Chapter 36

Rianna was sitting at the kitchen table. Her head was in her hands with her fingers in her hair. The cup of coffee she was supposed to be drinking stood at her elbow steaming gently. Mary was giving the exhausted woman a break from 'mother duty', for a few minutes. Little Jake was wearing his mother out these days. The toddler had inexhaustible energy, and was getting into EVERYTHING!

"Here we are, on the edge of battle, and all I can do is chase after my kid," thought Rianna with a huge sigh.

She was so tired that she almost regretted having Jake, almost, but not quite.

From the other room there was an indignant wail from Jake and then a scream of pain from Mary. Rianna jumped up and ran to the source of the sounds. She found Mary holding her hands out away from herself, as though she had burned them. Her face was white as a sheet, and she was moaning. Jake sat on the floor at Mary's feet, screaming in that angry spoiled manner that children have.

"What happened, Mary?" asked Rianna as she grabbed her son—he was making a break for the bookshelf where there already was a pile of torn books scattered around on the floor.

"He was getting into things as usual and I stopped him by picking him up and ... and ... he burned my hands!"

"What? No ... impossible!"

"You don't believe me? LOOK!" said Mary as she stuck her hands out toward Rianna.

The poor woman's hands were indeed burned and covered with vicious blisters! This was no light scalding but at least second degree or perhaps even third degree burns.

Rianna rather roughly shoved Jake into his playpen and then went to the phone and called the clinic.

"Ann, here, what's up?"

"Come quick! Mary has severe burns on her hands! Hurry! Hurry!"

Ann didn't even bother to hang up the phone; she just left the receiver hanging by its cord from the wall phone and ran for her med-bag and then out the door of the clinic. She moved so quickly that Rianna was still standing at the phone, Mary hadn't yet moved and Jake, in a fit of real rage, was screaming at the top of his lungs as he shook the side rails of his playpen in an attempt to break free.

Ann helped Mary to the kitchen table, away from the spoiled tantrums of the child, and then closed the door so that she could concentrate on the situation. A quick examination of Mary's hands determined that the burns were severe enough to require an immediate move to the clinic.

Between moans Mary kept muttering, "That child burned me. He burned me with his mind. The child burned me with his mind."

Over and over the words poured out of Mary, in a repetitious mantra. This worried Ann greatly. However, whatever the cause, it was obvious that the burns were so severe, that Mary was going into shock. Ann had to deal with the injured woman quickly.

Ann grabbed her radio, and called for back up from the clinic. In only a few minutes, Mary was lying on a gurney and headed out the door.

Rianna was having her own crisis with Jake. His anger had fully switched his powers on! Wonder of wonders, he had telekinetic abilities! Objects were flying all around the room and many were directed at Rianna. The child was very angry.

When the flying objects didn't do the job Jake switched to pyrokinesis and set the offending playpen on fire.

After the third 'missile' just missed her head and the fire started Rianna did something that she had vowed never to do, she lost her temper with the child and telepathically chastised Jake in anger! He grabbed at his head, and dropped to the floor of his playpen. He was in such pain that his screams were of the silent variety; the little monster just thrashed around with his mouth wide open while gripping his head! The incident lasted but half a second before Rianna realized what she was doing, and pulled back in horror.

She ran to the stricken child and retrieved him from the burning playpen all the while saying, "I'm sorry, sweetheart! Mommy's so sorry..."

The playpen was now totally enveloped in flames and the smoke detector began to shriek as it did its job.

Once in his mother's arms the little fellow calmed, hugged his mommy, stuck his thumb in his mouth and promptly went to sleep—his temper tantrums and the resultant actions of his mother had exhausted the little guy totally, he even slept through the people rushing about to extinguish the fire.

The whole incident took only two or three minutes and Rianna was still in the room when Donna, first on the scene with a large fire extinguisher, did most of the work putting out the flames.

"Rianna? What the hell happened?"

The young woman held up her hand to quiet Donna and whispered, "It seems that my son has psionic abilities, he did all of this because he was not getting his way and became angry, he burned Mary severely when she tried to stop him."

"How is anyone going to be safe around here if he's that powerful?" asked a very worried Donna.

"Oh. I already have a few thoughts about that. I need to put this little guy down for his nap, and then you and I can talk."

"But..."

"Don't worry, Donna we'll be just far enough away from him that we won't disturb him but close enough to see what he's doing and then I can counter anything he does. Ok?"

"Well, I guess so..." said Donna doubtfully.

The two women walked out to a vacant guest cottage overlooking the lake. Once in the bedroom Donna arranged pillows and blankets on the cot for safety—so that the child would not roll out of bed. Rianna then set the sleeping child into the nest of bedding and stood looking down on Jake. After a few minutes the young mother turned and joined Donna in the next room.

The two sat silently for some time.

Finally, Donna asked, "What are you going to do? The kid is a danger to himself and all of us."

"I know," said Rianna with a sigh. "I'm sorry but would you please just let me sit quietly and think. I'm worn out, and it is hard to concentrate when I'm this sleep deprived."

"Sure, honey, I'll just go out and sit on the porch. You take all of the time that you need," Donna said.

Donna rose and went outside. She sat down on the porch steps.

"Thanks Donna," said Rianna to the woman's retreating back. The young woman ran her fingers through her hair a couple of times and then rested her head on her hands with her fingers still entwined in her hair. She was fast asleep before she knew it.

An hour and a half later Jake woke and began to whine. That, in turn, drew Donna's attention. She rose stiffly from her place on the front steps.

"I'm getting too old to be sitting like that. Damn!" she said as she rubbed the small of her back. After a good stretch she turned and went back into the cottage only to find Rianna with her head on her arms sound asleep—in fact she was sleeping so soundly that she didn't hear little Jake's whining, a totally unusual occurrence for any mother with a small child.

Donna went to the child.

What she saw, concerned her. Little Jake was whining and writhing around on the floor, holding his head in pain!

Just as Donna reached for the child he vomited!

"Rianna! Rianna! Come quick! Something is the matter with Jake!" yelled Donna as she continued to grab for the child. However he was just moving too fast for her as he writhed about in his agony and she kept missing.

Rianna's head snapped up and she bolted toward her sick child. She never made it. She too grabbed for her head and fell to her knees wailing in anguish as she grabbed at her head. In his panic and pain Jake was calling to his mother but not with his voice, he was using his mind and at such a great power as to quite nearly knock his mother unconscious. She slowly regained her own senses and then reached out telepathically to her son. By stages Rianna was able to shield him and quell the pain in his head.

Just as she had experienced when her powers had opened original, little Jake was receiving the thoughts of hundreds of people, all at once. This was causing him severe pain. As the pain lessened Donna was able to grab the child and soothe him. This, too, helped. Soon, things were calm again, but at a price. It took tremendous concentration on Rianna's part, to keep the child's mind shielded.

"Donna, call Ann! I can't keep this up for long," whispered Rianna.

"What? I can't make out what you're saying."

With an even greater effort Rianna took a deep breath and said, "Call Ann, and have her bring a sedative for Jake."

"Oh! Ok!"

Donna put her radio to her lips and called for help. Five minutes later Jake was asleep and his mother was lying on the couch totally drained.

"What's going on here? Why did you want me to sedate Jake?" asked Ann.

Rianna lay with her arm across her eyes and answered without moving, "His powers are fully activated, but he doesn't know how to shield himself."

"What do you mean shield himself? Shield himself from what?"

"From everyone else," said Rianna with a huge sigh. "He can hear all of your thoughts and feel all of your emotions."

"Really? Oh! I see," said Ann as she slumped into a chair.

"Yeah, exactly," said Rianna wearily.

"What? I don't understand. What are you two going on about?" asked Donna as she looked back and forth from one and then to the other of the two women.

Rianna sighed again. She sat up wearily.

"Jake is stronger than I am, he's able to do physical things ... like ... like burn Mary's hands. The problem is that he has come into his power now, instead of as an adult as I did. He is like a radio receiving every station at once, and at full volume. He doesn't understand what is going on, and it is making him sick and ... for us, very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed!"

"OOOOOHHHHH! Damn!" said Donna as she also sat down heavily into the other chair.

Donna's head snapped up as an idea came to her and she asked, "Look, Rianna ... I admittedly don't know a hell of a lot about all of this, but I just had a thought. Is it possible for you to look into his head and learn how to do the things that he can? I mean you will have to go in there anyway, just to teach him how to control things, right?"

"I don't know," the young mother said wearily. "I'm so tired that I can't think. Ann, how long will he be asleep?"

"Oh about four hours, give or take."

"Good wake me up when he starts to stir," said Rianna as she lay down on the couch again, pulled the afghan over her head, curled up and instantly went to sleep.

The other women went onto the porch to talk.

"You know that we can't have Jake here, if she can't control him. That means no Rianna, either. Without her, we lose our edge. Is there anything that you can do to help?" asked Donna.

"Not much. We could keep him sedated, but at his age, too much medication could cause his brain problems. I don't think that Rianna would allow it, anyway. You know how protective she is."

"Yeah ... I have to admit that this couldn't have happened at a worse time. Here we are getting ready to go on the offensive and we might lose our best weapon."

"What the hell are you talking about, Donna? What weapon? Do you mean that you consider Rianna as a weapon?" Ann asked indignantly with an ever-increasing volume.