Chapter 5

The next morning we were all sitting around the breakfast table. Maggie and Frank were sitting with me, while Donald and Gill were fussing in the kitchen with breakfast dishes. Frank brought up the issue of testing my abilities again.

“You know, it’s time to think about what other abilities you have, apart from your powers to heal and that incredible orgy of pleasure that you triggered.” He said. “Have you tried to do anything that could be used as a defensive or offensive weapon? After all, someone is trying to kill you, and you need to be able to defend yourself if we’re not around to help!”

I considered what he was saying. I’m not much of a fighter - I tended to avoid things and just pour myself into my work. That’s how come I ended up divorced and forced to take leave from work ... Work! With everything that’s happened, I hadn’t thought about work even once! It’s been more than my two weeks since I was forced to take leave, and I haven’t called in sick or anything! I started to panic.

“Hey, hey - relax!” Maggie said reassuringly, waving her hands at me to sit down again as I started to rise from my chair. “We figured out where you worked and contacted them. They think you’re still in hospital, that you were injured in some sort of an accident. They were told that you are in an induced coma, and that your recovery is going to be very slow going. They’re all very concerned, but they’re not going to look for you, because you would be unconscious and unable to respond anyway.”

“Oh,” I said, sitting down again with a thud, “Gee, thanks. I think.” It was a lot to take in at that moment, and I can’t believe that I completely forgot about it. I guess with all the drama and excitement, work was the last thing on my mind.

“So,” Maggie continued, “you can relax and focus on the task at hand. You said yesterday that you could pick up on the emotions of others, and the other day you seemed to draw strength from Niki when you needed it - can you draw strength from others without sex?”

“Hmmm, that’s a good question! That might be dangerous,” I paused for a few moments, unwilling to hurt someone deliberately when I didn’t need to. “I don’t want to hurt you guys. What should I do?”

“Pick me,” Frank said, “Maggie and I have been through police training, we can handle it.”

“OK, but only if you’re sure.” I replied.

I closed by eyes and focussed on Frank. I could see a faint yellow shadow around him in my mind, so I pictured something like a power cord stretching from me to him, and plugging into his outline. As the cord touched him, I could see it start to pulse with the same colour, like little packets of energy flowing toward me. As each one touched me, I felt a tingle and a little more alert. After 5 pulses I stopped and opened my eyes and looked at Frank. He seemed to be sitting there OK, but maybe a little paler? It was hard to tell, because I was feeling amped up and excited, filled with a restless energy.

“How do you feel?” I asked him. He started to stand up, and before he could get to his feet he sank back down on the chair again, breathless. I was immediately concerned. “Are you OK?” I said, and this time I reached over to touch him.

As I touched him, I pictured in my mind a fuel gauge, and his seemed to be in the red line near empty. “Um, I’m OK,” he said, “A little weak, a little fuzzy ... I just suddenly started feeling dizzy, a little flat, like someone ... someone let the air out of ... my tires ... give me a minute to ... catch my breath.”

I closed my eyes again, concentrated on the gauge, and pictured it filling up again. The needle moved to about halfway, and I stopped.

Frank sat up a little straighter, his voice stronger. “OK, that was weird. It felt like I was being given a jump start - I could feel something like electricity flowing from where you touched me. I’m feeling much better already!”

That seemed like a definite result. I said “It looks like I can draw strength from others, but I can also give strength too. I think this is related to my healing abilities. It feels like the same kind of energy to me, like a life force that we have. Somehow I can move it around like a pump or a generator.” I started thinking about the implications of this as a self-defense move.

“I know you find it hard to hurt someone else, but if it comes down to either them or you, you need to pick you.” Maggie said. “Whoever is trying to kill you isn’t playing around. They were very nearly successful last time - if it wasn’t for your healing gift you wouldn’t have survived!”

It was a sobering thought. Despite the excitement of discovering new abilities, it was a dampener to think about the fact that someone wanted me dead. I was silent for a while, dwelling on this discomforting thought.

Maggie brightened for a moment, and then said “OK, enough of that negativity, have you noticed that when you have sex, there’s no residue? Your spunk just seems to be absorbed somehow. That’s never happened to me before. When we’ve had sex, I can feel you pump a load into me, and yet there’s nothing to clean up afterwards. What do you think that means?”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too,” I replied. “That never used to happen before. My Ex used to complain all the time about how much she’d have to clean up after we made love. I developed a phobia about it, and from that point always made an effort to clean up after myself. But since the gift happened, there’s nothing to clean up. Do you feel any different after we make love?”

Maggie sighed, a look of rapture on her face. “I feel wonderful, like I’m floating on a cloud with rainbows and unicorns all around me. I mean, I’ve had some fantastic sex, but somehow with you, it makes everything else seem just plain.”

Gill and Frank had finished in the kitchen, and had joined us sitting at the table. Gill was looking at Maggie and then turned to me. “I know how she feels. I have the same feelings. I can’t describe how unbelievably good it is to make love to you. When you come, I can feel it pulsing in me, and it’s like you’re pumping me up with love or something, it’s the most amazing feeling. I feel like I could just float off up into the air afterwards. It starts like this ball of intense pleasure that starts to expand inside me, and I feel like I’m just going to burst. Just when I think it can’t get any bigger, it explodes outwards and washes over me like I’m standing in a warm sun shower, and this feeling of pure bliss just settles on me like a blanket. I just want to bask in that pleasure for ever.” She sighed contentedly.

Frank looked a little uncomfortable, as Gill started squirming in her chair slightly. It was obvious that she was reliving the last time we made love. Frank said “You know I don’t swing that way, but after what you did for all of us, I would totally offer myself to you.” He blushed, obviously embarrassed at the admission. “The last time we were all together, and you were balls deep in the girls, there was like this supercharged atmosphere in the room. It was like electricity, where all the hairs on your body stand up on end. Except, it wasn’t electricity, it was eroticism - sexual energy. The room was crackling with it! I got caught up in it. Before I knew it, I had my cock out and was stroking it, in time with you pumping into her. At that moment I think you could’ve told us anything and we would’ve just done it without even thinking about it.”

I could feel the sexual temperature in the room rise. Could I control this, I wondered? I breathed in deeply, and started thinking calming thoughts. After a few moments, everyone seemed to settle down.

Frank seemed to come to his senses, and then blushed. Embarrassed that he had become aroused in the moment, he cleared his throat and changed topics. He said “I wonder if you can transfer your abilities? Do you think that you can pass them onto someone else?”

“I don’t know.” I replied. “I’m not sure how I got them in the first place, or how it really works. I just ‘see’ what’s wrong, and when I focus on the problem I picture it changing, and somehow it just does.” I started thinking about how we might test the theory. Could there be a way for me to prove that my abilities can be transferred to someone else?

Frank got up from the table, went to the kitchen and came back with a vegetable knife from the wooden knife block on the bench. I had a bad feeling about this. “What are you doing Frank?” I asked, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.

“Well, we’re not going to know you can heal someone unless we try.” He replied. He sat down on the other side of Maggie, and turned to her. “Hold my arm,” he said, “and Paul - you hold Maggie.” As I reached out to her, and she to him, Frank picked up the knife and drew it across the palm of his hand. The flesh immediately opened up and you could see it turning red in moments.

“I think he’s been watching too many violent movies.” Maggie said to me. I was too shocked to respond. I could see the blood started to flow from the wound, dripping onto the table.

I looked at Maggie. “Just close your eyes and concentrate on his hand. Picture the wound like it is now, and then imagine it closing, the two sides coming together and becoming one again.” I watched Maggie as she closed her eyes, and a look of intense concentration came over her, eyebrows creased as she almost looked like she was in pain herself. I could feel her grip on my hand tighten as she tried to will the healing power into action.

After a few moments, her face relaxed and she opened her eyes and looked at me. “I can’t feel anything - am I supposed to?” She asked.

“I usually feel something, like power flowing from me to them.” I answered. “You didn’t feel anything at all? Anything unusual?”

“No,” she replied, obviously disappointed, “nothing at all.” After a few moments, she said “How about you try and use me as a conduit? See if you can still heal Frank but through me. Maybe that will work.” She said, sounding hopeful.