Chapter 5

Ward has the narrative.

When I got home from the movie, Mom was frying chicken in the kitchen. I asked if it was for dinner. She said ‘no,’ and reminded me that tomorrow was the annual potluck picnic for my dad’s company. I had been thinking of doing something with Cathy, and I guess I let my thoughts and disappointment show on my face. Her look reminded me that this was a must-go-to event for the family.

“Mom, can Cathy go with us as my guest?”

“That’s okay with me, if Cathy’s parents have no objection.”

When I thought Cathy had gotten home, I called to invite her, and after checking with her mom, she accepted. I wrote down her address and told her about last year’s picnic, so she would know what to expect. I said that we would pick her up at nine the next morning. We talked on the phone for another hour or so, then said goodnight.

It’s odd. You can spend all day talking with someone and then find so much more to talk about just a short while later.

Sunday morning found my family pulling up to a very large, expensive home, which was more of a mansion than a house, to pick up Cathy. Mary answered the door and invited us all inside for Cathy needed a few minutes to finish getting ready.

During the conversation between my folks and hers, I learned that Art owned a financial investment company, Ambrose Investments, Inc., and Mary operated a website design firm, Ambrose Website Design, LLC.

My dad and Art were talking about their careers, and my dad jokingly said that financial investment must pay more than he thought it did to be able to live in a palatial mansion. Art chuckled, and said that it probably did, but he inherited the house and a rather substantial estate from his grandfather, who raised him after his parents’ death. Evidently, Art was his grandfather’s only surviving relative; at least in his direct bloodline.

I later learned that a large part of Art’s wealth came from a wrongful death suit. Art’s parents and his two older brothers left for Disney World in Florida during the spring break. Art remained behind with his grandfather since he was only two years old and too young for the park. Before they got to Alabama, a spring storm dumped over six inches of rain in less than forty eight hours resulting in extensive flooding. A highway bridge was out, so they had to take the detour. The family turned off the main state highway onto one of the state’s secondary highways. As they passed over a bridge near a small Alabama town, the bridge collapsed dumping their car and two others into the floodwaters. There were no survivors.

Once the floodwaters receded, the searchers found the three cars with the occupants still in the passenger compartments. Art’s grandfather went to Alabama to claim his family’s bodies for burial, and while talking with the undertaker, the undertaker referred to the bridge as ‘Old Shaky.’ After he escorted the bodies home for burial, he hired a private investigator to learn what the undertaker meant by ‘Old Shaky.’

The private investigator learned that the bridge was damaged five years prior to its collapse. While it was considered safe during the dry season, the locals knew it was very unstable when the river reached flood stage. Grandpa contacted the families of the other people who died in the bridge collapse, and they instigated a wrongful death suit against the state, county, and town. Art received a sizable settlement, which his grandfather invested for him, and Art came into the investments when he turned eighteen.

Cathy made her entrance carrying a small day pack, and looked absolutely stunning dressed in just a pair of cutoff jeans, blouse, and sandals. She had fantastic legs. We left a short time later for the water park.

It took a little over an hour to get to the water park, find a parking place, stand in line to pass through the entry gate, and find a table in the picnic area. During this time, Tom and Sally were teasing me about having a girlfriend, but thankfully, my mom intervened before they overdid it and spoiled the day for Cathy and me. I still harbor a small amount of resentment about the teasing they gave us that day and on subsequent occasions.

Mom and Dad took our fried chicken contribution to the food table and got into a conversation with the adults. The four of us joined a volleyball game. We would rather have gone straight to the water slides, but Mom put her foot down and told us we would have to wait until after lunch. Once we got involved in the game, Cathy and I enjoyed the volleyball game immensely.

Word that lunch was being served ended the game, and everyone headed to the food tables. A potluck meal is always an invitation for me to overeat, and with so many tasty, delicious smelling dishes, I pigged out until I couldn’t eat anymore.

Tom and Sally went to get changed into their swimsuits, but Mom put her foot down again and told me that I had eaten a very large meal. I would have to wait at least an hour before I could go to the water slides. She didn’t buy my rationale that the water slides weren’t swimming. For her, anything involving being in the water was automatically swimming.

Cathy and I waited, and while we waited, we listened to the speeches that the senior company officials gave to the employees. My dad was a mid-level manager so he wasn’t required to speak, and he was grateful for that. After being bored for a half hour, Mom took pity on us. She said we could change into our swimsuits and enjoy the water slides. Cathy and I grabbed our suits and headed for the changing rooms. Cathy was gorgeous in her one-piece suit, and her legs were not the only thing I found nice to look at.

“I thought you would wear a two-piece suit or a bikini, Cathy.

“No, I’m uncomfortable wearing those styles of suit when on a water slide. I once had the top part of my suit displaced when my feet hit the water. I don’t want to show off my bust again to a crowd of strangers.”

I teased her by saying, “I would have enjoyed the show.”

She replied with, “Well, you are likely to get a private show in the not too distant future.”

’Oh boy!’ That boosted my pulse rate.

We were enjoying the water slides when mister macho man took an interest in Cathy. He ignored her lack of interest in him and he started hitting on her heavily. When I started to intervene, Cathy waved me off.

He said, “Yeah, little man. Why don’t you run along so the lady and I can be by ourselves and get to know each other?”

He suddenly got a startled expression on his face as he began peeing in his swimsuit. The look on Cathy’s face told me that she placed a compulsion in his mind so he would lose control of his bladder. As he headed for the restroom, I also noticed a brown stain on the rear of his white speedo, so I suspected he’d also lost control of his bowels.

That was the last we saw of macho man that day, but we heard that the story of the incident got back to his school. The rumor around his school was a wimp caused him to pee and shit his swim suit. I’m not a buff guy, but I’m not a wimp.

I think we would have stayed at the water slides until the park closed, but late in the afternoon, my dad showed up and told us that it was time to leave. On the way home, we stopped at a local pizza place for dinner. Cathy and I played the pinball machines, while we waited for the pizzas. She was good at the game, and truth be known, I think she was better than I was.

While we played, I said, “I really liked the way you handled mister macho man at the water park.

She blushed at my compliment, and then said, “I would do it again in similar circumstances, since he earned it by his poor behavior. No one insults my man.

“I had a couple of girls at school who gave me a bad time last year and they are starting to do so again this year.”

I wondered what they had done and gave Cathy a quizzical look. She smiled and said, “They will be very embarrassed in the near future, if they continue bothering me.”

I decided that it must have been a private girl thing and didn’t push the matter. We dropped Cathy off at her home after we ate. When we got home, we were all tired, so everyone got ready for Monday and went to bed.

Over the next month, Cathy and I settled into being a committed couple, and people came to expect seeing us together. In addition to our dates and time spent together, which is typical of teenagers, we also spent a lot of time talking about our growing abilities on the phone and helping each other to practice them. We finally reached a point where we decided to try to establish a link between us.

One Saturday, we met at my house, went downstairs to the basement, and made ourselves comfortable. Establishing the link was easy, and we learned a great deal about each other in a very short time. The difficulty came when we tried to break the link – we couldn’t break it. We were able to decrease the intensity of the link by establishing blocks, but we could tell that the link was still present.

During the next several weeks, we repeatedly tried to break the link and failed. Eventually we came to accept that we would just have to live with it. We moved our private memories and thoughts from the area between our permeable and hard shields to within the hard shield, where our conscious selves resided.

Once our very private memories and thoughts were secure, we gave each other permission to roam the rest of our mind and thoughts. This open sharing created a bond between the two of us that made us inseparable in spirit.

Prior to our bonding, we had limited our physical relationship to a few kisses and touches. However, the bond between us became so strong that we both knew that we had to spend our lives together. We knew that a relationship with another person would not work, since we were constantly in each other’s head and knew what the other was doing.

We felt that our relationship would last for the rest of our lives, and it was time for us to escalate our relationship to the next level. We discussed what we wanted, and when the circumstances were right, we became sexually intimate with each other. Giving each other our virginities was a major commitment for us. Like most couples who were both virgins, we initially had a bit of difficulty consummating our physical relationship. Once we both learned what the other needed, we enjoyed our sexual relationship.

While snuggling after the first time we made love, Cathy said, “I told my mother that I thought we would be intimate with each other in the near future. Mom told me that she could understand our desire to experience a complete relationship, but she wasn’t ready to become a grandmother. She took me to her doctor’s office to get a prescription for the pill. That’s why I told you that you didn’t need a rubber.”

Like most teens, Cathy and I didn’t realize that we were radiating the change in our relationship. Our parents didn’t take long to notice the change. My dad was the first to speak with me.

“Ward, your mother and I have noticed the change in your relationship with Cathy. We know the two of you are serious about each other and not just playing house. We believe that Cathy and you are right for each other, and we will support you in wherever you want your relationship to go.”

It was a one-sided conversation, but it made me realize that in my dad’s eyes, I had become an adult, or at least close to it. That was a key milestone in my life. The second person to speak with me about our new relationship was Cathy’s dad, and it was also a one-sided conversation.

Art said, “Cathy is and always will be my little girl. I like and respect you, Ward. I expect you to take good care of my little girl, or else.”

The details of ‘or else’ weren’t stated, but his demeanor told me I would not like them. Once he finished being a protective father, he said,

“I’m okay with your relationship with Cathy even though I find it difficult to accept the two of you being sexually active with each other.”

I could tell that was difficult for him to say.

Cathy’s telekinetic ability had grown in strength and she now had perfect control over her ability. Also, the more she practiced, the more weight she could lift. When we were alone, she teased me in playful ways. Imagine reaching for a can of Coke and having it suddenly slide away from your hand. Yes, it was momentarily irritating, but my reaction to her prank was also funny.

Of course, my ability to affect the human body had also increased, and I used it to tease Cathy in harmless ways. On more than one occasion, Cathy developed an itch that scratching did not relieve or the itch appeared in an area she could not reach.

Of course, she was very irritated with me when she realized that I was causing the itch, but accepted it as just playful teasing. I think the funniest time was when I created an itch, and moved it to a different place each time she reached to scratch it. It didn’t take long for her to figure out what was going on, and afterward we both had a good laugh.

Actually, we considered all the teasing we did to each other as funny when we looked back on our antics. However, our interaction with our fellow students during our Senior Year was something different.

We each had a couple of people whom we did not trust. We considered them to be our enemies. When we were around these people, we would automatically monitor their thoughts to ensure they were not planning something unpleasant for us. We thought of our deliberately reading their minds as self-defense, and therefore ethical.

When we determined that one of our fellow students planned to create a problem for Cathy or me, we treated their intent as an attack on our person and we responded with what we considered to be a reasonable level of defensive action.

For the most part, Cathy’s defensive reactions were mostly harmless. There were many minor incidents where a particularly obnoxious individual did something that they couldn’t explain, such as: pouring a can of Coke over their head, walking into a post, or tripping over their own feet. That was us planting commands in their heads.

I think the worst Cathy ever did to someone was when she responded to the two girls who were harassing her. Yes, it was the two girls who harassed her last year. She decided to use the same compulsion on the two girls that she used on macho man.

When she got tired of being harassed by the two girls, she waited until she got to her math class, which she shared with the two girls. About halfway through the class, she planted the compulsion in their minds. As they sat at their desks, they both simultaneously voided their bladders and bowels. The farts and smell in the classroom made what they did very clear to everyone in the class.

Cathy said, when she saw them later that day, the look on their faces was priceless when she suggested to them that they leave her alone or it might happen again.

They didn’t believe her and didn’t stop harassing her. A couple of days later, at the start of their math class, Cathy turned toward them and smiled as she planted the compulsion in their minds again. Cathy said the looks on their faces were very expressive as they again lost control of their bladders and bowels. Cathy told me, they may not have believed she was responsible for their loss of control, but Cathy thinks they decided to play it safe and not bother her for the rest of the year.

Perhaps it was a combination of my male aggression and my attackers’ intentions to cause me a major problem at school that resulted in me responding in ways that inflicted harm to my attacker. When I was older, I mellowed out and found less harmful means of defending myself from an attacker.

When someone targeted me with some minor thing, I would respond in a way similar to the way Cathy dealt with her problem people. It’s surprising how an extremely painful big toe can distract someone. But when a person planned something that could cause me serious harm, I used the knowledge I had of the human body to create extreme discomfort and problems for the person planning to attack me.

I recall one guy, who shall remain nameless, that had the hots for Cathy. I didn’t know him, but he devised a plan that would have gotten me expelled from school, so he could move in on Cathy. Unfortunately for him, a friend warned me that the guy was out to get me. I became extremely irate when I learned what he intended to do to me. I classified him as a major enemy and periodically monitored his thoughts. It took him over a week to perfect his plan to have me expelled from school.

The day before he intended to put his plan into effect, he had an attack of appendicitis, poor boy. He no sooner got home from the hospital than he developed a severe case of Peyronies’ disease. https://www.urologyhealth.org/urology-a-z/p/peyronies-disease

His doctor told him and his parents it was an unusual case for the disease normally affected men after they turned fifty. He had the plaques (segments of flat scar tissue), but the doctor couldn’t figure out what caused the scarring. Despite the unusual nature of the case, he suffered very painful erections and the other side effects of the disease. He developed extreme emotional distress and lost the desire to have sex. Within six weeks, he was also diagnosed with Erectile Dysfunction.

The result of me defending myself was, he lost interest in Cathy and abandoned his plan to have me expelled. I lost track of the guy, but before doing so, I reversed the physical symptoms he was suffering. There wasn’t much I could do about his psychological problems, but I did do what I could to soothe his mental distress.

No, I don’t feel guilty about what I did to him. After all, he was planning to have me expelled and to destroy my relationship with Cathy, so I defended myself and our relationship. Thankfully, he was the only person I encountered in high school who intended and planned to seriously harm me or Cathy or our relationship.

There were a few guys who in the process of bad mouthing me accused me of inappropriate behaviors. They seemed to develop short-term stomach cramps within a day or two of them accusing me of inappropriate behaviors. The cramps were severe enough that they had to go home from school and the cramps continued through the next day.

I think they eventually realized their stomach cramps only happened after accusing me of behaving inappropriately. For some reason, they blamed me for their stomach cramps, but they couldn’t explain how I could cause their cramps. When someone told me about what they said about me, I replied that the cramps must be caused by having a guilty conscience. They eventually stopped bad mouthing me and their cramps stopped.

One thing that I would like to make clear is, Cathy and I tried to maintain an ethical position concerning other peoples’ thoughts and privacy. However, when someone was extremely emotional (e.g., angry, excited or depressed), they would radiate their thoughts and feelings so strongly that we couldn’t help but be aware of what they were thinking.

When someone was very angry, Cathy and I would sometimes become aware of their planning to harm another of our classmates, or they had intentions to cause a significant problem for someone. We would invade their memories to find out what their intentions were so we could thwart their plans. We would describe the person’s plan to cause harm on a sheet of paper and drop the paper in the locker of the intended victim. The target was warned, and the plot was usually foiled. A few victims must not have believed what we told them or failed to take adequate defensive action.

Toward the end of our Senior Year, Cathy and I reminisced about what had happened to us during the school year. We decided the most significant thing that happened to us during our Senior Year was undoubtedly our gaining the abilities, which resulted in the link between us that we were now unable to break.

We had hoped that over time, the link would just fade away. It didn’t, and it became stronger. During the day, each of us would be aware of the other’s surface thoughts and feelings. However, we eventually became accustomed to the presence of those thoughts and feelings. At least, we were able to ignore them. When we fell asleep at night, the other person’s thoughts and feelings faded to almost nothing, but we could still sense that the link was present. Over time, the link became second nature to us, and we didn’t even think about it unless something unusual drew our attention to what was happening to the other person.

We eventually came to think of this link as a permanent bond between the two of us that would bind us together for the rest of our lives.

One day, Cathy asked, “Ward, have you ever thought about what it would be like if we were to each marry someone else?”

“Not really. You are the only woman I want to have in my life. But off the top of my head, I can picture explaining to my wife that I was listening to her, but was having difficulty concentrating because Cathy was having another intense orgasm.”

That got me a quick smack on the arm. However, I think that conversation convinced us that, in all probability, our only viable choices were: to marry each other or remain single. Truthfully, we wanted to be together, so we didn’t expend any effort in developing a third alternative.

Graduation day finally arrived, and Cathy and I received our High School Diplomas.

During the time between our graduation ceremony and dinner, Cathy and I slipped away so we could have some private time together. During that time, I asked Cathy to marry me, and she accepted. When we first got to the restaurant, we let our parents know we were engaged to be married. During dinner, Cathy and I thanked everyone for coming to help us celebrate our graduation. Then, we publicly announced our engagement. Dinner ended up being a double celebration for us: our graduation and our engagement.

Mary announced that she was going to host an engagement party for us as soon as she could arrange it. Of course, my mom volunteered to assist in the arrangements. When they put together a guest list, I learned that Mary’s parents died shortly after Cathy’s birth and she and her other relatives had lost touch with each other. At least, neither Art nor Mary acknowledged having any living relatives.

Cathy and I noted that our parents would occasionally get together and have a barbeque on the weekends. We eventually realized they had developed a close friendship since meeting in the hospital and had remained in contact throughout the year. In retrospect, I suspected that they plotted to encourage our relationship, and if so, they were successful.

During my senior year, my folks let me know that my college fund should cover my tuition, books, and living expenses for at least the first two years of college. The specific college, living arrangements, and my course of study would determine how far my funds would stretch. They also mentioned the possibility of loans. Cathy’s parents would pay for her education since her family was very well off, financially. Neither Cathy nor I found out until later that Art and Mary intended to assist me financially, if it became necessary.

Cathy and I discussed our futures before we graduated from high school. We decided we would continue to live with our families until we started college. When we started college, we would live together in the married student’s quarters. Our local college was actually highly ranked in our state, so it’s not as if we were attending a second rate institution just so we could be together. Cathy planned to study financial investment and management, and I wanted a computer science degree.

Cathy and I talked with our parents about our plans for the summer and college.

Mary said, “Cathy, your dad and I were hoping you would apply to a more prestigious college than our local college. We don’t understand why you don’t want to apply to one of the colleges we suggested.”

“Mom, I researched those colleges and our local college. Based on what I learned, the rankings of the colleges you and Dad suggested are declining, while our local college’s ranking is climbing. From what I can tell, our local college’s ranking will be close to that of the colleges you and Dad suggested by the time we obtain our degrees.

“The difference in the tuition at our local college is significantly lower than that of the other colleges. The way Ward and I see it, we can move into a student apartment, work part time, and support each other in our studies.”

Art said, “It looks as if they have done their homework, Mary.”

“Yes, I think they are making the best choice for the two of them.”

Art said, “Have you discussed summer jobs?”

I said, “Yes, we have. My dad told me his company often provides internships to the college-aged children of their employees. He said he would help me look into obtaining a position.”

Art said, “If you want to, Cathy, I have a summer internship program at my company, and you can come to work for me if you want to.”

Cathy said, “I accept.”

Mary said, “Good. Now that that is settled, I have one thing to say. Ward, if the job at your dad’s company doesn’t pan out, come see me. I can always find a place in my company for someone interested in computers.”

That summer Cathy and I were very busy with our summer internships. My dad’s company took me on in their IT Department. Most of my work was to aid the IT techs in the support of the company’s intranet, peripherals, and the employee’s computers.

I learned a lot about computers and computer networks that summer, and Cathy learned a lot about investments. Our experience helped us during several of our college courses. I must have done a good job for dad’s company for at the end of the summer, they offered me a part-time internship during the school year. The company said they would work with me in setting my work schedule. Cathy also found her experience in her father’s firm to be rewarding in practical experience for Art kept her on in a part-time position once the summer break ended.

Our mothers were busy that summer for they hosted an engagement party for us a month after we announced our engagement. It wasn’t a large affair, since Art and Mary had no relations who would attend. Mary did explain that they did have a few relatives, but they were not on speaking terms with them, due to the way their relatives treated them when they announced their engagement. They invited their friends, and some of their employees and customers to the party. The guest list Cathy and I put together included our immediate family, my close relatives, our friends, and a number of our parents’ close friends.

The engagement party was held at one of our local restaurants and was probably typical of most engagement parties. Cathy and I enjoyed ourselves, and our parents even slipped us several glasses of wine. The adults had several glasses of wine or beer with their meals and became slightly tipsy, but I don’t think any of the adults left drunk.

Toward the end of the party, Mary and my mom came to Cathy and me. Mom said, “Ward, your dad and I have noticed a couple of your friends appear to be slightly inebriated and one is definitely drunk. We watched them and it doesn’t appear that they are drinking. Do you know where they are getting their alcohol from?”

“No, Mom. I don’t. Give us a few minutes so we can find out what is going on.”

Cathy talked with the girls, while I talked to the guys. We found out, the boys brought several bottles of wine and whiskey with them. When they said they were going to the restroom, they would go there first and then go to their cars for a drink. A few of their girlfriends were drinking also.

We informed our parents about what they were doing. Our parents didn’t give our drunken friend a choice; they took his keys away from him. They gave our slightly inebriated friends the choice of surrendering their car keys and accepting a ride home or have their parents notified of their conditions and asked to come pick them up. They surrendered their keys, and our parents saw that they got home safely before returning the keys to their parents and explaining why they had their keys.

Summer eventually ended, and we started our first year of college. College was a big change from high school, and our first weeks were hectic. The arrangements we made for student housing sort of fell apart a week before we started classes.

The college’s policy allowed unmarried couples to live together in married student housing. The Student Housing Department had a new manager who refused to honor our previously approved application for housing. Cathy and I filed a protest with the college. Our parents had a few contacts in the college administration who they spoke to regarding this manager’s decision. Four days after we filed our protest, we were notified that we had been assigned a one-bedroom apartment.

The word on the student grapevine was that the Chancellor spoke to the Student Housing Manager about college policy versus her personal policy. We later learned the manager selected the most rundown apartment in the complex. She moved the current tenants to a freshly remodeled one-bedroom apartment and gave us their apartment without cleaning it or doing any of the necessary repairs.