Chapter 28

Monday, January 24th, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Around 7:00 pm, after a day spent with the girls and a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse they dropped me off a St. Francis Hospital. I spent a while going around and recruiting every person working on the floor that night and speaking to them.

I made sure each of the new team members knew the basics of the plan and that they would be helpful and supportive of making things go smoothly. All of them would keep the secret of the switch to themselves and everyone was conscious of what the camera might be seeing. Basically everyone was just going to do their jobs and to not notice anything odd happening in John’s room for that first night.

Sam waited in the room with me and when Carl saw the paramedics arrive we quickly transformed John to look a lot like a young version of his father, and we transformed me to look like John. I was wearing a patient’s robe, split up the back and having an uncomfortable draft. I sat in the chair as the paramedics arrived. The imitation vinyl material was very cold.

Carl recruited both of them just in case we needed it, but basically we just just let them load John up on their gurney and take him out of the room. They were in and out, and then on their way in under five minutes. Sam hooked me up to all of the monitoring gear right after I settled in the bed that John had just left, and I suddenly had nothing to do for a good long time.

Sam spent another 10 minutes checking and rechecking everything, but finally said goodnight and took off. Carl and I had worked out what we called stage zero, and that was where I was at currently. I couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything directly. It was a lot like Carl’s memory of finding himself in the void.

I’m going to have to start thinking of myself as John now. That’s who I expect to be 90% of the time or more. I expected John’s dad to stop by tomorrow for a visit, maybe we could talk more about his son then. If we could get some privacy.

Carl and I talked a lot, mostly just giving each other a hard time, interrupted on the rare occasion by someone walking down the hall. I talked him into trying telekinesis again. He had been working on it regularly for a long time now. I knew how frustrated he was with not getting anywhere.

I sent, [Let’s try to visualize some different things. First we need a target. Since I can’t feel anything right now, let’s use the IV line dangling back here. Line the camera so it’s centered and about a foot away.]

When he had I sent, [Good, now I want you to imagine reaching a hand out through the camera and prod the IV line to make it move.]

Nothing happened.

He sent, [Nope, I’ve just tried imagining a hand, a finger, a pool cue, and a police baton.]

[Do you remember when you tried to expand to fill the sphere? Try that again when you are doing those tests.]

He replied, [Maybe things are crisper and clearer when I do that, not by a lot, but some.]

[How about if you try gathering power like when you are healing and pushing a little of that into each of those things?]

He replied, [Well, they didn’t move anything. But I think I felt something when I used the hand. Hold on ... It’s very strange, it’s almost a ghost of a feeling of it.]

I asked, [Does pushing a little more power into it change anything?]

[YES! Wow, I can feel the shape and smoothness of the IV line, but I can’t move it. If I put more pressure into attempting to make it move my hand slips past it. I can feel the bed sheet, I can sense the folds and valleys as it’s bunched around you. There is no give in it though. I can touch you and feel the shapes, but I can’t even muss up your hair.]

I sent, [Order the next doctor or nurse who gets in range to check on us. Let’s see if we can get some feedback, since we can’t use my skin right now.]

In a little while a nurse named Cathy happened by and came into the room. Carl ordered her to stand still for a minute and describe anything she felt.

He claimed, [I’m running my hand over her face and hair and she’s showing no response.]

I sent, [Okay, keep doing that while you try to ramp up more power into it.]

He replied, [Nothing seems to be changing, and I don’t seem to be using any power up. Just pushing potential at it.]

I asked, [Are you tapped into her right now?]

He sent, [No, but that’s an interesting idea. I’m going to back the power way down before tapping her and testing again.]

After several seconds he sent, [No change in how the touch works beyond the initial level where I can suddenly feel with it.]

[Okay, we better let her get back to what she was doing before we stopped her.]

She turned around and left the room.

I asked, [Can you describe the hand you are imagining?]

He replied, [Four fingers and a thumb, connected to a palm, at the end of an arm. What did you think I imagined?]

I sent, [No, I meant did you see it as some transparent ghost appendage or like a solid mass shaped like a hand?]

He replied, [More like a ghostly long sleeved rubber glove, with more detail in the hand area perhaps.]

I sent, [Okay well since this is all about visualization, let’s try to focus on that for a moment. Imagine your right hand floating in front of you. Turn it back and forth looking at all the details. Move the individual fingers. Remember what it feels like to rub your thumb against the fingertips. For the next step we will need a target, show me my face.]

He streamed me an image of John lying in the bed gently breathing.

I told Carl, [How are you seeing this by the way? Are you thinking of it like your eyes are looking out the camera, or like it’s being projected on a screen in front of you?]

He replied, [I’ve done both ways and both work. Currently I’m imagining looking out the camera.]

I said, [Well, let’s try it the other way. Picture yourself standing in the room with the pool and there is a portal shaped like a big screen TV, floating in the air in front of you. It’s showing what the camera sees.]

He sent, [Got it.]

[Now, let’s get back to the hand with all the details. It’s floating in front of you. Believe it is your hand. It responds to what you want it to do right? Can you turn it and see its fingers moving like you expect?]

[Yes.]

[Reach out through the portal and run your fingers into my hair.]

I could see the hairs moving in the image Carl was sending me.

Carl sent, [Hell yeah. Let’s try some other stuff.]

I could see the indentions as he moved his fingers over the sheets, then he got the IV line swinging. He moved the privacy curtain that hung from the ceiling along the track and pushed it back to more or less where it started from.

I asked, [Can you open the bathroom door?]

He was able to begin turning the lever-like handle but it only moved about halfway before it stopped turning. He released it and tried again this time it turned all the way and he began opening it but it appeared to be a struggle.

Carl sent, [I’m really having to pump power into overcoming the spring wanting to close the door. I don’t think I could overpower the hallway door. It was much stronger than this one.]

He released the door and it swung itself shut.

I asked, [Can you do two hands at once?]

He replied, [Yes, I think so.]

I sent, [Try the door again, this time use one hand to brace against the door frame and give you a target for the opposite force of pulling open the door.]

He sent back, [Yeah, that’s much easier on the pull portion. I could probably handle the Hallway door if it was closed.]

I replied, [Well, try to release the latch holding it open and we can try it.]

I saw he had to push against the door first to get the latch to release but it worked and the door closed completely. He had to really work at it, but he got the door back open and latched again eventually.

Carl sent, [Whew, that was an effort. I used a whole lot of power too, we’re down to about a half a tank.]

I responded, [Well it’s amazing. I’ve been wanting to get that ability working for a long time. It can’t help but come in handy. We will just need to be careful not to get caught using it.]

We spent another hour or so poking at things in the room before I asked Carl to stop sending me updates and I would try to get some sleep in. I feel like I got one of the most restful nights of sleep I can remember.

Tuesday, January 25th, 2022
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Carl sent, [Hey John, I think it’s time for stage one to start.]

We had discussed his starting to use my new name to help me get in the right mindset for taking over his life. He sent me a view from just over my head looking out into the room where Sam was checking me over and a nurse was with her.

Carl gave me back control of just my eyeballs, not my eyelids. I started moving them from side to side and randomly up and down for a burst of a few seconds and then stopping for a few before going back to it.

The nurse pointed it out to Sam and she lifted one eyelid and shined a light in my eyes. After checking the other she asked the nurse to set up the EEG again.

She prepped and applied twenty or so electrodes around my skull with a little whitish gel and a piece of tape over each one. Sam and the nurse were acting very excited over the results and called in a few more people as witnesses.

Another doctor came in that we hadn’t recruited yet and Sam was answering questions and making guesses with him. They ordered more bloodwork and kept the EEG monitoring things for quite a while. They did a lot of poking and using a reflex hammer, gauging responses and trying to get a reaction from me. They did not get any normal responses, which Sam told me would be completely normal for a coma patient.

There were a string of visitors, even John Senior for a little while but we just kept up the non responsive game with occasional rapid eye movement. Carl and I did a lot more exploring using his remote hands. At one point Sam was alone in the room and Carl could see the hall was clear. We gave me back full use of my head and I had a conversation with her.

I said, “Things seem to be going well so far. Have you run into anything unexpected yet?”

She said, “No, everything is going according to plan so far. How are things for you?”

I replied, “Boring and mildly frustrating. Both in my lack of ability to move, and the fact that I’ve been exploring new powers and I’m having a hard time refilling my pool of power. I don’t suppose I could talk you and a few of the nurses to occasionally use the bathroom here for a little excitement, could I?”

Sam said, “I’ll take care of it,” and made it a point to stop by a couple times to masterbate in the restroom for us. She also apparently spoke to the nurses because we started to see most of them using our bathroom from time to time too. Carl had quickly set me back to just eye movement and playing Peeping Tom, which isn’t nearly as much fun if you can’t even get any wood from it.