Part IX - 6: Dreams People Share

Some people have a love for cars, some for horses, others for big chested women. Their eyes constantly scan for the images that excite them in a way nothing else can. I enjoy many of these myself, but the weekend following Halloween, my eyes nearly missed the object in the sky that would become an object I would drool about.

"What is that," Suzi said, hearing the strange distant buzzing sound.

"Sounds like a plane or something," Joey said, searching the sky with his eyes.

The November sunset was as orange as the leaves lining the amusement park's horizon. We were waiting to get on the Screaming Greek one last time before we went home, and the sound was starting to attract a lot of attention as it grew louder.

The small helicopter was nearly on top of us before it finally came in sight, flying not more than thirty feet above us, appearing to be looking for someplace to land.

"Shit. That thing is isn't any bigger than one of my go carts," I exclaimed. Its size excited me, and thoughts of having my own little helicopter to fly around in started whirling in my mind. "I'm going to go check it out," I said as I got out of line.

"Okay! We'll find you when we're done... " Joey's voice said, fading as I started to run.

The helicopter actually wasn't looking for a landing spot, just looking. Despite its size, it could really move, and I nearly gave up following it when it crossed over a section of the park closed to the public. I was out of breath, and figured it would be out of my range by the time I made my way around to the other side.

But before I turned to go back to Joey and Suzi, the buzz of the helicopter's motor began to change in pitch.

"Cool. It's landing," I said to myself.

I found an entrance and walked through the gate, simply ignoring the sign marked 'employees only'. The area contained several buildings, a few equipment sheds containing things like brooms and the like, and a row of lockers where apparently the employees kept their personal belongings.

I had to walk around the corner of a building before I found the helicopter. It was only eight or so feet long with an open seat that couldn't possibly hold two. It looked a lot bigger on the ground than it did in the air, but nothing as large as my father's personal helicopter.

The controls were nowhere near as complicated as the full size version, and what I could see of the engine reminded me of the go cart engines Joey and I had rebuilt several times. The blades were surprisingly folded together and tilted at an angle, resting on an arm at the end of the body that held their almost twelve foot length just off the ground.

My attention was so caught up in examining the craft that I never noticed its pilot coming out of the building behind me. I almost fell into the cockpit when she caught me bending over to look at the flight stick.

"Excuse me? I don't think you're supposed to be back here," the woman said.

"Uhm, yeah, I know. But I wanted to see your helicopter close up and... I just think it's really cool."

"Thanks. But I've been told I have to keep looking for someone," she said as she stepped up on a foot hold, then grabbed and rotated the right blade into position with loud click. "And I can't take time out to give some kid a demonstration."

"I take it you don't really want to be looking for this person," I said, thinking out loud.

"No, I don't," she said as the other blade clicked into position. Then she inserted some kind of pin to apparently lock them into place.

"I can help you find whoever you're looking for. Just tell me their name, and if I find them before you do, could you just answer some questions? I wasn't going to ask for a demonstration. I mean I already saw it fly."

"They've been blasting the guy's name out over the PA for the past half an hour. But the guy's deaf, and a friend of my father's. If I didn't know what he looked like... "

"But what's his name anyway. His full name if you know it."

"Gregory Steinman, and I don't have any idea what his middle name is. Now, you better leave before security catches you in here."

And with that, she put her helmet on and started the engine up, then brought the blades to full speed and took off.

I had run around the corner as the flying debris started to sting my bare arms, and neck, but didn't hurry myself as I made my way out of the employee zone. I connected to Joey who was still waiting in line and asked him to help me sweep the park.

Joey and I had worked out how to do a sweep the previous week, and this was our first real use of it except for the trial runs. We had started working it like a blanket command except without any commands inside our imaginary sheet. But it quickly became clear it would take forever to form a blanket big enough to cover the large area we were testing, so we had started experimenting with other shapes and concepts, and eventually came up with the sweep.

Joey and I began started imagining in our minds that we were gathering incredible amounts of energy and containing it inside our head. Once we figured we had enough, we released it all at once, imagining it spreading out from the two of us in all directions like sonar pulses of mental energy. The sweeps didn't quite make it to the far reaches of the park, but we found our man almost immediately. He was standing in line for the Screaming Greek, twelve heads behind Joey and Suzi.

Figuring she would never find him while he was under the pavilion and close to getting on the roller coaster itself, I didn't hurry as I made my way there. The hardest part was to find the helicopter after I lost my lock on her mind that I had made during the pulse. Too many people's thoughts between us, and I wasn't familiar enough with her mind to find it like I could Joey's and Suzi's.

Joey and Suzi came out just as I found her at the far side, still frustrated over the fact her father had just ordered her to find him like she was one of his employees. I hadn't realized she was the owner's daughter, nor had I noticed she was only seventeen.

Joey and Suzi needed to leave, not wanting to miss the last chance to get the shit scared out of them at a closing haunted house. We had gone to another one last weekend, but once I had been startled by the first 'ghost', I couldn't keep myself from sensing the next scare. So they understood when I suggested they leave without me. I could just call a limo or maybe get a free ride from someone going that way.

Holly was still five minutes away when Greg walked out the exit, so I followed him and kept nudging Holly towards our new positions. Holly's eye caught my smiling face as I pointed towards the ice cream shop. I was about to have to nudge her again when she decided to ignore me, but then she saw her target walking out of the ice cream shop and noticed me walking up to him.

Three minutes later, Holly landed inside a small roped off grassy area while I and the thirty-something man stood and waited. She jumped over the knee high fence and took her helmet off before she spoke to us.

"How did you... Never mind. Mr. Steinman, your wife called and said you're supposed to meet her at the front gate... well, ten minutes ago. Something about your ticket being bumped up and... You're welcome!" Holly cried after the running man.

"I thought you said he was deaf," I said.

"Yeah. Too bad too. The dumb shit's running the wrong way. The front gate is that way," she said pointing the other direction.

"So, uhm, can you spend a few minutes telling this kid a few things about your aircraft?"

She looked at me with her head cocked to the side, squinting her eyes while she tried to figure me out. But then she looked up at the sky and frowned.

"I have to take Beany back to her trailer before it gets any darker, and that will take me at least thirty minutes. The park is closing in... " she said looking at her watch, "about an hour and ten minutes... Hmm... When does your ride leave?"

"When ever I want. When I get to a phone, I'm going to call home for a limo. It will take it about forty minutes to get... "

"A limo? What are you, some kind of rich kid?"

"Depends how you look at it. Look, the sun's almost set now. I'll meet you at your trailer after I make my phone call, and then we can answer each other's questions," I said over my shoulder as I walked away.

She stood there a moment before turning to go back to her ship. After she jumped the fence again, the thought suddenly occurred to her I couldn't possibly know where the trailer was. She scanned the local area with her eyes, then huffed and got in her craft and started it up.

Holly was rolling the 'copter into its trailer when I walked up behind her and startled her with my hello.

"Shit. You sure are full of surprises, rich kid." she said.

"My name's Tim, not rich kid."

"Sorry. Holly," she said, offering her hand.

I shook it, then looked at the grease her paw had left on my hand.

"I guess rich kids aren't used to getting their hands dirty," she said, tossing a rag to me with a crooked grin.

"Shit. I had my fair share of engine grease on my hands. My buddy and I built our own go carts, and had to rebuild the engines a couple of times before we got it right."

"Oh really. Well, that makes all the difference, doesn't it," she said sarcastically.

"Uhm, are you like mad about something? Besides your dad making you fly around on a wild goose chase."

"Oh, don't get me started," she said, flaring her nostrils in a way that I found suddenly sexy. She looked at me for a moment, then sighed and said, "I'm sorry, ki... er, what was your name again?"

"Tim. Tim Brandton."

"Okay, I'll remember it now. I guess my step dad just gets under my skin sometimes. So, what do you want to know about Beany?"

I asked her how she got it, what it takes to fly it, standard stuff. She had started flying Beany when her stepfather got tired of it and offered it to her when she was twelve. Apparently he hadn't expected her to actually stick with it, and if it hadn't been for her mother, he would have sold it the next year.

"He uses Beany like a leash sometimes. Technically she's still his, so if I want to keep flying her, I have to work at this damn park. At least the season is almost over... So, what about you? You were just trying to impress me with that limo line, weren't you," she said grinning.

"Would you believe me if I said I wasn't? I didn't think so. Well, suit yourself. I can stay as long as I want though. Uhm, are you done with Beany?"

"Yeah, everything but locking the trailer up. Why?"

"Well, I was hoping we could go back and grab something to eat. Or at least go indoors somewhere. It's getting kind of cool out, and I didn't plan on being here this late otherwise I would have brought my jacket."

"Okay, but only if you tell me how you found Steinman when you couldn't even know what he looked like."

"Hmm... You want the truth? Or something you'll believe?" I said, rubbing my arms.

"Try the truth first, then we'll go from there. Come on, you can tell me on the way."

We climbed out of the trailer and I helped her close the doors and stood watching her lock it. I wasn't all that cold yet, but I knew she hadn't eaten dinner and I wanted to learn more about her and Beany. And while she fought to work the lock shut, I found myself becoming a more interested in Holly than Beany, especially her ass.

Holly was only a year and seven months older than I was, and by the time we had finished racing to the park's entrance, I was seeing her more friendlier side of her personality. Of course her mood went sour when the guy at the front gate said her friend couldn't come in.

"What do you mean? He was in the park all day, and it's not closing time yet."

"So? Unless he had his hand stamped before six... "

I slid my hand under the violet lamp and said, "See? My hand is stamped."

"Oh. Okay, you can go in. But the park closes in thirty minutes. You'll have to leave then, you know."

After we walked beyond his hearing distance, Holly said, "I can't believe he fell for that. Didn't he even look at your hand?"

"Sure he looked."

"Nu-uh... I looked, and there wasn't anything on your... " Holly stopped as I held the back of my hand up for her to see it. "But... it's only supposed to glow when your hand is under the black light. Tim, you're starting to spook me."

"Sorry," I said, waving my other hand over the glowing mark on my left hand, making it disappear. "There's nothing to get spooked about. It's just an illusion."

"What, like an magician? I don't think... "

"No, more like a hypnotist. The dork at the gate saw what he expected to see when I told him that I had the mark on my hand. You did the same thing. I doubt what you saw was the same as what he saw."

"Okay, I'll let that one go for now. So how did you find mister deaf and directionless?"

"Oh, that was easy. I used my magic."

"Sure you did. Come on, you said you'd tell me."

"Uhm, is pizza okay?" I asked, hearing her stomach growl.

"Yeah, it's this way. Now stop stalling and spill it. Otherwise I'm eating alone."

"Okay, but if I do tell you the truth, you have to promise not to freak, okay?"

"Freak? Listen, kid, you're talking to a girl who flies a helicopter with a blade span of twenty feet over an amusement park that has more power lines and shit up there than a forest of telephone poles. I don't freak."

"I used a mental sweep."

"A what?"

"Well that's what Joey and I call it. I'm telepathic, and that's how I found your Mr. Gregory Albert Steinman."

"Yeah, right. Looks like I'll be eating alone then."

"I'm telling you the truth," I thought to her.

"If you are, then why don't you just read my mind or something," she said, not catching the fact I had stopped at the entrance of the pizza place and she had already walked ten paces in front of me.

"Okay... Uhm, can't you think of something better than just how big Zack's zit is on his nose?"

"That's too easy." she said, as Zack came over to her at the counter.

"What's too easy," Zack said.

"Nothing, I was just talking to Tim... Is there any pepperoni left Zack?"

"Uhm, yeah, you want it?" he said, figuring Holly was just trying to play a trick on him or something. As far as he could see, no one but he and Holly were in the joint.

"Yes, please. What about you Tim... " she said turning to the empty spot she thought I was occupying.

"I'll take the three slices left of the Canadian bacon, if you don't mind," I thought to her from across the room.

Holly stared at me for nearly thirty seconds, trying to figure out if I was for real. She concluded I had hypnotized her into thinking I hadn't moved my lips when I spoke, so she just turned around and asked Zack for the Canadian bacon also.

"Huh?" Zack said. "You never eat the CB. I thought you hated it."

"I do. It's for my friend over at the door."

"Uhm, what friend," he said, looking straight through me as I sat down next to Holly.

"He can't see me," I thought to her.

"Zack. Snap out of it. I think he's hypnotized you or something. He's sitting in the chair right in front of you."

"Hypnotized me? Who?" Zack said looking at Holly like she was trying to get him.

"Oh never mind. Just... never mind. Can I have a diet coke?"

"And a root beer," I said, making Zack jump as I popped into existence to his mind.

"Shit! Where did you come from?" Zack asked.

"Here and there. Don't worry about it. Just hurry up and get our drinks like a good boy," I said. He smiled and hurried over to the soda machine, wanting to please us like a little kid who didn't know better.

"So, you're a very good hypnotist?"

"Well, I guess I am, but that's not what I'm doing. You want me to read your mind? Okay. You're seventeen years old. You lost your virginity last year to a guy who used to work this very counter, Justin Bram. You liked his sense of humor, and really liked his... "

"Okay... I know I didn't tell you that, so that means you're a friend of Justin's. What's he up to now? And why is he trying to pull another practical joke on me?"

"I've never met him. Let's me try something else. The day you were up in Beany over the large woods three miles southeast of the far end of the park, you noticed something moving below you. You followed the movement until a herd of deer and a buck stopped in a clearing and stared up at you. You swore they were trying to tell you something, and they didn't move or anything, even when you went down closer... should I go on?"

"Shit. I've never told anyone about that. If I hadn't been so close to the ground when Beany's engine stalled, I would have crashed and probably gotten killed. Those deer saved my life."

"Yeah, and you never saw them again, and the reason Beany stalled was because she had a leak in the oil line. And here is something you didn't already know. Your dad is planning to sell her when the park closes for the season."

"What? He wouldn't dare. Are you trying to pull something?"

"Nope. I'll prove it to you. But you'll have to trust me. And no, I don't think you're gullible. Zack, come over here... and stop picking at that thing. It's already bleeding."

"Uhm, what," Zack said, a little embarrassed by his popped zit.

"Holly here thinks I've hypnotized you and her into seeing and hearing things. But she also knows that you can't make people do things that they find morally objectionable. So, Holly. You think Zack is a scum ball, don't you."

"Uhm... "

"It's okay, he won't remember anything you say."

"Okay then. Yes, he's shit," she said, watching Zack smile at her afterwards.

"Then you wouldn't want to kiss him?"

"No... " she said sarcastically.

"You wouldn't want to stick your tongue in his mouth, run your hands down his scrawny chest, and pull his little dick out of his pants?"

"NO! And you can't make me either."

"I couldn't if I was using hypnosis, but you're not hypnotized."

"You're starting to piss me off. And Zack, stop looking at... Oh, Zack... OH!" she said suddenly grabbing him, pulling him on the counter while frenching him madly. Zack's eyes were flickering around wildly before he realised her hands were starting to slide down his chest towards his growing lump in his pants. His eyes closed the moment her fingers undid his jeans button, then he moaned into her mouth as her steady fingers pulled his actually respectable-sized dick out of his undershorts.

"Holly... " I said, realizing she wasn't coming out of her lustful daze.

"HOLLY! You're kissing SHIT, remember?"

She gave a squawk as she almost fell down. She was breathing really hard, and I found myself aroused almost as much as the jerking off counter boy was.

"Shit! You fucken pricks! Shit!" Holly said to me and Zack.

"Zack, stop before you make a mess... And you better put that thing away. Here comes the boss."

"Oh, shit," Zack said, rolling off the counter and hitting the floor with a thud. He had just gotten back on his feet when Holly's stepfather and another man walked in looking rather angry.

"Holly, I'm through with your attitude!" he shouted. "You deliberately moved Beany's truck and trailer so the boys couldn't take it back to the shop. Why?"

"What?" Holly said alarmed. "I didn't move her!"

"Oh and I suppose you weren't the one who left this message," he said shoving the note into her face.

"Dad, I know about you wanting to sell Beany. I'm running away with this wonderful guy I met today and we're taking her with me. - Holly... But I didn't write this!" she cried.

"Oh, and I suppose you weren't spying on me when I accepted Heinz's offer to sell Beany to him. You're a little sneak and a liar... "

"SO! You WERE going to sell Beany!" Holly said, flaring her sexy nostrils again. "You... You... "

"Don't say it! All I want to hear from you is where Beany is! Otherwise you can forget your money for college!"

"She doesn't know where it is," I said.

"What? Who the hell are you! Her latest worm to dangle?"

"I'm the guy who had Beany moved. You're not going to sell her."

"The fuck I'm not! You! Er, Zack. Call Security down here right now. And for God's sake, zip up your fly!" he said with a pained expression.

"Zack, don't," Holly said. "I don't care if you take away the money my REAL dad left for me... "

"Holly, it's in your name," I thought to her. "Only you can access it, but only after you turn eighteen."

"Shit! You can't even touch MY money, can you! You're the sneak and the liar. I bet you don't even own Beany. It was my real dad's, you know."

I hadn't known that. I checked her stepfather's mind, and found that Beany was legally his, even though it had been an oversight on her mother's part.

"Oh, you are a weasel, aren't you Larry," I said. "Zack, why don't you stop standing around and start cleaning up like you usually do. You can ignore whatever we say or do."

"Look, you little piece of shit. My employees do not take orders from a trespasser. Cody, take mister big mouth down to whereever he moved Beany to, then turn him over to the police. He was caught trying to rob the pizza house cash register."

"Tim, maybe you better run," Holly said starting to panic.

I just winked at her and stood still as Cody the gorilla came over and grabbed me by the neck.

"AARRGGHH!!!" Cody screamed, pulling his hand back and looking at it.

"What!" Larry cried surprised.

"He's hot!"

"What? Stop fucking around. Grab him and go!"

"But... " he said, testing my shirt to see if I was still hot. "Okay, he's... ARRRRGGG!" he cried when he tried to grab my neck again.

"What the fuck!" Larry said. "Cody, what's wrong with you," he said as he grabbed my arm and held it out to Cody.

"But... I tell you, he burnt my hand... Twice!"

"Cody, are you doing drugs again? Now take his arm and get the fuck out there before I fire your ass. Hey! What they fuck are you doing!" Larry cried as Zack mopped the floor along with Larry's shoes.

"Say Holly... " I said, watching poor Zack suddenly lose his balance and slide across the wet floor on his back. "If I made your turd of a stepfather sign Beany over to you, would you let me take her up tomorrow for a little while?"

"Oh hho hoo... Tim, I'd even have your baby if you did that," she said. When my eyebrows shot up, she added. "Only a figure of speech."

I smiled, knowing it hadn't completely been a figure of speech. But first things first.

"Yo, slime ball," I called, looking straight at Larry.

"That's it. Okay, punk, I'll take care of you myself," Larry said, taking off his jacket.

He walked up to me, grabbed my shoulder, and was about to shove me forward when I said, "Excuse me. What's your name, little boy?"

He blinked, then let my arm go and stood blinking, looking around and at everyone.

"What's your name?" I repeated.

"Dicky," he replied.

"What's your last name?"

"Strodmyer. My name is Dicky Strodmyer."

"What do you want to do for Holly, Dicky."

"I want to... uhm... Oh, give her that flying thingy."

"What else?"

"Oh, I want to play with her. I think she's so much fun! Can I play? Can I?"

"Okay, Holly," I said as the man/child jumped up and down. "I'll meet you at your house at... 10:00 am okay for you? Until then, have fun with Dicky here. He'll go back to his normal lovable self after we leave tomorrow morning."

"Oh hoo ho ho. Tim... Oh ho hoho. I think I love you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, my limo is here, so I'm gonna go home. You have fun with your new friend, and I'll see you in the morning," I said, pushing the door open.