When it came to Jamie, Ed pulled out a new set of cards, to insure randomness.

I saw panic come over Jamie’s face. I flashed, with all the emotion I could, “You can DO this freckles! I love you and I BELIEVE in you!”

“I love you Charlie. Yes, I CAN do this!” I felt her reply.

I was amazed at the clarity that I suddenly felt with her. I wondered if the extra emotion might have been the reason behind it. When she finished, I was certain we all had the right answers. Ed was once again amazed with the results. “ALL CORRECT!” He said. “Joshua is going to go crazy when I tell him about this. He was sure that NONE of you would score even 50% with anyone and felt you’d be ‘amazing’ at 60-70% accuracy!”

Jamie asked, “Could I get some water or something? I’m super thirsty.”

I said that I was too, and both Mary and Greg were nodding in agreement.

Gracie asked if iced tea would be okay, and we all answered, “Yes, please!”

I was glad to see her bring a pitcher, as we all guzzled our first glass, without even bothering to squeeze the lemon into it. We drank our second glasses a little slower, but not much.

I noticed Ed writing something that he put with our test results. I asked him what he wrote.

“Joshua wanted me to put down anything out of the ordinary that the four of you did during or after the test.”

I looked at him and cocked my head. He asked me, “When was the last time you were this thirsty? I mean all four of you at the same time?”

I thought for a second. “Probably the day we built the fence. We were all pretty thirsty when we were finished.”

“Yeah Charlie, but I wasn’t as thirsty as I was just now.” Jamie retorted.

“As fast as you guys put that fence up, that would be expected. Plus, it was a hot day. Tonight however, none of you even broke a sweat. Joshua said something about ‘consequences’ of using a power or ability out of the ordinary. We can ask him tomorrow and he’ll explain it better.” Ed explained.

I told him I’d save more comments for tomorrow. I ‘flashed’ to my family that we needed to discuss this when we got back home. We thanked Ed and Gracie for their hospitality with hugs and kisses. I told them that we were looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.

When we got back home we all went straight to the kitchen and fixed ourselves another iced tea. We also each grabbed a bourbon, a beer or wine cooler and we headed out to the patio.

“You know; I don’t remember EVER being this thirsty before.” I said. “Jamie was right, even after building the fence I don’t remember chugging down three glasses of iced tea. Are you all just as thirsty as I still am?”

Greg nodded, “Yes, and you’re right, after we got done with the fence, I guzzled one glass of water and then we went onto the patio with an iced tea. But I didn’t have to guzzle it.”

“But this isn’t the first time we communicated like this.” Mary mused, “Why do you suppose this was different?”

I thought about it for a minute. “That’s true Hon, but this was the most intense usage we ever had. I don’t know about you, but I was far more focused for that hour than ever before.”

“You’re right Charlie, I was a lot more focused and by the end it almost felt like we were all talking out loud!”

Jamie said, “I feel like my ability to communicate with the three of you is five times better right now than it was even this morning. It’s like that exercise ‘tuned me up’ somehow.”

“I feel the same way, I may not have been sweating during that test, but I think I was concentrating harder than any final exam I’ve ever taken!” Greg agreed.

When I looked up I realized that the entire previous conversation took place silently.

We were all just looking at each other in astonishment. I asked, “Do any of you doubt what just happened here?”

My three soulmates were just smiling and nodding their heads. We each repeated what we thought we heard and were all correct word for word!

I said, “That settles it, from this minute forward it may not be necessary for us to ever talk again!”

Mary chuckled. “You’re right, but I think we should still talk, so that we don’t go through 4 gallons of iced tea a day!”

We all had a good laugh. I told them that I didn’t think we would always be this thirsty. I had a feeling what we just experienced might’ve been like having muscle tightness after doing a strenuous exercise for the first time. That every time after this, we wouldn’t be as sore or in this case, thirsty.